The Second Sky

Thought by some travelers to be nothing more than a legend swapped over campfires, the Second Sky phenomenon is very real.
Second Sky incidents only occur at night between dusk and dawn. A location experiencing such an incident typically appears normal from the outside, and cannot be detected by any known means short of contact by a valid entrant (see below). Once a valid, conscious being enters the defined area, however, that being begins to perceive the Second Sky.
Because there is no known reliable method of predicting the timing or location of these zones, what little study has occurred has largely been related anecdotally by those who have stumbled across the phenomena. To date, the scholars of Highspire’s Anomalous Phenomena department have documented 37 cases they deemed credible from an assortment of journals, correspondences and in person interviews with survivors. Secondhand reports from witnesses deemed credible either consistently describe or fail to contradict the following features:
Within this zone, all physical terrain and other surroundings will appear identical, but looking up will reveal an entirely new night sky with new constellations, planets and depending on the season, one or more moons. This alternative night sky is remarkable in that the stars are reportedly laid out in complex geometric patterns, with none of the randomness seen in the ordinary distribution of stars. The moon, when present, is always full and directly overhead, except in one reported case of four moons located on the horizon of the four cardinal directions.
This sky manifests its own weather, which always consists of a clear, cloudless night. The sudden vanishing of any local weather is often the first clue that tips off visitors, and there is never wind or fog of any kind. Those who have crossed into a Second Sky zone report a brief feeling of vertigo and on some occasions a barely perceptible blue tint to the surrounding starlight. These signs are subtle enough that it’s quite possible some travelers have passed in and out of Second Sky zones without ever noticing anything anomalous. The zones are therefore most dangerous when the night is clear in the real world, as the changes can be sufficiently innocuous that it is only when the more dangerous properties of the sky begin to manifest that anyone notices something wrong.
The defined zone of the Second Sky, though it displays no visible boundary, is always a perfectly formed geometric shape, like a triangle or square. It varies in size from a few dozen meters on a side to an area of several square kilometers. The barrier can be crossed an unlimited number of times as long as the zone is active, and appears to work for most beings that have some form of consciousness (See footnote 1 for details on “valid entrants”).
After crossing into the zone, some travelers encounter dangerous anomalies of various types.
Anomaly Type 1: Slithering Rain
Small globules of what appears to be water began to fall from the sky, which are often initially mistaken for rain, and begin to cohere into larger ooze-like beings. These beings form themselves into a three dimensional shape that corresponds to the shape of the zone, but extended into a third dimension. A square zone would manifest cubes, for example, and a triangular one would create pyramids or triangular prisms.
These shapes begin moving to the nearest object foreign to the zone, seize it, and begin dissolving it with their bodies, which are highly acidic. Just a few seconds of contact with the ooze can be enough to cause hideous scarring, cripple limbs and render most objects useless.
While the shapes largely behave in accordance with the hunting patterns of large oozes, one unusual behavior has been observed by survivors. For reasons that remain unclear, the entities seem to leave undamaged certain specific objects. Past verified objects have included a large pearl, an oaken chest, a steel plow, a pair of dragon bone dice, a crystal hour glass and several paintings and engravings. (See footnote 2 for details on these “select objects.”)
If at least one object meets these criteria, the oozes will leave one or more persons alone, and “herd” them out of the zone with the object(s). Any who leave a second sky zone under these circumstances find that upon their returning to the normal world, the zone immediately dissipates, preventing re-entry. There are no recorded cases of someone refusing to leave with the object and returning alive, so it is assumed that refusal leads to death.
Anomaly Type 2: Solid Light
Occurring only when the moon is present, at least one reported case describes the moonlight becoming a solid object. While unchanged in appearance, certain shafts of moonlight exhibit the physical properties of a solid, metallic substance that is not breakable by any known means. Travelers often discover this by walking or running into them, which can cause significant injury.
Not all moonlight exhibits this property, only certain defined sections that take the shape of the same geometric pattern as the borders of the zone, though in various sizes. Survivors report that solid portions of the moonbeams otherwise behave like a dense, transparent metal, even producing similar sounds when struck with various objects. There is no known way to damage or move this substance, however, with even shapes as small as a finger’s width across proving immune to significant kinetic force.
These areas are also not necessarily resting on the ground, and the substance is either immune to gravity or some other force is responsible for holding the shapes in the air. Hovering “islands” of the substance are just as impossible to move as their counterparts on the ground, and can be used as platforms to climb higher into the sky. There is only one recorded instance of a traveler attempting to climb the substance, and his fate is unknown to his companions, who fled shortly afterwards.
Anomaly Type 3: The Howling Comet
One of only two successful attempts to predict, locate and study a zone resulted in a small team being sent in to conduct reconnaissance. They related that shortly after entering, a bright light in the sky began descending at a rapid pace, and as it approached it was accompanied by a loud, shrill “howling” noise that quickly grew in both pitch and volume. The entrants fled the “comet” at top speed and were able to escape the zone before the object made physical contact, though three members of the group were deafened until suitable healing had been administered. The two members of the team who were not deafened were found in subsequent testing to have developed perfect pitch, and displayed a marked increase in their ability to comprehend and perform advanced mathematics. Study is ongoing.

Footnote 1: Entrants Valid entrants have included animals, a variety of humanoids, creatures from other planes, self-aware plants and, in one unconfirmed report, a type of minor golem called a Warforged.
Among those people and things not affected are non-sentient plants, dead bodies of any kind, inanimate objects not accompanied by a valid entrant, any living thing that is asleep or unconscious and, for reasons which are especially unclear, insects of any kind, both the ordinary and “giant” specimens.

Footnote 2: Objects apparently spared by “Slithering Rain”
While they share no definite characteristics, the objects the creatures do not destroy tend to be particularly well-crafted or detailed, and are often art objects or luxury items, with the obvious exception of the plow. In one reported case, the spherical oozes killed and completely dissolved a wagon driver, his wagon and both of his donkeys, but left the sculpture they were transporting, a marble engraving of a dodecahedron, entirely alone. The witness even claimed that one of the oozes used a partially corroded wagon wheel to keep the sculpture from falling from the dissolving wagon. All so-called “valid entrants” enter the zone upon crossing the boundary. Those who do not enter pass through the space as if the zone did not exist.

Tourism

No. Just...no.

Alternative Name(s)

"The Unlucky Stars"

Type

Star System