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Hearing the plan, Andreesha and Boinga buck-up and rehearse their patter. Snobarny volunteers to be protection for the pirates while Azzim as Zzas Arass lead a group of potential investors to bid along those offered by the Castellan.

So the hour arrives and the pirates and the party, separately enter an ornate wooden door and descend to a sumptuous conference room provided with all mortal and demonic amenities... Cigars beyond compare, fresh drawn carafes of bloods etc. And finally see the rival bidders and a couple of the Castellan's suave tiefling servitors. The bidders, introduced as "Xon & C" are likely daemons, partaking of both human and insect anatomy, one looking a grossly fat man from which insect arms occasionally protrude in random locations. The other is thin, nervous, something a elf with faceted eyes, drool black ichor. The two manage to seem bored, nervous and angry simultaneously...

Boinga lays out the offer - a set of compromised servers in a high lawful plane of powerful influence.

The thin bidder speaks first "In principle we are interested. To begin, what do you seek?" Andreesha replies with just the appropriate "We seek 100K of universal gold and 10k orichalcum. Pauses, this is standard "We seek a contract for Azure level on level II plane the bidders pause, unconsciously look at the party...

Aim of the bidding is to raise interest... Andreesha is asking for more protection than what a small bidder could easily offer - but what they offer with some difficulty. It's a calculated approach to get interest... The party's task is seeming interested but also reluctant. Enough so the bidders won't try 'low balling'

Am I confusing people about the situation? Other things happening with you?

Later, that day, Andreesha receives a message to meet "Proctor Consolium" the next afternoon at well know cafe, along with the Castellan. As the time for the meeting gets closer, Andreesha seems to get more nervous. "I definitely will need someone to come with me ... I don't know why just that name fills me with dread..."

"There is a danger here, we assume we're dealing with Fentor's maciations, but what if he is just a lieutenant of something bigger. We must be wary, but not so much that we jump at the sight of our own shadows..."

Snobarn cocks the jackal head he wears in the guise of an Ambarian Rakasha currently... "Fentor is a conduit ... a conduit to a different dimension. " He pauses either thinking or for dramatic effect "This is confidential knowledge, even within The Organization. Above my pay grade but I make a point of knowing things..." Another pause. "Fentor, through his glove and eyepiece, is a conduit to a dimension of madness. We don't know if it's outside the multiverse or merely outside our understanding but it is terrifying even compared to many other things The Organization has faced." His eyes are a bit shiny. "Of course the multiverse is big, many disruptive forces are in it and many forces exist to clean up the disruptions. But this is personal. Before The Organization existed as such, when it was just an ad-hoc group of amoral adventurers with a plan to put a quick end to the Dark Traders, Fentor was a part of that group. His flirting with these forces of madness was tolerated, possibly encourage. Of course, there came a time when harsh words turned to combat, the willy gnome fled and Ari, Arjunara and the core group formed the group in a more principled manner. But suffice to say, Fentor knows more than he should about operations of The Organization even though core group took all conceivable precautions. This is how to understand the danger of Fentor. "

Later, when Azzim speaks Andreesha, she seems to buck-up and take a look of determination and leaves for the palace. Hours later she returns, "Speaking vagaries and euphemisms, I was still able to get his interest in 'special and unique access to an upper plane server...' and he said he would contact me in a day with what interest parties he could find. We must wait. The Castellan! (she's impressed) Perhaps some of you could come with me then..."

Snobarny seems to sense Lyre's unease and approaches her discreetly some time after the pirates are established in a luxury hotel with the party nearby. "I know you're eager to have Gift's message decoded and we can't be sure that coming here to set a trap for Fentor will take us towards that. But I think we've got some clues that at least part of this message was an effort to thwart an extremely dangerous plot - both the people following us in Sigil and the way the message was so carefully encrypted point to that... Still, we're just following our intuitions here in the end, so we have no guarantees. Still, the intuitions of The Organization's agents should be good..."

The town and palace are luxurious. While there are a number of glad-handers and servants eager to "help", most denizens are quiet and in a hurry though you can guess that in some exclusive establishments, some might open up more.... The Castellan's secretary keeps hours at the palace gate and there is even a small "ministry of tourism" in the town (though it has a hint of being a joke).

Meanwhile, Andreecha approaches the party, "I know I come off as boastful, even arrogant but here, I'm a little nervous. Should be we directly approach the castellan about the time of the game or seek to make side contacts, how should we be doing things?"

Exiting from the Maelstrom at the edge of Sarokin, the party's view of the timecrystal is spectacular. The "Fall" is metaphorical and literal - a river surrounds Sarokin and beyond it is ... nothingness, rainbow chaos. This nothingness flows around and over the city Sarokin like a Klein Bottle shaped waterfall... Fortunately, within the city, reality is more conventional. Hotels, brothels, blood-sport arenas and casinos of various sorts line the lines outside the palace (which you able to easily navigate picking up minor rumors and contact) . The palace itself takes 60% of the "island/timecrystal" and seems a huge party ... Rumor has it the night market will happen in three days (one day early as sometimes happens)...

Snobarny explains his idea of the plan "So what our friends will be shopping around is access to the CnC servers in Madelainreat, a thing specific enough that it will get Fentor's ear. Ideally, they give access to the gnome, flee and we feed Gift's code back to him when he attempts access..."

So, the party preps the stasis field for most of the pirates and preps Andreecha, Jerlanech (female albino tiefling) and Boinga (goblin) for the mission. Let me know about any other preparations.

Then, to enter the Sarokin Time Crystal, you spend four days hiking the Sortlige Maelstrom 'till you find the appropriate transit pool and, once the gate spirit is paid off, you enter the The Fall Of Sarokin proper, in all its malevolent splendor. The main occupations here are gambler, servant and gangster but still let me know how you set yourself up. All sorts of decadent luxury is available

New secret identities for The Fall Of Sarokin...

Terex and Snobarny talk to the group of pirates they have captured, Boinga answers "I think we would be willing. Believe it or not, you may call us infamous villains but redeeming ourselves is in the end what all of us want - even if some of us have less than savory appetites, admittedly. And the deal would be - just three of us go. Myself, Andreecha and one other you choose and you can keep the rest of us in stasis as surety. And we know our way around some dark planes, though clearly not at your level."

Snobarny continues brainstorming, "We should also think what force the pirates sold Throat out to. The Red Legion? A demon prince meddling? Hmm. Some other dark force wanting to use the Fentor's prank for their purpose... It's not uncommon... He refills the pipes and continues puffing.

"Brilliant, Azzim, as usual ... Snobarny smiles and you can see a just hint of jealousy along with his admiration... "But risky. It hasn't been The Organization's style to head so close to the lower planes but we have to start some time. And it's a place we won't be expect. Naturally, our pirates will be in over their heads. That will be the ploy, they come to The Fall Of Sarokin desperate to sell or gamble their thing, what they got for 'selling out' Throat and word spreads. Fentor appears and somehow we offer him the 'counter code' of Gift, victory ensues. Well, there will be more to figure out as we go..."

The were-hounds pauses, takes a long drag on his pipe and blows a cloud of smoke that form a map of The Sarokin Timecrystal, with Palaces, Banquet Halls, gardens and dimensional portals all visible. "We'll have to do some talking with our pirates. I think we can be level with them, they'll be taking a great risk, many possible fates worse than death here but I think they can take it, they're even used to it. That doesn't mean we won't have to watch them.... And we'll need to create our 'legends'. Some of us should be allies or servants of the pirates but some can be independent and we won't be too constrained here, many hide their identities in this place. Also, the pirates should perhaps only contact a few of us. An effort to betray us might even play into our hands...

I heard years ago the US Special Forces uses the term 'legend' for false identities, an interesting choice...

"Ah yes, gambling" Snobarny sinks back, conjuring a fine mithral inlaid oak-burl pipe filled with aromatic Dimonian Pipe Weed, takes a puff and looks out the ship's port into the middle-distance of this moon's bleak, airless landscape. "We would have to try one of the truly great houses, these 'pirates' betrayed Fentor for raw temporal alloy and now seek to gamble it to win back their lost future..." Another couple puffs. "But what house do they gamble in? It must be one of the great houses, a place where even such Fentor would mind his manners. The story is they're counting on this being one place they're safe. And who did they trade with? We have to make our story compelling He looks around at the other part members with an amused look on his hound's face.

If anyone wishes, you can create a short description of a house, mostly what sorts of adventurers frequent it, what the staff looks like and a few ambiguous rumors and have your character "remember" the house. There is very little known about any of the houses...

Snobarny nods. "It would be hard to convince him that the pirates would willingly return to him. But, hmm, we could have the pirates flee but not far enough and have Fentor "re-recruit them". Indeed, we could have them be seen gambling at the Pillars of Time. Or we could find someone else to contact Fentor... He somehow likes people from Arlo's ex-home world. Who else could we return from the dead and how? hmm, hmm... His eyes narrow and his forehead wrinkles...

Just FYI, you have Andreesha held in stasis...

(at the pirates' funky but pleasantly arrange space frigate on the moon's surface, probably moved next to the Lyra's ship)

Boinga looks worried. "True, we are interplanar desperadoes but we stick to each other. Tell us where Andreesha is or where you last saw you saw"

Meanwhile, Snobarny comments, "It seems like we're getting somewhere - though it's very dangerous. It seems like Gift has drafted us into a part of the dimension wars we didn't expect. Does this make sense? I was only briefly acquainted with her but that did seem like something she'd do. But you know her better." he pauses for a response or reaction, then "But with the virus and counter-virus. We shouldn't just wait but rather bring Fentor or his agents here again to continue their effort... Perhaps disguise ourselves as agents ourselves or even send these pirates back to get more supplies. Of course that too would be dicey. But we are full agents of The Organization, we can show this villain what we can do...

The were-dog's tail flicks excited as he end the speech.

Mastering the C-n-C is child's play for Lyra. Gift's code is something else... But the idea you had before seems stronger. The code is likely an inoculation against hacking for XmintyX - but possibly something more, code that aims at a counter-stroke against the plans of Fentor Fizzlebrow, coded to go back up the command chain... The code itself would have to be installed in secondary system itself and that would be risky maneuver... And it might have to wait for Fentor to send another agent himself...

Meanwhile, the pirate Boinga ask to Arlo, "Did you not capture her? We fled the rendezvous when she failed to appear or sound all-clear"

Throat's corpse is destroyed though it's stink remains, filling the vast chamber. Azzim's guess is Throat is a native outsider to some horrible plane and thus was destroyed with it's physical body ... but all sorts of cloning, phylactory and return to the Abyss scenarios are possible.

Then the group begins the process of debriefing the pirates. Taking you to their ship, they show you their cnc (command and control) server handling two significant viral penetrations that the pirates have managed to create over the two years they've been - two compromised servers on the Secondary level waiting for an opportunity to penetrate into the Primary security ring (though such things can take year).

Snobarny, who's a bit sheepish about the low-profile he kept during the fight, does says "I feel like there's link to the code Gift gave us here but I'm not sure what it is..."

The goblin-Jester, who you learn goes by Boinga, asks the part at some point, "It may not be for me to ask but I'm curious what you are doing with Andreecha. She mentioned Arlo a couple times after we encountered your ship and said you had a history..."

Yes, talking terms would be a good idea. There's a hint of iron to his telepathic tone. What can you offer us that we would actually want? More information about Throat or what you did for him?

The pirates look around, seemingly exchanging information with quick glances (apparently having a sort of hive mind themselves) and then the Jester-goblin answers again "We can offer you all the information we have on this operation, each shipment as well as some control mechanisms Throat had us use to maneuver the viruses closer to the center. The mechanisms are back at our ship. Joabeen has eidetic memory so we could get you any information what you want now. As you'd imagine, Throat didn't tell us more than we needed to know - and also put a soul lock on each of us (but gone now). What are your terms? We'd just want to like leave - we'd far prefer jobs that just pay gold. We can't deny we knew something was afoot but we really weren't aiming for the end of the world or whatever you say this was..." As the spokesperson says this, the other pirates sit down on the stone of the vast chamber with a resigned air.

Wracking his brain trying to understand Throat's alien physiology, Terex lights upon a small, pulsing nodule roughly at the base of Throat's spine. Sending a small fragment of what turns-out to be surgical steal through the center of this cluster of nerves, he causes Thoat to collapse into a pile of something like animated, oozing preserved meat (Arlo is thrown to the center of the pile but with the only danger being to his dignity).

At that, the remain pirates, a distance away, turn to the party with one of goblins calling out "Very well, guess now can we talk terms?" They also have their defensive bubble up again.

Just to be clear, Arlo is in Throat's mouth, not swallowed ... yet. cmd 40 to escape. Throat is quite badly wounded.

The shining dwarf charges and the Arlo-Sword screeches as Arlo opens another huge rent in the oak-tough flesh of the creature Throat, exposing more strange organs and pulsing, gelatinous fascia... Yet the creatures howls and opening it's huge orifice, sucks the dwarf into an inner row of razor sharp tooth-like-cartiledge... 50 points slashing damage, Arlo is grappled... Throat is clearly on it's last legs but dangerous

The remaining pirates keep creeping towards the now-more-distant bed...

The vast room flickers with needler fire and magic...

Lyra's shot hits the exposed, pulsating liver and blows a hole all the way out the back of the creature... which somehow only slows it slightly as it's throat opens and a vast cone of thick mucus floods forth, covering Arlo and those nearby 60 points bludgeoning damage, reflex save 26 for half, 2 points constitution damage + 2/round, fortitude save 24 to avoid. You decide if you were near Arlo... . The creature stands, heavily damaged yet unbowed, rushing toward the beds in the corner, Goes 120 feet forward of 1000 foot distance to the beds

Meanwhile, the remaining pirates shuffle slowly towards the bed as well, keep up their protective sphere, keeping aware of both the party and Throat...

The spell rips into the iron-tough hide of Throat, ripping a huge rent, perhaps exposing a strange organ... as the creature manages a rueful chuckle. Clearly missed save but ... tough, Lyra still can act.

In the second after the attack, Terex can see that Throat's thick carapice is absorbing some of the damage... Clearly Throat has some DR. It's still your melee round. You are still in the mindscape Azzim created so he may be able to apply further effects...

There's an oily feeling just touching the mind of Throat and with Terex' question, the entity kind of chuckles. ::I'm sure you can find that cursed gnome in The Gardens Of Zizvadin with a bit of effort but you may not like what you find little lizard, Fentor has access to a not-normal reality... at that the creature bursts it's light bonds and with a gigantic spew seems to form it's stomach and begin to be launched out of it's mouth, at which point... Party's actions happen since you were well prepared...

Terex can you contact Throat while he's still bound?

If we do decide to take him out, I was thinking of hitting him with a two round set up full party wombo combo. Start with misfortune hex then next round Lyra's rail gun, destruction spell, Arlo smite, and whatever Terex wants to do.

Terex can contact Throat telepathically if he wishes, yes.

The creature Throat continues silently struggling as all eyes are fixed on it... The light chains provide eerie illumination to the stone walls of the huge chamber.

The dark-skinned female looks pleadingly at Terex - "Each of us have lost our home worlds, 'all that we love', like Arlo, whom Andreecha mentioned..."

The jester-dressed golbin stares forward "We agreed to bargain, what are your terms?" He appears slightly cross-eyed, with one eye on Throat and another on the party. Throat heaves mightly but the light chains stay fixed, for a moment longer...

Just 100' from where they started, Lyra's blast knocks most the rag-tag group of pirates to the ground and a tall, darkskin elf (?) woman is knocked unconscious. Quickly, a husky ogre in a white flack-jacket group spray some kind of powders on the group and the women awakes - while a goblin in an electric blue power armor projects a oscillating force bubble around the group... as another goblin in a jesters costume puts her hands in the air and speaks, loudly - "We honorable. We are prepared to negotiate by the pirate code but do not assume we're push-overs... A lot depends on ..." The slightest nod of her chin...

The chains of light scintillate but Throat remains caught (though you can guess even these won't hold the creature for long).

(There are two other pirates in the group of six, a Tengu and a Were-tiger in hybrid form, all on a motley and outlandish mix of magic and tech gear)

Dues to long day, will post tomorrow

The signs of the remaining pirates echo off the walls of the huge stone chamber as they go from walking towards the area Throat indicated to running. Most draw swords, blasters and grenades while Throat halts, held in circle glowing links...

Assume the group is effectively made magically invisible within the mindscape - attacks will reveal your location...

As the viewscreen goes down, Throat looks around and says "Well, [terrifying Aklo curse]" and again looks around again slowly "OK, I think I know what's happening, 'mindscape', there an exit somewhere, we must proceed systematically, trust nothing but try each thing that might remotely like leaving... doors, of course, but drawers, anything, especially something new..." they begin searching and move in the general direction of the beds...

With Throat working at this, it's quite possible they will be free in a couple rounds...

Azzim considers. He could probably name several hundred significant planar phenomena referred as the Blue Matrix in different contexts. But close to Mechanus and related to interplanar meddling of the worst, there is perhaps only one - a rumor, a vague reference in the holy books of worshipers of The God Mischief (in he/she/they're many guises) to a back door planted in planar generation processes of some world close to Mechanus (Madelainreat?), that when triggered could chaos a wide swath of the multiverse...

Of course, as soon as the view goes down, it's easy to guess Throat and pirates will see through the mindscape. So attack, modification or something else? We've seen all of the party can modify the mindscape

The view screen rises, and shows a perfect picture of the starry fractal of planets and asteroids spiraling through hyperbolic gravity that makes up Madelainreat's solar system. Throat stares at the screen focusing on the giant, hollow planet Madelainreat "Fascinating, Port 27 is now open. It's good you arrived here now, partial capture or not. This will us a much direct rout to 'Minty'..." ... and Azzim, having mastered Throats habitual subvocalizations by now, can read "And activate the Blue Matrix, yes...

The exchange between Throat and the remaining pirates continues for a few minutes, The pirates are stoic and amoral, understanding they are expendable but numb to fear and natural survivors. Throat is a superminion, working for whoever pays his price but sickened by more monkey-descended humanoids of the multiverse. For a second, Throat breaths in and Azzim experiences a powerful intuition...

Then, the creature taps the floor and a telescreen rises from the imagined floor - Azzim realizes he needs to fabricate a readout of the entire solar system of Madelainreat on this device to maintain the illusion..

You can assume Azzim is passing the knowledge to the group...

Hidden in the walls of the mindscape, Snobarny seems to summon a number of wolves and rats (also hidden) "Shall I begin our play or does someone feel further inspiration?" His tongue is showing as he stares at the group of pirates...

So, Azzim casts his spell and the party waits another five minutes as a small leak in distant part of the huge stone room softly drips... then the lift door opens and a strange creature, apparently the creature known as throat. It is carrying a number of boxes and strange scientific equipment. In appearance, it is a vague humanoid-insect hybrid, the maws and rough head of an umber hulk, a very wide mouth, a thick, jointed neck and a more humanoid body... It puts down the boxes and begins setting up the equipment. And another five minutes and a group of humanoids enter, the remaining pirates and quickly approach the creature (though with a bit of wariness, they are clearly a little afraid of it). "Jerlanech, Andreecha and their landing party failed to return. We left out of fear of discovery.". The thing looks at them "You left because you are cowardly swine like all your kind.... it is absolutely still, thinking "Still it is good you avoided capture. I can consider other zones of Madelainreat

The group seems to be within the mindscape and to not notice the mindscape yets...

Also, I think any of you could specify the mindscape idea...

The "drop-off" room/cavern is huge, 1000'x1000'x40', carved in the ancient limestone of the moon's jutting mountain. The ramp from the surface comes in on one long side and the door to the elevator shaft on the oppoiste. Irregular patches of broken limestone and saw dust on the vast floor area...

As the group investigates, Terex and Snobarny can't see any specific danger but Terex feels instinctively leery of elevator shaft and door and the rogues avoid getting close.

When Azzim shares his idea, Snobarny smiles, "I do love haunting illusions and the like. And I can summon a variety of critters to add to the fun, rats, wolves, Sarvinian air-octopi, and a few other things... Plus man-of-a-thousand-face and all that. Could be fun.

With careful and cleaver flight, the probe arrives at Sarcama four hours ahead of the remaining pirates. Snobarny spends much the flight staring out the window, making sketches and typing code into his tablet. [b]"The last time I was here, I wasn't able to record this stunning starscape and I resolved to do that if I ever got a chance.

Skimming low and landing hidden and behind the drop-off zone Andreecha described (an ancient pyramid in the lunar desert), you arrive only five miles from it, hide the small ship under lunar dust and set-up off towards it in one of the probe's ATVs (the moon's atmosphere is too thin for flight). Arriving at the pyramid, as usual Terex and lead the party down a couple hallways and then enter the drop-off room. It is empty but your rogues can hear a lift rising up, seemingly likely to arrive at a hidden door in ten minutes. And you estimate the other pirates could arrives in an hour.

Using a variety of dimensional tricks, the party's craft jumps ahead of the pirates and avoids the swirling chains of connected asteroids rotating indirectly around Madelainreat... The lead time currently seems like two and a half rotational radians (about two hours).

So, after a bit of consulting and the placing of Andreecha and co into stasis, the party teleports to the small, featureless kiosk that marks the security deport inside entrance. Using hooks previously established in the system, you re-don your light "space suits" and return to the probe. Time total - .0098 solar radians (~7 minutes).

Once again, you behold the wonder of the Madelainreat solar system with it's strange fractal moons sequences extending to winking dwarf stars spread across negative curvature space...

Wasting no time, Lyra lifts the probe up and begins scanning for both Sarcama and the ship containing the remaining pirates... Sarcama is about 23 hours away as the non-euclidean crow flies while the pirates are moving fast, 15 minutes ahead. "I doubt they've figured out all the tricks of this weird local gravity. I think I can and we'll wind-up with a comfortable lead. But some magic aids might be useful" Lyra sends.

In the bleak metal building that turns out to be a gear warehouse (like half of Madelainreat), as the pirates are being covered with foil and shrink wrap for stasis, Snobarny shakes his head. "A lot of things happening at once here. It makes me wonder what your Gift message could be? Maybe a patch to stop this virus? We know there's a connection... I'm nervous leaving this place but catching the rest of the crew seems necessary. Let's go...

Lyra, keeping her guns trained on the group of pirate, brusquely says "I can put them in stasis and then the shuttlecraft" turning to the pirates "one false moving...stasis first"

Snobarny looks at the group, shift away from his fierce hybrid form to his usual nebbish self and takes out a couple scrolls. "I keep a supply of these just in case. Unless someone has casting of teleportation prepared, I can help..."

Jerlanech says "A warning, our ship has probably left without us by now ." Her eyes take a desperate cast, afraid the party will think themselves betrayed "No my doing, our procedures, told you as soon our agreement was clear ... I can guess coordinates if you want to jump aboard but it's dicey. I can give Sarcama's coordinates too, you might be able to outrun them. Your ship looked pretty fast..." Looking at his comrades, "Best drop communicators by now..." and the group hastily remove black rectangles and toss them toward an empty area away from the party as these begin to hiss...

At the mention of Fentor the Jerlanech and Andreecha shudder and the other pirates blank. Jerlanech turns to Terex "Well, you know we're not pretty. We didn't know what this shipment involved but we weren't in a position to be picky. I don't know what Throat is either but he looks a bit like Umbar Hulk but a huge mouth that often open. He is usually waiting on Sarcama Base when we arrive - if he's not, he'll have left more goods". Andreecha interrupts "Throat's real name Morisalin Nofin and he's a greech aligned with some foul force or other... Can you take us into 'protective custody' Arlo?"

Jerlanech whispers "Hold!" to the others of the band and sits up on the ceiling. "Go you can tell whether I'm lying 'cause I'm not. We all got recruited at The Pillars after some runs of bad luck, worlds destroyed and all that. We were just to deliver goods here on a regular basis. We might have known..." She spits. "Our contact just calls themselves Throat and frightened even me. We pick-up supplies at this system's outer moon. What more do you want to know?" stops. Andreecha is looking carefully but intently at Arlo and Lyra.

The pirates in general have a more cowed look but they're all gripping a piece of the corrugated roof, ready for gravity to re-reverse...

Assume Lyra continues covering them...

I will have to postpone posting 'till tomorrow, no excuse beyond the world's chaos...

I am on a biz trip from tonight, could you bot my PC for a while

OK,

So, a snap and flash and the six visible figures go hurtling up to the corrugated metal ceiling of this storage building - Andreecha lands on her feet along with two of the cyborgs while Jerlanech and the others tumble to ground. All reach for their weapons while Jerlanech, pinned to a florescence fixture, shouts "Wait, Parlay, Parlay, we have deep secrets and we will talk, halt the magic!". The pirates look around ready to fight but are at clearly at a disadvantage and not actually drawing weapons (mostly blasters and laser pistols).

Meanwhile Terex and Snobarny are in close striking range but hidden behind air vents.

Andreecha looks at Arlo and says "Come on, cut us a deal, we gave you one earlier...

Damn, I did post last night - and I thought I saw visible but now it's gone. I can reconstruct from memory in a bit but I hope it was me forgetting rather than things just vanishing.

So Terex and Snobarny lurk well hidden by airlock while Lyra, Arlo and Azzim are nearby, in-contact and ready. Only fifteen minutes later than your estimate, the airlock opens and a strange, miscellaneous crew enters; three cyborgs of different configuration carrying heavy boxes, two cat-centaurs with laser rifles and strange transponder devices, an albino tiefling in a wedding dress and ... Andreecha herself. Turning to tiefling, she says "Once again through to the surface! Jerlanech, you are a genius..." to which tiefling responds "Jax and Mac, unload those boxes, Toov, be ready..."

Through the psychic link, Snobarny send ::I can be at someone's throat in an instant. Let us aim to capture, information is important...