Little more than a large asteroid, Haddtik’s surface is pitted with hundreds of impact craters. It appears quite barren, with only a few hardy plants stubbornly clinging to a few sunny craters. There are numerous cracks and caves that hint at a hollow interior. Only one crack is large enough to allow passage by ships up to hammership size. Ships with extensive rigging, such as galleons, cannot pass through this opening.
Haddtik is the domain of a large tribe of bugbears. The creatures are survivors of both the First and Second Unhuman Wars. During the course of the latter, the bugbears managed to turn the scro against them.
Essentially a great rock in space, Haddtik lacks a large enough air envelope to generate weather. The air has the feel of a cool autumn day.
From a distance, Haddtik is an unremarkable, dark gray asteroid. The dark coloration makes it difficult to spot against a night sky, such that the best way to find it is when it passes in front of a star or another moon. It has the overall shape of an egg.
The primary cavern is just over 1,200’ long, 200’ wide, and over 600’ from floor to ceiling. A vast fungus garden grows in this vast space which provides most of the food consumed by the moon. The cavern of chains is the second largest cavern, about 200’ from end to end, with innumerable chains hanging from the ceiling to lock slaves up. Several cages also hang from the ceiling, many filled with the bones of slaves that displeased the bugbears.
The most extravagant cavern is Hetman Gokklug’s throne room. The walls are lined with expensive tapestries, statues, and other large swag stolen by past Hetmans. Gokklug’s throne is a type I minor helm covered with the hides of a winter wolf and a cave bear. Sixty-two gemstones (value 100 gp each) decorate the throne. Gokklug keeps a trained quartet of dire wolves to guard this room.
Somewhere in the twisting caverns is Gokklug’s treasure vault. Guarded both by magic and beasts, this secret chamber has 15 chests brimming with loot. Beware that Gokklug guards his hoard as fiercely as any dragon. The coins, gems, and jewelry is valued in excess of 30,000 gp, and includes a half dozen magic items as well.
Nothing lives on Haddtik unless the bugbears decide to suffer its existence. There are several standard dungeon dwellers, such as carrion crawlers, slimes, bats, and rats. In some places there are gelatinous cubes at the bottoms of deep pits. They are used as a garbage disposal system of sorts, as slaves sweep trash into the pits to be digested by the cubes. Larger creatures include rothe, dire wolves, and poisonous toads. Giant toadstools thrive in Haddtik’s environment.
There are eight large bands of bugbears dwell in the caves of Haddtik. Slightly fewer than one thousand of these hairy goblins can be found here. Of that number, between 350 to 400 are fighting males. The rest are women and children, who have no fighting abilities. Each band is lead by a chief and 1-4 subchiefs. The whole tribe is ruled by Hetman Gokklug, a truly crafty and dangerous bugbear who has the fighting ability of a 8th level fighter.
In addition to the bugbears there are several hundred slaves, mostly humans, dwarves, and some halflings. They work the fungus farms, build passages, and in general make life easier for their masters. There are also several dozen so-called ‘man-goblins’, which are the result of human-bugbear mating. Man-goblins appear as large, hairy humans, paunchy and yet very strong. They are statistically identical to hobgoblins. These creatures are trusted flunkies of the bugbears.
Haddtik has few resources worthy of trade. Instead, the natives steal what they can, and sell for the things they desire. The bugbears mostly desire ale, and have a special weakness for drow wine. Smugglers sometimes show up to trade whatever swag the bugbears have acquired in exchange for weapons, wine, and other luxuries.
Their recent adventures in the Second Unhuman Wars have left the bugbears rich with loot. Each male bugbear has 1 pp per hit point and all have 1-10 gems worth 10 gp each. The Hetman has a hidden treasure horde somewhere worth at least four complete hammerships. Chiefs and subchiefs have many sparkling jewels as well.
Life on Haddtik is ordinarily very harsh. As recent victories have brought them great wealth, the bugbears have been improving their lot in life. Stonework has been improved by dwarven slaves, tapestries hang from their walls, and fur rugs warm the floors.
Through their pilfering activities, the bugbears have actually managed to put together a serviceable drydock for spelljammers. The bugbear fleet is somewhat unimpressive, consisting of a pair of wolfships and a hammership flagship. These ships are in excellent condition, thanks to the efforts of the man-goblins. Normally, the two wolfships will be out looking for prey, but have been kept docked until things blow over with the scro. Or at least until the bugbears decide to go hunting again. The drydock is rather crude and slow, only able to repair 1 hull point of damage per week, and sometimes runs short of supplies.
The bugbears originated as followers of a great chief known as Ruhhlit, who in the days following the Unhuman Wars led his people to this moon. They settled in for a life of hiding from vengeful elven ships and making the occasional raid on merchant ships and remote village.
More recently, during the height of the Second Unhuman War, Hetman Gokklub was convinced by the scro to join the war against the elves. For one year, his forces would fight the elves and in exchange to all the loot they could take, would receive gemstones worth 25,000 gp in payment. The bugbears agreed and left for war.
As it turns out, the scro had no intention of keeping their end of the deal. Once aboard scro ships, bugbear conscripts were treated poorly and given poor assignments. And at the end of the year, the scro denied them the right to return home. Pressed as they were in the war, the scro could ill afford to lose their bugbear soldiers. Gokklub was enraged, but the crafty goblin knew to bide his time and wait for an opportunity.
That opportunity came soon enough. Gokklub was the second aboard a scro hammership that accompanied a scro mantis. The two ships ambushed a pair of Men-O-War inside of Realmspace, and were pressing the elves hard. That is when bugbears struck. Mutinies on both ships made quick work of the scro. The elves were dumbfounded when the bugbears asked to parley. In exchange for all loot aboard the mantis ship, they would leave in peace and even allow the elves to take possession of that ship. The elves, hardly in a condition to continue the fight, agreed. The mantis was stripped of everything valuable and the bugbears departed.
The scro have since become aware of Gokklub’s rebellion, namely after he returned the head of one of their ambassadors back to them on a platter. Unfortunately for the scro, there is nothing they can do about it. Taking Haddtik would require an army a thousand scro strong, twice that in goblin-kin, and they cannot muster such a force in the sphere the moon is in. So Gokklub’s tribe is safe for the moment to enjoy the swag they stole on their adventures.
A loose ring of debris orbits this rock at a distance of 500 feet. This ring is made up of the wreckage of past victims of the bugbears, mostly the wrecks of tradesmen. Most of the wrecks have been so stripped that no piece is larger than a few feet across. Passing through this ring has the effects of a medium jettison upon the decks of any ship so foolish to do so.
The scro have placed a 5,000 gp bounty on Gokklub’s head. His subchiefs have 500 gp bounties on each of their heads. The Elven Fleet have not placed bounties on any of the bugbears and may in fact seek to disrupt scro plans to slaughter them. The local elven Admiral is weighing the risks and benefits of keeping the two groups of goblin-kin at each other’s throats.
