Can't get there from here

The following is an outline of the article Ganeth wrote about Artifact World for the Library of Hollerith. (It just happens not to mention that Silvana brought Selemine back to the party's Prime and was wielding it when the article was written.)

Geography

[rough map, with sea and swamp and desert and mts. and cities and roads]

Vista

Three suns...one red giant, two yellow; more or less in synch, but still some conjunctions

Yellow clouds everywhere (possibly) except over the desert -- over a thousand feet thick -- exposure is toxic (though water breathing and a supply of fresh water will help against short term effects). Damage tends to be on the order of a hit point or two per round. The clouds are on the order of 1300 feet thick. Glowing streaks of cloud can be seen at night.

Inhabitants

Orc, ogres, giants...ogres and hill giant equivs in most areas, orcs and fire giants perhaps more restricted in range

Swamp may manifest itself as many creatures...ogre magi [that do sonic attacks rather than cone of cold; same damage], shambling mounds, snakes, quasi-trolls.

Swamp also contains intelligent frogs, along with at least one green slaad. The frogs practice several forms of "jumping", including possibily teleportation and plane travel. (There are green slaad there too, and lilypads that seem to be used by frogs for transportation via Limbo.)

Will-o-wisps can also be found in the swamp, though we personally didn't observe any.

Wilhis are good creatures that live on hilltops in the swamp; ogres attack them but swamp creatures do not. (One hilltop had an astral presence above it which may keep the swamp at bay.) [Physical desc. of wilhis -- pancakelike with a face on one side and six spokelike legs -- noting their special abilities and bravery.]

Lizards...all six-legged, some intelligent; some walk on two legs, some on four, some on six.

Halfling monks in the desert (followers of Yondalla).

Dwarves underground all over (followers of Moradin).

No trees or similar plant life...magically grown trees show signs of damage after about a day.

Humans exist on the clouds of Xu, in the Walled City, and perhaps some insane ones in the Ruined City and desert area.

Rumors of an undersea city.

In the clouds: jellyfish with electrical and anesthetizing attacks, flying snakes that breathe lightning [possibly the snakes won here? see article on snake religion, same author], mantari-like creatures.

Population Centers

The Evil City/The Orc Pits...fire giants, ogres, and orcs; nasty LE regime supported by Asmodanu and Malefint; opposed by Quillion.

Soul-Furnace...where the fire giants use what little metal the world has.

The Walled/Perfect City...LN humans who maintain the floating roads and only let in other LNs. Regumark lives here, and the Chaosion is imprisoned here.

Floating roads connect Soul-Furnace, the Evil City, the Walled City, and perhaps other places; they are maintained by automata that resemble insects in appearance and hive mentality/comparmentalized functionality. The road is periodically "cleaned" by walls of fire. Rest areas with heat-resistant sleeping bags and access panels (locked, but hooked into a touch-pad system) at regular intervals. [Desc. of lanes, central ridge w/ encoded info.] Some guard stations are run by fire giants and orcs.

Undersea City (rumored)

Ruined City...in the desert; if any inhabitants, they're nuts. (Thrikeen is thought to be here.)

Wizards of Xu

Can be called from a mountaintop above the clouds (see map); the ritual is decribed on tablets there. Lawful Good. Some are mages, some are priests (called astronomers), some are "watchers". Place great emphasis on their Cosmic Sequence (each number is the sum of the previous two: 1,2,3,5,...) They only train for levels along that sequence. (Also say there's one comet, two parts of the day, three suns, five planets, eight stars, thirteen worlds (reachable through the gate on the mountain, which they say is only usable by planar travelers rather than natives to this world).) Skilled mathematicaians. Memorize spells by concentrating on stone tablets. Work in base 13. Associate the gods with stars; use stars, alignments, and artifact names interchangably (Cuthbert etc. are the names of the alignments and the stars in this world). Astrnomers (priests) and watchers LG; mages NG. Magic specialized in air-type effects (taken very broadly) -- cloud ships, a cloud fortress, spells like air bolt, feather fall, far sight.

The Xu believe there are three entrances to this world...Good on the mountain, Evil in the Ruined City, and "intermediate" near the Walled City. Since we appeared in the Swamp, there appears to be a flaw with the theory.

The Artifacts

Cuthbert was brought back to this plane by Derdriu Elathan.

Selemine has clearly been there, since all the mages (and perhaps priests -- the only ones we met were Moradin dwarves and Xus) are good.

Quillion is opposing the LE regime in the Orc Pits.

Regumark is in use in the Walled City.

Chaosion is imprisoned in the Walled City.

Asmodanu and Malefint are in use in the Evil City.

Thrikeen is presumably somewhere in the desert.

Other Worlds [according to Selebriti, Mage of Xu]

Red World: Red sandstone like world. Fairly hot and sandy. Most of the creatures here are nocturnal.
Green World: Probably has lots of plants; could be ours.
Blue World: An underwater world from what he can tell. Has light coming from the bottom of the world. Creatures here are water breathing, and the humans have adapted he thinks.
Black World: Complete darkness as far as he can tell. There is no day/night cycle, no stars etc. There are lots of fungus type creatures and puddings roaming around.
White World: World filled with white fog (not poisonous). Sounds kind of like a cloud citadel?

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Coded by Erich Greene on 8-19-97