The party was pulled from high speed when it came upon an asteroid field, the outer portion of the belt where the Rock of Bral hides away. Starting to work their way through the asteroids, the horror-filled exclamation of Captain Sartell stopped them in their tracks. “Mind flayers,” she gasped, spotting a nautiloid ship ahead of them.
Upon further inspection, the party reasoned that there were no longer mind flayers on the ship or else they would have already attacked. Instead, the ship was found severely damaged and its weaponry gutted. Then, a human was spotted on the ship, signaling the party over. Captain Sartell urged the party to perform a rescue and salvage op. Flapjack confirmed other lifeforms were on the the ship. A number of people in the party were very hesitant to go, fearing a trap.
Eventually, the chose to cautiously back The Dark Star up to the nautiloid, allowing communication from the cargo door. The human on the nautiloid’s deck pleaded for rescue, saying he was attacked by raiders. Inrim told Kiboko to “big me,” so Kiboko made Inrim grow in stature as Inrim jumped down to the nautiloid and interacted with the alleged survivor.
Charlie also compelled the survivor to speak truthfully. Between the two, this led to the nature of the survivor being revealed: He was actually a transformed psurlorn, and more psurlorns were on the vessel. He also revealed that they were not mind flayers but were traveling with them. While compelled to speak truthfully, he claimed that they just wanted to get off the ship before the ship’s air deteriorated and they died.
Cautiously, Inrim sent the human-lookalike to retrieve the other survivors and whatever valuables they could find so that they could be carried away. When the group returned with ballista bolts and realized there was no chance they could keep up their ruse, they attacked Inrim. Inrim sprouted wings and flew up and away, but was knocked unconscious by a psurlon’s psychic attack; he fell a good distance before landing on a lower deck of the nautiloid.
Meanwhile, Charlie cast a fireball that severely damaged the psurlons still in their giant, legged worm form. The ship was brought closer, and the rest of the party finished the fight. They helped Inrim recover from his potentially fatal wounds.
Then, informed by Flapjack that it didn’t seem any other psurlons were living on the ship and reminded by Sartell that there would probably still be worthwhile loot lingering on the ship, the party boarded and explored the nautiloid.
While exploring, they found the devastating remnants of multiple battles. There was evidence that githyanki pirates really did board to kill mind flayers and recover captured githyanki. There was also evidence that neogi had been present in another altercation.
As they explored, the party encountered a territorial quaggoth, which they quickly dispatched. They also encountered a brain-eating neh-thalggu who tried to convince the party to release it from a makeshift prison. Wanting to know what was on the other side, and what treasure might await them, they entered the room with the monster and killed it as well. The party recovered a bit of gold and several magic items along the way.
The party considered commandeering this ship as well, though it would be at the expense of salvaging the spelljamming helm from their damselfly. Ultimately, they decided against the action and heeded Sartell’s urging them to get back on the way to the Rock of Bral.
As they were readying the leave, another ship came upon them. “A nightspider!” shouted Captain Sartell. “The neogi were using this hulk as bait, and we’ve flown right into their web!”
Next chapter: Spelljammer 2022 – Session 09, 2023-02-15