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 Breaking the spherewall, or: Realmspace apocalypse
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tauster
Senior Scribe

Germany
399 Posts

Posted - 29 Apr 2008 :  10:46:20  Show Profile  Visit tauster's Homepage Send tauster a Private Message  Reply with Quote  Delete Topic
The toipic of broken or colliding spheres came up in Ed's scroll, and since I got a few ideas about that, here's a new scroll...

It seems that chrystal spheres are able to collide, or at least to break. Since the spherewall is seperating the wildspace inside the sphere from the highly combustible Phlogiston "gas" outside, a wall breach would mean total destruction on everything inside. One spark is enough to set the whole thing on fire and burn everything to less than cinders. Even if there is not a single spark on all the worlds inside that unfortunate sphere: Eventually the phlogiston would reach the primary (i.e. the system's sun). tick, tack...

The breaching of a spherewall seems to be a nice idea for a doomsday/apocalypse campaign, come to think of it. Nobody says that the intruding phlogiston travels with spelljamming speed (4 mio miles per hour, or about 100 miollion miles per day). So you as DM can determine a lower speed and thus decide on how much time will be left until that huge wall of fire devours each world in the system. That way your party can go to each world one last time and save famous NPCs and/or a few selected wonders (libraries, magical artifacts, etc) - and than quickly hop on to the next world.

Another option would be to go planehopping and ask the gods of the sphere's pantheon to do something about the impeding apocalypse. Come to think of it, this might be a nice "end" of such a campaign: It can be set in Realmspace (or any other sphere, of course), but "ending" a Realms campaign that way sounds like a good idea - especially after all we've read since the advent of 4E's Shattered Realms. One might even let the PC contact AO after the last (i.e. innermost) world (Anadia) is devoured and get him/her/it(?) to "reboot" the sphere, just before the breach occured. He sends the PC and their ship to the location of whatever caused the breach in the spherewall and allows them to prevent it. Which leaves them the only beings alive who know about that particular alternate reality...

...now that I write this stuff, I think I'd very much like the overall mood of such a campaign! I hope it doesn't sound too cheesy.

Edited by - tauster on 29 Apr 2008 10:55:14

Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 29 Apr 2008 :  14:42:47  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I don't know that spheres can actually collide, though. Page 11 of the Concordance of Arcane Space (from the original Spelljammer boxed set) says:

quote:
Fortunately, when crystal shells drift too close, the phlogiston between them thickens to the point where the two massive spheres are moved apart and a collision is prevented.


And the spheres themselves are described as being unbreakable. Granted, we do have that one case of one being broken, but wasn't that also listed as being the first sphere, and the origin of the Spelljammer itself?

I'm also not entirely sure that even with a broken sphere, that the phlogiston could reach inside. The fact that it dissipates when you try to bring it into a sphere, and that it prevents planar travel, suggests that it is some sort of plane, and that it simply can not exist within a crystal sphere.

But... Tossing all that aside for the sake of this discussion...

What if the system's primary wasn't a fire body? Phlogiston needs a spark to be ignited. It's possible that there are spheres out there that have some sort of non-standard setup where the sun is something other than a fire world.

As for Realmspace blowing up...

Ao doesn't even have to be involved in sending the PCs to stop it... There are existing ways to travel in time already. And if the PCs need to take their ship thru time with them, they could chance the Sisters in Greyspace. The Sisters are an odd constellation of stars a few days into Greyspace. They are surrounded by a sargasso, but if you sail between the stars, you could get tossed to a random spot in time and space -- you could wind up in the same sphere days later, or another sphere, centuries earlier.

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Jamallo Kreen
Master of Realmslore

USA
1537 Posts

Posted - 02 May 2008 :  04:34:35  Show Profile  Visit Jamallo Kreen's Homepage Send Jamallo Kreen a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I should point out that what initiated the topic was my question to Ed as to whether or not things like ARP 148 could be seen in Wildspace. My theory -- for which I claim cosmic, multi-versal, multi-brane dibs -- give me full credit if you mention it! -- is that these are actually very tiny events within Wildspace which somehow or other warp space-time and whatever passes for the Weave in that particular crystal sphere, creating an enormous, far-reaching clairvoyance effect which makes the little, teeny-tiny colliding galaxies look BIG. To give credit where it's due (and make sure y'all do, too), I was inspired by the pug's comment in Men in Black that humans are prejudiced if they believe that all galaxies are BIG. (Think, too, of what happened in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy when the dog scratched itself.)



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Edited by - Jamallo Kreen on 02 May 2008 04:43:24
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Jamallo Kreen
Master of Realmslore

USA
1537 Posts

Posted - 03 May 2008 :  06:04:33  Show Profile  Visit Jamallo Kreen's Homepage Send Jamallo Kreen a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I have thought up a few diabolical (or deific) scenarios: an intermediate or greater deity with a powerbase outside Realmspace could send one avatar to personally battle Torm, and then send another avatar to start destroying Those Who Walk (or whatever they're called) while Torm is distracted. A multi-sphere, multi-planar deity may discover or invent a way to erase the glyphs on the inside of the Realmsphere, causing its destruction; a particularly nasty variant would have an avatar or high priest of the deity accompany the PCs as they search for ways to forestall an apocalypse foretold by a prophecy (propagated by the villainous deity), with the PCs unaware that they are really being used as pawns to discover a means to erase the Realmsphere glyphs and thereby cause the apocalypse.

The motives for such a mega-apocalyptic scenario could range from, "I'm evil; die," to "You, Realms deity, are encroaching upon my extraplanar turf; die when all of your worshippers die!" Then again, it might simply be an intellectual exercise for some emotionally detached deity who has worshippers elsewhere: "Say, what would happen if the Walkers were eliminated or the sphereglyphs erased? There's only one way to find out...."

Something from the Far Side Realm might just do it on a whim. or might need the hard shell broken simply to get at the tasty bits inside the crystal sphere. ("Mmm, sentient beings....")




I have a mouth, but I am in a library and must not scream.


Feed the poor and stroke your ego, too: http://www.freerice.com/index.php.


Edited by - Jamallo Kreen on 03 May 2008 06:09:10
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tauster
Senior Scribe

Germany
399 Posts

Posted - 03 May 2008 :  09:33:11  Show Profile  Visit tauster's Homepage Send tauster a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Interesting ideas, Jamallo!

I always saw Those Who Walk as "creation's largest spellbook", and I can see mages who know about them (which would be mostly spacers instead of groundlings) organising travels to the spherewall, just to learn new spells. Of course, you cannot know beforehand what spell you might find*, so it's the ultimate "kinder surprise egg" for mages. You could wind up with a simple magic missile or a 9th level spell that nobody on board understands.

These "spellfinding pilgrimages" might be followers of Mystra, Azuth or even deities** from other chrystal spheres (or planes, if you like to mox SJ and PS). Even if Torm watches over the runes, they are still giant spells.


* I'd say the runes are resistant to divination spells, but that's just me...

** Those Who Walk should be widely known among spacers, I think it's the one landmark Realmspace is famous for in the Known Spheres.

Edited by - tauster on 03 May 2008 09:35:22
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Jamallo Kreen
Master of Realmslore

USA
1537 Posts

Posted - 08 May 2008 :  21:07:45  Show Profile  Visit Jamallo Kreen's Homepage Send Jamallo Kreen a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I concur. The Geonomicon probably has lots of one-liners to describe some crystal spheres which are "boring" to wonder-seeking spacers (like the celebrated "mostly harmless" from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy): "Primary circles main planet," "Natives think ships, not humanoids, are sentient," "Has several billion humanoids walking on the inside of the crystal sphere," ...!




I have a mouth, but I am in a library and must not scream.


Feed the poor and stroke your ego, too: http://www.freerice.com/index.php.


Edited by - Jamallo Kreen on 08 May 2008 21:12:53
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