[Field Report on Scarlet Briar, Her Labs and Technologies]
by Caitlin Donagh, Order of Whispers Initiate
To: Master of Whispers, Preceptors, and all Lightbringer ranked personnel
Re: Scarlet Briar, Her Labs and Technologies
As requested, herein is the field report of Initiate Caitlin Donagh’s investigation researching information and evidence from Scarlet Briar’s various labs and facilities, completed after the defeat of Scarlet Briar, 1327 AE.
Observations
Compiling information obtained by various Order of Whispers agents and their contacts and assets in other orders and organizations, we can now state the following:
- Scarlet did not have a lab in the Molten Facility but the facility itself allowed Scarlet’s Molten Alliance to develop advanced fire and sonic technology to mount a ground-based attack and help converge power into the giant drill which she recently used in Lion’s Arch.
- By mobilizing Aetherblades and the Inquest, Scarlet obtained advanced air and flight technology, using her Twilight Arbor laboratory to build an airship and bait a sylvari Firstborn, Caithe. She was also able to hone her army’s fighting abilities, particularly the sophistication and devastation of their attacks.
- During the Queen’s Jubilee, Scarlet commandeered Queen Jennah’s Watchknight guards by using her understanding of the steam creatures and their technology. She also commandeered The Crown Pavillion, dubbing it her Playhouse, to challenge Tyrians with more of her minion Molten and Aetherblade armies. Her simultaneous invasions worldwide appear now to have been a distraction tactic, orchestrated to keep Tyrians focused elsewhere.
- In unifying a splinter Nightmare Court group with the krait to form the Toxic Alliance, Scarlet was able to process and refine poison which she later used in her attack on Lion’s Arch. Her lab at the top of the toxic Tower of Nightmares showed remnants of her research and advanced technology obtained from the Molten Alliance, Aetherblades, Inquest, Watchwork Knights, and toxic spores used to grow the seedlings.
- In the Mists, we also learned that, via the Thaumanova Reactor, Scarlet discovered the existence of magical leylines across Tyria and apparently learned how NOT to conduct experiments at an intersection of these channels.
- Scarlet’s Secret Lair in Lornar’s Pass confirmed suspicions that the dredge in her army created the sonic thumper probes that appeared throughout Tyria, pulsing as they looked for the leylines of magical power spread across the world. Her lair also revealed that she’d developed a giant drill and was planning a coordinated strike on Lion’s Arch in search of the convergence of these leylines. Lightbringer Miko Riel submitted the following photographs of a map noting the strikepoint and of the drill’s schematics.
- Scarlet’s attack on Lion’s Arch forced the citizens out of the city by air and ground assaults and, more critically, by utilizing a highly concentrated and toxic miasma poison. Contacts within the Durmand Priory report certain hylek tribes discovered it will work itself out of an individual’s system naturally when exposed to low doses. Priory contacts also confirmed that Scarlet’s drill was positioned at the convergence of several leylines. (See photograph obtained from a Vigil engineer contact below)
- Engineers tell us that this drill, positioned over the ruins of Old Lion’s Arch at this convergence, was not meant to be shut off but to continually pulse into the leylines, disrupting them.
Scarlet’s objective, it appears, was to use the advanced sonic and aether technologies she’d obtained to deliver a powerful magical surge into the leyline convergence in Lion’s Arch. The drill, however, seemed to disrupt the flow of magical energy, rather than tap into it to channel and amass it. When the drill bore into the ground, agents report having heard a dragon awaken. The trace of the surge track appears to have traveled west of Lion’s Arch, likely ending somewhere in Maguuma. The ramifications of what another awakened Elder Dragon will mean to Tyria are likely dire.
Recommendations:
- Work with local Lion's Arch officials to help with the drill clean-up and city's recovery.
- Send exploratory teams along the surge track.
- Prepare defenses against a dragon and dragon minion incursions.