Source Starfinder #41: Serpents in the Cradle pg. 51
Bulk L
In 154 AG, a large freighter was found floating on the edge of the Pact Worlds system. The ship conformed to no known design, was devoid of remains, and all onboard computer systems had been physically destroyed. All that anyone could tell for certain was that the derelict had been drifting through space for some time, and it had been designed for a species that was exceptionally tall and slender.
The freighter’s cargo hold was empty save for an onyx sphere 5 feet in diameter and set with numerous tracks of gold, some studded with tiny planets made of semiprecious stones, emulating an unknown planetary system with two large gas giants and a blue-green moon. Several of the gold tracks had no planets, and their use was unclear until a solarian researcher managed to manipulate them in 197 AG while in a meditative state.
This mysterious item eventually came to be known as the Void Orrery, and the tracks on its surface channel negative energy. A solarian using the Void Orrery can attune themself to this energy. By meditating for 10 minutes and manipulating the energy markers, a solarian alters their own solarian revelations to deal negative energy. This doesn’t change the damage type of the revelation, but creatures immune to negative energy are immune to the damage of these revelations, and the damage affects only living creatures. Undead affected by these revelations not only take no damage but gain temporary Hit Points equal to the solarian’s level. These temporary Hit Points don’t stack with any other source and last for 10 minutes, until expended, or until the undead gains a larger number of temporary Hit Points from a negative energy or necrotic effect, whichever comes first.
In addition, a solarian using the Void Orrery and meditating for 10 minutes can adjust the gemstones on its surface to change the energy type inflicted by their own revelations. Adjusting amethyst stones on the orrery causes all the solarian’s revelations to deal fire damage. Adjusting malachite stones changes the solarian’s revelations to inflict electricity damage. Pieces of jet on the orrery change the solarian’s revelations to inflict cold damage, and carnelian stones on the orrery’s surface cause the solarian’s revelations to deal acid damage. Only one of these functions can be used at a time, and if a solarian changes the damage of their revelations, any previous change is lost. A solarian can, however, benefit from both the change in energy type and the addition of the negative energy detailed above.
For decades, the Void Orrery was kept in the laboratories of the Arcanamirium on Absalom Station. Attempts to investigate its origin proved fruitless, and in 229 AG, it was placed into a storage unit in the university’s vaults. When a new scholar went looking for it a few years later, the onyx sphere had disappeared.
Interest in the Void Orrery has increased in recent years, as it has become a staple of Pact World horror fiction. Several successful novels and one bestselling vidgame have their antagonists unlock the powers of the Void Orrery as part of a sinister plot to bring cosmic horror upon their enemies—or even the entire galaxy. The creator of the vidgame series, Castrovelian tech entrepreneur Siline Vezar (LE male damaya lashunta technomancer), offers a rich reward for a chance to examine the Void Orrery in person.
The Void Orrery can be destroyed only with the tools used to make it, presumably found in the solar system depicted on its mysterious surface.
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