[d20 Future] Location idea resource

[TDRandall]

Salacious Prime

Every computer program can be reduced to a number.

This fact was really of little use until just 25 years ago, when archaeologists encountered Ebor - a rocky planet adrift between stars. Astronomers have traced its path back into the system of one of two stars whose paths intersected roughly 200,000 years ago. Deep core samples point to a near-terran environment shortly before that time, then a few hundred years of incredible scorching heat and ash that apparently killed off any existing life, and a subsequent long deep freeze.

More interesting to scientists, however, are the few remaining evidences of the culture that once lived upon the planet. The so called Eborians, while physically diminutive and weak were nevertheless mental titans. Biologists are hard pressed to explain the evolutionary need for quadra-partitioned-parallel organic brains, but the presence of multi-dimensional calculus equations merely on the surfaces of food storage containers had one archaeologist quip "it was probably like reading the ingredients on the cereal box each morning for them."

Much of the notation remains far beyond the grasp of even the best of today's theorists, but an incredible discovery was made when a local university student plugged some of the easier equations into their newest model quantum computer. The computer compiled them, and began to process results. 10 years later, after dropping out of school and taking his discovery with him to the score of nearly 10 trillion dollars later (with his successful multiphasic hypersingularity null-point energy creation engine) he revealed and published his inadvertant finding. He had just bought several top of the line computer models and linked them in parallel and invited the public to watch as he fulfilled his latest dream - entry of the Salacious Prime Number - a number so obscure with equations so advanced that even he had no clue what would occur.

Over the course of 48 hours, Earth quickly found out:
- it was a program
- it required more processing power than it had available
- it took control of several government supercomputers to continue processing
- it could influence certain telepathic sensitives, who quickly became its support and protection team
- it opened a free standing and self sustaining portal several miles wide to another dimension
- while compatible, the life of the adjoining dimension/world (now also called Salacious prime) was NOT friendly.

Next up: The Sisyphus Juncture

 

[dwayne]

The Sisyphus Juncture

There comes a time in every world’s life that a great crisis happens and things afterwards are never the same. Well earths came, but it was not as you would have guessed. No aliens, no environmental disasters, not even a war. You see the year was 3029 AD and we as a species had reached what we thought were perfection. No hunger, no war FTL travel was a fact. We had put together a confederation of planets with species from a billion upon billions of worlds. The mistake was thinking that we had nothing to fear and then it happened. The edge of known space up to this point no one had asked the one question if the universe is expanding then what is it expanding in to? The confederations most advanced exploration vessel The Sisyphus found out on that fateful day. As she cleared the edge of what was known space its self started to change. It grew lighter there was what could only be described as waves of liquid light. The ship its self, started to twist and distort time seem to skip and blur. The next thing that they knew their ship was drifting. None of the sensors made any sense the readings were all wrong space its self was not there. A hazy thick substance like amber the engines were working over time just to move at 2x the speed of light. Just when all hope was lost they reemerged. But to there dismay it was right back where they had started. This barrier that surrounds our universe was to be known as the amber. The mission that discovered it became known as the Sisyphus Juncture. You see with all of our knowledge we found that this amber was shrinking and our little universe was the ant. To be frozen in a moment for ever never knowing.

The thought killers

 

[Wycen]

The Thought Killers

Deep between the layers of galaxies formed during the creation of the
universe, where even the biggest stars are dim lights twinkling in the
vastness of space, lies a ring of matte black monolithic objects.
Three resemble huge barbells, while the other 3 are pyramids.
Occasionally scattered about are remnants of ships or technology, but
this flotsam is never encountered by conscious beings.

Some invisible force, perhaps caused by the objects or maybe a result
of the dark monotony of the region produces a field where all thinking
beings fall into a coma-like state. Robots and A.I.'s are not
affected, but even cyborgs can only resist the mysterious lullaby for
so long. Pirates and scavengers aware of the area sometimes send remote scouting vehicles in looking to loot interesting items or ships in the flotsam.

Next: The Royal Quasar

 

[TDRandall]

The Royal Quasar

The current flagship of Empress Fleet Cruiselines, the Royal Quasar is a wonder of modern technology and a sight to behold. This sleak behemoth is able to house nearly 25000 passengers on luxurious tours lasting from two to five weeks in length.

(There are always five weeks of stored goods, the final tour length is restricted by FTL engine input materials, which at constant burn will last two weeks and allows the ship to cover nearly 200 LY before refueling. Disaster relief workers estimate nearly a quarter million sophonts could be housed within the hull if required for emergency evacuation needs.)

Every external vertical surface is composed of the compound radnist-thorium-cyclate which allows instant change from full transparency to full opacity at the merest request of a room's occupants. Legions of stewards and staff can be summoned for any type of service given 10 minutes or less of notice. Nearly every type of food, drink, and environment (atmosphere, radiation, gravity) is found somewhere within the myriads of lounges, pools, gyms, theaters, restaurants, emporiums, parlors, etc.

Such a vessel requires tremendous energy, and a host of 10 high capacity tesseract-singularity generators provide for all of its non-motive power needs and more. The extra output available when teh maneuvering thrusters have been cut and exotic environments allowed to lapse after the liner slips into orbit 10000 miles above a planet has given rise to a legendary port of call display. Every spare joule of energy available is routed to the outer skin and visibly radiated so that the ship easily becomes a beacon in the sky to any surface dweller. At such moments the brightness can easily overshadow almost any habitable planet's natural star. The "Call to Port" commonly lasts 4-8 hours before dimming for actual disembarking and loading for the next leg of a cruise (a concurrent process that can take up to 16 hours even with all 20 shuttles in action).

There have been some interesting stories surrounding the Royal Quasar:
- Some staff and even passengers have gone missing at times, never to be found again. None know where they go but current hypotheses include any and all of: lost and killed by gatoroaches said to live in the reclamation tubes of the ship; killed and/or spaced by members of illegal groups (terrorists, mobs, etc.); eaten or otherwise willfully served/subjected to the truly rich/debauched passengers' various "appetites" and then any evidence removed; taking on new personas and becoming "passengers" for the next cruise. The official explanation for such events is "disembarking without giving notice to existing command staff".
- Some ports of call have issued complaints to Empress Fleet headquarters, citing that existing flora/fauna die/overpopulate as a result of the irregular brightness of the liner that upsets ecosystems. No evidence compelling enough to the company has been presented to its ownership, however, so the practice continues. Some, however, say the company has ignored plenty of adequate evidence and are therefore planning to take matters into their own hands.

NEXT: The Filcher Anomaly

 

[TDRandall]

Can't answer my suggestion ... and I'm really more interested in seeing what someone else comes up with anyway. But that doesn't mean I can't nudge it back to the top of the list so that it might catch some creative mind's eye!

*Bump*

 

[dwayne]

The Filcher Anomaly

Is a section of space that over the years have taken its name from a race of creatures that most people call Filchers (because of their ability to steal) . These creatures appear and disappear at will though some type of dimensional movement that many scientists have yet to figure out. Every space ship that travels the rout through it has not been able to capture one of these creatures. This section of space lies right in the middle of the space lanes and would require several light years of travel around it. This area of space appears to center around a bleak barren world that’s nothing more than lifeless rock. From the ships that have ventured in to this sector and survived the attacks have told stories of ruins covering 90% of the planet. The real question is are these creatures related to the planet? What happened to the race that inhabited this planet? And where are all the people and other stuff that these creatures have taken gone?

The Tri star System of Quintara Major