Type: Disc earth body
Size: C
Escape Time: 2 turns
Satellites: 2
Distance from Primary: 1,200 million miles
Day Length: 5 months
Year Length: 225 months
Population Analysis: Centaurs, hobgoblins
The last world in the Tyrspace system, Argon's World is a flat, cold world. It is named for King Argon, the Navigator, a centaur king who first (re)discovered this world twelve centuries ago. He charted the course of this world and mapped it's surface, and would eventually found the first colony on its surface since the fall of the Raer Empire. Since then, colonies have appeared and vanished regularly on this hostile planet.
Argon's World, commonly referred to as Argon, is a small, flat world. It has a diameter of 900 miles and is 9 miles thick. The edge is marked by high cliffs and difficult paths that tentatively connect the two sides together, but high winds and deadly predators make the trip too dangerous to normally undertake. Mountains rise as high as two miles high. The atmosphere is 18 miles thick, and is slightly thinner than normal for human habitation. Along its equator, running from south to north, is the planet's only sea, called the Bite. Its shape is remarkably similar to a bite taken out of a cookie, roughly 300 miles long, 100 miles wide, and has no bottom. The ocean is a little less than nine miles deep. The side of the sea that is away from the sun freezes over, forming a layer of ice almost 10' deep.
As a flat worlds, the days and nights are caused by the planet "flipping." It flips along an axis running perpendicular to its orbital course. The rotation is slow, taking five months to complete one "flip." That means that a day lasts five standard months, as does the night. The days are warm and pleasant to most beings, but the nights are long and cold, such that animals must hibernate and everyone that can depart for the sun side or other worlds.
There are four known volcanoes on Argon. Magical investigations have revealed the presence of portals to the plane of magma, which feed these volcanoes. The portals are small, allowing only a small amount of magma to flow through. Eruptions are rare, on the order of once a century. Unfortunately, eruptions can be quite violent, and one volcano destroyed itself a half century ago, devastating the countryside around it for ten miles. Overall, the landscape of Argon is very rugged.
Argon has two moons, both small and little more than asteroids. The first is simply known as Greatstone, named for the massive stone citadel that is built in the largest crater and home to a powerful archmage. The other, larger moon is Moor, a rugged round asteroid with many mountain meadows and endless moors. Hobgoblins and wild satyrs dwell there in numbers, particularly around the ruins of an abandoned city.
Argon suffers from a brutal climate. It does not have a normal cycle of seasons. Instead, it's seasons are determined by it's rotation. When a side is facing the sun, the surface absorbs a great deal of heat. Five months later, when the side turns away from the sun, the surface releases the heat slowly, eventually dropping into deep winter after two months. By the end of the dark winters, even blizzards die out and everything becomes still and quiet. Temperatures drop to arctic level. Summer days are much warmer, rising to as high as 75 degrees at high noon.
The weather on Argon is wild and unpredictable. Storms are commonplaceand can last a day or more. During the summer, hard rains visit the lowlands at least once every other week while the winters are marked by blizzards. Most areas see at least 5 inches of rain a month, and the snow can be as deep as 6 feet in the lowlands by the end of the winter. Travel during the winter is difficult and dangerous.
From space, Argon is a dirty white disc with an oval shaped ocean to one side. It is small enough that distinctive features, such as mountains and modest rivers are visible from orbit. Cloud cover is roughly 40% for the side in daylight. The night side is very dark and features are invisible.
None. The whole world is one solid land mass that is not large enough alone to be considered a continent. Residents call one side Ithicitus, and the other Aetharitus.
The cold wilds of Argon are home to several creatures familiar to most adventurers. The primary prey animals are rodents and deer. They subsist on the shrubs and grasses that grow in the lowlands. During the winter, they migrate to the few low valleys that receive little snow and generally remain free of the worst of winters' grip. Forests of pine trees cover most of the lowlands and the lower slopes of the mountains, but the colder climate makes for a lower tree line of a mere 2000' above sea level. Evergreens are the only tree that can survive on Argon; attempts to transplant other types of trees to this world have all failed.
Normal predatory animals include wolves, bears, foxes, and owls. All of these creatures hunt extensively during the summer to build up thick layers of fat, which allow them to survive by hibernating in the winter. During the winter night, they are inactive and lethargic, hiding away in their deep dens.
Less natural creatures that are native to Argon include cryohydras, fogwardens, remorhaz, frost serpents, and the dreaded goriena. These creatures are all very rare, but thrive in the cold climate. All are better suited for cold climate than the natural animals, but low reproductive rates prevent them from dominating this world.
Frost serpents are warm-blooded reptiles roughly 40 feet long and covered what appears to be thousands of tiny diamonds. Their skin actually captures thousands of tiny pockets of air, which shimmer in the light. The packets provide the animal insulation against the cold, but it is not known how. The serpents are otherwise identical to very large pythons, preying on giant rabbits.
The most feared predator on Argon are the goriena. At 12' tall, the goriena is a relative to a bear but who's forepaws have become vast wings that spread over 30' across. Swooping down its prey, the goriena are greatly feared for their stealth and ferocity. Sages suspect magic was involved in the creation of the goriena, as a creature that large should not be able to fly in Argon's thin atmosphere.
Sharks and rays prowl the oceans, but these creatures are small and swift. None would attack something as large as a human, perhaps poking around curiously. There are no creatures dangerous to a human, but the waters are deathly cold.
The only known intelligent creatures native to Argon are the snow sphinxes and crystal dragons. An unusual race, as sphinxes are normally confined to hot deserts, the snow sphinxes have the heads of lovely maidens and the bodies of giant white tigers and the wings of giant snow owls. They have the same stats as a gynosphinx, but also make use of an innate shapeshifting ability, allowing them to take human, centaur, wemic, or elven form. These majestic creatures are also spellcasters, able to cast spells as if they were 8th level illusionists.
Playful and mischievous, the snow sphinxes like to play pranks and practical jokes on the inhabitants of the ports and towns. They are not malicious, and will aid a traveler in need if they are able. Above all they love riddles, and are always eager to learn more. Yet most cannot leave Argon, for they guard hidden secrets left behind by the Raer. Such items are dangerous to use and thus are buried deep and protected by many traps. Younger sphinxes, full of adventure, sometimes take to other ports, seeking adventure. Speculation abounds as to how the sphinxes are able to bare children at all, given a distinct lack of male sphinxes in their society. Popular legends speak of sphinxes seducing the heroes and kings of Tyrspace, always choosing the strongest father for their daughters. Most sages dismiss such rumors, pointing out that Argon is still largely unexplored and the sphinxes may have a few males stashed away somewhere to father their children.
The crystal dragons are even rarer than the snow sphinxes, but are larger and more powerful. A typical crystal dragon will grow to 50' in length and can achieve moderate spellcasting abilities. They use their abilities for trickery and deception, such that even their existence is considered mere myth in most circles. The dragons keep to themselves, gathering small hordes of uncut quarts crystals and other gemstones. They sometimes war with the hobgoblins, slaying hunting and war parties they encounter. Unfortunately, the hobgoblins are far more numerous than the dragons and thus far they have not yet put a dent in the numbers of hobgoblins on Argon.
The other intelligent creatures of Argon all immigrated to the sphere over the last thousand years or so. Centaurs and satyrs are here in fair numbers, as are minotaurs, but the world is too cold for the sleek, who sicken and die during the winter. Hobgoblins are by far the most numerous race, descendants of a failed invasion centuries ago. The hobgoblins hold the upper areas, with stout forts and extensive cave systems to shelter them from the weather and reprisal attacks. Centaurs and minotaurs hold several way-station ports along the rivers, offering stopping points for ships entering or leaving the flow. The snows of winter make moving about impossible for the centaurs, who pack up every 5 months and move to ports on the opposite side of the world. The minotaurs remain to ensure the ports are not looted during this time, leaving only when the snows have become deep enough such that movement is nay impossible and the buildings safe. Visitors from other spheres sometimes settle in the ports, so humans, elves, and dwarves are seen, if uncommonly.
Satyrs are the only race that has actually settled Argon. Several clans came to this world four centuries ago as slaves of a minotaur king, who wished to establish a great fief upon the outer world. The effort failed, but the minotaurs left the satyrs stranded, expecting them to die off. Instead, the satyrs have adapted to the cold environment and now hold the White Cliffs Valley as their own, fighting off even hobgoblin assaults. The satyrs are strong and numerous, but leery of strangers. They supplement their wheat and potato farming with foraging and hunting. Excessive goods are sold to ports and on to spelljammer merchants. At least twenty satyr towns have been mapped, but it is likely that many more are hidden throughout the White Cliffs area.
Argon serves as the main watering hole between the spherewall and the inner planets of the Tyrspace system. Spelljammers stop at the ports to load up water and food before taking long flow journeys. Despite its reputation as nothing more than wayport, many prospectors are discovering that Argon is rich in gold, silver, rubies, sapphires, nickel, iron, and zinc. The lowlands are fertile, with plentiful rainfall. The salmon and trout-rich rivers are narrow and shallow. The trees are straight and tall for good masts. Some ports have facilities to repair spelljammers, but only one is capable of building new ones. The forests are only lightly logged and only within a few miles of a port.
A world with vast, untapped resources, Argon has not been greatly affected by civilization. It is a wilderness, with a handful of tiny ports in mile-wide clearings. Raer ruins are found here as virtually every other planet in the sphere, but they are few in number and difficult to reach. Argon's harsh climate ensure that exploiting its wealth of resources will be difficult at best.
There are dozens of small ports scattered about the world and two minor cities. A typical port has one to two score buildings and two to three piers where water-landing spelljammers may dock. All ports have a clearing where land-landing craft can put in. All buildings are very stout with steeply peaked roofs to shed the heavy snows in the winter. A log palisade surround the buildings and the clearing to defend the port from hobgoblin attacks. Some can reach of population of 400 during the peak of the trading season.
Of great infamy is the city of Sokien, a port on the shore of the Bite Sea on the Aetharitus side. During the summer, this city of 4,500 minotaurs and humans is a bustling trade center. It is a rough-and-tumble place, where one can easily find a knife in the back if one travels down the wrong street. Some merchants avoid the city because of past bad experiences. During the winter, the port takes on a much more sinister role. For the first two months, when the snows are light and the ice is thin, pirates and smugglers flock to the city. Under the cover of the winter night, outlaws and rouges trade their illicit wares on the black market. Virtually anything can turn up during this illegal trade season for almost any price. A dozen lampreys guard this city, built with larger ceilings than normal to accommodate the minotaur crewmen. Some carry no names, as they engage in a little piracy of their own on ships stopping at Argon. Sokien is known by many as a pirate haven, but is considered too distant and too difficult to siege for any king to consider attacking.
The other city is Winterfell is very different from Sokien. It is found on the shores of Lake Doublespring on the Ithicitus side of Argon. A well-built city of about 6,000 centaurs, satyrs, elves, and humans, Winterfell is a young city. From its humble beginnings as a way-port, the city became a boom town when trade to other spheres increased rapidly over the last two centuries. The increased trade has brought great wealth to the small city, which now sports a large library, a protective fleet of four moray eel ships, excellent piers, and stone buildings. The mages of the city have hollowed out a nearby hill, making a safe winter refuge for their ships. Stone walls are in the process of being built, but are another decade before they are complete. During the winter, two of the moray ships leave to trade with other worlds while the other two remain for maintenance and repairs. When the summer arrives, the trade ships arrive and the other two ships depart to trade. Two ships remain at all times to protect it from pirate raids. Until the walls are complete, a standing mercenary army of a full Grand Lance (about 400 centaurs) has been hired to defend the city against hobgoblin raids.
Of particular note is Blackspires, a hobgoblin city near the edge of Ithicitus. The Bloody Spear, Nightslayers, and Evil Eye hobgoblin tribes dwell together in the city, which is half above ground and half underground. A total of at least 2,000 hobgoblins call Blackspires home, under the command of Lord Thaakal, the bastard son of a powerful hobgoblin witch and demon, a wolf-headed creature of great size. Lord Thaakal inherited the worst features of both parents, and is an 8' tall, overly muscular and hideous hobgoblin. He rules his city with an iron fist, ruthlessly slaying those who oppose him while promising great glories to his troops. Twice he has successfully raided Winterfell and his army has even ambushed and taken a dwarvish gold shipment. The armies of Blackspires are greatly feared, forcing the construction of stone walls around the towns and cities of Argon to defend themselves.
Finally, dwarves from Twilitespace have recently settled on Argon to exploit a rich lode of gold. The Citadel of the Blue Flame has two clans of dwarves and a total population of slightly over 900. The dwarves actually enjoy the harsh climate, finding it invigorating and the land challenging. Despite of the harsh weather, the dwarves are actually growing in numbers. They trade extensively with Winterfell, which is 50 miles distant. The dwarves craft golden art objects that are prized throughout the sphere. As dwarves are not particularly liked in the rest of the sphere, the clans of Blue Flame keep to themselves and don't advertise their presence to the rest of the sphere.
A true wilderness with only the hints of civilization, Argon's World isa place of adventure and excitement. There are several ancient ruins scattered about, while refuges to rest and recover are few and far between. Some consider Argon to be a crucible for adventurers; those that are weak suffer and die, while the strong and able survive, even thrive. Wandering hordes of hobgoblins and predators make this a dangerous place to explore, especially alone. It is a refuge for outlaws and those on the run, and many of the inhabitants are wanted elsewhere in the sphere.
The smaller and less important moon of Argon is Greatstone, an oddly-shaped rock perhaps 6 miles across. The surface is covered by a pine forest, with four large craters. Three of the craters are clustered together and overlap, forming trio of linked, round lakes. The last and largest crater, almost a quarter mile across and 200' deep is half filled with a gigantic stone castle, called the Citadel of Greatstone. The walls of the crater have been carved into a protective curtain wall, probably through use of magic. Four flying arches large enough for a lance of centaurs to march across side by side connect the curtain wall to the central keep. The ground surrounding the keep serves as a courtyard and a landing site for spelljammers. A private army of a great lance of centaurs (about 100 centaurs) guards the citadel from assault.
The owner of the citadel is simply known as Whitemane, a great centaur archmage (at least 20th level), who runs a school out of the citadel. Though favoring centaur students, Whitemane also has a few minotaur students. His facility staff includes Otheas (LG centaur m W(In) 9), Hesideus (LN centaur m W8), Selene (CG crystal dragon f W(Ill) 7) disguised as a comely centaur maiden), and Bakkakk (N minotaur m F5/W6). There are always at least 25 students at the college, many the children of wealthy (and well-paying) noble families. Whitemane likes the seclusion and freedom a frontier outpost offers.
The other moon is Moor, a round rock perhaps 50 miles in diameter. The rugged landscape is covered by thick grass meadows broken occasionally by lowland forests and fens. Several small tribes of hobgoblins, none larger than one hundred members, call Moor home along with at least four tribes of wild satyrs. A ruined city, probably a failed colony, occupies a lowland valley. Strange, gargoyle-like creatures, rumored to be from another plane, guard the city from intruders. Using illusions and trickery, the gargoyles are said to be guarding a fabulous fortune. Fortunately, they seem bound to the city and do not leave its confines. Other monsters occasionally roam the ruins as well, preying on any who stray into the rubble that is the city. At the center is a half-ruined citadel, from which, it is said, the master of the monsters rules.
