Comet K'Thoutek
Description K'Thoutek is a large cometary body about 300 miles (483 kilometers) in diameter, and is primarily made up of iron and frozen water.
Description
K'Thoutek is a large cometary body about 300 miles (483 kilometers) in diameter, and is primarily made up of iron and frozen water. It travels around the Sun in an extremely elliptical orbit that is almost perpendicular to the ecliptic, coming as close as 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) to the sun, and travelling as far away as 200 million miles (322 million kilometers). It takes K'Thoutek just over 237 years to complete one revolution around the sun.
Inhabitants
At one time, K'Thoutek had been inhabited by a large colony of oortlings; however, once they had been discovered by the illithids of Glyth, they were systematically enslaved and transported en masse to the Rings of Glyth, where they are farmed as livestock in so-called "skull farms". The only remaining inhabitant is the haunt of the last K'Thoutek grand wizard, who was killed by the illithids when he tried to protect his people. His spirit remains so that he may take vengeance on the illithids of Glyth.
Rumors
The appearance of the comet K'Thoutek in the skies of Toril every 237 years is usually taken as a sign by native astrologers, and while the details of their predictions may vary, it is usually associated with the arrival of a particularly powerful entity. If K'Thoutek is seen in the vicinity of a nebula, the entity is believed to be particularly evil. The first sighting of the comet is said to have predicted the birth of Elminster, while the following sighting several orbital periods later, when the comet was about to enter the Galleon Nebula, is said to have predicted the birth of the Simbul.
Appendix
External Links
- Comet K'Thoutek article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.