A ghostly semi-translucent figure of a Drow in weird sci-fi armor suddenly appears on the ship. Etsuriko acknowledges it with a half bow. It doesn’t seem to notice as it turns on its heels and walks through her and fades out.

Kenari jumps down from the tail and does a hero landing as Ef transforms into an air elemental and floats down to the deck to ask Etsuriko what’s up with the ghost. We see more evidence of a larger battle before we
make it out of the Boneyard. We see the hightech Elve ship again as it blows away dozens of Scro ships. Between Ef and Kenari we pick out details of parts of ships, helms, etc and letters of their Orc god. The wreckage is real but images of the battles are ghostly.

As we approach the Tears of Selune we head towards The Hive. There is a sizeable disruption as Lenata navigates the shockwaves from a massive explosion on the main laboratory asteroid. KA-DOOSH!

As the shockwave settles down something doesn’t feel right. There’s something off. It’s almost like a pulsing sort of feeling. Lenata asks the ship and gets an impression of confusion. Melchior rolls out of bed
and heads up on deck to see a chunk out of the asteriods where the main labs were. Kenari wonders if it’s a pulsing feeling if we can figure out where it’s pulsing from? She asks Lenata and Ef and between them
they figure out it’s coming out from beyond the nest towards us. Could the Pulse have caused the explosion?

Off beyond the rocks and moving towards us quickly is something vaguely round not with a purple effect like the Illithids, but more of a cold silver burst and an odd Enterprise/Defiant looking ship comes towards us.
It’s FAST. Lenata does evasive manuvers with the Penumbra – the other ship is a 1/4 size of our ship.

Meanwhile… Melisande (Queen of Swords) pilots their ship through the wave full speed and just manages to avoid crashing into the asteroids as the Penumbra dodges. The planet below is vaguely Gollarion like as their ship comes to a
screeching halt. Internal comms are out and 3 survivors out of the 5 skeleton crew. She attempts her telepathic bonds and cannot detect the rest of her mates. She checks internal coms to see if she can get them online.
“Members of the Artful Driftdodger, please respond!” “Radar Love, talk to me!” No response. Some lower level crew respond. Patra (MerHiss), Ella and Five are survivors. She checks with ship sensors to see if there’s
anything recognizable around about the manta ray ship or the asteroids around. This matches the place where KaChak stayed behind…

Kenari and Etsuriko look at the ship as we pull aside and Kenari elbows Etsuriko. “Hey, you wanna? It’s right there…”

Melisande believes she recognizes some people on deck and tells her people to stand down. “Figures, you know everybody…” “That’s why I’m the Captain! We’re in a lower tech situation so we might have to finagle this.”

Kenari, Etsuriko and Ef Utan appear on the bridge as “Asshole Alert!” blares across the bridge and Melisande pushes the button to shut it off. “Hi I’m Captain Melisande. It’s Kenari, right? How’s the gun?”

“LOVE IT! I’ve even got a plasma weapon now! So what are you doing here?”

We rode out a phasmic anomaly and my crew and I with our multiple ships were shot off into different realms. Can you tell me the date?" She discovers that her ship can’t orient to the date as it’s Pre-Gap. No injuries here other than bumps and bruises. We didn’t blow up the lab, we’re just riding the wave. How can I help? We need to get this ship into dock before Taj and her family try to attack you.

Lenata messages Taj to let her know that the Penumbra is us. Kenari hops over to their ship and grabs some flags to wave to let the incoming ships know we’re ok.

Melisande messages the Hive about KaChak but doesn’t get a response… she does get a ping from his communicator though.

Taj’s big fluffed up insect buddy pops up on the Penumbra. “Are they with you, Finn? Do you vouch for them on this ship?” (Claws are full, sent Katar)

Melisande grovels as Katar appears on her bridge. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend!”

“Is this with you?” Kenari says “Yes, we’re friends and all good here.” Katar ports back as the two ships pull into the docking bay of the asteroid to find chaos of dust and foul smells. Whatever it was it took out one of the major research labs.

Melisande takes Five and MerHiss to come with her. “Woaah! Another Catfolk! Where you from? I’m from the High Mountain Clan. Me I’m from Mulhorand. Nice to see another Catfolk out and about.”

“The bugs are in a bad place right now but otherwise you’re not welcome. Please stay put or keep within your ship radiuses. "

We check out Melisande’s ship as we talk. Ooo you’ve got an Armory? Vedis does Detect Psionics and Melisande lights up like an Xmas Tree. Vedis notices that Melisande is an Aasimar as well and is most likely a
descendent of Lenata. We share stories of the most vicious attacks we’ve done over drinks. Melisande asks to run some genetic test on Lenata in the Med Bay and Lenata agrees.

Melisande notices suddenly appearing two more emotional presences approx 35 ft outside the ship. Those are Mindflayers… “TENTACLE FACES! 5 O’CLOCK!” as she points to the port window behind her. She steps over to the
viewport and sees a pair of them and one is the bigger one like an Illithid Lord. “Illitharid.”

Finn left the ship and went to the bar past the sentries.

Vedis uses a Mind Thrust at the smaller Illithid but it made its save. WILL SAVES. it mind blasts us for a moment then levitates across from us outside the window. Etsuriko pops behind the Illithard and thumps it with a Quivering Palm that kills it dead. KADOOSH!

Lenata hits the Illithid with Holy Smite and blinds him for one round. Kenari flicker steps on top of the ship and snipes the Illithid with a Dragon Pistol. Melchior moves out and shoots it with his guns. Ef moves into
position with a wand of Magic Missile.

Melisande creates a Polar Vortex 20×40 cylinder of ice and calamari in a blender in the air around it. She releases it and it goes SPLAT on the ground.

Finn shows up with some liquor wholesalers. “Am I the only one doing my job around here?” as he waits for someone to cover it up.

Kenari tells Mel as we cart the bodies away that we need plenty of skin samples for the Detect Abomination spell. Maybe some vials of blood too? The correct measurement is “trash bags.” How many trash bags of illithid guts does it take to affect a Scry spell?

We go into the Med Bay as Mel lays down the corpse to do the analysis as it lights up. They are bigger, stronger, more evolved, more like network nodes between regular Illithids and the Illithid Brain.

Kenari gets her skin and blood samples as Mel gleefully dissects the Illithid.

Lenata wonders if the “network node” could be used against the Illithid to detect where the Brain is, to misdirect the Illithids, etc.

Melisands offers to psionically link us all (Vedis, Lenata, Kenari agree)

We could put Melisande’s Ship into the Harrowing to dock there as a secure place that we can access if we need. Can the ship go through the Flow safely?

Mel’s ship has an AI but isn’t alive like ours. The Nomad is here. The Serenity is expected to arrive within a week or two.

Word comes through the bug guard that Melchior has been summoned. We need help in the Disaster Zone. Melchior has been deputized to help Taj’s clan as law enforcement.

Up to Level 8 surgeries on Melisande’s Ship. 1 hour or so.