Name: Brightflame
Type: Spherical Fire Body
Size: D
Escape Time: 3 turns
Satellites: 2
Distance from Primary: 900 million miles
Day Length: 36 hours
Year Length: 125 months
Population Analysis: demi-lich
The second sun of the Banesun system, Brightflame is a mere white dwarf of little size or importance. It is a spherical fiery body about 3,000 miles across and has a circumference of about 9,400 miles. Though slightly brighter than the Banesun, it is not bright enough to seriously affect mildly photophobic creatures such as orcs, but is still bright enough to strain the eyes of such creatures as drow or illithids. The surface is much hotter than any human could survive, but much cooler than most sun surfaces, only about 13,500F. No magic of less than 6th level will allow a human to survive in the fires of this dwarf sun because of the magical nature of the fire.
Brightflame, while superficially appearing as a dwarf sun, it's makeup is much different. The surface burns with white flames that arch up to a mile high. The surface is not heated gases, as most suns are, but actually a sphere of twisted metal. Portals to the planes of fire and radiance heats the metal to a white hot temperature, but not hot enough to melt it. Random portals to the plane of air cause flames to flare up, but otherwise the planet lacks an atmosphere. The metal surface is only about a mile deep, which surrounds a second layer of red crystal about a foot thick. Inside of this crystal is with without atmosphere, but filled with strange, clock-like gears and machines. The gears of this massive machine are over a mile across, but the whole fills less than a tenth of the space inside of Brightflame. The ultimate result of this is that the machines are clustered in several areas and attached by massive, ever turning rods and separated by large, open areas. There is no place inside of Brightflame to fully take in the whole of the machinery, but one can maneuver a spelljammer through the larger open areas. Many places are so tight that even a halfling would have a hard time squeezing through. There is no gravity on the inside of this world.
None. Brightflame has no atmosphere, and thus no climate nor weather. The interior also a void and lacks any kind of atmosphere.
This world appears as a solid white sphere hanging in the void. Occasional flares can be seen from orbit, but otherwise the world is unremarkable.
None. The surface has no distinguishing features to break it up into noticeable regions or continents. The interior is one big clockwork machine, with no distinguishing features.
Not much survives on a world like Brightflame. A few elmarin and Q'nidar dance in the flames of this world, but are confined to the area within 1000' of the surface of this world. They survive on a diet of flames and heat, and are often seen playing in the flame spouts. Occasional spelljammers use the area to hunt for ion stones and magical helms left by Q'nidar who gorged themselves on too much heat, but the pickings are very slim indeed. Fire elementals are noticeably absent from Brightflame's surface, despite many open portals to that realm. It is likely that there is something about Brightflame itself that keeps them away, like an apathy spell. The same applies to effreet as well.
The interior is about the same. The sterile environment discourages any sort of natural life what so ever. Still, many creatures find their way into the cracks and crevasses of the machinery. Will-o-wisps dart into and out of the machinery, with no apparent pattern or reason. Elemental creatures, mostly the crysmals and stone snakes, as well as strange, clockwork skeletons find homes in the various nooks and crannies of the machinery. They mostly ignore each other, fighting in deadly combat when they meet.
While the exterior appears as a normal dwarf sun, it is not a natural world. Brightflame was created by someone (probably the current residents) thousands of years ago. As far as any records tell, Brightflame has been in existence in the Banesun sphere for at least as long as humans have been spelljamming. It was artificially created long ago, before humans mastered the art of fire or agriculture.
The current intelligent residents of this world are few. They dwell in the interior, making the machinery their home. The most common creature is an odd metallic lizardman, about 3' in height, that maintain the machinery. These creatures constantly work at repairing any damage to the machine and keeping the machine well-oiled and in good condition. These lizardmen work on repairing and maintaining the machine in a trance; they work without rest, food, or any other life activities. They apparently lack any intelligence but no sage has ever attempted to communicate with them.
Of lesser numbers are the much larger clockwork lizards. These beasts are over 50' long and have a hard metal casing. They protect the smaller workers, watching over them and defending them against any attack. Otherwise, they remain unmoving on various parts of the machine. They also appear unintelligent, but when active, use cunning and intelligent tactics, far better than a mindless golem or clockwork machine.
At the center of the planet is a core of metal machinery. This core serves as a tomb for a powerful and extremely ancient dracolich which seems to have degraded to demilich status. His remains are guarded over by a powerful iron golem bodyguard shaped like a sleek green dragon forty feet long. Other powerful creatures watch over his tomb, the least of which are a pair of iron metagolems that watch over the only entrance to his tomb. The exact number and power of the various guardians is unknown, as is the extent of his tomb. There have been a few attempts to penetrate the tomb over the centuries, including a famous and ill-fated expedition by the illithids. No less than fifty illithids, along with over nine hundred slaves, vanished completely in the tomb. The only survivor was left behind to watch over the four nautiloids, but was forced to take the mosquito life ship to escape when his fellows failed to return. Almost starved to death, his mind was locked on but one thing, a name, before the creature expired: Anduskmiir.
There is very little that Brightflame has to offer that interests spelljammers. Rarely, captains with metal ships fly close to this world to hunt for elmarin for the ioun stones they leave behind when they die. Only the most confident captain would hunt for the q'nidar to slay for their spell components and their teeth, which are sometimes made into tiny lamps. Only two minor helms crafted from crystalline q'nidar carcasses have been recovered from the fiery surface of this world.
None.
Brightflame has two small satellites that orbit close to it. The first is the water world of Spinel while the other is the air world of Tempest Shoal.
Type: Flat water body
Size: 500 miles
Population: 3,500 hadozee, 230,000 humans
Natural Resources: Water, fruit, fish
Exports: food, water, mercenaries
Imports: finished goods
Spinel is a flat water world about 500 miles across and 5 miles thick. Both sides are habitable and the planet has a gravity plane running through it. The water tapers at the edges with the ocean eventually vanishing into mists. Each side of this world has a surface area of about 196,000 square miles with an atmosphere that extends up to 5 miles above the moon. The world is tropical in climate and frequent rainfall. The top side has a chain of islands, roughly crescent shaped, that is about 600 miles from tip to tip, running along the inside edge. The under side has only scattered dots of islands, drifting free in the calm seas.
The main spelljamming inhabitants of this world are the families of many hadozee who served the Elvish Fleet. Most of the hadozee are retirees who came here to settle down. The elves set up this colony about fifty years ago to give their faithful allies a place to peacefully retire from their many duties. At least, that is what the elves let everyone believe. Instead, the Fleet wanted to establish a listening post to keep an eye on both the illithids and the elves of Bestial, who they don't completely trust. The hadozee clans dwell on the top side island chain, mostly keeping to the jungles and maintaining only a handful of small spelljammers. They have several flitters and mosquitoes hidden in the jungle overgrowth, piloted by elvish mages. The elves are very few, but skilled pilots and very careful to not been seen. The elves are slowly gathering information about the illithids and Bestial elves, but their mission is far from complete. Elvish supply ships make infrequent trips to this world to resupply the constantly moving camps and collect any reports gathered by the elves and hadozee.
The other major inhabitants of this world are human tribes, descendants of a failed illithid farming colony. Though the illithids tried to burn the jungles to the ground, the trees of this world are particularly resistant to fire because the wood is so wet. The brutal light of Brightflame and the failures to dig enough caves finalized the doom of the colony. The illithids left many slaves behind, who went native and became aborigines. They travel about using small catamarans and have a stone age technology. They avoid all spelljammers and view them as devils or demons sent by evil spirits.
Type: Spherical air body
Size: 1,000 miles
Population: 7,500 syllix
Natural Resources: air
Exports: air
Imports: none
The second moon of Brightflame is the air world of Tempest Shoal. A stormy air body about a thousand miles across, Shoal is not a remarkable world. Only a few hundred small rocks, none bigger than a mile across, float in the atmosphere. These asteroids are covered in thick, lush jungles of purple plants and blue flowers. The resources of this moon were so poor that the illithids paid it no attention and were unaware that a small fleet of syllix settled down here. That fleet was a force of a mere two ships, but in modern times they have grown in numbers greatly. The syllix continue to build ships, mainly eel and the rare lamprey ships, and prepare for the time of Eruption. With every passing day the time of Eruption draws closer, and the syllix plan to launch a fleet of at least two hundred ships. The primary targets of their war would be the nearby human and elvish colonies, especially those of Spinel and the Gauntlet. Given a few more Eruptions, they could conceivably defeat the illithids and claim the entire sphere for themselves.
