Out of the Galaxy

EMPTY SPACE

	Empty Space is quite distant from the area commonly called Known
Space and no other spheres drift nearby.  Only two incredibly weak currents
of phlogiston connect Empty Space with anything else, one going towards
Known Space that dissipates about 50 days travel from the Arcane Outer Flow
and one going in the opposite direction toward other spheres yet to be
discovered.  By the time a spelljamming ship reaches this sphere from
either direction it is always in dire need of water, air and food unless
one or more of these can be magically replenished indefinitely.  It takes
just over four years travel time to reach it from either direction.
	This sphere contains hundreds of derelict ships, each of which
entered the sphere in hopes of replenishing supplies.  All searched in vain
for desperately needed items, for unlike other spheres that have no planet
sized bodies, Empty Space does not even have bits of debris drifting
through it.  Other spheres usually have fields of debris littering its
Wildspace, some of which invariably have breathable atmospheres or water
and plant life on them.  There are no flame rings, nebulae, spore or gas
clouds, comets or sargassos.  Empty Space is curiously devoid of all
indiginous phenomena.  There are not even any stars that grace the interior
surface of the sphere.  There just isn't anything here that was not
imported by spelljamming races.  Because there are no external sources of
light, the only things that can be seen are those illuminated by the lights
of incoming ships.  However far the lights of the ship extend, that is the
sighting range.
	A great many of the derelicts have undead of various types manning
them.  Most of them have been picked clean of anything useful by the more
powerful undead such as liches, and most of those have abandoned this
sphere to seek new victims in the Flow.  Enough remain, however, to keep
any party, no matter how well equipped on its toes.  Those remaining have
also taken pains to ensure that no derelict possesses food, water, air or
any other item of use to those of the living who manage to reach this
sphere.  Approximately half of the ships will be even remotely familiar to
visitors from Known Space, the rest of the ships having arrived from the
other direction.  Some of the unknown ships resemble jellyfish, eight
pointed stars, crystal minarets, feathered chairs built for a being with
five legs, strangely bent swords with forked blades or maybe a mutant
bagpipe with scales made of unknown metals.  The derelicts which came here
from the other direction often have crews of previously unknown types of
undead.  A score of cruelly gutted and undead infested zoocraft bear silent
testimony to the fate in store for those who try to stay for very long.
	One of the more powerful liches is named Abalizon.  In life she
attained leadership of a notorius school of Necromancy and later became a
high priestess of Set.  She now rules an army of lesser undead that is
devoted to collecting spelljammer helms and other magic items from the
derelict sea.  Her spies are too numerous to number and are strategicaly
placed amongst the forces of her rivals.  There are nearly seventy ships
under her direct control, many with vampire captains and ghast and ghoul
crews.  A favorite tactic is to wrest control of lesser undead from their
masters and then use her ill-gotten servants against their former masters.
She is able to do this through the use of a magic item retrieved from a
dull green alien derelict which, aside from its color, strongly resembled a
rabid squirrel with curved tusks, a feathered tail and a single antenna
growing from the back of its head.  Abalizon has been a lich for over 2,000
years.  Unlike most of the beings who reach Empty Space, Abalizon was
undead long before she came here.  She started her career as a lich while
she was the High Priestess and ruler of the Wenoldrian Empire on the planet
Pyramid in Pharaohspace.  When her beloved empire of Wenoldri was
anihilated in a massive natural cataclysm, Abalizon took to Wildspace to
try and regain some of the the glory and splendor to which she was
accustomed.  Unlike most liches, Abalizon has an impressive wardrobe and is
always immacculately and lavishly attired.


Been Had the Fool

"I lost my soul when I fell to Earth.  My planets call me to the Void of my
birth..."
	from 'Space Lord' by Monster Magnet