Neptune

Orbital radius: 30.06 AU
Type: Water, Spherical
Mean Diameter: 49,528k (Size F)
Escape Time: 6 turns
Length of Day: 19.2 hours
Length of Year: 164.79 standard years
Atmosphere: Normal, numerous storms
Resources: None of note
Satellites: Ring; 8 moons
Inhabitants: Aquatic Drow, Koa-Toa, other indigenous aquatic beings
Government: Balkanized
Port: E

Neptune's claim to fame is being the largest standard water world on record.

Neptune is in short, a blackwater world. The sun is little more than a bright speck in the Neptune sky, so most of the planet's light comes from the verdigris glow of a various species of sea weed that live near the surface. Neptune has two large moving land masses, and countless moving islands over it's vast surface. Theses pieces of land are constantly pummled by icy storms and extremely dangerous tides.

Below the surface is total darkness, but some creatures have illuminating features, similar to the deepwater fish from terrestrial earth worlds. There are also numerous bodies of rock that travel with the undersea currents. Neptune has no resources worth mentioning, except for some of the sealife which can yield ingrediants for various potions.

Variations on standard sea-dwelling races can be found here. One is a variant of the Kuo-Toa that is highly sencetive to sound. A fingernail on glass can result in great injury for them. There is also a race of blank-faced, pasty white aquatic humanoids whose face quickly polymorphs into the face of whatever being it sees. Visitors have found this very disturbing.

The most important race on Neptune are the Aquatic Drow. Culturally, and socially, these elves are like normal drow, but they are semi-amphibious, like aquatic elves. They are reported to live in cities that cling to various reefs that lie near the moving land masses. Others live in the bodies of rock that swirl around below the surface. These water dwelling Drow find the cold, dark waters of Neptune perfect for them.

The nations of aquatic drow have special "submarines" that resemble triops, which they use to trade with one another. Wars between the nations, while rare, tend to be magical in nature, and are always very, very violent.

There are rumors of a huge cashe of diamonds at Neptune's core. Many dwarven and gnommish mining companies have attempted to determine the truth of this rumor, but so far none of them have been able to penetrate far enough into the planet to find out. The Aquatic Drow claim that the core of the planet is an enemorous globe of ice, and that if any diamonds are there, reaching them is close to impossible, even for them.

Ring/ Niobe

by Ville Lavonius

Nope, I don't know whether Neptune has this many moons, nor if one is called Niobe. IMAO a fitting name. But change as you see fit. Allowed.

Type: Earthworld, size class C
Atmosphere: standard in inner region, none on the outside
Gravity: variable (miniscule -> infinite)
Orbit: 21 days
Period of rotation: 56 minutes
Weather: Temperate, dry
Danger Index: D (peaceful natives, no known diseases, no bigger carnivores than jackal-sized)
Resources: Very low.
Spelljamming acitvity: very low (no native 'jammers)
Bases: Shou, Thalaric's, IN (2 ships).

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Niobe is the only known splitworld, a phenomenon most alike the outer plane of Twin Paradises or the globular city of Sigil.

The moonlet spins so rapidly that it is inconceivable that someone could manage to land on it. Especially considering that the planet is as smooth as a pool ball, there would be no tethering points for the ship. Gravity hasn't been reliably measured on the outside (the spell ascertain gravity gives confusing results), but it is expected to be extremely low, as within the inner regions the gravity approaches zero as you go toward the 'edges'.

The 'axle' of Niobe is visible everywhere, but as yet unapproached. It is of silvery metal. The axle provides the only shade to the planet, a brief period of darkness lasting a minute every hour, the cloud formations are too weak to shade the sun due to scarcity of water.

History

Niobe used to be a normal small earthworld, supporting a diversity of emerging cultures of several species. Then, of course, disaster struck.

Glory of Krenmard, a Syllix ship equipped with a tangler[1] was surprised by a trio of Reigar pirates emerging from Neptune's gravity well. The speed of those semi-sentient ships proved too much for the lumbering exploration vessel, and the battle commenced sixteen lightseconds from Niobe.

Fighting a losing battle against the nimbler individuals the captain decided rather to go out in a blaze of glory than be exposed to the lengthy torture (art for art's sake) in Reigar hands. His idea was to burn up a newly discovered relic[2] in the tangler's receptacle to take out at least one ship before boarding. However, the power within the relic overwhelmed the tangler within seconds, a total conversion follows and mana is converted to thigh-thick string at a tremendous rate[3]. The strings (most of the time the device shot out secondaries[4] as well as the unbroken main strand), hitting the Reigar fleet at subSJ-speed vaporize the ships immediately and continue onwards.

Fortunately most of the string pieces tangled up with each other, losing their momentum quickly while ripping each other apart.

But the main string continued onwards, reaching Niobe in minutes. It struck the moon exactly at the equator, burrowing into ground instead of making a crater. The lashing motion as the end of the superstring wrapped tighter around the moon threw gigatons of soil, rock and water into the sky, casuing a 30 kilometer wide rift to appear[6]; most of the planet's atmosphere was lost as the strand whipped through it at supersonic speeds. However, the planet wasn't cut in half totally, instead the string was unable to cut through the planet's axle[7]. Using a spyglass it is possible to see the slightly thicker parts of the axle, in some places the stringiness is quite pronounced.

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height             \                    |
4 miles             \                   =
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                     diameter 280 miles
                     (140 to axle from bowl edge)
                     diameter of bowl bottom
                     260 miles

Environment

The wrapping altered the moon's spin totally, it used to have a very slow rotation period around 40 hours, but nowadays it whistles around the axle in 56 minutes. This tremendous speed of rotation has also given the moonlet a very peculiar gravity. Instead of constant EWS[8] gravity it has a distance-variable gravity field. There's almost no gravity at all at the edges, and the level of gravity grows slowly as the center is approached. At the edge of the center craters it measures around 2.7, halfway down the bowl it is about six, and at the beginning of the flat part it is already 20. Nobody has been able to penetrate further, and the gravity is assumed to grow on an exponential rate and approach inifinity as the axle is neared.

The 'upper' crater is filled with water to the rim and the increasing gravity manifests itself as rapidly increasing water pressure.

Since the sun is so far away, and mostly perpendicular to the rift, the habitable regions would accrue very little light if Neptune hadn't got a very high albedo[9]. So the lighting level is comparable to normal standard twilight. The planet is lit constantly, the only breaks are the rotation of shaft shadow, and short black flashes occurring perhaps a couple of times daily[10].

Most of the planet is totally flat, and consists of alternate batches of grassy soil (grows slowly), and glassed rock (usually basalt). There are no rivers, groundwater is close to non-existent; most water is collected in the large upper lake, some others exist in depressions. Moisture in air is very thin, and rains rare - clouds do exist, however.

Flora and Fauna

Both the plant and animal life could be termed as surviving, not thriving. Due to the very thin layer of topsoil the plants remain small and close to the ground (only a few species' roots can penetrate the flint-hard magma).

Animals are of very small size, anything larger than a housecat is positively gigantic. Evolution has run on predictable lines, there are no known 'monsters' on the planet.

Inhabitants

Most of the budding cultures were totally obliterated when the planet split. The ensuing shortage of oxygen, as it seeped into space and plantlife struggled to survive didn't help species' chance of survival either.

Some human tribes made through the ordeal, they came through pretty much unscathed; easiest way to recognize these individuals is their abnormally slow rate of breathing, and a very healthy respect to all deity-figures.

At least one community of elves escaped the swathe of destruction by sealing themselves in a deep cave (earthquakes took their toll, but the cave's magic supported walls mostly held). During the years they lapsed into barbarism, grew paler and paler and totally forgot about carnivorism. These 'shadow elves' are excellent gardeners, most having some druidic skills. Their long separation from civilization (they spent close to three millennia in the cave, emerging only 74 years ago) makes them peculiar companions.

Some thri-kreen inhabit the planet, not known is whether they were born here or just refugees from the collapse of Chitin Empire. Their oral history doesn't go back as far as the splitting of the planet, but covers most of the subsequent events.

The first colonists were a group of Krynnish gnomes[11], since their arrival quite a few factions have arrived here.

Cities don't exist (except for the elf dwellings), both humans and thri-kreen live nomadic lives. Gnomes tend to move around on a yearly basis too. The only permanent place seems to be Point Firstland, a town of about 500 inhabitants founded near a small lake at the EWS-ring. The city is marked by an absolutely huge red balloon floating five kilometers above the town. This is a good landmark in a world that has no magnetic field and whose rapid spin could (and often has) confused even the best of rangers.

Gamey bitties

It isn't totally impossible to land on the surface, but there's absolutely nothing to see nor explore - millennia of slow friction has polished the outside to a featureless ball. If the PCs can think up a credible plan (be hard on the tethering part) and the spelljamming character doesn't totally screw up his skill roll - by all means let them land.

Gravity is a factoid that hasn't yet been touched upon in spelljammer products - their opting for a binary gravity system was a cop-out. A working system could be crafted by subtracting points from a character's physical abilities as the gravity increases. Strength controls walking, and movement in general - a high DEX is advisable as not to stumble.

Plot Hooks

Niobe isn't a place of extreme violence and exploitation, more like a very quiet ST episode with no real ending.

The tangler is still somewhere, and probably some remnants of the relic remain inside.
Of course the PCs, intrigued by the never-before-seen gravity effect, are anxious to descend into the crater (or delve into the lake).
The PCs, hired to locate a watersource bore through the basalt into an as yet undiscovered shadow elf lodge.

Footnotes

[1]	A device biocrafted from the mouthparts of a Mailian gargantuan relative to the common cave fisher. Converts spell energy to gooey web-strand (works like the magic missile crystal at the prow of a Hummingbird).
[2]	The Sieve of Matrimundos[5] from Ssherma.
[3]	The recoil accelerated Glory to SJ-speed without any means of stopping or altering direction. Most of the crew was still alive when the ship shattered against the spherewall. After two days the blazingly hot tangler was cut loose from the ship, but inertia kept the ship moving.
[4]	Length up to three miles. Some of these fragments picked up semi-circular orbits around the sun and quickly started collecting ice around them, effectively becoming just-another-comet-variety (see Richard's article about comets).
[5]	The Last Reverser.
[6]	These later formed into Neptune's thin rings as gravity spread them out.
[7]	Proving the Shou planetologist Yamu Naquani's theory about every earth body having a metal axle. So far this is the only piece of empirical evidence.
[8]	Earth World Standard (within 10% of Oerth, Al'Malamut). Measurable by devices and spells.
[9]	Surface reflectance.
[10]	Some entrepreneuring scientists explain these as 'slow shadow', created when light passes very near the axle. These periods last typically 2-4 seconds, the longest recorded occurrence lasted 8 seconds. Interviews with Thri-Kreen mention that the periods occurred more often and lasted up to half a minute when the rift was younger. And what about 'slow light'...
[11]	The rift is quite hard to locate from space, it measures only a minimal fraction of the planet's girth. And being a remote sphere, Terra- space attracted very few visitors.

Satellites

Triton

by Richard Pugh

Orbital radius: (354800 km)
Mean Diameter: 2700 km
Orbital Period: 5.8 standard days
Atmosphere: Standard, high winds, extreme cold.
Resources: None
Inhabitants: Humans, elves, various undead.

Triton is the largest of Neptune's moons. It orbits in a highly excentric bullet-shaped orbit that carries it dangerously close to Neptune's gravity plane. What's more, it orbits in a counter-clockwise direction, which is different from every other world in the Terraspace system.

At one time, Triton was a heavily populated world. During the course of its history several races have used the moon as a base for operations in Terraspace. There are ruins that can be connected to Juna, Reigar, Illithids, and even a Syllix outpost from the old Chitan Empire. Today however, the only inhibitants are a few scattered human and elven settlements.

Aercheaological research suggests that Triton was once an abnormally warm moon, warmed perhaps by hot springs or planer vorticies. Crops grew easily, seasons were mild, and the climate was stable. What's more, it was rich in mineral resources. Such a combination on a "rim world" is rare in any sphere, so naturally it appealed to anyone who came to the system.

This changed abrubtly, however, and within recorded history. The last race to maintain a major hold on Triton were the Illithids, who planned to use the moon as a base for expansion into the rest of the sphere. They never got around to it, because wars with the Beholder nations forced the Illithids to put their wars of conquest on hold. When the Illithid power was broken about 1000 years ago, Triton was cut off. The Illithids survived as best as they could, but a natural disaster effectively destroyed the moon.

A comet or large asteroid struck Triton and detroyed its ecology, reducing the planet to a cold, frozen wasteland. What's more, it threw the moon out of orbit, causing it to settle in a rapidly decaying, excentric orbit. Triton holds this orbit to this day. Many sages predict that Triton will fall into the upper atmonsphere of Neptune in about four centuries. As it is, Neptune's gravity is starting to alter the geology of Triton.

The few Illithids that survived the impact escaped to Oberon, one of the moons of Uranus. Many of the illithids who died on Triton still exist as undead: a form of ghost that drains intelligence, wisdom and charisma, as opposed to aging a victim. Numerous other forms of undead can be found among the ruins of the illithid outposts.

Some of the illithid human slaves that escaped after the disaster took to living in some of the warmer points of the moon. Their decendants still live there, and they even welcome visitors. Despite the danger of living on Triton, they have no desire to leave. They feel that Triton's "re-unification" with Neptune, the "Mother Sea World," is an event to be praised. A local religion has developed around this idea, with the humans worshiping the large blue planet in the sky. During those times when Triton is closest to Neptune, and earthquakes occur, they see this as the two worlds trying to embrase!

The elves who live here are, in their own way, just as backward. This outpost, which was set up as a scout base during a war with the Beholders, about 400 years ago, was simply forgotten by the Navy. These elves still think the war is going on! There are about 200 elves living in the old outpost, and all at least 600 years old. There are two man-o-war ships docked in a special cave, which the elves keep in mint condition. The elves are waiting patiently for the day when the navy comes to recall them, or the day the beholders come to challenge them. The irony of this is, with the Second Unhuman War now going full tilt, the Navy may show up again to set up a scout base, having forgotten that they already have one!