130
Read aloud to everyone:
You arrive back at Mother’s Watch to the sound of activity and yelling. The Braves standing watch see you approach and announce your arrival. Grethe is the one of the first to run up and greet you. She then walks a circle around you, looking you up and down.
If any of your party has injuries, Grethe will provide some herbs from a pouch on her belt, and will refuse to conduct other business until your wounds are dressed. The herbs she provides are strong, and will knit all but mortal injuries over the next hour.
Grethe will continue:
“Pren just got here. I was just about to come for you myself. Did you have any trouble with the machines? Do you think we would be safe to continue logging that area?”
After explaining the situation, she’ll propose resuming logging, but only with two lookouts at a time. With several more useful hours of daylight remaining, you prepare to head back out when you hear a call from the east end of the forum. Jineko, surrounded by what appears to be an organized explosion of machine parts radiating out along the ground from her, waves you over.
She’s talking to an older Carja man, showing and explaining the differences between Watcher and Strider lenses, as you approach. She signals you to wait a moment as she wraps up the conversation. The man thanks her, looking somewhat muddled by the explanation, and walks off. Waiting for him to be out of earshot, she turns to you, taps her ear, and says:
“You watched your step, I see.”
If you profess ignorance to her assertion, Jineko will be mildly insulted:
“Come on. You go down into the same cave Aloy went into, you come up with the same interesting devices she had. I’m not some dumb kid. I know how to keep my eyes open.”
If you ask her how she knew the cave was there:
“Everyone knows it’s there. It’s a big hole in the ground our parents don’t want us to go in, but don’t want us to fall into. So they tell us it’s full of machines and monsters and outcasts and whatever else. Obviously, that means there’s something interesting down there. Will you tell me about it?”
If you ask her how she knew the devices would be down in the ruins:
“Oh, is it a ruin? I assumed, but I admit I’ve never been down there. It would be tricky for me to manage. And I didn’t know they’d be there, but I figured something would be there. A woman who rides machines, who can see things no one else can see, and is seen coming and going from ruins? Maybe they aren’t the places to be feared as we’ve been taught.”
As she speaks, Focus-wearers paying attention to their AR overlay will see it interact with her.
At first, it will identify the various machine parts on the ground, making assessments of their level of damage and functionality.
While that is happening, a cyan outline around Jineko, which is labeled with her name, will occasionally flash with the word SCANNING next to it.
Eventually, the word SCANNING is replaced with another message: Please supply Jineko with a Focus device.
An AR rendering of a triangular focus device will spin in space next to this message.
Your Focuses will not provide any more detail than this phrase.
Give Jineko a spare Focus, or let her borrow one of yours, at entry 131.