Planet: Spragg

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Alan Hughes

Overview

A muddy planet inhabited by a few hundred people, descendants of a failed colony. Soldiers from offworld guard an underground secret.

Quick Facts

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• Starport: D-class (poor quality, unrefined fuel)
• Gas giant and scout base in system
• Diameter: 6,000 miles / 10,000 km (smaller than Earth)
• Atmosphere: Dense
• Water coverage: 70%
• Population: 700
• Government: Captive government
• Law level: 4 (all firearms except pistols, revolvers, and shotguns prohibited)
• Tech level: 2 (wind power)
• Trade classification: Non-industrial
• Space lanes to: Vibex (jump-2), Enethy (jump-1)

Government, Law, and Diplomacy

Four years ago, the Vibex military took control of Spragg, but they have no interest in the locals or the planet itself. The native population can do as they see fit, as long as they do not interfere with the Vibex operations.

Most Spragg natives live in one of three villages, each governed by the local family elders.

Interstellar Travel

In a given week, ships with the following destinations may be present at the starport:

• Vibex - 9+ chance
• Enethy - 10+ chance

The Starport

Spragg’s starport is built and maintained by the Vibex military, and is very simple. There is always at least a courier ship of the Vibex navy there. Aside from Vibex ships, traders on their way to Enethy stop by occasionally.

The village of Mosfell is located near the starport.

Geography

Spragg is a geologically inactive world, reflected in its mostly flat surface. The highest peaks and the deepest depths do not reach more than couple hundred meters above or below sea level. There are twenty-seven major continents or landmasses spread across the ocean, all rather small.

The planet’s moon gives rise to tides, which become quite drastic on such a flat world. The coast of every continent consists of mud flats that stretch for dozens of kilometres, submerged when the tide comes in. Indeed, nine of the continents are all mud - disappearing completely at high tide.

Spragg’s bedrock is quite porous, with many cave systems.

Ecology

The stable parts of the land hold a thriving biosphere, with plants, trees, and animals, but none of them grow very large. Animals are mostly fliers who hunt in the mud flats after the tide goes out.

The mud flats are full of life. Animals hunt and are hunted by each other, ocean creatures left behind by the tide, and fliers from the land. The species most dangerous to humans are the stranglers, animals resembling large centipedes that grab land creatures and pull them down into the mud, where they suffocate. Humans are bigger than the strangler’s usual prey, but even if a strangler fails to pull human down, their grip is very hard to break. A person can get stuck and drown when the tide comes in.

There is almost no plant life in the mud flats, except for a hardy bamboo-like plant called salt stem. It grows in large thickets, usually a few kilometres out from stable land.

The Villages

There are three villages on Spragg, all located near the southern shore of one of the largest continents, with a distance of half a day’s travel on foot between them. They are called Clermick, Arkult, and Mosfell.

The three villages are quite similar, each with a population of around 200 people. The people subsist on farming, supported by hunting in forests and in the mud flats. The small trees of the land are useless for building. Instead, salt stems are cut in the mud flats and brought ashore. Stem cutters become adept at walking the mud, avoiding sinking mud and lurking stranglers.

Offworld visitors are allowed to stay and eat in the villages for free, as long as they behave themselves and help out with work if needed. Trade is done through bartering. The locals do not use credits or any other type of money.

At midsummer and midwinter, all three villages hold a festival where people make offerings to the sea - food, art objects, and items received from offworld visitors. They are left in the mud flats and taken by the tide.

Death’s Village

About three days’ journey west from Clermick, the westernmost village, is a place called Death’s Village. It is believed to be the place where people go after they die. It’s not good for living people to go there; they might be unable to leave or bring dead people back with them.

Death’s Village is the ruins of the initial colony on Spragg, founded about 600 years ago. It was built on solid land, but the ground was destabilized by the construction. During a storm in high tide, the land gave way and sank into the sea, along with the colony. The area was turned into mud flats, the buildings partly or wholly sunken into the mud. Spragg’s inhabitants are descendants of the survivors.

There are still recoverable goods inside the ruins, including ten tons of steel, two tons of copper, two tons of aluminium, one ton of tin, and one ton of special alloys. Extracting the goods from the ruins and mud will be a challenge, though.

The Vibex Military

The soldiers from Vibex have set up two bases: one at the starport near Mosfell village, and one at a wide hill half a day’s travel inland. Each base is manned by about 30 soldiers. Travellers are not allowed to stay at or enter the bases; they are told to seek hospitality from the locals instead.

The inland base holds the secret reason for the Vibex presence.

About fifty years ago, an Enethyan visited the Spragg system in its asteroid-ship. Carelessly entering the planet’s atmosphere, the Enethyan and its ship burned up. Locals saw it as a shooting star. Some of the Enethyan’s cells survived the disaster, falling down to the planet. A few settled in a cave, where they found silicon and other minerals necessary to survive. A new Enethyan started growing.

Four years ago, a spelunking tourist from Vibex found the young Enethyan deep in the cave system. Shocked, he reported it to Vibex government. The government forbade him from speaking of his discovery, and sent the military to Spragg.

The government of Vibex had long feared what would happen if the Enethyans decided to start expanding out of of their home system. This was the first known instance of Enethyan “colonization” of another world. The military’s mission is to quarantine the young Enethyan, study its biology, and keep it secret - especially from Enethyan society.

The young Enethyan is malnourished, as the bedrock of Spragg has a different composition from the asteroids of Enethy. The Vibex soldiers keep it sedated using intense radio frequencies.

Scenarios

- Death’s Village becomes a sensation among the upper class on Vibex. Rich tourists flock to Spragg to visit it. The people of Spragg are less than amused.

- If the Enethyans were to find out about the young one trapped on Spragg, they would discuss the matter and decide to rescue it, following their internal Treaty Regarding Education and Care of the Newly Formed. They would enquire about or estimate the number of humans on Spragg, then send a number of ships higher than that number to the system. (This would be a fleet a couple orders of magnitudes bigger than any human navy in the subsector.) Of course, since the Enethyan ships can’t land on Spragg, they would need assistance in extracting the young one.