Despite its name, Duskshoal is a warm, minor world. It is one large ocean dotted with dozens of small islands and atolls. The ocean is not deep, only about 3,000 feet on average with a handful of trenches dropping a mile down. The whole world is just over 110 miles across.
Duskshoal is located in "deep" space, outside the inner planets. The space around it is cold and dark. A ring of fire and radiance encircles the planet's equator, however, providing light and warmth to Duskshoal. As a consequence, the planet has no night, only eternal day. Most of the light from the ring is directed down towards the planet, and from afar is almost indistinguishable from a minor star.
Duskshoal is a tropical environment. The surface is heated mostly evenly, so the planet rarely has storms that last very long. The air is warm and humid.
As one approaches Duskshoal, the fire ring around it is visible long before the planet itself becomes visible. When it does come in sight, Duskshoal is a sapphire blue orb with a ring of burning radiance around its equator.
None. Duskshoal is one big ocean with only a handful of islands.
As a water world, fish are obviously the dominant creatures. To attempt to catalog all of the native and non-native species is an exercise in madness, but include any number of tropical fish, sharks, jellyfish, and squids. Whales do not exist on Duskshoal.
The islands are overrun with palm trees but few creatures. Most were brought by travelers and accidentally introduced. As such, rodents, birds, and some insects have adapted to living on the islands.
There is but one species of creature truly native to Duskshoal, that being sahuagin. The whole world is ruled by their king, a four-armed monster titled Burgundy Claw, for his bright red claws. He rules a nation of perhaps 25,000 sahuagin (including females and hatchlings), although that is only a guess to the strength of the nation. Unlike other sahuagin, the fishmen of Duskshoal are not vicious (usually) man-eaters. Instead, they have established themselves as dealers in pearls to make the nation a stopover for traders. This is not to say that they are good-aligned or won' t eat a person if the chance came about; they simply temper their evil nature with a desire to make money, and that means dealing with off-worlders.
Some travelers believe that there was once an elven civilization on Duskshoal, one that was destroyed an enslaved by the sahuagin. This is simply not true; the sahuagin give birth on occasion to malenti, sahuagin that resemble sea elves. The fishmen do not kill these creatures, instead finding a better use for them in the Blackfin (see below).
A third group of native creatures are half-elves, the inevitable result of the activity of the Blackfin. Female malenti give birth to creatures that are almost identical to half-elves, no matter the race of the father. The half-elven children have a hard time surviving underwater (they do have the ability to breathe water), and are sent to live on the islands. The half-elves are loyal to Burgundy Claw but rarely have contact with their sahuagin parents. Strangely, the fishmen sometimes steal ashore while the half-elves are asleep and leave small items and presents, showing the half elves care and affection they rarely show to their normal, full-sahuagin children.
Although Duskshoal has food and water aplenty, its primary export is pearls. The sahaugin sell large quantities of pearls, including black, indigo, and crimson-colored pearls, to wildspace merchants. They import magic, good lumber, stone, and other materials that they cannot get on their own world. One thing the sahuagin have no interest in is spelljamming technology; they have no interest in leaving the protective waters of their own world.
Lighthouse Atoll is the largest atoll on Duskshoal. It has a sturdy, rocky outcrop where a lighthouse has been built to attract passing spelljammers to it. The sahuagin capital is not far from the atoll, about an hour's swim. The atoll is covered by dozens of buildings both above and below the waterline. No less than a thousand sahuagin dwell on the atoll to cater to spelljammers. Procedure is to have two sahuagin swim ahead of a landing spelljammer, leading it to a pier. It can be quite unnerving to see the fishmen welcoming a ship instead of trying to sink it and eat its crew.
Lighthouse Atoll has several large and important buildings. Foremost of these buildings is the Pearl Trading House, a heavily fortified building with scores of sahuagin guards. It is at the center of the atoll, partially underwater. Air-filled, tube-like passages allow access to the underwater buildings, with air-filled rooms so that air-breathers can meet and trade with the sahuagin. The tubes also lead to a market guarded by a glass dome where sahuagin vendors sell all manner of fish and other bounties of the sea.
Oddly, the busiest attraction of Lighthouse Atoll is Blackfin Brothel, a domed structure partially underwater. The sahuagin have put almost all of the malenti on Duskshoal to work in this brothel to keep sailors entertained. It can be a rough-and-tumble place, where one can easily lose his life if he is not careful. This reputation only enhances the allure of the place; in some circles, one is not truly a man until he survives a night at the Blackfin. The malenti women are quite beautiful, and enjoy their work.
The sahuagin came to Duskshoal about three centuries ago. Three tribes competed for control of the planet, eventually unifying into a single nation around two centuries ago. Without a common foe, the sahuagin found little use for war. They found themselves without purpose, and thus were easily manipulated by visiting illithids, who began the pearl trade. The illithids used the sahuagin as a front to fund illithid aggressions elsewhere in the sphere. These manipulations came to an end only a scant two decades ago, when the sahuagin finally managed to free themselves. The creatures saw benefit in maintaining the pearl trade, as it brought visitors from all over the sphere to their corner of the universe, and with them many strange and wondrous luxuries undreamed of in the cold depths of their seas.
The only satellite is the fire-ring that provides Duskshoal with light and heat. There are no other moons.
