Name: Fringe
Type: Ice belt
Size: A
Escape Time: 1 turn
Satellites: none
Distance from Primary: 2500 million miles
Day Length: varies
Year Length: 600 months
Population Analysis: none
Most of the gas ejected by the Banesun freezes and condenses as it travels away from the primary, eventually forming comets. The comets often fall back to the Banesun and destroyed, but some are ejected at such velocity that they escape the inner system. Eventually, such comets settle into orbit around the Banesun here, forming a thin belt of comets.
The Fringe is not a thick comet belt. The average distance between the comets is measured in thousands of miles. Most are simple chunks of ice about a mile to five miles in diameter. None have stable atmospheres and largely uninhabited. All have odd shapes, and as a result, unstable gravity planes. Though some are poisonous in nature, all of the comets are composed of frozen water and a few other frozen gases. Half of the comets are made of ice that is perfectly drinkable.
The average temperature of the comets is about -30F. The comets are too far out to have seasonal variations. They do not have atmospheres and thus have no weather patterns.
Because of the distance between the comets, only one, perhaps two comets are visible at once. From a distance, the comets appear as oddly-shaped, blue-white ice balls.
None. No comet has standing water, nor are there many distinguishing features.
Even in such a hostile environment, life manages to find a foothold. The comets are sometimes visited by creatures from the plane of ice, including mephits and marids from the plane of water. However, the only creatures that visit the comets on a regular basis are kindori herds, who come here to breed. Every decade, all kindori in the sphere travel to this area, where bulls battle each other for months to win best breeding grounds. The females arrive a few months after the males. They only stay for two months or so, long enough to mate with the winning bulls and then depart again. A few bulls are killed every mating season, leaving their bodies on the largest comets.
There is but a few sentient beings in the Fringe. Because of its closeness to the sphere wall, the rastipede have set up a minor outpost here, on a small comet they call Chill. The outpost is reinforced by rock and wood, which insulates the inhabited areas somewhat. Chill has a population of about 200 rastipedes, who sell water, starmaps, and spelljamming equipment. The rastipedes are the best source of spelljamming equipment in the sphere, as the arcane don't like to visit the sphere much. Instead, they have established Chill as the middlemen for the sale of helms, locators, passage devices, and other equipment normally sold by the arcane. The rastipedes enjoy the job greatly, wheeling and dealing with those that journey here to purchase arcane goods.
The only other sentient being in the Fringe is a deadly lich known as the Emperor of Ice. Once a powerful mage specialized in ice-based magic, the Emperor of Ice built his tomb on a large comet several centuries ago. Lately, he has become restless, having grown bored of researching ice magic and crafting magical items. He has begun building a navy of his own, made from the bones of kindori skeletons, and crewed by those who died building his tomb. He does not yet know what he will do with is growing navy, but conquering Chill would be an interesting start. The Emperor of Ice is a 24th level mage and commands a fleet of at least ten skeleton ships crewed by 30-60 skeletons each.
The rastipede port of Chill is the only place where spelljammers can land and dock. The port is carved in a natural crevasse in the ice. Ships must tie off at one of the five docks extended out along the gravity plane. The port itself is a wonderful collection of squat stone towers that rise inside the crevasse. All are capped by round domes, designed to trap heat inside the towers. The towers are connected to each other via covered walkways. Only the docks area is open to space. Since Chill is the only (known) comet in the Fringe to have a stable atmosphere, it is safe for ships to land. However, it is not protected from the biting cold and crews must take precautions or freeze to death.
Chill has two small inns and a tavern, all run by rastipedes. These three buildings are located close to the docks so that crews do not have to travel far to reach them. Other important buildings include the Tower of Spelljamming, which handles the sales of all spelljamming helms and equipment, the Chart Tower, which sell star charts and maps, and the Hive, where most of the rastipedes dwell. Law is enforced by the twelve giff the rastipedes keep on hand to deal with troublemakers. The port has only been attacked twice, and both times, the attackers have mysteriously disappeared days after the attack. Fear of arcane retaliation keeps the base from being overrun by pirates, illithids, beholders, or worst. All goods sold here can be bought with a 0-30% (d4-1) markup, depending on how well the buyer deals with the rastipede sellers. Water can be bought for 10 gp per barrel, flat rate.
