The Facet (The Glass Sea)
Site Dossier
Planet & System: Eox / Mataras System
Location: Northern Hemisphere Wasteland (centered at coordinates )
Site Dimensions: Roughly 350 miles (560 km) in diameter; crater depth plunges over 4 miles into the mantle
Terrain: Vitrified, radioactive green silicate glass, crystalline spires, tectonic fault chasms
Atmosphere: None (Hard vacuum; extreme secondary gamma radiation and necrotic particulate)
Environmental Hazards: Lethal Radiation (Severe), Micro-Decompression Fissures, Razor-Sharp Glass Shards, Planar Negative Energy Rifts
Inhabitants: Necromantic researchers, pilgrims of Zon-Kuthon and Urgathoa, feral void-ghouls, radioactive undead horrors
Prominent Landmarks: The Obsidian Crucible (Remnants of the firing array), The Shimmering Needles, The Maw of the Void
Overview & The Magefire Backlash
Among the blasted scars across the surface of Eox, The Facet—often called The Glass Sea or the Crying Crater—is the most terrifying and monumental. It is the physical and metaphysical ground zero of the ancient cataclysm that destroyed the living world.
Millennia ago, during the apocalyptic pre-Gap conflict against the twin planets Damiar and Iovo, ancient elebrian magisters constructed and discharged the Magefire—a planet-cracking superweapon designed to funnel cosmic negative energy directly into planetary cores. While the weapon successfully pulverized the Twins into what is now The Diaspora, the unimaginable magical recoil backfired into the firing matrix.
A tidal backlash of eldritch fire ripped straight through Eox’s northern continent. The instantaneous heat—exceeding millions of degrees—vaporized mountain ranges, scoured away the atmosphere, and melted the planetary crust down into its mantle. When the molten magma cooled in the airless void, it vitrified into a jagged, undulating crater hundreds of miles wide composed of iridescent, translucent emerald and violet glass.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| THE FACET GEOLOGICAL SCHEMA |
+=============================================================================+
| [VACUUM OF SPACE] |
| |
| \ \ \ EXTREME GAMMA RADIATION & SOLAR STORMS / / / |
| |
| ===================================================================== |
| <<< THE GLASS SEA: VITRIFIED RADIOACTIVE SILICATE CRUST (Miles Deep) >>> |
| ===================================================================== |
| | | |
| v v |
| [THE SHIMMERING NEEDLES] [THE OBSIDIAN CRUCIBLE]|
| Towering crystalline spires Fused superstructure of|
| focusing negative energy. the Magefire weapon. |
| | |
| v |
| [THE MAW OF THE VOID] |
| Tectonic planar tear to|
| Negative Energy Plane. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Environmental Perils
Entering The Facet without specialized planetary exploration gear is instantaneous suicide for living beings:
1. Lethal Radiation & Necrotic Fallout
The glass itself is saturated with radioactive isotopes and cosmic decay.
- Unshielded biological creatures suffer rapid cellular breakdown, while the necrotic radiation actively interferes with standard technological sensors, causing scanners to display phantom readings and static distortion.
- Undead creatures, conversely, find the radiation invigorating, absorbing the ambient negative energy to accelerate their cellular regeneration.
2. The Razor Slopes
The surface is not smooth glass; it is a nightmare of splintered obsidian ridges, jagged crystal dunes, and razor-sharp needles:
- Standard environmental spacesuit boots and vehicle treads are quickly shredded by the abrasive crystalline dust.
- A fall onto the glass can breach pressurized armor suits, causing explosive decompression.
3. The Planar Fissures
Deep within the central chasm lies The Maw of the Void—a permanent metaphysical wound where the barriers between reality and the Negative Energy Plane (The Void) remain torn open.
- Dark, gravitationally inverted geysers of negative energy erupt periodically, freezing physical matter and spontaneously animating deceased tissue into feral, mindless undead.
Points of Interest
1. The Obsidian Crucible
At the dead center of the crater stand the fused, skeletal ruins of the Magefire weapon complex:
- A mountain-sized mass of melted adamantine conduits, broken focus crystals, and shattered runic containment rings.
- Despite the total destruction of the firing mechanism, deep sub-surface vaults beneath the Crucible remain sealed by ancient magical wards, rumored to contain pre-Gap military data and the uncorrupted genetic blueprints of the original living Elebrian race.
2. The Shimmering Needles
Towering natural formations of green glass that rise hundreds of feet into the black sky:
- These spires act as natural lightning rods for negative planar energy, crackling with silent, heatless violet sparks.
- Hermits, mystics, and death-philosophers carve small, pressurized meditation cells into the spires to commune with the cosmic forces of entropy.
3. The Pilgrimage of the Flayed
Zealots of Zon-Kuthon and morbid cultists of Urgathoa journey from off-world to walk the glass plains:
- Carrying heavy iron chains, pilgrims traverse the razor slopes on foot as an act of devotion, seeking spiritual transcendence through physical agony and exposure to the planet’s darkling resonance.
Economy & Research
Despite its lethality, The Facet is a multi-million-credit resource for the Bone Sages:
- Facet Glass Extraction: Specialized mining rigs harvest blocks of the irradiated green glass. When polished and treated with stasis runes, the crystal is exported as a primary component for high-grade optical laser matrices, necrotech battery casings, and dark-energy spell amplifiers.
- Arcane Particle Physics: High-level researchers from the University of Arcanamirium on Absalom Station maintain remote sensor domes along the crater’s rim, studying the lingering dimensional physics of the Magefire backlash to improve starship shields and anti-matter containment fields.
Campaign & Adventure Hooks
- The Shattered Survey: A research vessel carrying a team of living environmental scholars from Castrovel experiences thruster failure and crashes into the center of The Facet. With their life-support batteries draining and their suits failing against the radiation, the PCs must mount a high-speed rescue operation across the razor dunes before the scientists suffocate or succumb to feral glass-ghouls.
- The Crucible Vault: An encrypted manifest discovered in a Diaspora wreck reveals that an intact pre-Gap stasis vault survived the Magefire explosion deep beneath the Obsidian Crucible. The party is hired by an anonymous antiquarian to breach the molten vault and retrieve its sealed records before agents of the Corpse Fleet claim it.
- The Glass Leviathan: Deep tectonic tremors within The Facet crack open a planar rift, releasing a gargantuan, crystalline shadow-beast forged from negative energy and vitrified glass. As the monster begins crawling toward the sealed domes of Orphys, the Bone Sages hire the PCs to plant tactical seismic charges along its migratory path to shatter the abomination.
Cross-References & Related Lore
- Parent World: Eox (The Dead World)
- Capital Haven: Orphys (The City of Domes)
- The Cataclysm: The Magefire & The Shattering of the Twins (The Diaspora)
- Ruling Patrons: Bone Sages
- Planar Source: The Negative Energy Plane / The Void