From: Joshua Jarvis <[REDACTED] at [monadnock.keene.edu]> Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: SPELLJAMMER: Bloodeye sphere Date: 26 Sep 1996 19:02:36 GMT The Bloodeye sphere is named after effect of the interaction of the systems primary Infernus with the planet Crynx (along with distortion from the miasma) to produce an affect that appears to those in the correct position (such as all of the planet minathos) that the primary is a huge red eye. PLANET NAME: INFERNUS PLANET TYPE: Fire world SIZE: J SHAPE/TYPE: sphere Infernus is a massive fireworld that burns bright red in the sky. It (along with Crynx) is the bloodeye. The heat is incredibly intense. The only thing that keeps the worlds farther out in the system from being incinerated is the heat absorbing affects of the Miasma. PLANET NAME: Crynx PLANET TYPE: Earth world SIZE: I SHAPE/TYPE: sphere Crynx is the pupil of the bloodeye, it will eventually become tidally locked with infernus. It currently is partially locked and it takes three years (Crynx years 379 days) with the planet facing the sun before it suddenly flips. The side of the world facing the sun is nothing but ashes and rock. The side of the world facing away from the sun is a sparse dry steppe. The humans and animals are nomads who constantly travel around the planet. They have no idea that the world flips, incinerating all the life on the other side because they are constantly traveling in such a way that they are on the side of the world facing away from the sun. The plant seeds are extremely heat resistant and can survive five years of the harshest conditions. For this reason spelljammers often travel to crynx to get seeds that last long enough to keep the seeds of atmosphere freshening plants almost eternally. Another reason to go to Crynx is the diamonds. Diamonds are a common rock on Crynx. It is believed Crynx is a fire world that died. The carbon piled up as the soil and the deepest layers became diamond. The diamond was shattered by some mysterious force (earthquakes, metors strikes, magic, who knows) Later life settled of the cooled world (now an earth world) (how the life got their and why the people didn't leave is a mystery) while the gasses that were expelled as the planet cooled became the Miasma. PLANET NAME: the Miasma (the mist, the airy graveyard, ect.) PLANET TYPE: air world The Miasma is a sphere of air and gasses that surrounds the inner worlds. of Infernus and Crynx. The miasma is a made of gasses that can have magical effects (stinking cloud, incendiary cloud, fog, cloudkill, ect) some parts of it refresh the atmospheric envelope. Miasma isn't a safe place to try this however because it absorbs much of the energy released by Infernus and the intense heat of the world is like the hot outer atmosphere of a fire world. The thickness of miasma varies and is unpredictable. Even more dangerous are the pockets of sargasso that float within the Miasma. PLANET NAME: Chromatic Nebulae (the cloud banks) PLANET TYPE: air SIZE: C SHAPE/TYPE: cluster The Chromatic Nebulae (or cloud banks) are a cluster of airworlds each one is a different color. The visibility in them is like that of a fog spell but they refresh (and discolor) the air envelope. Star like lights burn within the clouds, these are various types of will o' wisp like creatures. The astro' wisp, the cosmo' wisp, and the nebulo'wisp. all have similar stats. Astro'wisps are of good alignment and heal the injured. Cosmo'wisps are neutral the lawful ones lead you through the clouds safely the chaotic ones lead you off course (as do some nebulo'wisps) Nebulo'wisps are evil and they can drain 2d6 hp per round with their beams of dark light. Besides this all these wisps are identical. They communicate by a series of light flashes (easily immitated, difficult to comprehend.) PLANET NAME: DE'DOONZ (dunes) PLANET TYPE: earth SIZE: D SHAPE/TYPE: sphere De'Doonz is a desert world. The whole world is sand except for a few interesting rock formations (many that resemble cities, faces, pyramids ect.) Umber Hulks, Meenlocks, and other burrowing races dwell under the sand of De'Doonz. Their favorite tactic is to wait until adventurers go to the rock formations and then they drag the ship under the sands (usually leaving the tallest mast visible above the sand. When the adventurers go back towards their ship they fall through the sand ending up in underground chambers. The sandstorms that sweep the planet (on storm or higher on the weather chart.) sometimes cover the rock formations. The underdark races however try to uncover them once the storms die down. PLANET NAME: PURGATORIUS PLANET TYPE: earth SIZE: E SHAPE/TYPE: sphere This world is suprisingly cool and constantly overcast with a thick cloud cover. the ground is barren rock and very mountainous. The only inhabitants of this world are Baatzu and Aasimon. Rumor is that on the outer planes two lawful planes of opposite alignment are making an alliance. Rumor has it that it might be Baator and Mount Celestia trying to stop chaos (and celestia trying to stop evil) by destroying the abyss Others say it is arcadia or "the so called heavily guarded fortress of good" that is supplying the law. Others say this is all a lie and that rougue fiends or rougue Aasimons (or both) are just living in the prime. Others say this world is a red herring and the real Purgatory is being built in limbo (to be transferred to mechanus or the outlands when finished) as a hall of judgement, Some say the greek dieties will loose their worrld to rome, Abyss will fall, and Ragnarok will befall the planes only to be halted for a millenium or two changing the balance of the outer planes. the truth is for you to discover. (some say the world is under an illusion spell.) PLANET NAME: Attuma (pronounced atoomuh) PLANET TYPE: earth SIZE: D SHAPE/TYPE: sphere This world was once an uninhabited jungle world. That was until a ship of spelljamming ape men (grommans, dakons, ect.) with human slaves crashed. The slaves (part of their mages failed expiraments with creating a race of mindless servants) excaped and now live like animals. The apes now survive and live as an advanced intelligent race. They believe that humans are mindless animals and that apes are their superiors. They have yet to rediscover spelljamming technology and any human they meet who does (or any that doesn't live like an animal) will be humted as a monster or studied and disected by the "apes of wrath." PLANET NAME: Slimatrua PLANET TYPE: earth SIZE: C SHAPE/TYPE: irregular (was once a sphere) When the planet Minathos discovered spelljamming they decided to make the most of their moons. Andura (which isn't described here) was made a trading post while Slimatrua became a nothing more than a huge garbage dump. This once spherical world is now a irregular pile of trash. Some of the metal and stuff is melted in a forge and is remade into items here. They found the perfect workers to do this, workers who don't mind working and dwelling in garbage. The Otyughs. This was working fine for a while and adventurer who have arrived to trade with Andura dumped their trash here but the otyughs were experimenting with what they found. They made crude ships and crude helms and patched together crude spells from parts of scrolls. They put together broken helms to form inferior helms and built crude ships resembling cargo barges. These Otyugh garbage scows now travel through space looking to obtain or trade garbage with other races (so far no one wants it.) They admire the tinkergnomes ability to put together junk to make more junk and hope to perfect it for their own ships. The stats for the Otyugh craft are impossible to list because no two craft are alike. Any hit to an otyught garbage scow can be a critical hit if it is 18,19 or 20 due to their weak construction. PLANET NAME: Minathos PLANET TYPE: earth SIZE: E SHAPE/TYPE: sphere Minathos (a normal world like Oerth, Toril or Krynn with typical human and demi-human inhaabitants) has just recently discovered space travel. They burn a rare mineral called draconspite known only on their world. The act of burning it causes a mystical flight field that a concentrating "helmsman" can direct as space travel. The fumes of the burning draconspite cause the air to foul quickly preventing them from going beyond their moons. They discovered a spelljamming ship in one of the first few journeys into space (pure luck) and quickly set up the moon Andura as a trading center and the moon Slimatrua as a garbage dump (you gotta make your world look clean for the tourists you know.) They have yet to realize that the otyughs they have recycling metal have a superior (yet slower) form of spelljamming. Spelljamming major and minor helms have just been introduced to the world but are not yet widespread (people fear if it does become widespread war may break out between Attuma and Minathos. The stars in this sphere are huge will o' wisp like globes that float along the spheres edge. ZYXZYM: The ZYXZYM are insectoid bipedal nomads who for some mysterious reason never set foot on any planet (though they will set foot on many a ship.) The ZYXZYM do not need to breathe or feed their language is a uncomprehendable series of squeaking clicks that no human or demihuman can imitate (except for those who know the fifth level spell (I told you they were tough to comprehend) SPEAK ZYXZYM (similar to comprehend languages.) Do to difficulty understanding them no one knows why ZYXZYM attack. their armor class is a natural 3 and they advance in THAC0 HP and Xp by class and level. Their main weapons are a stun device made of insect chitine. (if hit save vs. paralyze or fall unconscious for 3d4 rounds) The ZYXZYM never die of old age all they need to survive is spelljamming energy which they gain from using their pod ships draining powers. Without this they are unconscious. They spend most of their time in their tightly packed crowded ships motionless so they won't waste their stored magic. ZYXZYM POD SHIP: TONNAGE: 10 HULL POINTS: 10 MANEUVER CLASS:A LANDING: only seen landing on other ships ARMOR RATING: 4 SAVES AS: stone POWERTYPE: spelljamming leeching SHIPS RATING: unknown STANDARD ARMAMENT: boarding ram Not much is known about these tiny ships. It seems that ZYXZYM spend most of their time tightly packed and motionless lying on these ships (how they turn the pods without sails, oars, ect is unknown. These ships are made of a material similar to insect chitine but incredibly strong. The undersides of the pods are flat except for the boarding ram (a short thick spike) the tiny ship attaches itself to the side of a larger ship and the boarding ram pierces the ship and breaks. their is now a hole connecting the two ships. The ZYXZYM then proceed to kill (or more likely stun) the inhabitants (raiding is rare since the ships almost never have room for anything except ZYXZYM) The ships have a far deadlier effect. As long as a pod ship remains attached to a larger ship it drains the amount of spelljamming time left (when enough time passes the ship slows down and eventually stops unless the mage gets sleep the ZYXZYM ships absorb this) The ships drain 1 hour per round per ship (they travel in swarms) All the ZYXZYM ships gain an amount of spelljamming energy equal to the total drained. Thw zyxzym also gain that energy. When they are done draining the Zyxzym leave at top speed (those who attempt to follow them say that after awhile they just disappear, this is just an illusion) ZYXZYM and their ships are powerless without the drained energy (the ships stop and drift, the ZYXZYM are unconscious until a helms range (air envelope or gravity well) contacts them. To prevent wasting power they spend most of their time in a state similar to unconsciousness with the magic stored within themselves and their ships until a ship passes. How they know a ship is passing is unknown since the ZYXZYM pod ships lack windows or other openings. The ram on these ships can regenerate 1 point per round until they reach a maximum of ten points. This ability can be delayed until the rest of their crew returns.