Karpri

Overview

Karpri is a water world without any land masses, and three distinct ecological regions. The polar regions are bitterly cold and are covered in pack ice hundreds of miles thick. The air is so frigid that any moisture in the air is immediately transformed into hard driving sleet. Even during the summer months, the polar regions never get above -10°F (-24°C). Visitors often complain about nosebleeds but the greatest threat a spelljamming vessel faces, apart from the native predators, is getting stuck in the ice. When a spelljammer lands on the pack ice, the relative warmth of its hull or landing gear melts some of the ice. The resulting moisture freezes almost immediately, effectively trapping the vessel and forcing the crew to chip away the ice before they can take off again.

The equatorial region of Karpri is covered in an enormous mass of floating seaweed and kelp thick enough to support weights in excess of a few thousand pounds. Some of the water plants have leaves the size of a small city block [about 330 by 660 feet (100 by 200 metres)], large enough to support the weight of some of the smaller spelljammers, such as the damselfly- and dragonfly-class ships. This massive sargasso is home to large schools of predatory fish, gargantuan insects and giant spiders which all live in amongst the plants.

Between the polar and equatorial regions are vast oceans of open water, without a single land mass, island or clump of floating vegetation to be seen. The water is so clear that visibility extends for hundreds of feet down.

Inhabitants

Karpri has a vast interconnected ecosystem that features a variety of animal lifeforms. The polar regions are home to numerous predatory creatures that thrive in this cold environment, including polar bears, cryohydras, white puddings, remorhaz, ice toads, winter wolves and yeti. The southern polar region is also home to a community of stranded gnomes who survived their spelljammer crashing into the ice, and have been forced to eke out a miserable existence by tunneling into the ice below the wreck of their ship.

The equatorial sargasso is home to numerous species of giant aquatic and semi-aquatic spiders and insects, including a fearsome variety of gargantuan praying mantis. Surprisingly, there are only a few winged varieties of insect, including dragonflies, huge horseflies, and ladybugs. The vast labyrinth of seaweed, roots and kelp is also home to thousands of varieties of saltwater fish.

Within the depths of the open oceans live pods of huge whales (similar to blue whales and orca), and telepathic dolphins who work closely with their allies, the aquatic elves who inhabit vast floating colonies below the surface. The most fearsome predators in the open oceans are the eyes of the deep who thankfully choose to inhabit the wrecks of spelljammers and other ships that lie near the core of the planet.

Aquatic elves

Originally from the Trackless Sea near the isle of Evermeet on the planet Toril, the aquatic elves of Karpri weave vast floating colonies out of the seaweed and kelp they harvest from the equatorial sargasso. The aquatic elves adore the telepathic dolphins of Karpi, and see themselves as the guardians of the oceans, ruthlessly defending their friends, the whales and dolphins, from predators and whaling-ships from wildspace.

Gnomes

At the southern pole of Karpri is the wreck of a gnomish spelljamming vessel. The surviving gnomes have converted the wreck into their principal shelter, but at the insistence of their leader, Lotus Redcap, they have began excavating habitable caves and tunnels in the ice, which they heat using torches of continual fire. The gnomes hunt the various polar animals for food and have begun cultivating an edible variety of algae which, while bland and rubbery, keeps them from starving. The gnomes spend a great deal of time hiding from polar predators, and are thus unlikely to be rescued by a passing ship any time soon. Some of the gnomes have paired off and have started their own families.

Trade

There is no organised trade on Karpri, and most spelljammers come to the water world to replenish their air envelopes and possibly to gather food, since the fish are so abundant. The only other valuable resource on Karpri are the large pods of whales that inhabit the open oceans. Whales are incredibly valuable as their blubber can be rendered into oil, and their ambergris is used to make perfumes and incense.

However, landing on Karpri is fraught with peril. Ships landing on the solid pack ice at the poles run the risk of freezing in the sub-zero temperatures, whether it be the ship or the crew. And of course the polar regions are inhabited by powerful, and in some case, monstrous predators. The dense equatorial sargasso may safely support smaller vessels but the predatory insects and arachnids would most likely swarm a ship in short order in search of prey.

Landing on the open ocean may appear, on the face of it, to be the safest choice, but the aquatic elves of Karpri have been known to react with extreme violence towards any ships they believe to be hunting whales, and have slaughtered entire crews and thrown them into the water to be consumed by predators, before consigning their ships to the depths of Karpri.

Satellites

Karpri is orbited by an ancient Imperial Elven Navy outpost that was abandoned after its crew were slaughtered by illithids.

Karpri station

Karpri Station is an elven-made satellite which slowly orbits around Karpri at about 150,000 miles (241,401 kilometres) above the planets' surface. The outpost consists of seven archaic man-o-wars welded together by the growth of their crystalline wings. The ships share the same gravity plane and atmospheric envelope, and all of the weapons were placed facing outwards, towards open space. The outpost served as an elven military base for over 144 years before being overrun by illithids, who slaughtered the entire crew before abandoning the base. Several attempts have been made to reclaim or salvage the base, but all attempts have failed. The base is reputed to be haunted by the ghosts of the elven crew who died horribly so many years ago.

Appendix

External Links

• Karpri article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

References

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