13.1 The Brig

Use this if PCs try and bypass Macau. Director robots, prisoner etc. Divinity drive C15. Brig Security
Directus Automata

C15. Brig Security

Dark brown stains mar this otherwise spotless white hall. To the north, ominous red lights pulse along a solid black wall. This security checkpoint provides access to the ship’s brig. Beyond the black wall lies a small office with a wall-sized viewscreen that acts as an enormous prismatic veemodTG, allowing x-ray viewing of all creatures and objects that pass through the southern half of this room. The doors into area C16 require orange access cards (electrum palm-disc) to open (Disable Device DC 25).
Treasure: The prismatic veemod for the security office’s wall can be removed with a successful DC 30 Disable Device check, but failing this check by 5 or more destroys the delicate component.

C16. Brig (CR 15 and CR 9)

The pink walls of this massive chamber almost seem to glow because of the intense illumination from above. Rows of identical cells enclosed by transparent doors fill much of the floor space. Walkways and railings atop the cells provide ample view of everything below. Some cells have the remains of bones and tattered clothing.  One seems to be actually occupied, though the creature is deathly still...

Luna Castellum’s high-security brig wasn’t the only place on the massive ship where prisoners were kept—one of its support ships was in fact a dedicated prison colony. The brig consists of 30 identical 10-foot-by-15-foot cells used to isolate unruly or deranged crew members until either their attitudes could be improved in the psychology ward on another deck or they were eventually transferred to the prison ship. Each cell features two bunks, a shelf, and a combination toilet and sink—many cells contain ancient skeletons that crumble to dust if moved. A public shower area in the southeast corner allowed for personal grooming. Each of the cell doors here requires an orange access cardTG to open (Thieves Tool DC 55).
Creatures: The human guards and most of the prisoners are long dead, but because of the nature of the brig’s remaining prisoner (see below), Bastion stationed a Directus Automata and his attendants as guards. The robots have not needed to protect their prisoner for many centuries, but remain fully alert; they fight until destroyed to prevent intruders, but don’t pursue foes from the brig.
The remaining prisoner is kept in stasis in area C16a — one of the surviving Dominion of the Black infiltrator from the original attack on Luna Castellum so long ago. This is a mind flayer scientist named Ysthrigut, and he has been held in stasis in this large cell since not long after its capture. Human scientists intended to interrogate the alien mercilessly for information on how to repair the damage dealt to the ship after the fateful attack, but madness overtook the crew before much progress was made.
The stasis field that contains Ysthrigut functions similarly to temporal stasis. It’s not a magical effect, but it can be removed by a spell like freedom. A discharge or greater discharge spell can remove the stasis as well, but the field has a save bonus of +20 to resist such spells. A successful DC 35 Thieves Tool check is also enough to manually disengage the status field. The unique prismatic access card to deactivate it can be found in area C4.
If Ysthrigut is freed, the alien is unaware of the passage of time. It knows only that it has been tormented by humans, and it immediately attacks, fighting to the death, but its true value can be found if the PCs can keep it alive long enough to interrogate it. The alien will never voluntarily give up its secrets, but a successful DC 25 Intimidate check or mind-controlling magic can get it to speak. This mind flayer speaks Abyssal, Aklo, Protean, and several other alien languages the PCs are not likely to understand.
You can use a conversation with the mind flayer to fill in the PCs on some of Luna Castlleum’s history after it was attacked by the Dominion, up until just before the crash. Ysthrigut knows that in the days and hours leading up to it being placed in statis, its captors shifted from humans to robots who followed the orders of the ship’s intelligence, Unity. The neh-thalggu knows that Dominion weapons drove both the human crew and this AI mad, and bitterly notes that it was captured and imprisoned before it could revel in the ship’s final fate.
If freed and he escapes, he will seek out Qenkokt the Golden.