Slug Temple

     A hot and humid world, Slug Temple is mostly white from orbit, with small patches of blue and green peeking out from the swirling clouds. There is a pattern in the chaos, a rhythm to the scudding whorls. If you unfocus your eyes, you can see the fractal lattice wrapping around the world. Five “knots” in the lacework mark the locations of the megaliths.

    The Megaliths are five gargantuan stone monuments. Though they differ in configuration they each consist of five slabs. It’s clear that they serve as some sort of nexus or control point for the biological systems the Soft Bodies built into this world. They play a critical role in the rebirth cycle for the planetary guardian kaiju.

    Slug Temple has a thriving population of kaiju who live under the five guardian Kaiju, the largest kaiju on the planet. They are effectively immortal.  If they are killed they reform out of planetary biomass at their respective monolith. They live for a hundred years before dying and being reborn. Their rebirth schedules are staggered so that one kaiju is dying every 20 years. 

    There is a large land mass on the planet’s north pole. It is flat, cold and boggy. During the planetary winters it can drop to below freezing, a rarity on a planet as hot as Slug Temple. It is a land of rain and fog. What little dry land there is is covered in lush beds of moss. The Megalith is called the hut. Three slabs form walls while the other two form the floor and ceiling.

    The guardian kaiju of the North Pole is Fog Swimmer Quzork, a massive storm ribbon that shrouds itself with a thick fog bank. Despite being the closest guardian to Mount Snarb, relatively little is known about it. There is a tradition on Mount Snarb to credit it for any unresolved disappearances.

    Mount Snarb is a weathered, bald dome sticking out of the morass. It is home to the only permanent settlement on the planet. It was  founded by orthodox Kaijuists as a home base for their pilgrimages by Horace “Grubo” Snarb, who was the sole survivor of an earlier Kaijuist colony. With less than five hundred full-time residents, Mount Snarb is truly the outskirts of galactic civilization. The only major industry is ecotourism and trophy hunting. 

    The Spire Sea is a shallow tropical sea noted for the coral pillars that grow out of the water. The sea here reaches above the surface, with many lifeforms crossing back and forth over the boundary.The piscenoids have fins like wings and the jellies have hydrogen bladders. The megalith is the Table. Four slabs form the legs and one is the top.

    The Spire Sea is the domain of Spire Tyrant Klarklaka, a shelled leviathan that uses it’s muscular tentacle arms to swing it’s bulk over the Spire Sea. It hunts with an array of organic harpons.

    Like many Soft Body worlds, there is a massive subterranean ecosystem underpinning the surface biomes. The secret heart of Slug Temple crawls through every cave and aquifer, a throng of life in a lightness world. The center of that world is the megalith called the Fins. The five slabs are arranged parallel to each other in a huge lake chamber. 

    Normally the underground is full of strange calls and bioluminescent displays but everything goes silent and dark when Luminous Majesty Intragoner approaches. It is a massive slug with dozens of luminous eyes. It hunts with its stupefying psychic gaze, paralyzing anything the eyes focus on, then it simply swallows prey whole. 

    Deep Fire Ridge is a volcanic hotspot on the ocean floor, host to an ecosystem based on titanic chemosynthetic snails. The Ring Megalith has its five slabs arranged in a circle. The Guardian is Deep Fire Dweller Sek’Ron’Teth. It is a slug covered in overlapping bio-alloy scale plates. It attacks with a fierce ambient heat aura that can melt steel.

    The Cloud Biters are a rough and broken mountain range. High altitude cloud jungles cling to the peaks and ridges, a strange high world of green and white. The Star Megalith here is a central slab surrounded by four slabs serving as rays. This is the territory of Verdant Drifter Meklurga. Kept aloft by some unknown force emanating from its shell, the Verdant Drifter looks like a floating mountain, all covered in jungle. Long feeding tentacles caress the canopy, searching for food.

Organisms

Omen Shells - kaiju sized snails with intricate fractal whorl patterns on their shells. They spend most of their time hidden under water, feeding on slime and algae. When they gather it is the first sign that a guardian kaiju is about to die. If threatened, they defend themselves with a sticky bolus of thick mucus. They also have the ability to psionically catalyse lightning strikes when there is a strong enough atmospheric charge, which is most of the time in Slug Temple’s thick atmosphere.

Threnody Singers - Winged flying slug the size of an adult human. They congregate around coming deaths to sing their eerie song before feeding on the new carrion. The size of the flock depends on the size of the death: a couple for something human sized, dozens for a kaiju and thousands for a greater kaiju.

Storm Ribbon - A flying kaiju unique to Slug Temple. Creates its own personal electrical storm wherever it flies.  

Trade goods

Megalith Biofilm - A special microbial community that only grows on the megaliths. It is thought to have some connection to the rebirth of the guardian kaiju but its hard to study, as it decays immediately after being removed. It can be kept alive on a fragment of the megalith, but damaging the megalith releases a viral attack pheromone marker that incites all life, even the guardian kaiju to attack.

Guardian Kaiju Remains - The bio alloys and high performance chemistry of the guardian kaijus make them valuable to genetic engineers. Pieces of the guardians also have religious significance to the kaiju church. Harvesting pieces of dead guardians isn’t easy, because the death of such a creature triggers a massive feeding frenzy. 

Chunky Space compact

    The Chunky Space Compact was created in response to border skirmishes inside Chunky Space between the six major signatories. The problem was that with the elevated levels of priracy within Chunky Space, unnecessary conflicts were occurring between the various security forces, sometimes catalyzed by the pirates they were obstebily hunting. After a particularly nasty incident in which Seeder Navy personnel were captured and eaten by Republic pirate hunters, a peace conference was called, and the compact was signed shortly thereafter. The terms are fairly simple.

1 - Non-aggression - The big one, arguably the reason for the treaty. Each polity keeps a register of all ships active in Chunky Space. Ships so named are to be free of all harassment and molestation outside of publicly declared interdiction zones. A vessel violating this sanction can expect to lose its official designation and be branded a pirate.

2 - Letters of Marque and reprisal - This section covers the (fairly simple) requirements a ship needs to met in order to serve as a privateer, as well as a list of polities and outlaw groups that are considered to be pirates.

3 - Colony licensensing - This is the sole provision added by the Republic of Sea Serpents. It outlines the necessary procedures to quantify environmental impact of new colonies and ways that impact can be negated. All unlicensed colonies are considered to be “wild cat” settlements and are fair targets for privateers

4 - Chunky net - This provision mandated the creation of a pan chunky space communication network in order to share information between polities 

5 - Extradition - Signatory parties have the right to call for extradition hearings for criminals in other signatory’s territories. Such hearings are to be overseen by a local magistrate (or the closest equivalent). Only acts that are crimes in both polities are extraditable.

6 - Right of Docking - Lastly, signatory ships are allowed at signatory ports and must be allowed to purchase fuel at local market prices, except during officially declared emergencies.

Rapacious Child

  

Rapacious Child is the factory/foundry complex that serves as the base of Father’s Corp’s operations in Chunky Space. It is an astral entity that budded off from Father Corp itself. It is possessed by the same greed as its sire but it is much less intelligent. It is a simple, grasping thing that only wants to melt down astral matter in its blazing gullet.

Seen from space, Rapacious Child looks like a monstrous face. A huge mouth splits the station in half vertically. Massive plates the size of cities overhang the opening like snaggly teeth. The mouth is lit by a warm glow. Both hemispheres have a single large glowing eye.


Rapacious Child is Father Corp’s most valuable asset in Chunky Space so it needs protection. In every system it visits it is escorted by 10 micro missile swarms, each hundreds of units strong. The swarms are kept hidden in ready mode in key locations across the system. Fire control for the swarms is provided by observers in stealthed watch posts. In addition, there are 2d20 astral trawlers docked or in system at any given time. Astral trawlers are armed with twin medium mazer banks and a squad of astral marines in battle panoplies. Between the ships there will also be 1d8 psychic weapon officers, split between telekinetic and offensive telepaths. Lastly, in dire situations the meld minister can focus the attention of the Child itself on intruders. The Child attacks with telekinetically controlled webs of molten metal.


Close orbit around the Child is known as the Feed Yard. This is a holding zone for astral matter that is destined to be fed to the Child. There are chunks of impossible edifices, surreal trees, and bloody corpses of astral creatures. Cyborg Prime Strain void laborers pick through the remains, scanning for items of value and potential threats to the Child. In emergency situations they mobilize into an ad-hoc militia.




Baby Blues are creeps that manifest in the Feed Yard. They are thought to have come from Prime Strain misconceptions about human reproduction. They look not unlike fat human infants, but much larger and solid blue. They float around the yard, motionless until they're looked at. They feed off of disgust and revulsion, so they begin to twitch when observed. They converge on people having panic attacks, mobbing up against them in a tide of soft blue flesh. The void workers try not to look at anything blue or baby like if they can help it.



The Jaw Dex is the slightly nicer of the two jaw cities. The hab complexes are cleaner, the rations are fresher and the security forces are less trigger happy. The permanent residents are entirely Prime Strain. The office of the Meld Minister is here. The current Meld Minister is JXTRL, once a cunning and ambitious middle manager. Their mind is already deteriorating from exposure to the Child. When they’re not directing the Child, they are locked in their office playing with blocks and eating candy. The bureaucracy of Father Corp has rerouted management of the child around them, to a council of upper middle managers.


Jaw Dex is home to the Eye of What You Want, a large temple complex where astral radiation shines from the depths of the child. The whole temple acts as psychic focus for clairvoyance, with the catch that it only shows material goods the psychic would wish to acquire.


The Jaw Sin is the shabbier of the two cities. The foreigner ghetto that houses non Prime Strain Father Corp employees is here. These workers are often debt slaves who were pressed into service by rescue fees when Father Corp found them in dire circumstances. They are given the most dangerous jobs in the child, like bowel maintenance worker. Also here is the visitor’s dock and the outlet store, where outsiders can purchase Father Corp goods.


The Eye of What Others Have is here. It is similar to the Eye of What you Want, except it shows material possessions belonging to people the seer knows personally. The two eyes are in constant use by “Clerical Associates” who use them to conduct “market research”. This results in an endless stream of intelligence products that swirl through the bureaucracy until they congeal into action items. Both eyes together give Father Corp strategic vision of almost anywhere in Chunky Space


The Bowels of the Child is a cramped and sprawling mass of brass pipes and tanks. Astral matter is melted down in the mouth and processed in the bowels. High levels of astral radiation means the machinery here does not operate on rational material rules but rather by dream logic. Constant maintenance is required, simply because it seems like constant maintenance should be required. Teams of workers plumb the sweltery depths, looking for dials to adjust and bolts to tighten. Accidents are frequent and deadly, like leaks of molten dream stuff and flash fires. There are also factory dwelling creeps that can be hostile. Somewhere in the tangle is the Umbilicus, the cords and pipes that connect the Child to Father Corp. The Umbilicus runs through the astral current called the Squeeze, which can act as a backdoor into the Child.


Jerkies are a type of creep found in the bowels. They are crude humanoid simulrums made of burned and desiccated meat. They are shy, hiding between pipes, peeking out of shadows with skeletal faces. Bowel workers say they are the corpses of those who were killed by accidents. They say they congregate around future accident sites. They are ambiguous figures, sometimes saving workers from their fate, sometimes trying to make more of their kind.


Rarely a Jerky will have a damaged mask on its face. This is actually a dangerous creature called a Maskform revenant. These beings are the damaged and distorted egos of dead maskforms, still clinging to existence. They are driven by revenge, but they can’t remember the source of their grudges. They grow wicked blades out their bodies and attack at short range. They will not attack the friends and family they had in life.

The Maskform Federation

 

    The Maskform Federation is a new military alliance formed by the various clans and settlements of the astral currents in Chunky Space. The Astral Currents have been settled for millennia but they have always been isolated and independent. Only Father Corp raids have pushed them together. They have created a unified force that opposes Father Corp not only in the Astral, but in the material world as well.

    The Maskform Federation has joined the Chunky Space Compact because they need allies and material support. For generations the Maskforms of Chunky Space have ignored the material world. This position is no longer tenable, as Father Corp uses the material world as a base to launch their raids into the astral currents. The Federation is boot-strapping up a real space navy and they need outside help to do so. 

    Before the Federation, Maskform societies were connected by the Caravan Houses, mechant consortiums that would travel between Astral currents. It was the caravan guards that formed the core of the Federation military. The Federation has since evolved beyond those roots, becoming estranged from the Caravan Houses’ economic interests. There is a growing pan-Maskform nationalism that some see as a threat to the traditional order. For now the common enemy of Father Corp keeps the alliance together.

    The Federation military is split into an auxiliary branch and a professional branch. The Auxiliaries are the fighting forces of the various tribes united together. They use their traditional tactics and command structures to fight in astral realms. The professional branch is a completely modern institution that focuses on real space.

    The strength of the Federation Navy lies in the psychic traditions of the Maskforms. All together, the tribes have knowledge of dozens of different psychic disciplines. There are schools for telekinesis, mind intrusion, wild empathy, techno gnosis and some applications that are so obscure they don’t have common names. What is also notable is how the Federation navy deploys these powers as part of a combined arms doctrine. Psychics are assigned to multidisciplinary fire teams with infantry support. Federation forces are powerful, flexible and unconventional.

    The Amorphous live in the cave-like current called The Squeeze. Their name comes from their custom of assuming flexible slime forms, allowing them to squeeze through any gap their mask can fit through. They live in sealed fortresses built around fixed points in the everchanging caves. Each fortress is ruled by a military leader called a Wallmaster who serves at the consent of a council of civil leaders. The Amorphous have been forced to militarize even before the emergence of Father Corp. The Squeeze is also home to the Dig Safe Empire, a militant cult of meme victims that desire only to dig and to spread their compulsion. The various settlements are all united together by ancient pacts, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t infighting. Disputes are settled through ritual one on one combat between warriors wearing tech gnostic battle panoplies 

    The Illuminated live in Siren’s Call, a layered oceanic realm. The layer you experience is dependent on your vibrational frequency, with the catch that the realm itself is always sapping energy. To avoid the dangerous low vibe layers, they carry lightstones, which they use as a  meditative focus to increase their vibes. They live in nomadic, free swimming pods. The only permanent settlement is the crawling city, made out of motile astral coral. The city is home to creches, libraries and workshops; all of the infrastructure they can’t carry with them. The city is ruled by a Headmaster, who is appointed by a council of department heads.  Their power extends only to the city; the pods have no formal leadership structure.

    The Threaded live in the everchanging wilds of the Trail. Navigation in the Trail works by sympathy and connection; by setting your intention towards a person, the Trail will take you to them (though not necessarily without incident or a detour). The Threaded sew special ceremonial fibers into their astral bodies that strengthen their connection to whoever has the other half of their fiber. They build settlements on meta-stable locations, areas where the warping effect of the trail is somewhat muted. Even these islands of apparent stability aren’t permanent, sometimes melting back into the flux of the trail. As a result the Threaded are always exploring the Trail, looking for new building sites. Settlements are typically small and are ruled by two democratically elected leaders; a “Master Sojourner” who handles external matters like diplomacy and trade and a “ Master cultivator” who handles internal matters.

    The Florid are associated with the astral current known as the digital abyss but in truth the abyss is antithetical to long term habitation. Instead, the Florid live in an “astral delta” realm where the abyss flows into the more hospitable dreamscape known as HellBloom. HellBloom is a massive virtual lake overgrown with digital lotuses. The Florid live on island settlements. Each island is dominated by a single hotel. The hotels service the Digital Devils, powerful and demented digital/astral entities who just need a place to unwind and destress sometimes. The hotels are split between worker-owned and private hereditary owners. An economic war has been going on for centuries that has seen the fortunes of the private owners, the so-called “Spa Queens”, wane considerably. They have now embraced Father Corp and rely on it for cheap resupply. The tides of war are turning once again and the unionists are turning to the Federation for help.

    Life on the Ruin Way is in constant motion. Slow moving objects get shunted to a barren oubliette dimension called the neon wastes. The Peregrine maskforms live on convoys of mobile temple complexes. The convoys travel between sacred fix points in the Ruin Way. Each of the four major convoys uses a different primary fuel source, in order to lessen competition. When there are disputes about routes, food sources or secondary fuels they engage in ceremonial conflicts known as “dust ups”, in which mounted warriors attempt to force each other down into the neon wastes. The convoys are theocracies lead by the most accomplished pilgrims.

    The nexus of Maskform civilization in Chunky Space has always been Dream Washed Ortellion. All five major currents have confluxes here, making it a major trading post. The planet’s capitol, Graz Throne, is the largest city in the Federation. All other settlements are much smaller. The nominal ruler of the planet is the Monarch of Graz, but their role is more militant than political. Trained from birth in the Questing Arts, their task is to contain and control astral influence. Graz Throne is administered by the Fool’s Parade, a body of citizens under the sway of the Jubilant Moon. The outlying settlements are ruled by democratically elected mayors. The Maskforms of Dream Washed Ortellion don’t have a collective name like the other groups. They are sometimes called the Mudbound but that is considered derogatory.