Kepler 22-B is a Super-Earth that orbits within the Kepler 22 solar system's Habitable Zone (at 0.849 AU). It is one of the earliest confirmed Exoplanets located 600 light years from Earth in the Cygnus constellation. The Strange New World blog is coordinating a collaborative effort to map and explore Kepler 22-B as an environment suitable for table-top role-playing games.
Sector T-3 occupies a rocky, mountainous region with warm Mediterranean coasts with a few large freshwater lakes and is dominated by vast, dense forests that are book-ended by two distinctly different desert regions. We have only begun to explore this region...
Sector T-3 occupies a rocky, mountainous region with warm Mediterranean coasts with a few large freshwater lakes and is dominated by vast, dense forests that are book-ended by two distinctly different desert regions. We have only begun to explore this region...
Kepler 22-B: Sector T-3
Notable Location One
Northwest Quadrant: Hex 14.42
Free-floating blimp-drones have detected a large symmetrical mass in Hex 14.42. Situated upon a sheer cliff overlooking the mouth of a fast-flowing river there is a very large, almost featureless blister-dome. The area surrounding the Dome is heavily forested, dense with ferns, fronds and thorns. The terrain is rugged and difficult to traverse for tripods and almost impassable for most ground vehicles. Aerial or aquatic transport are recommended.
Blister-Dome (Egg?): Nothing grows upon the Dome. There are no visible apertures. No markings. It appears inert. Yet it registers as a living organism according to all scans. A single living organism more than a mile in diameter...
Lesser Tributaries: On either side of the Dome are a pair of winding and sluggish freshwater rivers that flow into the more brackish waters of the mega-river that extends inland to Hex 20.35. Both of these smaller rivers have muddy bottoms rich with various sorts of bivalves and burrowing fish. More than thirty varieties of ferns and lotuses cover the banks or grow out into the river-bed itself. Red-striped land-krill and yellow-spotted drift-slugs prey upon smaller insect and motile plant species. There are eight-winged insects somewhat resembling mayflies or cicadas that feed upon the land-krill and drift-slugs in turn. Small traces of gold can be detected in the river mud. A species of butterfly unique to this region extracts gold from the mud and deposits it into their wings as an ultra-fine bio-foil.
Cliffs and Caves: This area has a great deal of limestone and dolomite. Sinkholes, cenotes and karst formations are extremely common and serve as habitats for countless animals, fungi and so on. All along the mega-river the terrain drops away sharply in a sheer cliff-face that extends for many miles (at least as far back inland as Hex 16.40). These cliffs are heavily eroded, massively overgrown and extensively riddled with holes, tunnels and caverns.
Mega-River: Blimp-seals and hundreds of migratory waterfowl of every type and description thrive in the brackish waters at the mouth of this Mega-River. Luminous shrimp, aquarachnids and eel-crabs proliferate farther upstream. A sort-of salmon-like fish species competes with voracious 3' long insect larva in the deeper waters. A type of reedy plant has been expanding into the region from a source that may or may not be located in Sector V-3. Nothing can be conclusively established without more in-depth research. The reeds are of interest as they produce a wide array of 'pearls' by accumulating and concentrating various minerals into tightly packed nodules scattered along their extensive root-networks.
Abandoned Settlement-Site: Extending from the promontory across the Mega-River from the Blister-Dome noted above and running down behind a steep overhanging ridge into Hex 15.43 are the cyclopean ruins of a non-human settlement dominated by octagonal slabs of greenish basalt that have been stacked like twisted or spiraling helical sculptures. Carvings and cave paintings near or below these ruins depict six-legged scaly centaurs most often with four arms and either four or six sets of eyes. The creatures are shown in a variety of ritual poses and are believed to have been adept hunters. No bones and no artifacts have been uncovered at this time.
Crystal Cylinders: Several large crystal structures, all of them cylindrical in shape, have been encountered at various points across this region. The Cylinders hover 3' above the surface of the ground or river-bed. They emit a low-level humming noise and appear to be following very precisely prescribed paths. When moved away from their present location, the Cylinders will invariably seek to return to their preferred path once they are allowed to go free again. They are definitely artifacts of some sort. Little else is known about these Cylinders at this time.
Sector T-3 Intro | Sector T-3 Index
Imaginative and right on the tone, and very well-presented of course. You've really packed the ideas in.
ReplyDeleteA probe needs sending out to examine that reedy lifeform - activity seems to be increasing at the fringes...
This is a fun project. We're going to roll a few dice to locate the next couple of 'Notable Locales.'
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