The Moonlet

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.) 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

KEY FEATURES

The moonlet is not a pleasant place. It is barren and rocky, overrun with sharp spires of old stone, deep trenches, and mountainous ridges piled on top of each other. Bubbling up from the craters pocking the surface is a noxious tar. Debris picked up from countless worlds clutters the surface. The moonlet remains on the dark side of the world, keeping the planet between it and the sun. As a result, the surface of the moonlet is dark, granting total concealment (50% miss chance) to all creatures on its surface. The moonlet is a low-gravity environment. This has a number of effects, as follows. • Increase speed for all movement types by 5 feet. • A creature’s carrying capacity doubles, and it gains a +10 circumstance bonus on Strength checks made to lift or move heavy objects. • Creatures gain a +10 circumstance bonus on Strengthbased skill checks. • Creatures take a –2 circumstance penalty on attack rolls. • Falling damage is reduced to 1d4 points of damage per 10 feet fallen.

The moonlet has few defenses. The dangers of the void are enough to keep enemies at bay. Unless the moonlet is approached when it has already entered the atmosphere—at which point it is almost too late—characters must contend with the hazardous environment. After 3 rounds of exposure to the void, a living creature must make a successful DC 20 Constitution check or suffer excruciating pain, becoming stunned and reDoom befalls your world maining so until it returns to the atmosphere. Creatures that fail the check by 5 or more fall unconscious. Creatures that require air are also subject to suffocation. Attempting to hold one’s breath requires a DC 15 Constitution check every round. The DC increases by 1 each round. Even on a successful check, the creature takes 1 point of Constitution damage from the pressure. On a failed check, or when the creature stops holding its breath, it falls unconscious on the following round, and its hit points fall to 0. On the next round, the creature drops to –1 hit points and the round after, its hit points fall to –10 and the creature dies. If the characters set foot on or fl y above the moonlet, the undead infesting its surface spill forth. Each hour the characters remain within 60 feet of the surface, there’s a 20% chance for a random encounter, as shown on the table 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