Ravensmoon is a backwater of a moon, a place that some have heard of, but few claim to have visited. According to spacers' tales, Ravensmoon is a nice place to visit, with magnificent mountains and quaint towns. Overall, a rather dull place lost in a vast multiverse. If the curious digs deeper, perhaps by listening the sail-hand who "just ain't right in the head", the tales change to one of cultists, rituals, and terror. Of course, most just shrug those tales off; after all, when you can see mind flayers openly walking the streets of Bral, little fazes the experienced spacer.
The moon is a large, size C orb, about 600 miles in diameter. It orbits a world somewhat distant from the sphere's sun. As a result, sunlight on the moon is a bit weaker than normal, and the sun never feels warm. Ravensmoon has a long orbit, and a day that is twice as long as standard. This also means that the nights are twice as long, an unsettling prospect when the wolves howl and hungry eyes are ever-watching.
Ravensmoon is not what it seems. Under the surface, under the mountains, forests, fields, and even seas, lies a murderoid. This ancient planet-sized creature, possibly the eldest of its kind, has devised a plot that keeps it well fed. It is served by a number of dark lords, cultists, and minions who make regular sacrifices by casting victims into one of many "bottomless pits" that can be found across Ravensmoon's surface. These pits, of course, lead to its stomach, where it digests the victim over the course of a decade.
Chilly days, freezing nights, and cold mists are the hallmark of Ravensmoon. The weather is constantly reminiscent of late autumn, with cold winds blowing down on mountains, with occasional snowfalls and even blizzards. At its warmest, a visitor will feel a chill. There are no seasons; the temperature can vary from day to day, hour to hour. One day can be pleasant (at least, as pleasant as possible on Ravensmoon), the next brings a blizzard that dumps a foot of snow.
Storms are rare, but can be quite fierce. There are no tropical storms or hurricanes, obviously. Mists are much more common, beginning at dusk and lasting well into morning, sometimes even lasting all day. At the worst of times, the mists are so thick that a person cannot see his hand in front of his face.
From high orbit Ravensmoon is a swirl of dark gray clouds, blue-green forests, and deep violet seas. The two continents are difficult to map from orbit, due to the extensive cloud-cover. On some days, the whole moon is dark gray with fog and clouds, with only tiny patches of clear land peaking through. There are no visible lighthouses to guide spelljammers in to land. Only by using reliable maps and spending at least a day matching landmarks can a navigator find the best places to land. Otherwise, the ship must enter the atmosphere and then spend a great deal of time hunting for civilization.
There are two continents, Stokvonia and Banivonia. The larger of the two is Stokvonia, which runs north to south like a great dagger, with knife-straight coastlines on the east and the west. The land is dominated by a high mountain range that runs north to south, with hill lands that run almost to the coast. There are almost no lowlands. The terrain divides habitable lands into narrow valleys nestled between mountains and hills.
Banivonia has a vaguely skull shape, with two large lakes as eyes and a quartet of peninsulas as teeth. Mountains run like a scar from the jaw to up around one "eye lake". Wrecked upon the shores of the peninsula are several ships, many that were formerly spelljammers. There are three seas that are scattered with many small islands.
The landscape is dotted with a number of half-ruined castles and manors. These are usually the haunts of undead and monsters, most often following a single master. That master is any one of a number of powerful, intelligent monsters such as vampires, liches, banshees, and the like. Under each of these places, there is a "bottomless pit" to which sacrifices are tossed in elaborate ceremonies. The ceremonies actually summon forth one of the murderoid's maws, which devours the victim. The murderoid only spawns its maws in these places; it has grown a bit lazy in its old age, and would rather be fed than try to hunt on its own.
Ravensmoon is home to a host of dangerous predators that force people to bolt their doors at night and cower behind stockades. Wolves, bats, ravens, and bears (both mundane and monstrous) stalk the many alpine forests. These creatures seem to have great malevolence towards humans and demi-humans, seeming to even hunt them for sport. The higher elevations are home to yeti, winter wolves, ice toads, and like creatures. Other monsters commonly encountered include harpies, gargoyles, griffons, hags, lycanthropes of all sorts, undead, and some goblin-kin. Most of these monsters serve one of the dark lords that rule the land.
The seas are even worse, haunted by kraken, sahuagin, monstrous sharks, sirens, and many assorted sea monsters, such that no ships dare the open waters. The seas are greatly feared; the only watercrafts are small keelboats and paddleboats ply the few navigable rivers. These creatures are interested only in one thing: to kill humans and demi-humans.
Ravensmoon is populated by mostly humans with a smattering of demi-humans. There are no race-exclusive enclaves anywhere on the moon as the various races have put aside their differences to survive. There are no elven tree-towns, underground dwarf citadels, or halfling shires. The people are almost exclusively peasants and shopkeepers trying to survive in a dangerous world.
From crumbling castles and manors, dark lords rule over these peasants. These lords are powerful monsters lured to Ravensmoon by the whispered promises of the murderoid. They include at least one greater vampire, a lich, a death knight, an Unseelie Faerie, and a hag. Note that this is not an exhaustive list, merely a list of the more famous dark lords of the murderoid, and does not include a multitude of lesser monsters and evil humans that are quite powerful in their own right, but do not rule as lords over the people.
The eyes and ears of the murderoid is the Cult of the Maw, a secretive group of clerics, wizards, and others that seek to gain power by feeding victims to the murderoid. Although they do not know the truth behind their worship, they are dedicated to pleasing the fell power. They know that victims that experience true horror make the best sacrifices, so they have devised many methods of terrifying their victims before sending them to the belly of the murderoid. And they have gotten very, very good at terrifying victims.
Resources on Ravensmoon are sparse. There is little good farmland, mines quickly play out, and hunting yields little. Equipment is difficult to find, especially armor and weapons. Visitors should expect to pay double the standard list prices for weapons, and armor costs thrice as much. Armor heavier than a chain shirt is normally unavailable except by special orders, and the purchaser must provide the metal. Other adventuring-related equipment, such as ropes, iron spikes, rations, and the like, cost half again the standard listed prices (i.e. multiply the price by 1.5).
Most trade between villages is handled by gypsies, although they are considered outcasts and distrusted. Their oversized wagons double as their homes, from which they run all manner of card games, cons, and other illegal activities normally associated with gypsies. The gypsies are the only reliable source of magic items (usually potions) and do bring news and entertainment, so they are tolerated. They are also the best source of information on Ravensmoon, knowing many hidden safe houses, contacts, and long-buried secrets. Of course, their information is very expensive, and sometimes they demand payment in magic items over gold.
Ravensmoon is not a busy space port, and has almost no facilities to build, repair, or even dock most spelljammers. As the seas are deadly dangerous, water-landing craft have a limited choice of river ports to pull into, most of which are too small to handle any ship larger than 200' long. Ground-landing craft, surprisingly, have only a few good places to set down as well. Cleared land is difficult to find; landing in the hills or mountains risks damaging the craft in rock-slides or the ship slipping and tumbling down a slope.
Of the multitude of villages and towns, there are two that have facilities enough to make passable spelljammer ports. The towns of Vilandru of Banivonia and Rivona and Stokvonia welcome spelljammers, with places specially designed so such ships can land without difficulty. Both are river towns that survive on trade, and benefit from expanding their facilities to accommodate spelljammers as well. Prices can be high, but there are no special "spelljammer taxes" such as air taxes. Visitors will find the people hard-working but grim, cold, and distant.
The murderoid at the heart of Ravensmoon existed for centuries, devouring ships as they passed and in general being a hazard to everything that came near. About fourteen centuries ago, it came across and devoured a ship carrying a fell device or artifact plundered from the temple of an all but forgotten elder god. Power filled the creature, more than even its immeasurable bulk could handle all at once, and it fell into deep hibernation.
For the next thousand years, it remained in hibernation. During that time, people arrived and settled on its surface, unaware of the danger that lurked within. They founded hundreds of towns and villages that were quite, happy places to live. Back then, monsters were not so numerous nor so vicious. Few knights were needed, mainly to hunt down monsters and keep the roads safe. Then, the murderoid woke up.
Ravenous from its thousand years sleep, it devoured flocks of sheep, snacked on travelers, gulped up whole villages. Many knights mounted up to wage war against the unknown foe, never to return. For a time it seemed that the whole world was coming to an end. Then, suddenly, the attacks ceased. The murderoid's hunger had been sated, and its primal instincts faded. It observed the creatures dwelling upon it, studying them. It began to explore its own newfound powers, to tempt and to terrorize the humans and demi-humans. When some began to worship it, trying to appease its ravenous maws, it was delighted. It provided power to the fledgling Cult of the Maw, using it to spread terror at its behest.
Like sharks that smell blood in the water, beings of great evil were attracted to Ravensmoon. Drawn by the overwhelming evil radiating from the moon, these creatures made deals with the murderoid, exchanging their service for increased power. They were granted their own fiefs, to terrorize the locals and keep their master well-fed with sacrifices. As the murderoid explored its abilities, it began to experiment on creatures living upon it. This resulted in the murder spawn (see below), creatures that would keep it fed even if the dark lords failed it. Eventually, it began to create its own minions, totally bound to it mind, body, and soul.
During its millennia of hibernation, the murderoid captured a small, white asteroid that orbits close enough to be fairly large in the sky, about the size of a palm at the end of an outstretched arm. This is Luunatik, and appears as a deeply cratered orb in the sky. Luunatik is a void world, with no atmosphere and no life. When it is full in the night sky (once every 14 days), lycanthropes change into their beast forms and will attempt to murder at least one human that night.
Ravensmoon is a fully grown murderoid, a creature the size of a small planet. As such, characters should not expect to slay this beast. In fact, it would be best if they never learn the true nature behind this moon, instead be faced with an unstoppable, unknown power that empowers others with powers. It controls the dark lords, cultists, monsters, and even the beasts of Ravensmoon.
This moon would make an excellent alternative to Ravenloft. A Dungeon Master can place the whole of Ravenloft on Ravensmoon, with room to spare, changing the setting from a demiplane to a moon. The unnamed Dark Powers of that setting becomes the murderoid. This allows the DM to introduce either the whole setting, or elements of the setting he enjoys, into a spelljammer campaign without having to deal with travel to the ethereal plane.
The murderoid that is Ravensmoon is exceptionally powerful, more-so than others of its kind. It has abilities more akin to that of a god, such as being able to grant spells to its cultists and to make powerful creatures its minions. The exact limits of these abilities are not detailed here, but should rate in the category of lesser to greater god, depending on the whims of the DM. It swallowed an item connected to an elder god (DMs, take your pick of your favorite elder god). In any case, the murderoid is wicked and treacherous. Its only goal in life is to make life miserable for those living on it, and to corrupt (demi-) humans with promises of power as a reward for despicable and evil acts.
This is but a small sample of the non-player characters that can be met on Ravensmoon.
Victor Von'Radu: This beast of a man lives alone in the forests. He is quite possibly the best hunter and trapper in all of Ravensmoon, so fierce that even the monsters give him a wide berth. Victor is quite sadistic, taking pleasure in the suffering of others, especially those that are helpless. His darkest secret is that he kidnaps children that wander into the forest, and offers them as sacrifices to the murderoid. Although he gains power from these sacrifices (he has the following spell-like abilities: meld into stone 2/day, snare 1/day, obscurement 1/day), he does it more for his own demented enjoyment. Most villagers will lock their doors whenever he comes into town; he is much feared and hated, a reputation he likes.
Baron Alexandracu: In life, Alexandracu was a fierce defender of his realm against bandits and highwaymen and a native to Ravensmoon. When the murderoid woke up, he was the only knight to have marched from his castle and to have survived. The war was hard on Alexandracu, having to watch friend after friend perish in the seemingly insatiable maws that could appear out of nowhere. When all seemed lost, the attacks ceased. Believing the war over, he returned home, only to discover that his wife was unfaithful to him. In a rage, he murdered not only his wife, but everyone else in the castle. The massacre attracted the attention of the murderoid, and it was pleased. It gave to Alexandracu immortality in the form of vampirism. This monster now broods in his ruined castle, served by monsters, undead, and a few living servants taken from nearby villages.
Allicia Red: This young woman was orphaned when she was twelve. She was kidnapped by Victor, who tortured her before attempting to sacrifice her to a maw. Allicia escaped, one of the few to have escaped that murderer. An orphanage took her in, where she fell in love with a boy there. One night, she was taken from her bed to a sacrificial chamber; the orphanage was run by Maw Cultists, who fed orphans to the murderoid. Again Allicia managed to escape, this time turning the tables on the cultists and tossing them into the gaping maw, with the help of her paramour. Looking down at the maw, enthralled by its great power and malice, and in the act of ultimate betrayal, threw her rescuer down to it. Pleased with the cold-hearted and treacherous young woman, offered to make her one of its "chosen", gifting her with power in exchange for sacrifices. Allicia readily agreed, and the murderoid made her one of his cultists, and the power of the wolf filled her. Now she is a werewolf who stalks the night for prey and makes regular sacrifices.
Sir Asth: Four hundred years ago, Sir Asth was a noble knight of the Chalice, dutifully crushing evil and ruling an asteroid estate between crusades. During his last adventure, his heart was ensnared by a werefox, who convinced him to take her as his bride. Slowly, she corrupted his heart, and whispered dark thoughts in his ear. So corrupt was he at the end that he challenged the Grand Paladin. The castle was razed, killing everyone inside. Sir Asth emerged as a Death Knight, and returned home to murder his evil wife. He wandered the Known Spheres for several years before he was lured to Ravensmoon. The villages of the Vashonia became his kingdom, its people enslaved and forced to build his new castle. The Death Knight has since withdrawn into his castle, rarely sending out his skeletal horsemen to seize victims to feed the murderoid.
A "murderspawn" is a creation of the murderoid that is Ravensmoon. They resemble normal animals, if a bit larger than standard. A murderspawn animal is fereal, with wild eyes and snapping jaws. A creature with this template is wild and uncontrolable, attacking anything that comes near.
The purpose of a murderspawn is to feed the murderoid that created it. Once it has reached maximum hit dice, the creature is instinctively drawn to the nearest maw, into which it hurls itself. In this way, the murderoid "fattens up" its prey before calling it in for the slaughter.
A "murderspawn" is an acquired template that can be added to any animal or magical beast that is of size Small, Medium, or Large and with an intelligence score of 4 or lower (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A murderspawn uses al the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Speed: A murderspawn's base land speed is increased by 10 ft.
Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +3 (this stacks with any natural armor bonus the base creature has).
Special Attacks: A murderspawn retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following special attacks.
Rage (Ex): A murderspawn gains the ability to rage as as a barbarian of level equal to its current hit dice.
Special Qualities: A murderspawn has all the special qualities of the base creature, plus the following special qualities. (See the Player's Handbook for more information on rage.)
"Consume and Grow" (Su): A murderspawn grows in size and hit dice as it feeds. For every opponent (or equivalent amount of meat) equal to its current size that a murderspawn consumes, it gains one hit die. After gaining an amount of hit dice equal to twice the amount needed for its current size category, a murderspawn will grow by one size category. (See Chapter 4: Improving Monsters in the Monster Manual for more inforamtion on increasing a creature's size.) A murderspawn can gain up to eight times its original hit dice. (For example, a Medium-sized wolf with the murderspawn template will grow to Large size after consuming two Medium-sized creatures and gaining two hit dice. It will grow to Huge size after consuming four Large creatures and gaining four more hit dice. Finally, it will grow to Gargantuan size after consuming another eight Huge creatures and gaining eight more hit dice.)
Create Murderspawn (Su): As a murderspawn wanders the countryside looking for its next meal, it occasionally vomits up small pellets. These pellets carry the murderspawn disease. Any creature that fits the template and comes to investigate the pellets will acquire the template on a failed Fort save (DC 25).
Abilities: Modify from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +2, Con +4, Cha -4.
Challenge Rating: As base creature +1, with additional +1 per 2 HD of growth.
Alignment: Always chaotic evil.
