Wale groans his way back, a red stripe down his now pitch black armor, "I think I took the scenic route here, got myself a new suit, left here by the previous invaders I think."

Not 30seconds goes by and following Wale through the door into the ancient library is the rest of the crew, Lama and Jay. "Hey Lama" Khit calls out, noticeably not addressing the Mandalore. "Glad you could make it, we where just getting ourselves some food, Naught and Larik are down there somewhere" Khit points off into the gloom of the building to where you can see torchlight in the distance. As your looking some kind of holographic image materialises in front of them, something interesting is happening down there for sure.

Naught and Larik, possibly Lama too, there now stands before you a black cloaked holographic figure "Welcome to the Grand Library of Khoid Maw, a monument to our esteemed leader and his everlasting knowledge of battle. How may I help you today?"

Wale answers, "Yeah, who are you?"

"I am The Lore Master sir, it is my job to provide assistance to those who seek knowledge, I am fluent in all dialects spoken in history by the grand people's (and 1 other language with that modification) of this world. Constructed 100 years after the unification of the Krogan tribes by the grand Khoid Maw, this building I occupy has stood for over 7000 years. Unfortunately things have been a little quiet lately" you suspect by lately he could be meaning the last thousand or so years...

"Is there something else i can assist with?" the figure asks again. You begin putting the References into the console and viewing their information. Many cover history of major battles held in the past, analysis of the tactics used and the reasons for victory and defeat. There is a lot of reference to the early years of what must have been the civilisation that built this Library, stories of this Khoid Maw character and the many great victories he won even against incredible odds. He is almost revered as a god or messiah, with his expert tactics revered above all others.

There seems to be a large 6000ish year time span where battles where mostly studied, wars where not common and war games where the major method of use of this knowledge. Combat was held in arenas and knowledge of warfare was seen as a sign of excellence and prestige. Another point of interest noticed as you look through the records you see a decline in new material beginning 1200 years ago, with all new entries stopping around 1000 years ago.

Please one of you make a Hard Knowledge (Lore) check, ill flip a DP to upgrade it once. Skilled assistance can be used if you would like. There is also a single Setback for the old dialect this hologram is using to translate.

Edit: Changed my mind, make it an Average check with all the trimmings

Slowly but surely you work through these information discs, there is nothing major to learn unless tactics of warfare are your specialty. The two of you working together form a process of checking, translating and scanning for useful information. There is a lot of information held here, with the passage of a thousand odd years the pile of corupted or faulty files growing much faster than the functional ones. But the accessible information is still there and your able to piece together the history of this planet, at least according to the builders of this library.

It seems that for millennia this planet was home to tribes of Krogan, constantly warring with each other over territory, resources and bragging rights! But around 7000 years ago a leader arose amongst one of the tribes who was simply brilliant. He led his tribe on a war of conquest ultimately uniting the entire Krogan race for the first time. Although wars ended the study and practice of it did not, mock wars where held as well as skirmishes in Arenas. Khoid Maw became a legend, his impact lasting far beyond the years of his life, nearly 6000 to be exact. But every empire must fall, and eventually the bickering of leaders led to friction amongst the population, violence spilled onto the streets and ultimately structure collapsed. Tribal life returned and things have stayed that way for years.

It's during this process that you inadvertently insert an information disk that actually contains information on the library itself, its initial construction, extensions, different Krogan who where in charge. Then the jewel in the crown, this Law Keeper your speaking with is actually the memories of an individual, one of the original librarians, it's a Holocron of sorts... Now if only you knew where the main system was to access that device.

Larik wanders away while the holoprojection is talking, determined to find something, anything, to help them make heads or tails of the information they're getting.

While Naught fiddles with a few different terminals, Larik calls for Khit and Wale to help him look.

The Nautolan seems a bit perturbed to have her snack interrupted and a bit exasperated that he's asking her to help him find something he can't clearly articulate.

"What is it we're trying to find," she asks, as they poke around the remains of the library.

"I'm not sure exactly, but it seems like we'll know it when we see it," Larik says.

She holds up a few different items in succession and Larik shakes his head at each of them as he continues his own search. Finally, he closes his eyes and reaches out to the Force, since nothing else had worked so far.

Just as he starts the breathing pattern his mother taught him he hears a crackle, a slam, a groan and a sigh, in that order.

He looks over to see Naught in front of a smoking terminal and pieces together the reason for the other sounds. The telltale digitized nature of the groan should've given it away in the first place.
Larik stands back up fully and dusts his pants off before walking over to check on Naught.

"Dead or dying," he asks the Gand, gesturing to the terminal.

A silent look from Naught answers his question.

"OK, at least we're making progress by figuring out which stations work and which don't," he says, trailing off a bit at the end as he sees an outline on the side of the terminal no one had noticed on the other terminals. He goes to another nearby terminal to look and sees the same outline

"Naught, Khit, look at this. It looks like it's designed to accept some sort of device, but it's not shaped at all like what we'd expect. Which actually makes a lot sense since we're talking about 7,000-year-old Krogan technology. We need to find something shaped like this."

The group spends the better part of another hour combing the area until, near a pile of rubble he'd previously written off, he sees what he originally mistook for a rock that has the same shape and size as the data port.

"Maybe this will do something," he says, holding it aloft and shining his glow rod on it before handing it off to Naught for her and Lama to figure out.

The object picked up by Larik is small, nicely fitting inside his hand, it's also an odd shape. It's a 4 sided object, with each side being a triangle, but none of the triangles are the same size, each has slightly different proportions. All across its surface is tiny script as well, although it's either too dark to read or of a language none of you know.

Approaching the functioning console Naught finds the side of the object that matches the indentation and sets it in place. Immediately the script on the object lights up, glowing a bright blue amongst the black. The figure in front of you flickers briefly and then returns, only now their hood has been withdrawn and a bright red skinned Krogan stands before you. "Thankyou"

"1043 years is a long time to be alone, left to the passage of time. I can see now many have come here seeking my knowledge, but you are the first to truly find it. Hmm my home looks to be in disrepair, that is unfortunate..." At this the Krogan walks sideways out of the holographic projector and disappears, reappearing every so often in a wall frame or over another console you had not activated. After a couple of minutes he returns to you "This will take quite some time to fix, when can I expect the architects to return?"

Larik looks at Naught and gives her a little "why not?" shrug.

"The architects?" he asks.

"Yes, the Architects, they built this Library, my home. Surely one of them met you at the door?"

"Lore Master, I must regretfully tell you no one met us at the door. No one is in here at all, aside from us. I'm afraid it looks like your home has been deserted for some length of time. Some of us have some experience with technology. If there's something we can do to try and improve things here, we'd be happy to try.

"Perhaps while we're working on that you could see if you have any records relating to something called the shadow broker? We'd greatly appreciate any information you can provide."

Completely ignoring your other questions he responds "Hold it right there, you entered the sacred halls of learning without permission? Sure I can sense some consoles are not working, and there looks to be many records on loan. But us Krogan never give up our post, we would not abandon such an important site... Would we??" The Lore Master ends with a slight questioning tone, as if his words are a little doubtful even to himself.

Let's have a check to see if he can truly believe he has been abandoned, sounds like your being truthful and friendly so Charm, Average difficulty with 2 setback for the language barrier, but a boost due to the state of the building... And another for the 1000 years of time passage.

Working as a politician's chief of staff taught Larik how to handle potentially hostile and emotionally wounded beings, even if the wounded being was, in this case, a holographic recreation of a long-dead Krogan.

Taking 1/2 a step back, pulling his elbows into his ribs and rotating his forearms up to display empty palms, Larik spoke in a reverent tone.

"Lore Master, we meant no disrespect. We were told we could find the information we seek here. Please accept my most humble apologies on behalf of all my friends. It was not our intention to break protocol. We simply didn't know about it."

"Hmmm, so my Krogan brethren are all dead? That's very unfortunate, who borrowed all my files then? My task was to guide those seeking knowledge, to give them a reference and guide them in locating the right source. For years I have waited, expecting a return to my task, without that what am I?" He trails off at this point, clearly deep in thought over this.

Naught suddenly jumps in as she hears what the Krogan Lorekeeper is saying, "If you cannot fulfill the task your culture sets for you, then you decide your own purpose." She adds with uncharacteristic vehemence: "If your people cannot appreciate the role you decide yourself, that is their problem. You must follow what you believe and **** the consequences. These matters are too important to let others decide for you."

"But without my culture I am nothing but the memories of a long dead being, and without a purpose I would rather not be! For 7345 years all I have known is the study of War, what purpose do I serve if not teaching others that knowledge. I have no desire to perform any other task, nor the capacity to change who I am. Do you expect me to quietly wait out eternity?" Your sensing he is quite upset by this turn of events, his entire world has crumbled around him, literally.

Larik screws up his mouth a bit, surprised by how emotional this holoprojection is.

"Lore Master, do you have a name, or would you prefer we continue using your title? In any case I think you may have gotten the wrong idea. The Krogan haven't gone extinct; we were sent here by a group of your people to find some answers. There may be fewer of you now than there was in your day, but the Krogan here today are still proud warriors. They had us take the trials and we became War Leaders. My friend Khit here was even bestowed an ancient Krogan weapon for her combat prowess. Your people can still use you if that's what you want.

"My friend Naught only wished to point out that there are many scholars that would be very interested in all your millennia of collected knowledge. And that it could be put to great use in our time now. There is a great evil...," Larik pauses and remembers what they witnessed just before landing, "actually, two great evils loose now. Perhaps your knowledge can be of use to stop them from enslaving the entire galaxy.

"Or you can teach others ways of non violent confrontation. There are many ways you still can fulfill your purpose. How can we help and, if you don't mind, is there anything you know about the shadow broker?"

"Name, yes, it was once Vabrakir Qukoru, or Brak for short. But I left that name behind when i chose to offer myself as the Lore Keeper. I was once a member of the Librarians here, in the very early years of this grand place of learning. There was a need for a permanent Lore Master, and i was one of the most knowledgable. More importantly I was also gifted with the ability to touch the world around me. I spent 4 years of my life learning to create the device you found, then before my mortal body passed from this world I placed all of my knowledge into the Memory Pyramid. The Library was modified with the consoles to allow me to assist as many Krogan as possible and that became my new life." He pauses for a while now, reflecting on the past and thinking on his future.

"The Shadow Broker... Hmm I don't know this name, although in the last 100 years it appears someone has been accessing the database here, its maintained by a much simpler version of my, a basic projection you possibly encountered before activating my Memory Pyramid. Its possible whoever was accessing the system knows more, they where here only 3 days ago."

Larik's eyebrows raise and he shoots a glance at Kaigen when Brak mentions his ability to touch the world around him. Clearly this Krogan was force sensitive even if it didn't have the same understanding of the force as Larik and his compatriots.

His wonder turns to disappointment when he realizes that someone beat them here and was accessing information while they were fighting for their lives in the Krogan's brutal rite of passage.

"Lore Master, is there any way to tell what information the person who was here just a few days ago discovered," he asks.

Turning to Khit, "If it's only been three days, maybe there'll be some indication of where they went. Can you and Jayson look for tracks or any indication of where they've been and which direction they went?

"I have a feeling we need to catch up to whoever was here before us."

Larik returns his attention back to Brak.

"And Lore Master, I'm sorry to be burying you with questions, but can you also talk to us about what you mean when you say 'touch the world around you.' My friend Naught is something of a knowledge seeker and that sounds like something we'd both like to hear more about."

"Lore master, were your kind ever visited by the Taung, the Mando'ade or the Mandalorians? And if so do you have any books on them?" Jay inquires as he takes off his helmet, "And do you have any books on cloning?" After recieving the answer, he will walk off in either happiness or dissapointment. If the answer was positive or negative respectively.

Addressing Larik first, Brak replies "It appears they where seeking knowledge on the great Khoid Maw, they where searching for any reference to him prior to his great unification of our species." He relaxes for a moment and your sure he is thinking about something, perhaps the past perhaps the present but after a short while he turns to Naught. "When I was a being of flesh and blood I had the ability to predict the future and move the world around me. It allowed me to be an effective combatant in my younger years, I won many battles in the arenas besting even great beasts and powerful masters of battle. I also spent a lot of time studying the tactics of old then interpreting new ways to use them... it was a fun life I led of battle, knowledge and victory."

The ancient Lore Master then turns to Jay "Man of battle, I indeed have met an individual who claimed themselves a member of the Mando'ade species. He arrived here on this planet in my lifetime when I was of old age, he came with a small force of soldiers all dressed heavily in Armour. In my years of reflection i believe he may have thought to conquer our world, he quickly discovered we had a lot more to teach him than he could have imagined. He spent a number of years here taking part in Arena fights, he was a very accomplished leader and his squad was undefeated for quite some time. He also spent days at a time studying in this very library. I foresaw great victories for him in his life, although we never discussed it. Eventually he declared he must return to his people, that they where in need of his guidance once more. That was the last we saw of his species"

How many years ago was it? Jay asks, wondering if a Mandalore had come.

"I was alive in flesh a touch over 7000 years ago sir"

"Wonderful. Gifted with the Force, and you used it to kill people more effectively. What fun." Naught's vocoder conveys deeper contempt than one would expect out of a voice box as she stands with her hands tucked in her sleeves in front of her. "I'm glad we stumbled upon an ancient library with a still active Lore Keeper so that we could get more of the same stories of death, battle, and 'glory' that I heard from the shaman. Was that what your other visitor was interested in? More hoary war stories?"