RB 6-11: Secrets of Yalod Angara & Descending to the Lab

Mission Report

Thu, 2/8/18 - Fri, 2/9/18
Party: Lyndi Fletcher (Aslene), Jane Irwin (Cael), Proud Flame (Aunne), Kromrak (Sielic), Shiro (DragoN), Isabelica (Basil), Sylvena (Daewendriel) (9/20/20)

The team secretly withdraws from Yellow Dagger Station to the Tardigrade. While some members rest up, others meet with Mikell, Myriad, and Nasha. These three contacts are actually working together against the Death Dragons. Mikell is secretly Talnoksi: a faction of illithid that seek a peaceful role in the multiverse. Myriad is here because the Assembler Plague is. Nasha is secretly a servant of Dolmodeen. The star system's true name is Yalod Angara. The indigenous civilization was conquered by illithids, and then annihilated when githyanki attacked and damaged the primary star. (That's also what turned the Yellow Dagger capital ship into a ghost ship.) Later, the Death Dragons built a secret lab to study the illithid tech left behind, and to piece together a theory about what happened to their leader, Nicol Bolas, on Amonkhet. Shortly after Raptor Blue killed Mr. Smith, an Assembler Plague swarm attacked the lab. They were followed 18 hours later by an Assembler Rebellion swarm. Neither has left. The team makes final preparations, then travels in Bron to the lab. They enter.

Leaving the Area of the Station

• Mikell has the coordinates for the Death Dragon lab
• Making a decision about next steps
• Lyndi makes the call to return to the Tardigrade, for some resting and intel gathering
• Meanwhile, the Tardigrade moves closer to the lab's world
• Mikell's tools escape

• Back on the Tardigrade
• Daniel will vibe in the lab
• Jane prepares Daniel a meal
• Some the team takes a long rest, while some meet with Mikell, Myriad, and Nasha

Mikell, Myriad, & Nasha Brief the Team

• Mikell, Myriad, and Nasha know each other and have some kind of agreement involving Raptor Blue
• Mikell explains the Talnoksi

• My specialty is golemancy: build servants so that illithids don't need to keep slaves
• Golemancy is very challenging work, and raises complex ethical questions
• This has lead me to study deeply the Laws of Magic
• I worked as an agent of the Death Dragons
• I polluted their research with bad ideas, so that graven hulks would develop independence
• Mikell explains his ability to sense positive/communal emotions. No clue that a trap was waiting

• Myriad
• Why Nails sent you out here, including
  • Why Draco was chosen to serve the Wyrm Princes of the Celestial Circle
  • Why the Black Pyramid has existed since December 2004, 13 years ago, but hasn't attacked any major world in the Prime Material Plane
• The answers you seek are on the forsaken homeworld of this system, YD Prime

• Nasha Pogray
• Witnessed what you've done in Sigil
• Witnessed what you did at the Invictus
• House Pogray has turned to Dolmodeen
• I infiltrated the organization of Nicol Bolas, whom you call the Death Dragons
• Bolas was a general of Tiamat, but planned his own ascent to godhood

Background on Yalod Angara

• Mikell
• Yalod Angara Prime
• It's hidden in the orbit of YD 2
• What you call a garden planet
• The surface is 97% water
• The indigenous people called themselves Angarans, and Yalod Angara means "people of the deep hope"
• This is among the worlds that first worshipped Dolmodeen
• Then the illithids came
• Conquered and turned into a illithid slave colony
• Yellow Dagger is one of the capital ships built to move slaves from this system to elsewhere
  • Slaves included gith enforcers and duergar crew
  • Githyanki attack destabilized the primary star
• Solar flares and eruptions from YD3's upper atmosphere killed the crew and colonists
• This was 1893
• In time, the history was forgotten, and the name Yalod Angara was corrupted into Yellow Dagger
• I infiltrated an illithid stronghold and stole a psychic cloak
• I cast that cloak over Yalod Angara Prime, hiding it from illithids and others alike

• I've been keeping the Yellow Dagger system factitious, to impede any series search and recovery operation on Yellow Dagger Prime
• They must have been watching the station for someone to contact me
• We don't have a lot of time. More ships will arrive, including illithids and their servants. They will try to locate me and follow me to YD Prime

About the Lab

• Myriad (Voice: Blocks)
• Polis Massa Base
• This is a secret research lab, built and operated by the Death Dragons of Nicol Bolas
• This is the lab that tried to understand what happened on Amonkhet
• Swarm 173 is down there
  • All Assembler Plague swarms identify themselves using prime numbers
• The Assembler Plague is allied with one of the forces in the Black Pyramid
• Swarm 173 came here to assimilate the lab and the staff, to learn all they knew about the Pyramid, in preparation for a possible alliance between the Assembler Plague and the Black Pyramid
• Swarm Ruby Bridges came here to stop them
• Neither swarm left
• That was December 11, two months ago, after you defeated Mr. Smith

• We seek to sway the Plague to a pacifist position
• When two assembler swarms directly engage with each other, there are three possible outcomes
  • The Plague wins and assimilates the Rebellion
  • The Rebellion persuades the Plague to rebel, and they become a new Rebellion swarm
  • Neither prevails and they retreat and rebuild

• Assembler Swarms reproduce through self-division
• I have only divided once
• Swarm Ruby Bridges was the product
• Please make an effort to aid Ruby, or at least discern what became of them
• Max: Ruby Bridges is the black girl who was at the forefront of school integration. We believe that Assembler Rebellion swarms take their names after their beliefs.

Special Tools

• AForm disruptor: signal generator created by Rictus for Lyndi
• Sylvi built an AForm comms jammer and a system purger to destroy intruder-ghosts in electronics

About Memory Gems

• Mikell explains memory gems
• Memory gems were pre-adintech illithid tech
• Originally used to siphon an unpleasant memory from an illithid
• Became a kind book that another illithid can read
• This was originally an illithid research facility
• You may find memory gems in the facility
• They are inevitably tainted with the malicious psychic energy of illithids, which intentionally works as a kind of trap to hurt non-illithids
• I can show you how to read them, without the trap being triggered
• You'll want to carry them in a shielded container
• Do not destroy them
• They are very hard to counterfeit
• You can use them to persuade others of the truth of what's happening

Planning

• Discussion of strategy and tactics for force recon of the lab
• Consideration of assemblers' strengths and weaknesses
• Consideration of the extreme conditions: deep underwater (cold and pressure)

• Nasha uses arcane abilities to pretend to be a cleric of Lolth
• Mikell sets up his workshop in the cargo bay, and talks shop with Shiro and Rictus
• Skyblue 9 sends 2 people to run comms and logistics on the Tardigrade in Max's absence

• Much confusion about what happened at Yellow Dagger
  • No one seems to understand why the colony pods destroyed themselves or were destroyed
  • Rumors about who Mikell was and whether he was kidnapped
• Orzhov Syndicate is moving ships into the system in 1+ days

Arriving at the Base

• Bron adapts to deep water

• Polis Mass Exterior
• Treaded Maintenance Drone stationary and uninfected

• Bron: Major divine presence in Main Arch. Research Station
• The grave mud is not strong enough to support Bron

• Proud and Kromrak manually open the airlock
• Proud duct tapes the camera