The Surface
The Gates
The Chasms
Once Hydwn was a forest moon inhabited by gentle fey, the greatest of which were the Hydwnii (after whom the moon was named). The Hydwnii had the bodies of men, but the hooves and heads of deer, and were potent bards, druids and sorcerers. In those days, seven tiny suns orbited Hydwn like moonlets, there were numerous small fresh-water seas, and the moon was a green and pleasant place. But two thousand years ago a dark power reached out to the moon and opened three gates from some dim, unpleasant place. Immense shapes of darkness -- Ugallu-demons and Umu-demons -- arose into the sky and extinguished the little suns, and an army of Scorpionfolk and giant scorpions led by evil wizards and dragons poured through the gates.
The war that followed was terrible. In the end the fey destroyed the gates and the evil wizards, but they were unable to destroy all of the Scorpionfolk. In turn, the Hydwnii were completely wiped out, the forests were destroyed and even the planet cracked and broken. The remaining dragons and demons left after this.
Only a few of the other fey survive to this day, and they have been forced to move down into the great chasms where the stunted remains of the once great forests tenaciously hold on, sustained by the light fountains and fed by the warm waters that bubble up from the deep within the moon's core.
The surface of Hydwn is now a cold desert, dominated by the Scorpionfolk who dwell in the ruined fey cities, surrounded by dead and petrified forests. There are large icecaps on both poles.
The Ancient Enemy
The evil wizards (and evil priests as well, but they would have had levels in Wizard) belonged to an ancient Babylonian Cult and secret society that worshipped Tiamat in the form of a hybrid Scorpion-Dragon. They were from Maj, and traveled to Hydwn by divine magic by way of the Babylonian underworld. It is possible they did not even know the real-space location of their target! Any remains of the cult on Maj were likely wiped out by the Parthians a long time ago.
They were after Hydwn's living core/heart -- the same force that still powers the fountains of light. They hoped to take control of its vast power and break it to evil so they could use it to conquer Maj.
The wizards may have left behind a small number of religiously-linked arcane Artifacts, only usable if you happened to worship scorpions or Tiamat. Almost anything besides an Artifact would have been used up or destroyed by time and weather, by now, unless GMs wish to rule otherwise.
GM Note: If you wish for numbers there might have been 169 (13 x 13) Wizards and Priests; a nice round magical number. It is just conceivable that some might survive in some form of magical stasis, say turned to stone or maybe encased in a living tree. Maybe some got reincarnated as beasts by the Hydwnii? Immortal and wise in wizardry, but with no hands to make somatic gestures and no voice to perform verbal components and no spell components, it is all useless. They'd likely be quite mad and quite dangerous by now. Imagine a horse who is actually a 2500+ year old insane wizard, just waiting for his chance to escape his form and take vengeance on the world ...
The surface of Hydwn is a cold desert of blowing ochre sand, studded with dead forests, some petrified, others of desiccated but undecaying wood. The main life forms found on the surface are arthropods, both giant and normal sized. Flow Barnacles live on the dead forests, and giant beetles, ants, centipedes, scorpions, and such live on them and each other.
The Scorpionfolk live in the ruins of the Fey's forest cities or in wandering tribes in the wasteland. The cities often have still working magical fountains, allowing some limited ranching in these places.
The basic unit of organization for the Scorpionfolk is the clan, which consists of 40-100 adults and about half that many young. Chieftains, chosen by the relatives of the last chieftain, rule the clans. Three to five clans make a tribe, ruled by a hereditary King or Queen.
Adults of importance -- chieftains, kings, shamans or war leaders -- must be one of the Reborn, also called the two-souled. To become one of the Reborn, a Scorpionfolk makes a pilgrimage to one of the three ruined gates. (This pilgrimage is sacred, and a Scorpionfolk wearing a red pilgrim's robe is in theory immune to attack by all other Scorpionfolk. This taboo is very strong, and a tribe that breaks it is likely to be wiped out by an alliance of all of their neighbors.) Once at a gate, they eat certain sacred herbs gathered from places strong in the Fey's old magic, and wait and mediate until an outsider comes to them (see The Gates below). This outsider's personality is overlain on the Scorpionfolk's, gaining them a point of Int and a point of Wis, and their base type changes from Monstrous Humanoid to Native Outsider (they gain the additional skill points and improved fortitude save of an Outsider). Additionally, their alignment moves one step in each axis (good/evil, law/chaos) to the alignment of the outsider encountered (so, if a Scorpionfolk, who are normally Lawful/Evil, encountered a Djinn -- Chaotic/Good -- they would become true neutral; if instead they encountered a Balor -- Chaotic/Evil -- they would become Neutral/Evil). Reborn Scorpionfolk are about twice as long-lived as regular Scorpionfolk, but are slightly less fertile.
The Scorpionfolk tribes are often at war with each other, and when they are not, they often will raid the chasms to hunt juicier life forms that live down there. However, they dislike the moist air of the chasms and never stay long. They are actively frightened of the light fountains.
Scorpionfolk can be found in "Monster Manual II", or, as they are OGL, at http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/scorpionfolk. If GMs wish to make them really nasty they can give them some spellcaster levels, say as Priest or NPC Adept.
The Cities
The two most major of the ruined Hydwnii cities were called Hychdwn and Bleiddwn. These were built primarily of living trees, which were encouraged to grow rooms and platforms. Some stone buildings of rough-cut but cunningly-built stone were intertwined with the trees. Gardens were everywhere, but looked almost wild. Artificial pools and streams abounded, once upon a time, and there are many works of enduring art: statues, mosaics, etc. With the death and/or petrifaction of the trees and the death of the underbrush, these have become cold, dusty and eerie places.
The three ruined gates are immense piles of shattered black stone 500 ft. to 600 ft. high and half a mile long, shot through with silver threads and, where the old surface is exposed, covered with faintly-glowing red runes. They are still very magically active, and detect magic is pointless within one mile of them.
The walls between universes are thin near them, and extra-planar outsiders of all sorts are found within half a mile of them. You can determine encounters with them in this area by using the following tables:
Moral Alignment:
1-75 Evil Outsiders 76-95 Neutral Outsiders 96-100 Good Outsiders
Level:
1-25 4th or lower 26-50 5th to 8th 51-75 9th to 12th 76-100 13th or higher
Nothing grows within 10 miles of the gates and no natural animals will be found in that zone, either. The remains of the gates make very good source material for constructing cursed magic items and magic items that inflict curses or magical wounds. This leads to occasional visits by profit-seeking space farers. The Scorpionfolk kill any such they can catch.
The most striking and perhaps important feature of the Chasms is the light fountains. Shooting streams of brilliantly glowing water 500 to 600 feet into the air, they somewhat resemble geysers, except they run constantly and their water is warm, but not hot. They not only warm and moisten the area around them, but evil and negative energy creatures cannot approach within 1000 feet of a fountain, and natural healing is x10 faster within that radius. The water of the fountains counts as Holy Water for up to 12 days after being removed from the fountain, at which point it simply becomes ordinary water of exceptional purity. The fountains reach down into the magical heart of Hydwn and tap the wild fey magic still at the heart of the moon. The light of the fountains is sufficient for plants to grow by. Each of the seven largest chasms has thirteen clusters of three light fountains at the bottom. Each of thirteen smaller chasms have seven clusters of three light fountains at the bottom.
All of the standard forms of Fey can be found living in the chasms near the fountains: Dryads, Nymphs, Satyrs, Pixies, Nixies and Grigs. Even the chaotic Fey have learned to cooperate with their fellows for mutual survival. If you attack one Fey on Hydwn, you attack all of them.
The Fey had long ago domesticated a semi-flightless bird called the Gwyff as guard beasts. Some of these followed them into exile in the chasms and guard them still.
Size/Type: Large Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 3d10+9 (25 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares), fly* 100 ft. (poor)
Armor Class: 15 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +4 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+11
Attack: Beak +6 melee (1d10+6)
Full Attack: Beak +6 melee (1d10+6)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Charge for x3 damage
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., Low-light Vision, Scent
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +2
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 3, Wis 13, Cha 8
Skills: Listen +4, Spot +8
Feats: Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge
Environment: The Chasms
Organization: Solitary, pair, or flight (7-12)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: 4-6 HD (Large); 7-9 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: -
Gwyffs are large, semi-flightless birds that move in a series of gliding leaps. Voracious omnivores, Gwyffs will hunt humanoids as readily as any other meal. A typical Gwyff is 9 feet long, has a wingspan of 20 feet, and weighs 1,000 pounds. Most are covered in dark-gray feathers, but black and dark-brown occasionally occur. Their beaks are a very dark-red in color. Males tend to be very slightly larger than females, and have slightly darker beaks.
(*) They may only fly for one turn at a time, and must have run the turn before in the same direction. Gwyffs may only fly every other round, and then only up to 10 feet above the ground.
Gwyffs run and glide at their prey and strike with their long, lance-like beak (this counts as a charge). When they cannot charge, they stab with beak. Mated pairs and flights of these creatures attack in concert, charging repeatedly to drive away or kill intruders. Gwyffs fight to the death to defend their nests and their hatchlings.
Gwyffs have a +4 racial bonus on Spot checks.
Away from the light fountains, the Chasms are a less friendly place. There can be found oozes (Black Puddings, Grey Ooze and Ochre Jelly), carnivorous plants and fungi (Shriekers, Violet Fungi, Phantom Fungi, Shambling Mounds), unintelligent dark-adapted aberrations (Chokers, Gricks and Otyughs), giant arthropods (Giant Beetles, Mantises and Wasps, Monstrous Centipedes, Scorpions and Spiders), Vampire Fey and Giant Slugs.
The specs for a Vampire Fey are created by applying the Vampire template to any of the standard Fey except for Dryads. The Vampire Fey were created by the evil wizards to prey upon their own kind during the invasion (normally Fey are immune to becoming vampires), but they lost control of them, and they fought against their creators. Now, a few survivors hold on, still guarding the remains of the Fey against the Scorpionfolk. They are careful not to create Scorpionfolk Vampires, destroying the bodies of any they slay to prevent them from rising up again.
Size/Type: Huge Vermin
Hit Dice: 12d8+12 (66 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 ft., burrow 10 ft.
AC: 16 (-2 size, +8 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+20
Attacks: Bite +12 melee (2d6+8)
Full Attack: Bite +12 melee (2d6+8)
Face/Reach: 10 ft. by 20 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Spit acid
Special Qualities: Vermin Traits, Damage Reduction 15/slashing or piercing, Blindsight 60 ft., Salt Vulnerability
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +4, Will +4
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 10, Con 12, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2
Skills: Listen +10
Climate/Terrain: Temperate and warm marsh and underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: 13-21 HD (Huge); 22-36 HD (Gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: -
Giant slugs dwell away from light, preferring the depths of dungeons and similar places. Giant slugs are able to eat substances like wood or burrow through very hard earth using their rasp-like tongues.
Giant slugs are simply larger versions of normal slugs. They are about 25 feet long and can grow to be 50 feet in length. Most are pale-gray in color with a pale-white underbelly.
Combat
A giant slug attacks with its bite, but prefers to attack targets with its highly corrosive spittle.
Spit Acid (Ex): Stream of acid, 5 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 60 feet long, once per round, damage 4d8, Reflex half DC 17. Giant slugs are immune to their own acid and that of other giant slugs.
Blindsight (Ex): Giant slugs have no visual organs but can ascertain all foes within 60 feet using sound, scent, and vibration.
Salt Vulnerability (Ex): A giant slug is highly susceptible to salt, taking 1d8 points of damage per pound of salt it is hit with or is spread on its skin.
(Giant Slug re-adapted from the 3e adaptation here: http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/vermin/giant_slug.)
Wood from Hydwn tends to be cursed. A powerful enough mage or cleric might be able to break the curse, but it would tend to be very risky. Unless the curse was broken, space-going magical beasts would hate any ship made of it on sight and want to destroy it. Also, everyone aboard it would get a -1 to -3 (depending on the percentage of wood from Hydwn used) luck modifier to all saving throws and to hit. However, such a ship, because of the magic of its construction, would, if made of 10-32% of Hydwn wood, be +1 to SR and +10% to hull points; if made of 33-65% of Hydwn wood, be +2 to SR and +20% to hull points; and if made of 66% or more of Hydwn wood, would be +2 to SR and +1 to MC and +30% to hull points.
Even if removed (and ordinary Remove Curse wouldn't do it -- you'd need at least some form of (Limited) Wish or Miracle), the curse would very likely come back over time. And even if the curse has currently been removed, Radiant Dragons and Oreth Elves will probably consider you to be filthy grave robbers, and treat you accordingly.
Horn from the dead Hydwnii (these are antlers rather than goat's or ram's horns) might be made into things like Lyres of Building and Harps of Charming. If these exist on Hydwn they would mostly be down in the Chasms in possession of the remaining Fey, since being artifacts and remains of their vanished elder siblings, they would be sacred items not to be abandoned if at all possible. If any were captured by Scorpionfolk, probably the Vampire Fey would try to steal them back.
Gate Stone - see The Gates, above.
Light Water - see The Chasms, above.
(c) Dreamer Publications, 1980 - October 2006
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