Iego

Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds Excerpt 3

Exhausted the planets in Coruscant and the Core Worlds? You're in luck-in March, Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds will bring you more than two dozen new and familiar planets that float on the fringe of the galaxy. Written by Craig R. Carey, Jason Fry, Jeff Quick, and Daniel Wallace, Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds is a 160-page hardcover stuffed with full-color illustrations and enough adventure hooks, locations, creatures, supporting characters, prestige classes, and more to keep your campaign going for a long time. And just as the book's predecessor spotlighted Coruscant, Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds gives special attention to Geonosis and Kamino, two exciting planets seen in Episode II.

Right now, we have a sneak peek at a different world detailed in the upcoming accessory: Iego, the remote and mysterious home of Angels and Demons!

Iego

Description

In a galaxy of untold wonders, seasoned spacers quickly become jaded. But Iego is one of those enigmatic destinations, wrapped in myth and tinged with menace, that can strike awe into the hearts of even the most fearless hyperspace wanderers.

The precise location of Iego is unrecorded on star charts, and facts about its fantastic inhabitants are contradictory-ask three wrinkled spacers for information on Iego, and you'll get three different accounts. The body of Iego lore is consistent on several points, however. South of the Perlemian, far away from any major hyperspace lane, exists a luminous nebulae pocket known as the Extrictarium. Inside, the small planetoid of Iego floats amid a motionless host of several dozen tiny moonlets. None of the spheroids orbit one another, nor do they rotate, nor are they crushed together into a rocky lump from mutual gravitic attraction. Blazingly bright nebular patches illuminate this suspended tableau with the light of ten suns.

In this implausible environment live the most fanciful creatures to ever haunt Outer Rim mythology. The Angels, to those who believe in them, are so shockingly beautiful that their appearance can make even the most hardened star traveler weep with rapture. Other, less-benign rumors are whispered about the Angels, namely that Iego is a quick trip to an early grave.

History

The legend of the Angels has persisted since the dawn of hyperspace flight, whispered across darkened tables in filthy Outer Rim cantinas. Since no one can supply the coordinates of Iego and most stories are told as something that happened to a "friend of a friend," the scientific community dismisses the whole affair as a spacefarer's myth. Yet folklorists at the University of Sanbra point out that core elements of the tale have remained remarkably consistent through every telling. The following information represents Sanbra's "best guess" on the facts behind the Iego puzzle.

Iego appears to draw travelers to it, no matter where they are at the time or where they had hoped to go. Due to the peculiarities of hyperspace travel and the legendary abilities of the Angels, ships have been said to vanish from the Core and materialize halfway across the galaxy at Iego during what should have been short, routine hyperspace hops.

Whether the new arrivals try to investigate Iego or make a break for the walls of the Extrictarium Nebula appears to make little difference. A host of luminous Angels appear almost immediately, stupefying onlookers with their beauty. Witnesses claim that pilots will plunge their ships into violent crash-landings on Iego as if hypnotized. Naturally, spacers have spun this nugget of information into rich, fantastic yarns, most involving lost treasure galleons rotting on the planetoid like overripe fruit, with gushers of firegems and electrum ingots spilling from their split hulls. Every year, dozens of fortune-hunters hire crews for new Iego expeditions; the vast majority return empty-handed and disappointed, reluctantly conceding that the world is indeed a myth. Some return with tales of wonder or horror, contributing to the legend in their own way. Some never return at all.

Iego seems to exist outside the normal galaxy, unaffected by the actions of the Republic or the Empire. Even the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong would mean nothing to those isolated inside the strange pocket nebula.

People

Iego is famed for its Angels (provisionally known among Sanbra University xenobiologists as the Diathim), creatures of legendary beauty about whom little is known. Most accounts describe them as thin, feminine humanoids 2 to 3 meters tall, with six bladelike wings sprouting from their backs. Some claim the Angels are more androgynous in form, and many alien spacers swear that the Angels appear as exotic-looking Verpine, Givin, or similar representatives of their own native species. All Angels seem to be composed of searing white light tinged with a yellowish aura, making it difficult to identify biological details. Since they glide out from Iego's moonlets to greet arriving ships, it is assumed that they live on the moonlets, but so far their dwellings have remained hidden. Angels have no apparent language and convey an aura of overall benevolence, despite their known efforts at sabotage.

Spacers have been winding up at Iego since the dawn of hyperspace travel. The accumulated number of castaways on the planet now makes up a population thousands strong. Each of the shipwreck survivors pledges allegiance to one of Iego's competing tribes. Some of the tribes are charitable, some malignant, and some have gone feral in their desperation. Curiously, Iego has no apparent natural resources, but those doomed to live there supposedly no longer feel the effects of age or hunger. According to spacer lore, Humans who fought in the Great Sith War four thousand years ago could still be alive on Iego.

Only a handful of people know about Iego's other indigenous species, and most of them refuse to tell the tale. Those with a few drinks in their bellies whisper that Demons, or Maelibi, dwell below the surface of Iego. These Demons intermittently poach the castaway population for sustenance, selecting their screaming victims and casually carrying them below ground under their strong arms. Maelibi are said to be achingly beautiful-even more radiant than the Angels-with bodies like molten gold and lyrical voices that seem to capture the very essence of song.

An Angel and a Demon

Locations

Iego has a number of interesting locations for heroes to visit, including those described below.

The Scatter
Despite its standard gravitational field, Iego is inexplicably tiny. Several castaways have circumnavigated and mapped the entire sphere. Most, however, choose to live near the Scatter, a shallow valley many kilometers wide where all starships are intentionally crashed by the Angels. The Scatter resembles a frozen lake glittering fiercely in the planet's omnipresent light, with its metal wreckage evoking jagged pack ice and hulking starship fuselages standing in for glaciers. In the dark shadows cast by the Scatter's larger shipwrecks live Iego's few tribeless outcasts, most of whom are dangerous and quite mad.

Among the thousands of shredded wrecks are many functional starship components and other parts that can be repaired with a little effort. Sadly, the petty tribal organization of Iego's castaways has prevented any group from assembling a working ship as a means of escape.

Clicksticks Tribe
Most tribes on Iego control patches of territory immediately surrounding the Scatter. The Clicksticks tribe occupies a high mesa with a good view of the Scatter and the surrounding terrain. Scavenged metal and plasteel sheeting make up a village of makeshift huts. Tribe leader Darubang Yosa can trigger rockslides to crush any strangers attempting to scale the mesa.

The Boneyard
Curious heaps of bones litter the face of Iego. The largest pile, known to the castaways as the Boneyard, lies north of the Scatter in rocky, inhospitable terrain. Most of the bones here are gigantic and unidentifiable, and immense rib cages are positioned directly over holes in the planet's crust. Peering down through the ribs, one can see distant flickerings of flame deep underground and hear the distant, dulcet tones of Iego's Demons. An ancient and wise star dragon is rumored to live in the canyons north of the Boneyard.

The Choir Alignment
The Diathim of Iego spend their lives on the system's moonlets and in the rarefied space within the Extrictarium Nebula. There is one place, however, where the Angels regularly touch down on the planet for reasons known only to themselves.

Between the Scatter and the Boneyard is a geologic feature too angular to be natural. Sunken into the rock is a miniature valley 100 meters across, carved into the shape of a nine-pointed star. Those who have stood in the center of the structure report that the moonlets visible from that vantage point seem aligned in elegant geometric patterns. Angels frequently congregate in the area, forming a column of light stretching from the star valley to a point far overhead in space.

Technology

New Vehicle: Iego Ramshackle
Built from the starship detritus littering the Scatter, ramshackles are jury-rigged repulsorlift contraptions built to transport Iego's castaways. Each resembles a reclining chair made from structural tubes, loosely holding together a mass of scavenged engine components. Though the devices are unreliable, they're greatly prized. Some of Iego's inhabitants are willing to kill for the planet's few scraps of advanced machinery.

For the GM

Sorry . . . but we can't show you everything in this excerpt. But we will tell you this: The Iego section of Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds includes adventure seeds that offer a change of pace from more traditional Star Wars scenarios, stats for allies and antagonists, a new species known as a star dragon that can fly through space, and the truth behind Iego's Angels and Demons. Get all the details in March when Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds hits the shelves.

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