The first thing sailors notice about the sphere is its intense cold. At -20 below 0 (Farenheit) dressing for arctic conditions would seem appropriate. However, there exists a property within the sphere that renders the cold tolerable to most non-plant life forms. Perception of the extreme temperature difference is unaffected, but it does not affect the life form in any way. It is comparable to holding your finger above a candle flame. You can still sense the heat, but your finger remains unharmed.
Another unique property is the loss of the perception of time. Timepieces such as hourglasses and water clocks still function, but those within the sphere will have no idea how much time a flight from the sphere wall to the center takes without constantly referencing a time-keeping device. For the DM's sake, assume that it takes 6 days to reach the center of the sphere from the crystal shell.
The stars of Witchlight are organized in a completely random pattern across the inside of the sphere. Ships who draw close enough are able to see that they are gigantic blobs of some plasmic material that give off the same emerald glow that the system primary emits. They do not give off heat and are in no way dangerous to curious hands that may want to touch a particular star. The consitency of the blobs is akin to gelatin, streaked throughout by tough, fibrous strands that give a marbled appearance to the star. Portions of the blob can be removed but instantly lose their luminescence when separated from the main body.
Explorers are advised not to linger for long in any one point in the sphere for the only real danger in the sphere is the constant sweeping rays the primary gives off. See the Rays of Madness for information.
There is only one planet present in the sphere: a massive tubal world that almost completely encloses the system primary. Only in certain places can the primary's light escape its prison, the rest is trapped within.
The Witchlight sphere is located approximately five months travel time from Spiralspace. What makes this sphere so difficult to find is the fact that it lies below the general plane on which most of the phlogiston's spheres have settled. Since most spelljammers only travel along the rivers that lie flush with the gravitic plane, it was entirely possible that this particular sphere might never have been found.
All that changed during the 1st Unhuman War. An orc scout vessel stumbled across the undiscovered sphere and upon determining that a powerful artifact was present on the world it held, the goblin armies sent a series of ships to see whether its power could be harnessed for their own purposes.
This discovery was kept secret from most of the orc hordes, in fact only a small circle of priests even knew it existed. After examining the ruins that surrounded the artifact they realized that their find was capable of transforming living material on a scale that was practically unheard of.
The priests rerouted a number of prison ships to Witchlight, and as their followers began construction of a massive internment camp, the priests formulated a plan to create one of the most devastating biological weapons known. They drew their inspiration from the carvings left on the walls of the city its previous inhabitants had abandoned and set their plan in motion.
Unfortunately, the very process of creating the witchlight marauders proved too much for the artifact to handle and in the explosion that followed, nearly every ship in orbit around the planet suffered complete helm failure, crashing into the surface of the planet. Only the shaman who personally completed the creation ritual escaped unscathed along with twelve fully formed space marauders. As the marauders rose into the sky, the lone shaman followed in a spelljammer that had been grounded on the surface before the explosion took place. Because its helm had not been active, it was unaffected by the blast.
The orcs never returned. The last shaman who followed took the marauders back to Known Space and from there history records the witchlight marauders as the greatest biological achievement the Unhuman Wars ever produced.
The primary is a size B fire body. However, unlike most other fire-based primaries, there is no gate that links it to the elemental plane of fire. It is a dark emerald green in hue and gives off the equivalent warmth of the Torilian sun. Like the rays encountered in the outer system, the light of the witchlight sun is accompanied by the same unending screams. Only in the darker portions of Wormwood are the sun's rays diffused enough to filter out these screams and it is here in perpetual twilight that most of Witchlight's fauna flourish.
Why the &$%# won't that sun shut up?
Such language! Well, this is a question that I can't answer, but why don't we speculate a bit on this? Perhaps it is the unique nature of the light that the Witchlight emits, carrying a sound wave within it that causes the light to howl. Maybe it's the last screams uttered by the inhabitants of the city of Makel'va before they vanished. Could the stars living on the crystal shell be tied to the sun in some symbiotic fashion? I don't know. Gothra won't tell me and it's so hard to find him when he doesn't want to be located.
This tubal world, named Wormwood, boasts a large flora ecosystem, most of which concentrates on the sunward side of the strands that make up the planet. The strands, if they were a true spherical earth body, would be considered tectonically active, for they constantly writhe and twist as if alive. Fortunately, this activity does not produce earthquakes of any great magnitude. Only the mildest tremors give any indication that there is movement on the tubes.
Animal life is present too, but most prefer not to make their homes on the sides that face the sun, presumably because of the effect the sunlight has on them. All niches in the ecosystem are filled, although the lack of room in this post prevents me from giving a complete rundown. However, they all share the common trait of being malformed and twisted. An example is the Nurgg-glethesai, an avian life form that is best described as a flying worm.
Only one civilization has been discovered so far on Wormwood: the city of Makel'va and the ziggurat at its center. There is no information available to describe what the inhabitants looked like, much less the reason why they abandoned their city or where they went. There are no signs of invasion or disease that might have emptied the city. It is as if they just vanished.
Makel'va: The city of Makel'va appeared to have been constructed as one vast repository of knowledge. The former inhabitants therefore must have been highly educated. Even those buildings that seemed to serve as dwellings were filled with pictograms carved into the stone they were constructed from.
From the architecture of the city we can also theorize that they had an advanced level of engineering. They were probably humanoid, as most of the features in their architecture are mirrored in both human and dwarven settlements. Extensive use of arches and buttresses could be found throughout the city, as well as elegant columns that provide much of the structures' support. However, the strangest thing about this city is that it does not follow the any known geometric model. The construction of many buildings are at odd angles with the rest of the city. Arches that appear to lead from one section to another instead lead to dead ends. In addition, the size of the entry ways are not uniform. Some doorways are large enough for giant sized creatures to pass through while others are much smaller; even halfings would have to duck in order to enter a few ruins.
A more disturbing fact is in some of the larger dwellings, there are many doorways that are set into the ceilings or even sideways in some of the inner walls. Some of these do not follow the established "four sides" that humans associate with doors. Instead they may have five, six, or seven sides at uneven lengths.
All the dwellings are devoid of furniture. There are no chairs, table, beds or anything remotely resembling living accoutrements. Fire pits can be found in the center of some buildings. At least they appear to be fire pits; traces of ash can still be found in some of them.
Many of the carvings found in these ruins, before Ranier's defacing of the city, seemed to center around stories or myths. The carvings would progress from a "setting up" of the story through increasingly dark or morbid scenes to a finale that could only be described as horrific. Surrounding each carved scene was a series of archaic symbols, running along the length of the carving on both the top and bottom. Presumably these were used to provide a narration to the story.
The ziggurat in the center of the city is completely unlike any of the other buildings in design. It is a four sided pyramid with a large construct of metal set into its top, now split in half after the orcs used it to create their Witchlight Marauders. Built exclusively of basalt, the immense age of this structure has caused many of the stones to crumble. Ascending the ziggurat by any other path other than the main stairway can be hazardous. Because the ziggurat is located at the center of the city, it was most likely used in religious ceremonies. There are no carvings at all on the ziggurat. However, on the metal construct are a series of etchings, possibly the command words to activate the artifact. The age of this structure in relation to the city around it suggests that it had been built long before the land was settled here.
It is possible that the religious facet of this society equalled its engineering and educational accomplishments. The austere conditions of the abandoned houses suggests that the inhabitants were not concerned with material wealth, instead turning to more spiritual paths. What these paths were, however, remains a mystery.
It is also not known what significance the word 'Makel'va' really has. Is it the name of a god these people worshipped? Is it the name they gave their city? Or is it something else yet to be discovered? I'll have to ask Gothra next time he comes around.
The Lake of Sorrow: Far from the city of Makel'va, untouched by Witchlight's rays, lies a body of water that is locked in frozen stillness. There is no snow covering the icy lake and with ample illumination the bottom of the lake becomes visible. Beneath the ice an entire verdant forest can be seen as in the height of summer. No movement can be found however. It is as if the forest has been caught out of time itself.
Arranged upon the lake's shores are a multitude of stone statues. Surprisingly, they seem to be human. There is one difference though: none of the statues' face have features of any kind. They are blank slates. The statues vary in pose. Some appear to be reaching out to the lake in supplication, others seem to be overcome by grief. Still others have their bodies contorted in positions of agony. One statue is particularly interesting in that it is the only one facing away from the lake, pointing in the exact direction of the city of Makel'va.
(aka "Living Stars")
While neither plant nor animal, those giant gooey blobs can still be classified as living matter. Unfortunately, they don't exhibit the signs of life most creatures to. They don't reproduce, they don't consume food, they don't respire, secrete or excrete. But there is a life force present although it has no intelligence. Spells that directly affect a creature's life force such as Enervation or Power Word: Kill will affect a star. Unfortunately, there may be disastrous consequences, at the DM's discretion.
A spelljamming vessel takes 5 days to travel to Wormwood upon entering the crystal sphere and 1 day after that to travel to the system primary. But, space within the Witchlight sphere is not as it appears. Upon departing Wormwood to the primary, it takes 8 days of travel, not one. Navigational instrument will show that it is indeed only one more day of travel to Witchlight, but for some reason after 24 hours, they will have traveled only 1/8th the distance. Of course after only a few hours of constant screaming most captains will turn back rather than press on.
(aka "The Screams of the Damned", "Hell's Gloamings")
Like a spotlight, these rays illuminate huge portions of the sphere wall and their interaction with the stars creates gigantic displays of light similar to the auroras found on other worlds. A second property of these rays is the horrific screams that accompany them. Anyone caught in the path of one of these rays suffers the effects of a shout spell and the experience is quite unnerving at best.
(aka "Wormwood Shambler")
There is an entity on Wormwood that serves as a predator to other species. It is a non-corporeal life force that inhabits stretches of decaying vegetation. When searching for prey, it can animate the vegetation into a form much like a shambling mound which it uses to smother its prey. As the body begins to decompose, a unique interaction between the vegetation and the body creates minute packets of energy which the life force feeds on. There is no other world where plant matter of this kind exists and so the life force is effectively bound to its homeworld. As with most other life forms, this entity possesses an animal intelligence at best.
(aka "Cyclopean Worm")
Measuring nearly five feet in length, its hide is a mottled brown color covered with a thick mucous. Two bat-like wings stretch from its back to a span of ten feet and set into its otherwise featureless face is a single unblinking eye, not unlike that of a scavver's. Herbivorous in nature, it has a long needle-like appendage at the tip of its tail which it uses to pierce the trees it inhabits and garner sustenance from the sap within. Preferring to flee rather than fight, it is frightening only in appearance, especially when encountered in large numbers wrapped about a particular tree.
(aka "Fen Spider")
The Nyarangguli -- or "Fen Spider", as it's known in the common tongue -- are another benign creature for Wormwood. A pack of spider-like creatures with long legs about 1 1/2 feet in length and bodies about the size of a human's fist. Their mouths consist of a coiled tongue surrounded by tiny fangs enclosed in an almost human-like mouth. They have a set of dull black eyes arranged in a circular pattern at the front of their bodies but their main sensory organ is a pair of antennae that curve up and over their bodies which serve as scent detectors. They are herbivorous marsh dwellers. Unfortunately, the plants they feed on contain many of the chemical compounds found in human sweat, so a adventuring party might awaken one night to find swarms of these creatures crawling all over them licking any unprotected areas of their skin. Quite an unpleasant experience. Or they could be slogging through an area of tall marsh grass and suddenly a pack of spiders could jump onto them. Not an encounter that would be dangerous, but at least it helps provide a bit of ambiance.
(aka "Wormwood Fungus")
As with many other worlds, Wormwood has a large subterranean environment that spans hundreds of miles under the surface. Due to the planets constant shifting new entrances open up while others seem to close with no warning. Explorers who decide to brave Wormwood's underworld may find themselves trapped.
However, these caverns are not without their inhabitants. One such creature adventurers may encounter is the The Voice of the Deeps. The Voice is the name given to hundreds of tiny fungus that are nearly identical to shriekers, but instead of the high-pitched squeal a Voice colony will emit a low, nearly subsonic rumble accompanied by a blast of wind that races through the underground caverns in which they grow. This wind is powerful enough to extinguish torches and sweep away small items that are not tightly held. Voice colonies will begin their rumbling when exposed to sound, light or heat so noisy adventurers may inadvertantly trigger the Voice long before they actually encounter it.
It all starts with a single book. The author is Acis Cullagn and the title is 'Passageways Into Night'. Within this book of dark poetry lurks an even more terrible secret. It contains, cleverly hidden between its words, the formulae for creating a geometric impossibility: a 181 degree triangle that can be carved on any surface, wood, stone, metal, etc. It is this triangle that allows an idividual who knows the correct incantation (also found in the book) to step beyond the boundaries of their world and into the ticking time bomb that is Wormwood. Note: How the book is read depends heavily on the alignment of the reader. Good aligned beings will see nothing but elegant, if a bit disturbing, poetry. Neutral beings will feel compelled to read the book again and again, as something within the pages seems to call to them. They will be visited by visions of Wormwood if they continue to peruse the text for at least half a year (as in Ranier's case). For Evil beings, the greatest benefit is revealed, a treatise on the functioning of extradimensional space and several rituals intended to increase the reader's power in whatever world they inhabit. Curiously, the majority of evil-aligned beings also happen to be pillars in their community. The mayor of a small farming town may only keep his darker plans from society at large, but somehow Cullagn's book will find its way to him. The book has a corruptive quality that will eventually twist the possessor's alignment, but more on that to come.
The promise of personal power greater than that which such an individual can obtain on his own is an irresistible lure. Upon constructing the diagram and stepping through the portal it creates, the individual will find himself on one of Wormwood's strands, clothed in a manner similar to that of a druid: long heavy robes topped by a great hood that serves to hide the identity of the wearer. Typically twelve other individuals dressed in a similar manner will be present at any given time and it is at this time that the corruption begins to set in, as the 'Dark Druids' begin their unholy ceremonies, as outlined in Cullagn's book. These ceremonies serve two purposes. One is to imbue the practitioners with power which they will then take back to their homeworld. The forms this power manifests itself are many. Individuals may be find themselves with increased wealth, influence, invulnerability to certain weapons, whatever the DM can think of. The second purpose has yet to be revealed but it is something no one would ever suspect in their most depraved imaginings.
For now, however, the Dark Druids are content to practice their ceremonies for their own ends. Every so often they must return to Wormwood to renew their pact and with each trip, they steadily grow more dependent on the land until finally they cannot leave Wormwood without being destroyed. It is at this point that an individual becomes a true Dark Druid, not only in name but in body as well. The progression from human to Dark Druid is always the same. As their alignment begins to change towards Neutral Evil, a translucent patch of skin can be detected, either on the chest or the abdomen. The muscles beneath are clearly visible, and as each day passes the tranluscence grows until the only parts not affected are the face, hands, and feet. Once this point is reached, the skin begins to rot away taking with it tendons, ligaments and organs, until finally all that is left is an animated skeleton with only the face, hands and feet remaining. This inhuman appearance can easily be concealed by robes and to all outward appearances, the afflicted individual appears normal. When the change is complete, the Dark Druid is compelled to return to Wormwood for good and will spend the rest of its near immortal existence there.
Dark Druids are not true undead in that they do not derive their power from the Negative Material plane. They are able to make use of much of the standard druidic powers, albeit with a more evil intent. Many of the druid spells are available to them, but will always be used to inflict harm. They use the same progression tables as druids and have the same hierarchy. They are all of Neutral Evil alignment and are thoroughly committed to their tasks. The power they once took for their own has now enslaved them for its own purposes.
At last count at least 250 Dark Druids are known to exist, but with the sheer size of Wormwood there may be more. Also known as The Forlorn Ones, these para-undead are most often encountered alone. However, that does not mean they are easily defeated. One ritual that is widely used summons a pack of malignant creatures known as the Night Reavers (which will be detailed in another post) which it will use to defend itself. Those not slain by the Night Reavers will be taken captive to be used as sacrifices by the Dark Druids.
Every year, the Dark Druids' numbers grow, as more individuals seeking the promise of power succumb to the temptation Cullagn's book instills in them. It is not known how many of these books are in existence. The Seekers' hold one such book on Compendium, but there are others that mysteriously find their way into the hands of those who would follow their greed at any cost.
It's not his real name, of course. Gothra is a 25th level chronomancer who is tied to Witchlight in some inexplicable manner. How else would he know so much about the sphere? I do know that he managed to sever the link between him and his lifeline so now he is effectively immortal. As for his designs and plans for the future (and past), he's keeping those secrets to himself.
