I’d like to add on to this. Once you’ve decoded the journals, you will find a map of Tyria containing the locations of all the probes. On the third map, which I have attached, you will find X’s over the exact locations of the Vigil Keep, The Durmand Priory, The Chantry, and Lion’s Arch. It seems likely that her test will be utilized to attack these four locations. In the fourth picture, which I don’t have a screen shot of, there is a large, conical device that resembles a drill. However, due to the blurriness of the in-game screen, it may have been the device that we currently see the marionette connected to.
I think it’s important to remember that the Marionette, while impressive, is not the weapon: the laser is. I would agree that the probes were venturing to tap into some power source, especially as the release of the nodes came around the time Arenanet confirmed Waypoints as canonical devices that existed on leylines.
However, I agree that Mordremoth was the connection that Scarlet was seeing in her visions depicted in her journal, as the “jungle dragon” is the one most closely related to sylvari, but I’d like to add on to it:
1. Currently, our only known information about Mordremoth comes from CoE, where Alpha uses a skill called Teeth of Mordremoth. On this same path, the players face an evolved Husk, showing that Husks, or a version of them are minions of this Elder Dragon.
2. In the Caledon Meta Event chain, a large Jungle Wurm appears, followed by Avatar’s of Blight, which appear as husks. If husks are related to Mordremoth, it’s likely that this corrupt, dark wurm is as well. Talking to the NPC Gamarien, he mentions that a “darker force” is at work than the nightmare court.
3. The new meta events in Bloodtide Coast contain three very large Jungle Wurms along with a plethora of husks, smaller worms, and grubs of varying type and ability. All of these events fit well with what we know of Mordremoth from CoE and what we know of husks and other wurms from locations such as Wychmire Swamp and Twilight Arbor.
Is it possible that Scarlet had not discovered the location where Mordremoth slept? That these probes were not siphoning the dragon’s energy? What if this three headed wurm is just a minion of the newly awakened Elder Dragon? We always thought that Mordremoth would come from somewhere to the far west, in the Maguuma Wastes. The trend in the current dragons does not match this, obviously (Zhaitan:Orr:South, Jormag:Shiverpeaks:North, Kralkatorrik:Ascalon:East, Primordus:Depths:Below, Mordremoth:________:West?) but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Further, Anet has mentioned multiple times that this Living Story will have nothing to do with the Dragons. This removes credence from this theory.
My second theory, and my personal favorite, regards several picture seen in Scarlet’s Lair. These images are large red diamond with lines radiating off of them. If you’re wondering where you may have seen it, just look at the Bloodseeker focus or take a run of Arah path 4, and you will recognize the bloodstones. Bloodstones are known to cause large disruptions in magic. It’s not impossible that she received visions or nightmare because of one’s corruption/distortion.
We currently only know of where four are located, and on of these four was located in the Bloodstone Cave, which is located roughly in the region between Sparkfly Fen and Strait’s of Devastation (there is actually what appears to be a place holder cave there for any interested in exploring). This cave network may extend far enough to travel below Bloodtide as well, in which case she may be using the probes to search for or steal energy from the bloodstone, as you have theorized.
As usual, these are only speculations, mostly based on my own opinions. Don’t take them for fact, but please feel free to comment, supplement, detract, subtract, add to, multiply, divide, square, cube, take the square root of, or find the vertex of my theories. That’s what makes this fun!
