Erudite Arcanum: Githzerai Weapon Deployment Report

For reasons that should be made obvious by this account, the Erudite Arcanum has acted covertly to deploy a githzerai weapon against an illithid threat to life in Andunor. I pen this account in the interest of transparency, as secrecy is no longer required.

A device was created by a rrakma of the disciples of Zerthimon. Each offered their own lives to create this device. It appeared superficially to be designed to create false realities to satisfy the whims of the operator. In reality, it was a trap, meant for the Conclave of S'ri'chal's elder brain. This conclave was within a ship that had been operating over Sibayad. Their ambitions were ultimately to infiltrate and control Sibayad, and then Andunor.

The device was left by the githzerai creators in Sibayad, where it was recovered by their government and shortly thereafter pursued by illithid. At the time, none knew the device's purpose. In order to see the device safely contained, it was offered to the Erudite Arcanum in return for contributions to Sibayad's written resources. The device was moved to the Arcanum's Maze, and testing was conducted. We discerned that an impression of one of the rrakma that created the device lingered within it: an elderly githzerai named Rakal. He explained the device's purpose as a trap for the Enemy. It could not simply be surrendered to them freely, for in easy acquisition they might suspect its true purpose. They had to be fooled into thinking it was a powerful weapon.

For this reason, we allowed the Enemy to learn we held the device, and then executed their observer. This past night, we publicly carried the device to a remote cavern for an "experiment", anticipating that the Enemy would try to violently acquire the device and "steal" it from us. The plan had been to feign a retreat to allow for the device's capture without raising suspicion. Instead, Erudite Scilth Sarcro defied orders and connected herself to the device. I do not know if she were an illithid infiltrator all along, or if it were a plan to sacrifice herself. But she connected the device to the S'ri'chal Conclave's elder brain, and the trap was subsequently sprung. All present had a vision of the Conclave in their craft. The enthralled illithid flew their craft directly into the sun.

The craft, the elder brain, and all illithid aboard were destroyed completely. Erudite Scilth was slain either by the device destroying her brain, or by the knife Keeper Salmebelka put in her for disobeying orders. The whereabouts of the Conclave were divined to verify the vision was not an illithid trick. They are certainly destroyed.

We have recovered the device intact, though whatever trap the githzerai worked into it is now gone from the device. It seems to retain its function as a simulator and will remain in the Maze for further study. Any Andunorian with scholarly interest (or those Sibayadi that assisted in delivering the device to us) may have supervised access to the device on request.

Illithid remain among the greatest threats to life in Andunor. I remind all Andunorians to remain familiar with the signs of psionic indoctrination and to exterminate swiftly any signs of the Enemy's influence in our city.

First Keeper,

       Day 16, Month 9 (Eleint), 188 AR
       Laberia