Moon of the Month: Asylum

Bleh, ever have one of those quarters?  I got started on a MotM way back in
like December, but the more I worked on it, the more complex it got and the
farther away from being done it became.  That moon is STILL only like 50%
done, and is in shambles right now.  Everything fell apart because I
couldn't come up with a reasonable backstory to it I liked, and things just
didn't fit right.  :(

Anyways, I did this Moon of the Month today after an idea that hit me while
in the shower (heh, I'm like that guy from that hotel commercial, who runs
around solving the world's problem while wearing nothing but a towel!).  So
here's Asylum, the Known Sphere's Shame. :D

Asylum

Planet Name: Asylum, the Madhouse, the Known Spheres' Shame

Planet Type: Irregular Earth

Planet Size: A (9 miles diameter)

Escape Time: 1 turn

Satellites: none

Distance from Primary: 6,660 miles

Day Length: 8 hours

Year Length: 18 days

Population Analysis: Humans, demi-humans, humanoids, demons



Madness is a problem for countless cities and towns across all of the Known
Spheres.  Too often, these people are those without homes or families to
care for them, and prove a drain on precious resources.  Large cities build
their own asylums to house these poor souls.  While many are established
with noble intentions, quite often they become dumping grounds for people
whom are declared insane.  Times of turmoil and tragedy can amplify this
problem far beyond any city's ability to handle it.  During these times,
religious men and women appear, offering to transport the afflicted to a
sanctuary moon where they can get better.  Many cities are all-too-eager to
hand this problem off to someone else, and quickly forget about those sent
to the moon known as Asylum.



Asylum is not what it seems.  Below the gardens and white-gowned patients is
a darker world, where thousands are forced into a brutal breeding program
run by the Tanar'ri, the demons.  Women are routinely forced to birth
half-fiendish cambions or other demonic-spawn, while men are seduced and
abused by succumbi.  Their children are sent to the Abyss to be raised in
orphanages where they learn the arts of war and destruction.  These horrors
are inflicted upon minds already broken by madness, and many do not long
survive their torment.



Weather and Climate

Asylum should be too small for seasons and weather, but it does experience
fierce thunder storms every few weeks.  The storms last for 2-8 days at a
time, with overcast so thick that even during the day it is as dark as the
blackest midnight.  This is a sure sign that a powerful half-demon has been
born (see below).  While conditions are usually spring-like, the storms can
create winds that send a chill to the bone.



Appearance from Space

Asylum appears as a green asteroid, covered with hundreds of private gardens
and the large primary building.  During storms, it is completely englobed by
black clouds, almost invisible in space.



Continents and Landmarks

There are no continents and the only real landmark is the primary building.
It is a gothic stone structure with some gargoyles, a steeply pointed roof,
and many stain-glass windows.  It is large enough to house about one hundred
cultists and five hundred inmates.  Extensive tunnels under the building
radiate out like a spider web with hundreds of secret rooms, passages, and
at the very bottom, an open Gate to the Abyss.



Native Creatures

There are very few creatures living on Asylum.  There are a few birds, some
worms for them to feast on, and a few rodents.  Some creatures from the
lower planes can be found in the passages that honeycomb the asteroid.
Here, one can encounter hell hounds, manes, abyss bats, quasits, mephitis,
and the rare yeth hound.



Guide to Groundlings

There are three types of beings on Asylum: cultists, the insane, and a
handful of demons lurking in the dark places under the main building.



The cultists are responsible for running Asylum.  Most are humans, but their
numbers include some elves, lizardmen, half-orcs, and even telflings who
disguise themselves as human.  They disguise themselves as kindly men of
faith who claim their religious duty is to care for those "afflicted with a
bit of madness".  They are masters of screening candidates who might be
missed and those who will not.  Some are skilled diplomats whose forked
tongues can convince many a city elder to hand over their insane without a
word of protest.



The insane are divided up into certain groups when they arrive on Asylum,
depending on certain criteria.  Those with family connections that might
check up on them, such as royalty, are kept on the garden grounds, given
clean clothes, and regularly bathed and cared for.  They are not, however,
treated for their madness nor allowed to explore beyond a designated area.
These offer a good cover for the rare cases when a ship shows up at Asylum.
The second group are those without any sort of family connections but deemed
worthy of entering the breeding program.  Women are mated with male demons
to create cambions, usually of the lesser variety.  Men are given to the
succumbi, who give birth to alu-fiends.  Most do not survive very long, with
the women dying in childbirth and the men murdered as soon as the succumbi
tire of them.  Those of third group are those that are completely unsuited
for breeding, mostly barren women and worthless men.  These are cattle,
nothing more.  They are fattened up and then killed to feed young
half-demons.



There are truly few demons on Asylum at any given point.  There are thirteen
succumbi, almost always in a constant state of pregnancy.  They dwell in
lavish apartments, where they indulge themselves in carnal acts of
depravity.  Guarding them are several vrocks, a dozen or so Hezrou, and a
trio of glabrezus.  The galbrezus are in charge of the Asylum, responsible
for dividing up the insane into the appropriate groups and deciding who gets
to mate with whom.  For their services they have been rewarded well.  Each
is armed with a magic sword, a rod of some power, as well as 2-5 other magic
items that they can use.  They are never found without 1-4 naked slaves
chained to a rod they carry.  These are their "personal favorites".
Finally, there are four maelephants guarding the Gate to the Abyss that can
be found at the lowest level.  They are tireless guardians, and if trouble
arises they can sound a gong that will bring forth reinforcements.



Resources and Trade

Asylum has but one resource: an ample supply of living beings whose sole
purpose is to be breeders to create half-demon armies.  That supply of flesh
is constantly being renewed by cities throughout the Known Spheres readily
send their insane to Asylum.  Few care to investigate where they are sending
their insane, happy just to be rid of that problem.



>From within Asylum's walls has been birthed one of the largest half-demonic
army ever.  That army now fights the Bloodwar, bringing in wealth and
prestige to the demon lord who built Asylum to begin with.  The moon has
proven a key component to his rise to power, and one he will protect.



The primary import of Asylum is insane beings of all races, although most
are human.  Necessities like food, water, and clothing are sometimes
imported, mostly to keep up the illusion of Asylum being a normal place.
Demon-blooded babies are exported through a portal to the Abyss at the
lowest level.  They are raised on the Abyss, where they grow into hardened
warriors of the Bloodwar.  Most never return to the place of their birth,
and indeed most do not even know it exists.



Ports of Call

There is one large primary building, a stone edifice built to house hundreds
of inmates.  There are several other, smaller buildings which serve other
purposes, such as a trio of piers and several storage sheds.  Facilities on
Asylum are the barest of minimum, without any means of repairing any ship
that shows up.



To transport the insane to Asylum, the cultists employ a fleet of 12
tradesmen clearly marked with a well-recognized sign.  Each tradesmen is
equipped with Holds of Holding, enough to carry as many as 100 people at any
given time.  These ships are usually left alone by pirates and almost
everyone else, as their cargo is generally considered valueless and their
ships powered by spells rather than valuable helms.  There will be a crew of
12 cultists, including one cleric of sufficient level to cast Create Minor
Helm.  Some are disguised vrocks, cambions, and other demons.  These almost
never leave the ship when in port.  The cultists keep these creatures on a
tight leash when around civilized quarters, as they do not wish to dispel
the illusion they are humble caretakers on a religious quest.



The cultists have a regular schedule of ports they visit.  Typically they
show up once every few years to collect the insane.  The size of the city
and the number of insane it generates naturally determines how often a
cultist ship pulls into port.  A small city such as the Rock of Bral might
only see a cultist ship once a decade, while a vast metropolis such as
Calimport of Toril will have yearly visits.  The cultists are clever in
avoiding places like Cormyr where their activities might draw notice, and
they do not go out of their way to "encourage" more people to be declared
insane.  In short, their activities go unnoticed and in many cases, most do
not care.



History

Ahazu, the demonic ruler of a small, unimportant layer of the abyss, came up
with an ingenious plan to increase the wealth of his poverty-stricken realm.
Through contacts, promises, and other manipulations, he came into possession
of a small asteroid, upon which he built an insane asylum.  Insanity is
always a problem for many cities and towns, one that they would rather not
deal with.  As often those afflicted with madness are those with little or
no family and usually very poor, few wish to devote much treasure to cure
them, instead dumping them in poorly-run asylums.  Ahazu, through cultist
agents, easily convinced city elders to "take the madmen off their hands",
assuring them that they could be taken to a place where they could be put to
good use for the rest of their lives.  Too many did not care what the
cultists did with them, and readily let them empty their asylums for them.
True to the cultist's word, the insane were put to good use, in new breeding
programs to create cambion & alu-fiend foot-soldiers for the Bloodwar.



Since the doors of the Asylum opened, thousands of cambions and hundreds of
alu-fiends have been birthed.  An added bonus came during the Unhuman Wars,
centuries ago, when the victorious elves were left with the quandary of what
to do with the many tens of thousands of female and young orcs, goblins, and
ogres captured in the war.  An unscrupulous admiral solved the problem by
shipping them to the Asylum a few thousand at a time, and eventually the
work camps vanished.  Unbeknownst to the elves, a massive army of tanarukks,
the result of their handing their captives over to Asylum, now resides in
the Abyss in an enormous fortress.  In some rare cases, elven political
prisoners, many elven, have ended up in the Asylum, resulting in several
Fey-ri that command Ahazu's armies.  Breeding with other races have resulted
in even stranger creatures.



Since Ahazu's breeding programs began, his layer has changed drastically.
Before, it was a wasteland with few resources.  It now boasts mighty armies
of half-demon mercenaries, who through conquest and sell-sword contracts
have brought Ahazu great personal wealth.  He has even attracted a marilith
general for his armies.  Recently he has expanded his operations to creating
wildspace pirate groups, with crews of cambions, telflings, and other
demon-blooded creatures.  How successful he will be in these ventures is
unknown, but if his success with Asylum is any indication of future
prospects, the Known Spheres has much to fear indeed!



Satellites

Asylum has no moon of its own.






Look for my coming on the seventh month of the fifth year.  At dawn look to
the world were the Trio (plus one) that is Untouchable reigns supreme