MotM: Scarskull

Hey guys,

    I finally finished this up.  Was meant for August, but I couldn't get it
done in time.  Ah well.  Anyways, here's Scarskull, a Pirate of Gith
city/outpost :)  Figured I'd do a Gith moon since Kenzer did all those nifty
Gith pictures in Hackjammer! :D

Scarskull
Planet Name: Scarskull, the
Planet Type: Skull-shaped Moon
Planet Size: A
Escape Time: 1 turn
Satellites: 1 (See below)
Distance from Primary: 350,000 miles
Day Length: 100 hours
Year Length: 120 days
Population Analysis: Pirates of Gith, red dragons

 Scarskull is, unsurprisingly, shaped like a skull roughly 5 miles in
height.  A narrow valley, appearing as a scar, runs jaggedly down from above
the eye to the upper jaw, giving the moon its name.  The moon is solid
stone, although appears somewhat like bone.  The moon is really made of
petrified bone, hinting that it once was the skull of a living creature many
miles in height.
 The gravity plane bisects the moon at about the mid-point of the
eye-sockets and runs horizontally through the skull.  The gravity plane
extends to the edges of the air envelope and no further.
 The interior of Scarskull is riddled with caverns great and small.  Most
are damaged, due to past battles, and their original purpose has been lost.
Traps abound, and whole sections have been sealed off due to dangerous
undead, constructs, monsters, or traps.  Construction is of mind flayer
styles, with carvings reminiscent of undersea life, creatures with many
tentacles, and scenes born of nightmares and madness.  Most have been
defaced by Gith graffiti.

Climate and Weather
 As an asteroid skull, Scarskull lacks the size to generate weather.  The
air is warm and moist, however, uncomfortably so for humans but ideal
conditions for mind flayers.  The asteroid has an atmosphere that is about
15 miles in diameter and is spherical.  Its edges can be seen as a very dim
outline of crimson red.

Appearance from Space
 As its name implies, Scarskull appears as an enormous, gray-yellow skull
hanging in space.  Interlaced are several streaks of deep crimson red,
appearing very much like veins.  These are simply deposits of sulfur and
rusted iron.  An enormous scar-like valley runs from the forehead down
across the nose socket, and ending just above the dagger-like teeth.  The
skull lacks a jawbone and has numerous craters blackened regions, evidence
of great battles in the history of this moon.
 Because of its small size and great distance, this moon is not visible from
the planet it orbits.  This makes it very difficult to find without a
reliable star chart or magic.

Continents and Landmarks
 There is a trio of caverns of note inside of Scarskull.  The largest and
most obvious is the large cavity that connects the two eye sockets into one
large cavern.  Piers jut into the gravity plane in this cavern, which serves
as the primary docks for the city.  Despite the fierce battle to claim this
rock, the piers are in excellent shape.  The Gith have extensively repaired
the docks and adjacent buildings to serve their purposes.  In addition to
the piers, there are several wood buildings.  These are warehouses, taverns,
and even brothels.  The brothels are home to the non-Gith residents, though
their lives are short and brutal.
 Near the base of the skull is a large, hemispherical cavern that was the
heart of the mind flayer community.  The seashell-like buildings have been
torn down and replaced by an ugly collection of shacks and fortified
compounds.  The streets are a maze of cleared paths, toppled buildings, and
iron gates meant to confuse and confound invaders.  The Gith know well the
back alleys and the secret ways and will use them to lay ambushes or escape
from determined invaders.
 Somewhere in the middle of the skull is the cavern where the elder brain
resided.  The elder brain is long dead and the pool drained, leaving the
cavern to be claimed by the old red dragon Aradanceuntryr.  No only a
physically intimidating brute, Aradanceuntryr is a master of psionics.  The
beast has learned many psionics from both the Pirates of Gith as well as the
Githyanki, and even has abilities known only to draconic masters of psionic
abilities.  He can hold his own with even the greatest Gith psion.

Native Creatures
 Because Scarskull was ruled for so long by the mind flayers, the creatures
found on this moon reflect that legacy.  In many caverns linger carrion
crawlers, intellect devourers, a few gibbering mouthers, and many
illithidaes.  Most have been sealed away in deep cavern complexes by the
Gith to slowly starve and perish.  As such, they are extremely vicious and
will attack anything that dares trespass in their territories.  It is
believed that somewhere, a Neothelid dwells, a survivor of the destruction
of the brain-pool which slithered off and grew to gigantic proportions.
 Prowling the edges of Scarskull's atmosphere are many packs of scavvers.
At any given time, there are 5-8 packs of gray scavvers, 2-5 packs of brown
scavvers, 1-2 packs of night scavvers, and a single pack of void scavvers.
There is also a single Megamaw scavver that prowls the atmosphere, greedily
devouring anything that it comes across.  Most these monsters survive on
garbage tossed out by the resident Gith, including corpses.  The Gith have
mastered psionics necessary to control these beasts, which they goad into
feeding frenzies to distract and harass passing ships.

Guide to Groundlings
 Pirates of Gith are the dominant humanoid inhabitants of Scarskull.  There
are about two dozen Gith clans, each numbering 20 to 80 warriors, with
dependants equal to about 60% of the fighting adults.  Females are taught to
fight, as are children at a young age, so only the very youngest and very
oldest (who are very, very few) are unable to fight.  Adult males are of at
least 2nd level fighters in ability, while females and juveniles are at
least 1st level fighters in ability.  Each clan lays claim to a series of
caverns, docks, and buildings, with fierce competition and even street
battles over territory.  A clan is ruled by a fighter of at least 6th level
fighter or magic-user in ability.
 Holding the Gith clans together is a complex network of alliances between
each clan, which routinely change.  Murder and assassination is a common
method of dealing with enemies.  And every individual Gith has many, many
enemies.  Fortunately, the strong leadership of the Gith Pirate Scarskull
III (NE Gith m F10/M-U10) keeps the place under control.  He has a personal
guard of no less than 20 "knights" (F9) and 10 warlocks (M-U9) who enforce
the few laws of the city.  He is the youngest son of the original Scarskull
and seized power after murdering his brother.  After a bloody coup, he
ritually scarred his face took the name Scarskull, which seems to be a new
tradition with this particular group of Gith.
 Recently, the Lich-Queen of the Githyanki has decided that Scarskull would
make an important outpost in the eternal war against the mind flayers.  She
has sent a platoon of 20 Githyanki warriors (F3) lead by a low-rank knight
(F5) and a juvenile red dragon.  The Githyanki dwell in a walled embassy and
mostly collect information about the location and size of mind flayer
outposts in wildspace.  In time, they intend to spearhead an assault on a
major mind flayer city.  They only need to find the proper target.
 The only other creatures that the Gith suffer are red dragons (a total of
four, including the dragons listed above) and several dragon-like creatures.
These include many "Crow's-nest" and "Mole" dragonets and Vandalraug drakes
kept as a heavy cavalry of sorts.

Resources and Trade
 Essentially a barren rock in space, Scarskull has few resources of its own.
Its primary resource is being a solid piece of rock with a stable,
breathable atmosphere and a gravity plane.
 Previously, the mind flayers used Scarskull as the trade-hub
Skull-Dripping-Blood.  Countless slaves from a thousand worlds passed
through the docks and markets.  Word of the fall of the city has not quite
reached all of the distant mind flayer outposts, so every few months a slave
ship arrives, only to be ambushed and destroyed by the Gith.  The fate of
the slaves aboard is left to the mood of the Gith.  They used to simply kill
and eat any slave they find, but have since learned the fine art of
ransoming.  Those with high comeliness (or charisma) are spared, instead
forced to work in the brothels.  If a slave cannot deliver on a promise of
ransom, he or she is doomed to stew-pot.

Ports of Call
 First the mind flayers, and then the Gith, have built up excellent docking
facilities inside the cavernous eye sockets.  There are piers and dry docks
enough to rival even those of the Rock of Bral.  At any given time, there
are 12-15 (d4 +11) ships docked, and the Gith do not use even a third of the
available space.  Although there are dry docks and supplies enough to build
as many as a dozen more ships, the Gith prefer to steal ships rather than
build them.
 There are at least a half-dozen hidden docks scattered throughout the rock.
These were the private docks of the most powerful mind flayers, usually
equipped to handle smaller ships such as lampreys and mind flayer lances.
Such ships were used when secrecy was required, and in part to evacuate mind
flayer nobles in the event of war.  Some of these ships managed to escape,
others did not.  The Gith have left these docks to decay due to neglect.

History
 It is not known how Scarskull began.  There is some evidence that it was
originally the head of a powerful humanoid creature of many miles in height,
who was slain in a great battle long ago.  Only his skull remained after the
great battle.
 The mind flayers claimed the skull by driving out a nation of drow who had
taken up residence.  The flayers greatly expanded the caverns they found,
turning the gigantic skull into a major city of their kind.  Up to two
thousand of the monsters dwelled in the city, served by three times that in
slaves.  For an uncounted number of centuries the city of
Skull-Dripping-Blood was a major force in wildspace.
 In time, the mind flayers grew careless and lax in their security, such
that the Pirates of Gith discovered the location of their city.  Twenty
years ago, the greatest of their lords, Scarskull of the Bloody Blade,
assembled one of the greatest pirate fleets ever seen, and laid siege to the
tiny moon.  The battle lasted the better part of a week, until finally the
mind flayer defenses broke and Scarskull claimed the moon for his own.  In
celebration of his victory, Scarskull used powerful explosives to carve a
scar across the skull-like moon's surface to match his own, and arrogantly
named the moon after himself.
 Since then, the moon has remained in the hands of the Pirates of Gith.  The
initial outpost proved so successful that it has grown from a few simple
buildings to a booming town.  Given a few more decades of success, Scarskull
could grow into a full-fledged city of Gith, much to the detriment to every
nearby settlement and colony!

Satellites
 High above Scarskull is a remnant of the fierce battle that gave the Gith
control of this moon, the nautili dreadnaught Brainrustler.  Formally the
flagship of the mind flayer navy, its smashed ruin was left in orbit above
Scarskull after the Gith overran it and slaughtered its crew to the last
flayer.  The Gith left the ruined ship as a trophy, and as a trap for
inquisitive interlopers.  The ship is haunted by the ghosts of the mind
flayers who were trapped on the helm with it was destroyed.  The ghosts are
terrors indeed, for they have the abilities of both a ghost and a mind
flayer.  Fortunately, they are limited to the air envelope of the
Brainrustler.  The Brainrustler is badly damaged, with only 10 of its 180
hull points left.  In addition to the ghosts, there are numerous zombies and
skeletons as well, former slaves of the flayers that were raised as undead,
as well as many traps and cursed items.

Adapting Scarskull to Other Settings
 While it is assumed that Scarskull will be used in a Spelljammer or a
Hackjammer game, not everyone likes their games in space, so here is advice
on adapting this article to other settings.  Scarskull can easily be changed
to a small, rocky, barren island in any sea not far from major trade routes
with little to no changes to its history or inhabitants.  For Greyhawk, the
island is ideally placed off the coast of Hepmonaland or in the Woolly Bay.
In the Forgotten Realms setting, Scarskull ideally suits the Nelanther
Islands off of the coast of Tethyr.  Though both the Gith and Mind Flayers
are mostly unsuitable for the Dragonlance setting, the island could be
adapted to be a pirate haven somewhere in the Blood Sea of Istar, perhaps
the Gith being cursed survivors of that fallen empire.

Bibliography
Spelljammer AD&D Adventures in Space
Hackjammer
Lost Ships (Spelljammer)
Lords of Madness
Dragon Names (Dragon issue #260)
Greater Drakes (Dragon issue #260)
Diminutive Dragons (Dragon issue #272)
Greyhawk Campaign Setting
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
Dragonlance Campaign Setting
Andrew Allen's Gallery (http://spelljammer.org/art/AndrewAllen/)


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