We head back to the Valiant. The prisoners are turned over to the Heldans for interrogation. Lani, Zim, and Grey remain behind to chat with Captain Rolph and Sir Neufort. They would like to capture one of the enemy ships, a number of which are still in orbit about the planetoid. The ships we’re interested in are spherical, perhaps made of some sort of wood.
We decide to put a strike force in one of the hangars where the enemy ships dock. We’ll attack when one of them docks.
We head over to one of the holes on the underside of the rock, and a number of us sneak in. Inside is a long cave blocked at one end by an open, solid wooden door. Various wooden accoutrements and organic blobby things adorn the area. It is freezing cold.
There are several cradles here, presumably to hold the egg-like ships. A smooth slide leads up. On investigating, Zim finds a workshop, with no other exists aside from some small holes in the wall. The Yuan-ti presumably move about the complex via the wall holes.
We hide upstairs, with some of us staying downstairs. It’s tough avoiding the problems associated with the cold, but we make do.
At about 3am, one of the Yuan-ti ships moves in to dock. It I clearly made of wood. Zim also notes that it’s powered by air.
The Yuan-ti are surprised when Zim jumps out and attacks. Combat ensues. We take control of the ship in short order.
The craft looks somewhat shoddily made, and in fact leaks. The vessel is clearly not designed for lengthy journeys.
We call for pick up, but the Valiant arrives, another one of their ships comes to investigate. It then spots the Valiant on its approach, and the two engage in combat.
They seem to use a continual light stones behind shutters with mirrors to communicate over distances.
The five remaining enemy ships engage our force, but our force wins with ease.
We retire for the night. And over the next week the Yuanti are interrogated.
The Yuan-ti priest, and the two other prisoners, are interrogated by the Brother Chaplain.
The creatures don’t know much about their history. Each of the different types of creatures out here all came from the progenitor (one per species?), who created them in their image. Some of the first ones that the gods created themselves are still around, but mostly the ones that are around are degenerate specimens.
Some of the progenitors struck down other progenitors in inter-progenitor wars. The creatures don’t really know what happened, but they do know that the progenitor of the drow was more powerful than the rest (possibly even more powerful than the Yuan-ti progenitor). Apparently the drow progenitor was trying to do something, but stuffed up and the world blew up. They don’t know exactly what happened.
Apparently the progenitors still walk this realm. All of the creatures are from their now blown up home world.
There are the Yuan-ti, the Illithid, the Drow, and some sort of elephant people (maybe their progenitor died a long time, or they never had one).
Sometimes in their past people have fled to Mystara, or even attempted to invade, the latter always without success.
The progenitors sound like they are of godlike power.
Before the world blew up, some of the losers from the conflicts also fled into the void, where they became pirates.
These races have been fighting for a very long time.
The original planet was lush, green, and verdant. This rock was originally a hot house, a garden. This was one of the chunks that survived intact. By luck a powerful priest was here, who was able to establish the life support systems and such using the powers granted to him by his progenitor. Later, another priest and his followers arrived and helped out. It sounds like the two groups don’t exactly get along well.
The planet blew up shortly before the big lump of rock landed in Glantri, wiping out two principalities.
The Yuan-ti on this rock have also been in contact with Yuan-ti on other rocks, but they’ve had lots of difficulty due to some mind flayers. These mind flayers were the losers of a previous conflict, who fled to the void. But the mind flayers came back, but with new and powerful magics that they didn’t have previously (relatively recently, a few hundred years ago).
The new magics they gained are the ability to crush peoples will, flay minds, and so on. Basically, mental magics. They were originally known as only Illithid.
One of the ways the inquisitor gets information from the prisoners is by feeding them.
Anyway, the Yuan-ti, being desperate, have decided to try to invade Mystara. They probably won’t be the first to try.
Apparently the Emerondians were one of the losers who fled to Mystara.
The Prismatic Rocs we fought are known as Chaos Rocs.
They indicate that the conquest of Mystara is currently going fairly poorly.
We got one of the two powerful clerics to interrogate. He believes that the other priest fled with their young, which they revere and protect.
We get a description of the void. Ixion, also called the sun, rests at the centre of the system. Alphatia (Alphatian name) is the planet closest to the sun, also called Hermes (Thyatian name). Second nearest planet is Valerias, also called Aphrodite. Next is Mystara, also called Gaia (with the moons Matera and Patera). Next is Terestia, also known as Aries. Then Asterius, also known as Zeus. Then is Vanya. And then Choronus. Then is Hel, also known as Poseidon.
Asterius is now destroyed. Instead, there’s an asteroid belt there. Astronomers on Mystara have begun calling this region the Tears of Asterius.
Beyond Mystara, other planets are in fact inhabited. Asterius (which they call Damocles), was a Mystara-like world. None of the other worlds are habitable by people like us, but some of the moons are habitable, including moons of Vanya and Choronus. The rocs live on Vanya and Choronus themselves. Other creatures also travel the void, although the rocs are among the most dangerous.
The habitable moons are basically populated by pirates and losers.
They also know of another world that Zim doesn’t know of, called (by their name) Blibdoolpoop. Another navigator (the Heldannic one) identifies this planet by the Mystaran name of Protius.
Apparently Damocles (Asterius) was a flat world, and didn’t have any moons, although it did have smaller rocks orbiting it.
We have a chat with Captain Rolph, trying to decide what to do next. We decide to retire for a few days, to chat to our respective governments. The possibility of trying to cooperate on an aircraft carrier is raised as a possibility.
On chatting with the Rajahirajah, he (reluctantly) agrees to provide support equal to that provided by the other governments. Later, he also awards us all with magic items, for services rendered to Sind at great risk to ourselves.