The Crimson Moon
by Adam "Night Druid" MillerThis world is a flat world, with the overall profile of an oval. Light and dark browns and reds dominate the central areas, while lighter shades of green highlight the edges.
Thaas is a small, flat desert moon located far from the most traveled shipping lanes. It is a harsh world of blasted wastelands, salt flats, high mountains, and empty barrens. The air is hot and dry; rain is unknown but sandstorms are commonplace. It has the overall shape of an oval a little over 500 miles long and 400 miles wide. Savannahs line the edges, which rise to mountains that surround the interior. The edges are cliffs that are several miles high. Both sides have this general geographical layout.
Thaas is a prison world, administered by an extended family of lawful (evil) brown dragons. The Crimson Enforcers, a military brotherhood dedicated to law and order, brings criminals to this world and guard over them. There are hundreds of work camps where inmates slave away breaking rocks and digging out metals and gemstones.
Thaas is a hot desert world, where days are oppressively hot and nights are tolerable. A day is exactly 15 hours long, although the actual amount of sunlight is lessened somewhat because the mountains can block the sun in the early morning and late evening hours. Dust in the air turns the sky into shades of brown, usually a tan color, sometimes even crimson red. The dust reduces the amount of light Thaas receives from its sun, although not sufficiently enough to affect vision in a meaningful way.
Burning Rift: This huge crack in the ground stretches for 20 miles and is almost half a mile wide. Within, lava boils and explodes, spewing red-hot ash into the sky. The place is a favorite haunt of creatures from the elemental plane of fire, and a gate to that plane is located somewhere in the rift. Sulfur and obsidian deposits surround the Rift for miles around.
Salt Forest: One of Thaas’ natural wonders, this small area is thick in pillars of salt that resemble, from a distance, dead trees. Salt flats that stretch for miles surround the Salt Forest. The area is haunted by many undead that died of thirst.
Green Basin: Long ago, this was an open copper-mine. As the miners dug deeper in search of copper, the mine grew wider until it stretched for almost a mile in diameter. Eventually the copper veins ran out, leaving only trace amounts in the surrounding rock. After it was abandoned, the remaining copper went through natural oxidation and turned green, giving the mine its current name.
Thaas is a brutal world where life is quite difficult. Reptiles and insect-like creatures and monsters thrive, but mammals are almost unknown. Most of the creatures are quite dangerous, more than capable of defending themselves with claws, teeth, and even magic and psionics. Almost any creature from a desert environment can be found on Thaas. Creatures from the Dark Sun Campaign Setting are likewise very appropriate for Thaas’ deserts. Interloper species, brought aboard visiting ships, rarely survive long, being no match for the brutality of the native species.
Above all else, Thaas is a prison planet. It is administered by a family of brown dragons, who keep the inmates and freemen in line. The nations of space have used this minor moon as a dumping ground for countless prisoners of all races. Pirates, murderers, highwaymen, bandits, thieves, smugglers, con artists, robbers, rustlers, and criminals of every imaginable crime are sent here to serve out their sentences. So great are their numbers that a day does not pass that a new shipload of inmates arrives.
When an inmate first arrives on Thaas, they are “processed” at Thage to weed out those that would cause problems. This involves making sure no magic of any sort, be it items, spellbooks, or spells, are introduced into the population. Psionicists are notorious difficult to detect and slip by. Though some items are occasionally smuggled in, Thaas is very poor in all things magical. Psionics are the primary “magic” of this world. Processing usually takes several weeks, at the end of which the inmate is “branded” psionically with the length of their sentence and the date they arrive.
After processing, inmates are divided by their skills and then sent in great caravans to the various work camps throughout the moon. Most are sent to the mines, while a few are selected for other tasks, such as farming or militia duty. Exceptional individuals can become gladiators, artisans, and even consorts. Inmates are effectively slaves, and are treated as such. The death rate for inmates during their sentences is very high.
Once an inmate has served the length of his sentence, he is theoretically “freed”. However, an inmate is freed with only the clothes on his back. He must then find a means of getting enough money to buy passage off of Thaas. Since good-paying work is difficult to find, most inmates find themselves in a vicious cycle of making barely enough money to survive, never to get enough to escape. Many congregate at one of the five major cities, while others join one of the many tribes roaming the wastelands.
Races of all sorts inhabit Thaas. Most numerous are humans and demi-humans, although there is a fairly large number of the more exotic races, from lizardmen and centaurs to thri-kreen and neogi. Thaas takes them all, and has earned the title as the “Graveyard of the Known Spheres”.
To help keep the inmates in line, several whole companies of giff have been hired on a permanent basis. Heavily armed with guns and steel, and gifted with great size, strength, and loyalty, a single giff is more than a match for most of the inmates. An entire company is quite effective at putting down even the most violent work riot. While guards may be of any race, even former inmates, the giff stand out as the best and most feared.
Thaas is poor in resources. It has a few sources of useful metals, such as iron and copper, as well as some veins of precious diamonds, but none in remarkable quantities. These are extracted by the enormous slave workforces. The deserts yield other valuable, if primitive, resources such wood, obsidian and stone, and tools, armor, and weapons crafted from various animal parts.
Despite its isolated location, trade ships do show up from time to time. These bring in a steady supply of both necessities and luxuries in exchange for the minor treasures this world produces. Imports are highly restricted and regulated to keep weapons and magic out of the hands of the general population. Attempts to smuggle these things in can result in the offending ship being seized and the captain and crew thrown in chains. Those caught smuggling face minimum sentences of twenty years of hard labor. Sale of weapons and magic to the wardens is allowed, although the small profits in these sales usually are not worth the risk of being accidentally accused of smuggling.
Thage (Metropolis, 31,000): The largest city on Thaas is located in a protected valley, surrounded by fields and mines. It is also the only city with extensive fields for ships to land. Inmates arrive here before being sent to various work camps, and are granted their freedom in this city. The largest building is the palace of the warden dragon Earthtalon the Eighth, a Great Wrym Brown Dragon said to possess great powers both magical and psionic.
Urwain (Large City, 31,000): The iron mines around Urwain makes it the primary source of tools and iron-forged weapons. A steady stream of inmates enters the mines, considered some of the deadliest in the Known Spheres. The labor is hard, cave-ins are common, monsters stalk the lower tunnels, and rations are cut for any inmate that doesn’t meet his daily quota of iron. No less than four brown dragon wardens watch over this area, and several companies of giff Enforcers are kept in the area to put down the many riots and rebellions.
Umar (Large City, 20,000): At the heart of Thaas’ gem-mining, Umar is also at the source of the dragons’ great wealth. Duty at Umar is considered highly prized, as it offers the greatest opportunities to get rich skimming gems from the monthly quotas. Inmates are worked particularly hard to exceed their quotas so the dragon warden has a little left over to line its own pockets.
Tataluun (Large City, 18,000): Originally built by thri-kreen in on the edge of a salt flat, Tataluun still sports many hive-like structures. Non-humans are common, with insect-like races prevailing. Most of the population are descendants of inmates who have not managed to buy their way off-world.
Gamba (Large City, 17,000): Gamba is surrounded by savannahs. Lizard-like herd animals roam the nearby lands, and are hunted for their meat and hides. Predators of all types hunt the herd animals, but have found humans and their ilk easier prey. A day does not pass without an inmate being lost to predator attack.
Thaas has always been the way it is today, a largely barren and uninteresting desert world. It first gained notoriety millennia ago as a penal colony to house the defeated thri-kreen. The job of warden fell to the well-traveled and lawful brown dragon Earthtalon. The dragon proved an excellent warden, laying down the laws of the prison, setting up labor camps, and even establishing cities to house former inmates who have completed their sentences but lack the funds to buy passage to anywhere else. Thaas the prison moon thrived as nations around the stars sent their unruly prisoners here.
As the prison grew, Earthtalon brought in his family of brown dragons to help administer the facilities. Non-dragon agents and hirelings handled the mundane activities, while the dragons held overall control. Of course, being Chromatic dragons, they were not without their vices. The slave-like treatment of inmates is one such example. The dragons are not above profit skimming, bribery, or even smuggling if they can get away with it.
In the centuries since its founding, Thaas has seen countless people come, and a handful go. Times of war, such as the Unhuman Wars, has always been big business for Thaas as both sides look for places to dump prisoners of war. Even during peacetimes, business was good, as there is no shortage of bandits and pirates anywhere in the Known Spheres.
Over the years, there have been several jailbreaks. Most rebellions are ended in bloody fashion, with rebel leaders killed and their bloodied bodies left for all to see. The most spectacular jailbreak in recent memory was when the drow corsair, Xorria the Purple Widow, lead a rebellion that actually captured the prison ship Swift Justice. Several hundred fellow inmates escaped aboard the ship. It was later discovered drifting in the void, about four days out from Thaas, all aboard slain. Of Xorria or her lieutenants, there was no sign. Xorria is still at large, much to the regret of tradesmen everywhere.
This small, flat asteroid has a fort on each of its sides where the Crimson Enforcers are based. The asteroid is a little over 500’ across, and 100’ wide. Tunnels link the two forts. Along the gravity plane there are eight piers jutting into wildspace, where Enforcer ships can dock. Each fort houses about 450 Enforcers, and there is always a trio of Enforcer Hornets.
This 200’ tall tower, somewhat plain in appearance, rests upon an asteroid that has the general appearance of the lower half of a broken eggshell. The tower sits in the bowl-like valley, as if it rose from some cosmic egg. The remains of Earthtalon, the original warden dragon, were laid to rest here. The tomb is guarded by all manner of golem and undead guardians.
This dark asteroid is little more than a mile long, and is honeycombed with thousands of small chambers. Violent convicts are sent here to serve out terms of solitary confinement. Conditions, if one can believe it possible, are far worse than on Thaas. There is little light, the air is stagnant and stale, and the food, assuming the guards can be bothered to remember to feed the convicts, is barely editable. The number of inmates to have survived confinement at Solitary can be counted with one hand.
The Crimson Enforcers: This military brotherhood, signified by their crimson-red cloaks, is responsible for bringing prisoners to Thaas. They are hardened lawmen of almost any race imaginable, some even former inmates of Thaas. Due to their brutal tactics, the Enforcers are not very well-liked, but do command respect. The Enforcers commonly use insect-like ships, such as wasps, dragonflies, mantises, and even scorpionships. A pair of ship designs is distinct to the Enforcers. The first is the Enforcer Hornet, a ship nearly identical (statistically and by deckplans) to the elven Man-O-War, but made of protective chitin. The other is the Enforcer Scarab, a ship that has more than a little similarity (again, statistically and by deckplans) to the neogi deathspider, except that it is designed to transport as many as 500 inmates in one go. The Enforcer Hornet is the Enforcers’ primary warship, which they use to hunt down pirate ships.
The Enforcers believe in enforcing the law above all else, and that criminals should be punished severely. They do not create laws, only enforce them. They make little distinction between rebels fighting a cruel and evil tyrant and murderers; all are criminals in the eyes of the Enforcers. This attitude, of course, gives the Enforcers a reputation not much better than worst tyrants of wildspace.
