Folk living within the wondrous machine of the Grand Orrery rarely stop to consider that theirs is an artificial world; they are distracted by the latest deaths in the Games or the changes in the heavens or tribal politics. Even when they realise the nature of the world, that the rotating disc and constant flux of the portals are the product of ancient engines, they rarely think about what drives these machines.
There is more space, and many more miles of corridor and chamber in the bulbous base of the Orrery than there is on the surface of the Disc of the Material or in the Spine. The great labyrinths in the mountainous Three are no more than utility rooms compared to the vast complex that lies beneath the disc. The base of the Orrery contains titanic arcane engines that throb and pulse with the slow rhythm of the moving planes.
Elethoi walked here, long ago, searching for the Builders.
Hazards
The main hazard in the Orrery is not a natural phenomenon (if anything is natural in a machine world) – it is the Games. The Mairin are not above kidnapping random travellers and ordering them into a monster-infested ruin, nor is it unheard of for monsters recruited for the Games to wander off and attack settlements or tribes on the Disc.
The movement of the various components of the Orrery does build up a potent static charge of magic. Flying more than a mile above the Disc or one of the platforms or attempting to teleport through this space is hazardous. A teleport effect, even a greater teleport, always uses the ‘seen once’
line of the teleport spell. A flying creature is dealt 1d6 points of electrical damage per round of flight;
both the chance of going astray and the electrical
damage increases dramatically around the magical powerful zones of the Orrery, such as the Central Spike or the Three.
Denizens
The Orrery contains creatures from every plane of existence; monsters caught when a section of landscape was taken through a portal, things recruited to serve in the Games, travellers who find the Orrery to be a convenient short cut through the planes. It is also the only place where the mairin can be found in large numbers. Their race is mostly dead – their homeland was devoured whole by flights of dragons in ages past.
Mairin
Medium Humanoid (Extraplanar) Hit Dice: 1d8-1 (3 hp)
Initiative: +2 (Dex) Speed: 30-ft.
Armour Class: 19 (+2 Dex, +5 breastplate, +2 heavy steel shield), touch 12, flat-footed 17 Base Attack Bonus/Grapple: +0/+0
Attack: Longsword +0 melee (1d8+poison) or heavy crossbow +2 ranged (1d10+poison) Full Attack: Longsword +0 melee (1d8+poison) or heavy crossbow +2 ranged (1d10+poison) Space/Reach: 5-ft. /5-ft.
Special Attacks: Poison
Special Qualities: Addiction, Shift Sense, Spell-like abilities
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +2, Will -1
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 15, Con 8, Int 17, Wis 8, Cha 14
Skills: Appraise +7, Bluff +6, Craft (alchemy) +7*, Diplomacy +6, Knowledge (the planes) +7*, Listen +3, Spot +3
Feats: Alertness
Climate/Terrain: The Orrery
Organisation: Solitary, party (4-7) or warden team (8 or more, including at least one wizard or sorcerer of 5th level or higher and one fighter or ranger of 5th level or higher)
Challenge Rating: 1 Treasure: Double standard
Alignment: Usually chaotic neutral Advancement: By class
Level adjustment: +1
THE GRAND ORRERY OF ALL REFLECTED HEAVENS The figure facing you is humanoid, but slightly
thinner and paler than could be considered human.
A strange tracery of bioluminescence glows on its face.
The mairin are a race of humanoids from a dead world who have taken up residence on the Orrery.
They are degenerates, addicted to pleasure and convinced of their own innate superiority to all others. The main occupation of the vast majority of the mairin is to play and win the Games of the Unbuilt City, although a small few become fascinated with the cities along the Spireward Sea and go off exploring the planes beyond the city.
Most, however, are strangely parochial for a race dwelling in a nexus plane.
The mairin worship no gods and have no clerics save those of other races whom they have enslaved.
Their ambition drives them to great heights of swordplay or magic. The mairin have naturally bioluminescent pools of light on their skin, and ritual scarring and tattoos are used to shape these glowing marks into family and caste marks.
Combat
Mairin dislike melee combat – they are too slight and vulnerable to survive direct clashes with many opponents. They are masters of poison and drug use, preferring to deliver their venoms using heavy crossbows or other ranged weapons.
Poison (Ex): The mairin brew their own poisons in the Unbuilt City. They commonly use a nerve agent that deadens reflexes (Fortitude save DC 18, initial damage 1d6 Dex, secondary damage 1d6 Dex), but have a wide range of speciality venoms available, including ones that specifically interfere with spellcasting (Fortitude save DC 18, initial damage requires a Concentration check at DC 15 + the spell’s level to cast a spell, secondary damage increases the DC by +10; both effects last for thirty minutes). The mairin never accidentally poison themselves when using poison.
Addiction (Ex): All mairin are addicts to one form of drug or another. A mairin must spend at least 50 gp multiplied by their level on drugs each month, or suffer withdrawal (-4 to all ability scores for one month, -3 to all scores in the following month, -2 after that indefinitely, as complete recovery is impossible for the mairin). In the Unbuilt City, such intoxicants are freely available.
Boost (Su): Once per day, a mairin can draw on its inner reserves and increase any one of its classes by two levels, gaining the benefits of the boosted class’
base attack, saving throws and special abilities. For example, a 5th level mairin monk could boost his monk level to seven, gaining the wholeness of body ability. This boost lasts for 1d4 rounds.
Shift Sense (Su): Mairin have an ability similar to the detect portal spell; they can automatically sense any planar travel effects active within 60 feet of them.
Spell-like abilities: 3/day: light, hypnotism. The saving throw for all spells is 12 + the spell level.
The Save DC is Charisma-based.
Mairin characters:
† +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom.
† Favoured class: Rouge or Sorcerer.
† Level adjustment: +1.
Skills: All mairin have a +4 racial bonus to Craft (alchemy) and Knowledge (planes) checks.
Adventure Seeds
The Grand Orrery of All Reflected Heavens is a nexus plane – it is a quick route to almost any plane imaginable. The sheer complexity of the moving parts means that the Games Master can have a suitable portal pop up whenever the plot needs it, and the adventurers can get to an adventure much more quickly. It is a also a fascinating environment to explore and gives characters a rather different place to call home.
† The Games of the Unbuilt City are the most blatant plot device ever: the mairin grab
‘champions’ (characters) and ‘challenges’
(dungeons, monsters, villages – whatever third party modules that the Games Master has lying around) and drop them onto the
Disc of the Material. Almost any monster or item can show up in the Games, and they also offer a short-term campaign structure - the characters are abducted, learn to survive in the Games, eventually escape their mairin captors and then can flee to almost any plane. For an especially ambitious campaign, the players could also play mairin nobles manipulating their adventurer characters.
† The City of Omphalos and the settlements around the Spireward Sea can be an excellent base for an adventuring party. It is a neutral ground where outsiders from any plane can show up; the characters can be employed as traders, guards, diplomats or spies.
† Characters can also delve into the mysteries of the Orrery itself? Was it built as a method of travelling from one plane to another? As an escape route from a dying world? As a method of predicting the future? Where did the builders go, and why did they abandon the great machine?
THE WANDERING INN OF THE GLORIOUS TOAD