THE MOONLET
ATROPUS
CHAPTER 2
The moonlet’s surface functions as rugged mountain terrain (DMG 89), except that cliffs are 4d6×10 feet tall and chasms are 4d4×10 feet deep and measure 40 feet long. The moonlet counts as being a minor negative-dominant environment. Each round a living creature remains within 60 feet of the moonlet’s surface, it takes 1d6 points of damage (when not in combat, it is easier to convert it to 35 points of damage per minute). A creature reduced to 0 hit points crumbles to ash. A death ward spell prevents this damage. Spells and spell-like abilities that use negative energy, including inflict spells, are maximized. Class abilities that use negative energy, such as rebuking or commanding undead, gain a +10 bonus on the roll to determine Hit Dice affected. Spells and spell-like abilities that use positive energy, including cure spells, are impeded (DMG 150), and characters take a –10 penalty on Fortitude saves made to remove negative levels.
DEFENSES
The moonlet has few defenses. The dangers of the void are enough to keep enemies at bay. Unless KEY FEATURES the moonlet is approached The moonlet is not a when it has already enpleasant place. It is bartered the atmosphere—at ren and rocky, overrun which point it is almost with sharp spires of too late—characters must old stone, deep trenchcontend with the hazardes, and mountainous ous environment. After ridges piled on top of 3 rounds of exposure to each other. Bubbling the void, a living creature up from the craters must make a successful pocking the surface is DC 20 Constitution check a noxious tar. Debris or suffer excruciating pain, picked up from countbecoming stunned and reDoom befalls your world less worlds clutters the maining so until it returns surface. to the atmosphere. Creatures that fail the check by 5 or more fall unconscious. The moonlet remains on the dark side of the world, keeping the planet between it and the sun. As a result, the surface of Creatures that require air are also subject to suffocation. the moonlet is dark, granting total concealment (50% miss Attempting to hold one’s breath requires a DC 15 Constitution chance) to all creatures on its surface. check every round. The DC increases by 1 each round. Even The moonlet is a low-gravity environment. This has a on a successful check, the creature takes 1 point of Constitunumber of effects, as follows. tion damage from the pressure. On a failed check, or when • Increase speed for all movement types by 5 feet. the creature stops holding its breath, it falls unconscious on • A creature’s carrying capacity doubles, and it gains a +10 the following round, and its hit points fall to 0. On the next circumstance bonus on Strength checks made to lift or round, the creature drops to –1 hit points and the round after, move heavy objects. its hit points fall to –10 and the creature dies. • Creatures gain a +10 circumstance bonus on StrengthIf the characters set foot on or fly above the moonlet, based skill checks. the undead infesting its surface spill forth. Each hour the • Creatures take a –2 circumstance penalty on attack rolls. characters remain within 60 feet of the surface, there’s a • Falling damage is reduced to 1d4 points of damage per 10 20% chance for a random encounter, as shown on the table feet fallen. below. If an encounter features a creature from a book you don’t have, pick a result from a book you do have.
Illus. by Daarken
Atropus is the moonlet, the location where the player characters confront the elder evil and drive it from their world. The moonlet is spheroid, 700 miles in diameter. When the moonlet approaches close to the home world of your campaign setting (assuming Earth as the default), it takes up an orbit just outside the moon’s orbit, about 250,000 miles from the surface of the world. (If your campaign setting features multiple moons, it begins its orbit outside the orbit of the most distant satellite.) Once in position, the moonlet begins to circle the planet, entering a deteriorating orbit and picking up speed as it loses altitude. The rate of fall is up to you, but it should correspond with the progress of your campaign, the intensity of the sign, and the pace that best fits your needs. (Remember, this is a floating head in space, not an astrophysics project; don’t worry too much about the time it takes for the moonlet to descend.)
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