H'Catha

Planet Type: Flat world water body
Astronomical type: TERRESTRIAL PLATE
Planet Size: C
Depth*: 300 miles
Diameter*: 3300 miles
Circumference*: 10400 miles
Day length: 26 standard hours
Year length: 60121 planetary days
Distance/Time To:
The Sun: 1600 million miles, 16 days travel
Wildspace system border: xxx miles
Escape time:
Satellites: 2 moons
Environment class: Temperate
Population analysis: Beholders, orogs
*length, diameter, and circumference are rounded to the nearest 100.
*maximum dimensions measured as a cylinder but actual body is irregularly proportioned

Satellites

Turnbetl (moon)
Lumbe (moon)

Notible Hazards

Geysers
Hurricanes
Tornadoes
Whirlpools

Notible Resources

Spelljammer Ports

Port 1

Port Rating: A-E, A-best, *-void
Personnel 1-6
Supplies: 1-6
Spelljamming Facilities: 1-6
Landing: Air, Land, Water, Other

Notable NPC

H’catha is a disk of water floating in space, with a single large mountain called the Spindle jutting from its center. The water disk tapers at the edge to form a rim. The Spindle is 200 miles across at its base, and tapers to a peak 1,000 miles above the surface of the water. The caverns inside the Spindle are home to five warring subspecies of beholders.
H'Catha is the furthest planet from the Sun, being located 1,600 million miles from it. It is a flat, wheel-shaped planet. Its inhabited side faces directly towards the Sun. Much of the planet is covered in water, with the occasional mountain jutting out of it. In the middle of the planet is the Spindle, a huge mountain that is 200 miles wide at its base and over 1,000 miles tall.
The planet is inhabited almost exclusively by beholders and their slaves. The beholders are separated into different clans, each led by a different hive mother. These clans battle each other, the beholders being sent to fight and die at the behest of the hive mothers, who each wish to become the dominant force on H'Catha.
One of the ways in which the hive mothers try to gain dominance on H'Catha is by gaining access to the Mind Stations dotted across the Spindle. These magical devices were created by ancient beholders who inhabited H'Catha aeons ago. The beholders are said to have grown so knowledgeable that even their own vast brains couldn't store all their knowledge, so they dumped their excess knowledge into the Mind Stations. While the information within the Mind Stations is largely useless and outdated, the beholders of H'Catha still fight for control of the Mind Stations, in the hopes of finding one kernel of knowledge that proves useful to them. The only thing the beholders hate more than rival clans are outsiders. Most beholders will try to kill or enslave visiting spelljammers on sight. However, a small number of hive mothers have seen the potential benefits in interacting with outsiders; have set up docks where they're willing to trade goods and services with them.

H’Catha is the eighth planet from the Sun. This planet is shaped in the form of a flat disk, held together by unknown forces. The geology is that of a saltwater ocean with islands and small continents, and the ocean up to 20 miles deep. The ocean water tends to spill over the edge, but as it leaks down the sides of the planet, the water turns into steam; the steam turns into clouds that migrate over the planet until they eventually return to the ocean as rain. The bottom of the planet is composed of adamantine ores, making it one of the hardest naturally occurring surfaces in Realmspace.
As it revolves around the Sun, H’Catha wobbles slightly along its axis. This wobbling creates an alternating cycle of movement in which one edge of the planet is brought closer to the Sun while the opposite edge moves away from the Sun; the edge brought closer to the Sun is warmer than the edge moved away, effectively producing seasons for the planet. The ocean of H’Catha tends to be calm during most months, but it does experience storms during its Summers.
There is a wide variety of wildlife and vegetation on H’Catha, thriving in the stable, temperate climate of this planet. The central continent of H’Catha, which hosts a huge mountain known as the Spindle, is home to the largest variety of surface creatures on the planet. The ocean also hosts many creatures, big and small, ranging from tiny shrimps to the gigantic eyes of the deep. The Underdark of H’Catha connects all the islands and continents with its network of tunnels.

Overview

This planet, the farthest from the Sun, is a flat water world with a tall mountain in the center. The surprisingly clear water is 300 miles thick throughout the planet. The water’s edge is tapered and shrouded in mist and fog, making it very dangerous to approach because the possibility of falling off the world is very high.
The water of this flat world constantly falls off the edge as well. When this happens, the water immediately turns to steam and collects at the world’s edge and under the planet. This ob­scures the edge, making it impossible to see. The culture that lived here before the beholders took over lost three ships trying to prove that the world was round. Inadvertently, they proved otherwise.
As H’Catha revolves around the Sun, it looks very much like a wagon wheel. The Spindle— the large central mountain—constantly points to the Sun, while the rest of the planet rolls along in its orbit. The planet also has two moons which circumnavigate the planet along the flat plane.
The Spindle is directly in the center of the planet. It is 200 miles thick at its base, but it ta­pers and thins to the very top, over 1,000 miles above the surface. The Spindle is the tallest mountain in the Realms’ sphere.
The water in the flat section of the planet is home to a variety of life. Unfortunately, with the exception of the eye of the deep, most of the na­tive aquatic life forms have fallen prey to the warfare between the various beholder races that have made this planet their home.
Climate: H’Catha is a cool planet, with a temperature of a constant 50 degrees. Because of the planet’s revolution angle, the amount of daylight striking the planet never changes ei­ther. The two H’Catha moons never get in the way of the sun, because they revolve along the axis of the planet’s orbital path.

Ports of Call

The planet has several loca­tions across the base of the Spindle where spell­jamming ships of the beholders can dock. There is a total of six such docks, and every one of them is owned by a different species of be­holder.
These beholders do not take kindly to their docks being used by other spelljamming races. If the trading goods are of the kind they desire, the ship is allowed to stay only until the trading is done. If there is nothing of use on the ship— and the beholders are hard to please—they in­sist the ship leave immediately, or pay the deadly consequence. The ports of one beholder species cannot be used by another, or else an immediate war breaks out.

Resources/Trade

the beholders allow the Arcane to dock whenever and wherever they choose. These odd humanoids are the ones who sell the beholders their ships, and thus their in­volvement is very important. Often, the behold­ers attack ships that enter their airspace, to steal their money and ships to finance the purchasing of their own spelljamming ships. This makes this area of space quite dangerous. Also, be­holders do not normally take prisoners, unless the persons are spellcasters or excellent war­riors.
The beholders love to purchase information regarding the activities of the other species of beholders. Their constant fight to gain species superiority over the others makes this informa­tion quite valuable. On occasion the beholders may mistakenly pay for incorrect data, but they always get their vengeance on the liar at a later date. Usually this happens when the seller has long forgotten the wrong he once committed.

Disposition of Groundlings

Most of the groundlings here on the planet H’Catha are nothing more than warmongering idiots, trying to exterminate the other beholder species. This is to the liking of races fearful of beholders, but it is a shame nonetheless. The purpose of their creation was to traverse the spheres, to gain in­formation regarding everything. At the end of their searches, the hive mothers of the individ­ual beholder species were to come together and share everything they found. Their gods designed the beholder in their own likeness to search the world over and report back to them on the status of the worlds they did not control. This mission, long ago distorted, is as forgotten as their original home sphere.
The eye of the deep was to search the lands beneath the seas to uncover their secrets as well. Unfortunately, these beholders are just one more racist beholder species.
A few of the more knowledgeable persons in the Realms believe that the gods in the different spheres placed a curse on the beholders once they found out their purpose. These deities, fearing the beholder’s gods, placed the behold­ers into a hateful race for supremacy against their own kind. Unfortunately, no one has asked Large Luigi about this yet. He would be the one to know.

Prominent Land Features

There are very few land features on H’Catha, but what features do exist definitely stand out. First of all, this planet is unique in the Realmspace system be­cause it is the only flat world planet. This flat­ness, with the Spindle, makes the planet look like a sundial when viewed from afar.
The oceans are always calm, but the moon or­biting the planet causes tidal fluctuations which create continual water circulation. Thousands of different algae live in these oceans, convert­ing the Sun’s rays into oxygen. This oxygen is then used by the aquatic life forms. The algae are also eaten by small animals, which in turn are eaten by progressively larger animals until the end of the food chain is reached, which is the eye of the deep.
These monsters do not seem to care for the environment they live in, for they spend as much time as possible running about eating everything they can find.This is destroying the ecosystem that was perfectly balanced before these creatures showed up.
The beholders, in their infinite war of suprem­acy over the other species, constantly fight over possession of the Spindle, the giant mountain in the center of H’Catha.
Whenever one species gets a stronger foot­hold than another, the downtrodden species at­tack the stronger one, to push them back down. This continues until another species is found to be the stronger, and the cycle continues.
This constant battle has done nothing but stain the mountain green with beholder blood, and keep the beholders from conquering the worlds that would otherwise be theirs for the taking.
On the top of the Spindle, a constant storm keeps the peak in continual darkness. The clouds and ball lightning are so thick that stand­ard, infrared, and ultraviolet sight render noth­ing but haze. Here is where the knowledge of the universe is kept—there is a slight problem with the acquisition of it, though.
The mountain must be climbed from the ground floor, all the way to the top.There are hundreds of mind-readying stations along the way, and all are extremely difficult to locate, even with divination spells. A thief suffers a - 80% penalty against his detect traps skill to lo­cate these areas, while a divination spell works only 25% of the time.

Geography

The planet consisted of a flat 300‑mile-thick (480‑kilometer) disc of clear water with a single mountain in the center. Close-up, this world looked like a giant wagon wheel, with the mountain, known as the Spindle, always pointing directly at the Sun. Over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) tall and 200 miles (320 kilometers) wide at its base, the Spindle was the tallest mountain in all of Realmspace.

Climate for H'Catha

Because of the planet's distance from the Sun and the fact that its rotation kept it always facing the sun, H'Catha's climate was cool, with the temperature always at 50℉ (10℃). However, it could support a variety of life, especially in its oceans. In particular, H'Cathan doom radishes were considered a very savory dish. H'Catha had two moons that orbited the planet at its equator. The closest moon's tidal forces were responsible for keeping gentle maritime currents. The water constantly fell off the edges of the planet, evaporating into a thick fog which obscured the edges and then being reabsorbed into the planet's water cycle. H'Catha's ocean had a variety of life forms. However, because of the beholder inhabitants' reckless devastation and warfare, most of H'Catha's indigenous life forms were endangered.

Inhabitants

H'Catha was inhabited by different species of beholders, constantly fighting against each other for supremacy and control of the Spindle. This war consumed the entire attention of the beholders and progressively devastated the natural environment of the entire planet. Near the base of the mountain, six ports, each owned by a different beholder type, accepted spelljamming traffic from other beholders, as long as they did not come from any of the other warring factions of the planet, which would immediately provoke a war. The beholders were also friendly with the Arcane. Other species were only allowed to land if they had goods to trade and left as soon as they were done.[1]
In the early 1360s DR, a group of scro survivors of the Second Unhuman War were captured by the beholders of H'Catha, but their fate was unknown.[7] By the late 15th century DR, a community of orogs dwelt in a cavern system deep underground on the planet. Some of those orogs turned to piracy aboard the squid ship Scavenger.
То succeed, the climber’s brain must come within two feet of every station on the Spindle. Once the 1,000-mile climb is complete, the brain is immediately stuffed with every known nugget of knowledge and wisdom collected throughout the eons since the creation of the phlogiston.
If the recipient’s brain is smaller than two feet in diameter, the being suffers irrevocable and complete insanity. Such a one is no longer able to function in normal society, because every­thing appears to him to be completely inane. The alignment at this point changes to lawful neutral, no matter what the alignment was be­fore.
With this mind-accosting danger, it is evident that this knowledge station was placed here by the gods of the beholders to find, in case they strayed from their original mission. A few have found it, but the beholders reject anyone who is affected, instead of accepting them as was the original plan of the gods.

Important NPCs

Large Luigi

Occupation: Bartender, Rock of Bral STR: 16 INT: 25 DEX: 16 CHA: 4 WIS: 25 CON: 15 Large Luigi is a beholder who hails from the planet H’Catha. He was one of the few beholders who was able to ascend the Spindle and gain complete knowledge of everything. (See the Prominent Land Features of H’Catha for more information regarding The Spindle.) When he returned to the bottom of the moun­tain, he changed. No longer was he lawful evil in alignment, for the knowledge he gained boosted his Intelligence and his Wisdom to the maximum, and his alignment changed to lawful neutral as a direct result of the change. He was looked down upon by the other be­holders in his species because he finally under­stood the purpose of his race: to gain all the information that there is to learn, and to be­come the ultimate information brokers of the universe. He has gained all knowledge of every­thing, but the other beholders refuse to accept him. Once they found that his death ray had been replaced by the ability to detect lie, he be­came an immediate outcast. Running for his life, he again traversed the Spindle. After convincing a tradesman ship of his dilemma, the humans took him on as a crew member, eventually dropping him off at the Rock of Bral, where he is today. He purchased a bar, and currently bartends and keeps the peace. He is known to use his charm person and sleep abilities to keep the fighting in his bar to a minimum. He is an outstanding Bral citizen and businessman. He is the ultimate non-deity information bro­ker in the known spheres. He never gives out in­formation which would upset the delicate balance between good and evil. Both serve a purpose, as he commonly says, and neither can exist without the other. All the friends he makes are lawful in one way or another. His close friends, however, are lawful neutral alignment like himself.

Baris to the Right

Beholder Overlord STR: ?? INT: 17 DEX: 17 CHA: 1 WIS: 4 CON: 18 This beholder is one of the oldest on H’Catha. She is not, however, one of the oldest beholders of all time—it’s just that everyone on this planet usually dies a horribly quick and early death. She is a Great Hive Mother who demands wor­ship from every beholder within eyesight, even if they belong to another species. It is said that she is the beholder responsible for the slaugh­tering of the different species in the beholder race, but this cannot possibly be true. Her rela­tively young age compared to the length of the conflict proves that she isn’t solely responsible for the constant killing. Nonetheless, she is very evil. She can always be found on the western section of the Spindle, loosing her beholder armies against others. Some people accuse her of climbing the Spin­dle and gaining the supreme knowledge. Wor­ried that others would do the same, she created the sudden need to exterminate every species of beholder that wasn’t exactly like her.

The Moons of H’Catha

Turnbetl

MOON NAME: Turnbetl MOON SIZE: 980 miles PERIGEE POINT: 11,500 miles APOGEE POINT: 413,000 miles Turnbetl is the closest moon in the H’Catha system. This Class В moon is spherical, with an atmosphere made strictly of highly unstable gases. These gases,when exposed to oxygen, explode instantly. For every man-month of air on a ship, the explosion is equal to a one-die fire­ball. Thus, a ship with 30 crew members, with enough air for 2 months, would cause an explo­sion equal to a 60-die fireball. This, unfortu­nately, can be extremely lethal, so a quarantine of the moon is strongly advised.

Lumbe

MOON NAME: Lumbe
MOON SIZE: 600 x 75 feet
PERIGEE POINT: 21,500 miles
APOGEE POINT: 817,000 miles
This moon, the farthest in the H’Catha sys­tem, is roughly cylindrical in shape and metallic in structure. There is no exterior atmosphere, but there is interior air. This moon twirls like a baton as it orbits H’Catha.
There are two locked doors at either side of the cylinder. If these are open, a dull blue light can be seen. Stepping inside reveals a mage’s laboratory, but no one is ever around. The odd thing is that noises can be heard if an ear is placed next to the cylinder before entering, but once the door is open, the noise stops, and does not continue until every last character is out of the cylinder, and the door is again closed.
Looking through the laboratory reveals thou­sands of things. There are a few open jars that expel a constant oxygen supply, and there are several bottles that emit a clean, almost flowery scent that permeates every nook and cranny in the lab.
One thing that should be extremely clear, is that every item of destruction in this lab is an item of incredible power and utter lethality. The owner has become quite paranoid about letting go of any of these items, because of the fear and terror his Batship is causing. That ship, detailed in the New Ship Catalogue, was his creation al­most a millennium ago, so one can only imag­ine what he has created since.
Anyone who takes an item remains in posses­sion of an illusion of the stolen item until such time as the item is used. At that point, the illu­sion of the item dissipates.
For the DM’s Eyes Only: The person who owns this floating laboratory is a sage by the name of Sarelk. Not only is he a sage, he is also a renowned mage in several other worlds as well, estimated at being equal or greater in level than Elminster. Sarelk is also the man responsible for the creation of the infamous Batship. Currently, Sarelk is looking to create items to combat the ship without killing the woman in­side. He has a personal stake in it, because the woman at the helm is his former wife. All those years ago when he created the ship, his wife climbed into the seat, and was never able to get out. She left her husband behind and left the sphere in embarrassment, and he has been fol­lowing her ever since.

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