voice

[outer_npcs]

Ah! These now work as well. Excellent.

Welcome to your new home away from home. I am the first and last person you'll ever need to know. You'll notice we don't have much in the way of material goods but you are in luck. I am the resident trader of the Old City.

Should you need something, we might be able to make a trade.

Comments

[rpondicus]

How's that work, when we really don't have anything we can give up?

[outer_npcs]

Your time and energy. I have a few things that need to be done and I need people to do them.

[rpondicus]

[A little bit of silence, considering.]

Dangerous things? Or is there a reason you're targeting us new guys?

[breakablegirl]

[So, so suspicious.] What kind of trade?

[voice because he thinks that's the way you prefer]

[knightoflight]

'These'. So you know what these comm devices are? How long had they not worked?

[How long had Wing been here? He had a horrible thought, when he left the ship to see the sand and craggy stones: that this was his planet. Which meant his City might be out there. Under there.

[Or...destroyed and long ago in the past.

[It had not been a good thought.]

[equivalent_trade]

Whoa! This thing is a radio?

The Old City? A trader? So you'd know what people have here, right? Do you have geological surveys? Information on local minerals?

[He's going to give you the informational shakedown, Trader Guy.]

[outer_npcs]

Well, that all depends on what you want and what you got to trade.

[outer_npcs]

Could be, not always. New people mean new trade, plain and simple.

[outer_npcs]

Never worked before now. They flickered on when that ship did.

My guess is they came from the same people who made that thing. Kind of handy to have working now. We were using pidgeons before this.

[outer_npcs]

Woah, woah, woah... slow down.

Far as I know this thing can do voice, text and video. Wouldn't be surprised if this thing can transmit smell too. We're not gonna check to see if it does.

Most of the metals have been stripped from the mountains. Wouldn't know what they got left around here. That's the kind of thing Nem keeps in the Vault.

[equivalent_trade]

Video...? What's 'video'? This thing doubles as a telegraph, too?

And what's the Vault? Someplace you store all your metals?

[outer_npcs]

This is video.

[he flicks the video feed. well, he thinks he did. oh hey he did awesome.]

Vault of Knowledge. Bunch of books and scraps of paper the kind of stuff Nem goes crazy about. He traded me a basket of fruit for a big stack of yellow paper. [That's complete with a hand gesture for the stack of paper. He obviously thinks he won on that deal.]

[equivalent_trade]

Whoa! How'd you do that?!

[Wait... a big collection of papers? that sounds like...]

You mean a library? Is it free to use?

[He could go through all the records, find out what was going on. YES GOOD]

[outer_npcs]

Right! Yes. That's what they used to be called, wasn't it? You'd have to ask Nem on that one. He doesn't like me going down there.

[equivalent_trade]

Oh, okay.

Well, what kind of stuff do you have? Seems like your city's pretty run-down.

[outer_npcs]

Bit of everything. Got some old tech from before the war. Stuff still works. Ammo, but I don't give that stuff out to just anyone.

Salt. Water purifiers. Fresh game. Fish. Couple of old bicycles. Tools. Like I said, bit of everything.

[voice]

[original_fine]

They might work, but I'm not used to them working this way. You have a name?

[knightoflight]

Never. And how long has this ship been here?

[Never is a very long time. If this is his planet...? He's starting to hope it isn't. ]

Pigeons? [He has no idea what those are.]

[equivalent_trade]

Oh, that's okay. I don't really like guns much, anyway.

So what do you need?

[voice]

[outer_npcs]

Edmund, my friend.

[outer_npcs]

Salt. Stuff is like gold around here. Place like this you need a way to keep food.

[equivalent_trade]

Well, how do you get the salt you use? Isn't there a body of water nearby?

[outer_npcs]

Since the Great War. Long before my time. I'm surprised it survived the war, it's a wonder the Authorities didn't blow it apart already.

[outer_npcs]

We got the bay to the south. Most of what I got I get out of the ocean. Some guys by the shore spend all their time extracting salt. Not the most exciting profession if you ask me.

[equivalent_trade]

So if someone could extract a whole bunch of salt at once, it'd be super valuable, right?