Hethla is a venus-sized Earth-world, but differs from the more usual earth worlds in many ways. The planet's crust is so thin that in most places the magma underneath has leaked through, forming great lava-lakes, or an even better expression would be lava-oceans, since they cover approximately 90% of Hethla. Consequently the surface temperature is uniformly around 400C, and doesn't much vary during a day.
The sophonts of the planet (red-skinned, short and thin humanoids) live on the few big (and high enough to provide shelter from the scalding heat) basalt formations scattered around the hellish seas. In addition to these human-like creatures, Hethla is inhabited by giants living on immense ships sailing the lava. Animal life is pretty much non-existent on the basalt plateaux, but the seas have a wide variety of iron-based life. Also, circling high in the winds from the hot seas float bolha, jellyfish-like, transparent creatures that form an important part of the humans' diets. The few species of wildlife big enough to pose a serious threat to most humanoids are all very rare (for example the 16-legged spider-like spinfishers that prey on all seaborne creatures). But there exists, however, a dire threat to all life on Hethla. Magmamen (usually shortened as magmen), creatures totally alien to the normal sapients, have been attacking settlements since times immemorial. Since it is impossible to explore the depths of the seas, it is unknown wherefrom they come from. It has also been proved fruitless to reason with these 6' tall fiery brutes, parlay (via telepathy or some other means) has been successfully attempted tens of times, but peace hasn't been achieved since there's absolutely no communication between the creatures themselves, they are nothing but singular killing machines.
Of course, it would be very unlikely to have a species evolve all by itself in such hostile conditions, and both the giants and the humanoids (treated as humans in game terms) acknowledge their blue-skinned gods as their only means of survival. These 'gods' are in fact Arcane, who apparently have transported these men and giants to Hethla (all epics have varying tales of voyages among the stars). Every city has at least one Arcane, the biggest two (Raga and Mathluy) both have five, and the tradecity atop the Spire has at least fifty.
And the Arcane take a very active role in managing Hethla, spelljamming is almost routine an activity here, and the large fleet has explored most of the sphere. The only reason why they haven't spread around throughout the known spheres is the heat affinity of all Hethla-folk, without a constant temperature of 40+ C, and elements of the Hethlan food, they quickly begin to deteriorate, death is a matter of weeks afterwards. And since there is no reasonable way to heat ships in Phlogiston or preserve the foodstuffs, most voyages tend to be short and confined to routes that they're intimately familiar with.
The airships are used to harvest the bolha, and to bring ice from the polar regions back to the cities. Polar ice is another mystery of Hethla, within a couple of miles the temperature turns from the blistering heat to -20 degrees, without any temperate zone to speak of. There are a couple of colonies on the north pole, whose inhabitants live there a couple of months before returning to the main islands to recuperate. The immense heat gets stored magically within gigantic saws and these are used in separating the ice cubes from the glaciers. The cubes measure 9 meters per side and are usually held in the air while the ice melts, trying to land a ship carrying one of these is quite risky.
The giants travel the seas in huge rafts carved from basalt. Each raft accommodates an extended family and they travel around the globe nomadically, hunting the sea animals and preparing the few edible bits ready for consumption and creating magnificent art objects off the remaining parts of the bodies. The rafts are a very safe mode to travel, the seas are almost never choppy, and usually the on board navigator can detect disturbances in the convections beforehand. And there are no animals in the seas that could attack the rafts, the only hazard are the magmen, but they have learned that the giants are much tougher customers in melee than humans, after all, spending your entire life at 300-400 C, does make you quite resistant to heat. The giants take to spelljamming much worse than the humans, needing the high temperature to stay alive, at lower temperatures they quickly 'freeze' (ie. their metabolism and blood circulation are at least partly based on liquid metals. They are very much saddened by this, and feel a justifiable anger toward the gods who claim that they need to find a way of keeping warm by themselves. Some cynics might even say that the Arcane don't even know if such a way exists, as it's suspected that the giants' ancestors were quite different from the modern ones. Historical evidence has it that the giants were much more like the men, and lived in the cities. What caused the transformation is unknown, and all the history traditions and books are pretty hazy when it comes to giants' history.
The cities on the basalt plateaux are commonly very big, there's no need to have any villages around to provide food. They are usually sited near a lava shore, but still respectably far from it (a high cliff is an ideal place), the lack of earthquakes means that the cities can be founded in most hazardous spots too. The main features of the cities are the landing areas for the local airships (usually 10-20 per city) which are also used as common marketplaces. The cities' populated areas are usually uniformly designed, most of the citizens live in the same kind of houses. There isn't any class system on Hethla, the only people living 'above' others are the priests, who in addition are in charge of justice too. All other folks could be considered freemen in normal terms, slavery is unknown on Hethla. Another very unusual thing is the importance of big reservoirs, all cities have multiple artificial lakes within them. Not only are they needed as drinking water, but as the main means of defense against the magmen. Every city has several engineers who contribute to the design of these, the most common method is to have long hoses constructed of thousands of processed bolha skins, and water bombs (capacity 10 l) are given out to every citizen leaving town. Lately the engineers have been trying to cooperate with the mages to create a 'water gun', but so far the experiments have been more or less failures.
In addition to the nutritious and very light bolha, the humans eat a specific kind of lichen growing only near the lava seas (the mean temperature of the site has to exceed 100 degrees). It is collected by scraping if off the basalt, it isn't that hard a work, basalt being very smooth stone. The work is dangerous however, since the most prolific sites are vertical, and collecting from ships isn't done very often. The lichen contains a lot of nutrients, and therefore only a small ration is needed daily, a collector easily collects lichen enough to feed a hundred others in a normal working day. The plant regenerates quickly and sites are harvested in two-month intervals. A harvesting team consists of two men, the collector and a 'backguarder' who carries a huge backpack filled with water to both make working possible in such hot conditions and to provide a means to hinder any passing magmen. These two foodstuffs are basically the normal Hethlan diet, variety is given by the awesome array of spices and other delicacies traded from the giants.
The gigantic basalt tower, popularly known as the Spire, is the main concentration of foreigners on Hethla. The temperature on the top is about 25C, pleasant for the most travellers. The lack of heat is caused by both the height (the flat top is 16 kilometers from the lava surface), and there's also some gates to the elemental planes that provide ice and water to chill the city. The gates were constructed at great cost, when it was decided that the trade would pay off such fortunes. And the trade has certainly brought a lot of money to Hethla, and the Hethlon has grown rapidly to the point where the foreigners actually outnumber the locals.
The main trade items exported from Hethla are minerals that are either dug up in the recently opened mines or bought from the giants. The mining is very hard work, and the yields have been disappointingly low, the mining companies (all foreigners, the concept of mining for minerals is unknown on Hethla) are trying to find a way to back off without losing prestige. The giants do trade their findings too, either they are collected from the animals they have caught or collected in the rare deposits found floating on the seas. Hethlans import all kinds of materials, especially new foodstuffs get a high price here (the Hethlans seem to have a very adaptable metabolism).
Also a big pro to all the 'new folks' on Spire is the number of Arcane working there, most of the diplomatic envoys or exploration parties are here just to gain more information on these enigmatic creatures. Why these creatures have populated this planet and been watching over the inhabitants for several thousands of years is a mystery. One of the main features in all the stories concerning the gods is that they have never given anything to their subjects since the earliest years. Everything since then has either been invented by the humans (like the defense mechanisms against magmen) or bought at an outrageous price (the spells to create the gates). It has been suggested in more than once that the whole planet is just an experiment in creativity and adaptation.
Hethla has two moons, which are named Small and Big, the inhabitants aren't usually that laconic, preferring elaborate names for meals, creatures and such, perhaps these names are relics from a much earlier era. The moons circle the planet in a normal way (Small has a lunar month of 11 days, the larger completes its' journey in 33 days) causing eclipses frequently. Though the moons exert a powerful tidal force upon Hethla, there aren't tidal waves in the seas to speak of, perhaps once or twice a year there's noticeable waves, but that's about it. The moons have been explored, both by Hethlans and many others, but no signs of life have been found on either. The smaller moon spins at such a rapid rate that it has cast its' atmosphere off ages ago. The bigger is just an average young earth-world, there has been talk with the Arcane that the Elves would get to build a local navy outpost there, but nothing definite has happened in years.
As mentioned in passing above, Hethlans regard the Arcane as gods. However, in addition to these local gods they also worship an entity known as Mhola (the protector of the sphere, the rider on the waves of heat, the luckgiver), and through this worship the clerics gain their spells. The arcane are thought to be sons of this Mhola (a gigantic female figure), and they are in charge of justice and order. Financial details are entirely in human hands. The giants' only god is known as Booola (the eternal wader, the untiring worker), and giants too have clerics, who have somewhat different spell repertoires than human priests (complete spell lists aren't given for either, they both have the usual spells plus many dealing with magma, fire and earth. The giants also have spells used to control Physique, and humans possess many spacefaring magics). The priests don't get any but the most basic of spells outside their homesphere, and this is another reason why the Hethlans haven't much explored the world outside their sphere.
There aren't many mages on Hethla, since the clergy usually grabs the most promising youths. However, the few mages that there is, are very much individualistic and left alone by the common folk. Only the least powerful of mages live within the cities, the others carve themselves a citadel out in the basalt flats. Why they all are escaping from civilization is a mystery, there certainly isn't anything unusual in the wilderness.
The Arcane and their priesthood wield the law-enforcement powers on Hethla. The society itself is very law-abiding, due to the extremely severe sentencing of criminals. The most common way to get rid of unwanted persons is to shoot them into the lava using the huge Catapult of Fate, there's one in every city. However, the Hethlans, having been conditioned to harsh justice throughout generations abhor the thought of crime, especially violent. As such, there are no familiar thieves' guilds anywhere on the planet, and the foreign organized crime families are very subdued on the Spire since most cases of executions are foreigners.
Compared to life on normal planets Hethlans have it very easy. Food is easily gathered for large amounts of people, cities stay in shape for centuries without extensive repairs, due to a global unity there hasn't been any wars for the last two thousand years, there isn't much work to be done (a couple of hours per day is sufficient). And there seems to be no cloud behind this silver lining, diplomats living on Hethla have discovered no hidden secrets about the planet.
Smuggling a priceless giant artifact (as in art object, the giants aren't very handy with magic) to an offplanet client. The giants have memories of elephants and will never forget the deed. And every time the culprit returns to this sphere, the giant-priests spells will notice him and he'll be the target of various nasty magics (boiling blood, heat metal, personal drought and various others).
Of course some PC or NPC commits a horrendous social gaffe and is to be executed at dawn. A raid to the local temple is necessary (don't make this happen in Hethlon).
Mardigris, an enterprising Thri-Kreen captain has invented a very good source of money. His agents (one in every city) provide info on criminals to be executed. On the day Mardigris' ship, Unseen Voyager, equipped with a cloaking device found in an Ancients' base is waiting over the sea. The catapults cannot be moved and he has calculated where the victim will land. Just before he hits the lava, he's teleported to the ship and replaced by an illusion of splashing lava. These special effects are performed by Lairin Squithla, an ex-navy elf, who has found this form of piracy very profitable. The victim is then given a chance to arrange a huge amount of money in ransom or he's sold to the Neogi.
However, one of his recent catches was Janz Skillings, a Waterdhavian noble, whose family paid the ransom. Now the lad has returned to cause trouble in the Sphere. Hethlan officials are trying to figure how the guy was saved (and he's not the only one, there has been rumors of some others returning from the dead). How they will convince the PCs that they should be shot from the catapult is another matter.
Another common occurrence are the magmen wars, no PC should miss these. A flowing melee fought in some 60 C, using weird weapons is something to amuse the players for half an hour.
The PCs are approached by a smuggler who cheated the giants ages ago. His contract with some crime boss or somesuch forces him to stay in this sphere. And he's at least annually victim of such wonderful spells as untiring worker (a boon for the giants, not such for a human, duration 7 days), fly (no control), lose the path (effective in space too). He begs the PCs to go placate the giants, he hasn't dared to set foot on Hethla since his deed. After this scenario, it could be hard to persuade the PCs to try out the first scenario idea.
A mining company executive notices the PCs (obviously star hicks who know nothing of honest toil) and tries to sell them a 'salted' mine. At a very low price, the PCs might buy it just out of curiosity.
Another mining company is looking into the exploration of the lava seas. The giants report having sighted huge metal deposits floating on the surface.
The town of Ryu gets a wonderful idea, why not capture a passing comet using spells and save the trouble to go watercarrying every week. The PCs are hired to explore and, if necessary, sterilize the comet (what it does contain, lowlife, stray mindflayers, some disease, is up to you). And do the spellcasters succeed in bringing the comet safely on the surface. Do the PCs escape the comet in time, or do they plummet toward Hethla inside it. And do the citizens of nearby towns really wish to continue to freeze in the polar regions when they could just fly to Ryu and come back with a big chunk of ice.
A hauler snaps a rope and the ship falls on the very-quickly melting ice cube in the lava. The PCs have to improvise their rescue attempt.
The PCs are helping with the ice-men on the pole when they stumble upon an Ancient-base under the ice (if every planet really has to have at least one dungeon in your universe).
A group of 'Radical Thinkers', an atheistic conspiracy, hires the PCs to grab some books (ledgers, diaries) from an Arcane. They are trying to figure out various mysteries of Hethla (and how much cash have the Arcane already swindled).
The RT manage to slay the Arcane in Magnamund, and the civil unrest spreads quickly.
The RT leader is discovered to be a disguised dizantar when PCs storm their stronghold in the wilderness.
When trying to form a stronghold on a moon on the outermost planet in the system, the PCs are hired to protect the elementalist who's going to excite a local volcano. The ceremony is performed within an old dwarfhold that's full of undead. Also, the elementalist sees notices of earlier volcano-god activity in the stronghold and decides to have the whole place explored completely. Either the PCs placate the elemental god, and gain the Hethlans a new planet, or they get a real close view of a planetary explosion.
The Arcane organize the big auction on the Hiver-ship. In a week of mock-battles, diplomatic parties and at least one theft attempt (the PCs follow, there's only a few thieves so that the whole arsenal won't be used against their ship) the PCs are caught in a web of intrigue. The PCs learn of the major fault of the ship (no protection on the underside), what are they going to do with their knowledge, sell it to the highest bidder, inform the arcane, or what.
Haulers are flat, quite unseaworthy (MC E) ships used to carry ice from the polar regions to the cities. One ship can muster a maximum of 700 tons (metric) of water, carrying it using four sturdy metal-ropes underneath. The ship travels through space, using only tactical speed due to the great load. The helmsman is usually a mid-level cleric or a free-lancing mage. The defense isn't very good, but the area around Hethla is kept safe from space vermin by conventional warjammers. The ships are quite useless on long journeys, most of the deck space is sacrificed to winches, extra ropes, spare harpoons and as such they possess very spartan crew quarters and next to nothing cargo space.
Masher is a variation of Hammership, built of stone, and having a huge lava pool in the midship-area. For weaponry it carries three heavy catapults and an aft-firing heavy jettison. The crew consists of battletrained Hethlans and hired mercenaries. The main danger to other ships' survival are the spellcasters on board who routinely have at least a few turn rock to magma- spells that are used very effectively on stones just after the launching. These ships are commonly used to protect the ice haulers by having them circulate the planet constantly.
Airships are the most common form of transport on Hethla. These 20 ton ships running with minimal helms haven't got much in the way of protection, but due to their huge sails they're very maneuverable (MC:B). They are also used to catch the bolha floating in millions over the hot seas. For that activity the two biggest sails are replaced with nets. In combat airships are helpless, but as they stay near the cities or fly at low altitudes, they aren't expected to be attacked by other jammers.
Hiver is a recent addition to the Hethla arsenal, only one ship has been built thus far. The hiver itself is a heavily armed slow battle platform, but its' brood is much more dangerous. These 10 ton ships use a minimal helm (maximum size 20 tons, max speed 2, calculated as with a minor helm) and carry a lava-gun, operated by a priest of at least 5th level. The rarity of such priests means that these ships won't grow in popularity soon. The ship had its test in a big fight against neogi two years ago, and the Arcane are planning to sell the plans to the highest bidder in near future.
The main shipyard on Hethla is on a big flat plateau near the Spire, it can accommodate over 200 ships easily and has a big wet dock too (cost is high due to massive evaporation). The hethlan shipbuilders and architects are constantly trying out new designs and pestering the traders to bring more and more wood here, as they are quite fed up with building basalt ships all the time. The newest project is to build a huge (at least 3 miles in diameter) garden on the plateau in the deep quarries, and that's why several ships have been hired to transport soil from more normal earth worlds. They have also hired several mages to explore the variations in Plant Growth spells, most druids consider this gardening an abomination.
The plateaux are very barren of life and the depths of the lava oceans have never been explored, so most of the monstrous encounters occur on the surface or nearby the lava-seas. And most 'monsters' are just animals whom the PCs stumble across, only the magmen are real enemies.
The magmen are already familiar (from which MC I've no idea, I have only the first one) and most of the animal life is just normal animals having excessively high body temperatures, weird diets and high armor classes.
There exists, however, a wide variety of strange creatures that have adapted to the extreme nature of Hethla and could easily become dangerous foes to most parties. No stats are given, use your imagination (or pester me enough to type these up properly :-).
Spinfishers were already mentioned, these are huge, about 5 meter tall, very spindly daddy longlegs-lookalikes that have quick reflexes, metallic bodies and slow minds.
Holeshooters are a species of worms (or perhaps snakes) that live in long tunnels they've drilled into the basalt. A couple of times an hour they shoot toward sky at sub-sonic speeds trying to capture bolha flying overhead and are then returned to their holes by their rubberous tails. A collision with a ship would be most unfortunate. The Hethlans have mapped most 'shooter areas and avoid them vigilantly.
A new variety of life (it was first observed only a few years ago) is the lichenscraper. It is a 3' by 3' metal cube moving slowly across the plateaux. It is able to move on almost vertical surfaces without falling, and consumes all lichen that it goes over. It has been put forward that the 'scraper could be just a magical food-gathering machine or somesuch.
Feel free to think up new creatures, but DO mail me the most bizarre ones!
As you have seen, Hethla is quite far from the usual fare offered to the space-faring PCs. The planet could either be used as a place to have adventures every time the PCs come here, or you could easily have a campaign where the PCs are working for the Arcane, many of the given scenario ideas are most easily fitted into a campaign of this sort. Or Hethla could be the target of a coup of enormous proportions (using the Radical Thinkers as a lever), after all, replacing the Arcane with another absolute ruler wouldn't be a big change for the inhabitants who have gotten used to being led by their noses during the millennia.
