Burnscour

“Death dripping down in the rain, blood and the scream of beasts: that is all I recall of that place.”
–Mesenicus Var, mercenary captain of the entourage of Rogue Trader Hiram Sult
Burnscour is a death world of roaring storms, jungles, and
strange beasts. It is no place for men, as the steaming
rain alone eats at metal and breeds strange fungus
on exposed flesh, and the sap dripping from
plants is lethal or viciously toxic. Yet the
beast trade has found a foothold upon
Burnscour, carried there at exorbitant rates by Rogue Trader
vessels and illegal, unsanctioned merchant craft. They come
to Burnscour to stock the ever-hungry fighting pits of the
distant Calixis Sector with saurian leapers, gargantipedes,
and other horrors of fang and maw. Hunter retinues clad in
bulky suits of vulcanized rubber stalk the jungles in search of
exotic xeno predators for the fighting pits, ever watchful for
creatures that will make the most lethal attractions on far-off
hive worlds of the Imperium.
==Fecundity and Ferocity==
There are no permanent structures on the surface of
Burnscour---only the slowly dissolving metal carcasses of
landing craft brought down by the planets storms, the few
melted ruins of structures built by fools, and the swaying
jungles ever growing beneath the caustic rain. From the
uppermost leaves of its canopy to the ground, the jungles
of Burnscour are a choking mass of countless plants: trees
with dark waxen leaves and trunks covered in barbs that weep
thick sap the color of bile, blooms of fungus as pale as milk,
thick creepers from the branches of trees, delicate flowers the
color of livid bruises on pale flesh, which open at the touch
to expose waving fronds that fill the air with a heady scent
that dulls the mind---all these and thousands more species
swarm and choke the surface of Burnscour.
Beasts stalk through the nightmare jungles of Burnscour.
Things of every sizes, all perfectly adapted to the hellish
environment, live here in vast numbers, from beetle-like
creatures who gnaw through flesh or bark to feed on blood or
sap, to the strange six-legged stalkers the size of three grown
men but scuttle silent and invisible though the branches of the
middle canopy. Almost all are capable of killing any human
that steps onto the surface of Burnscour. The lethal nature of
Burnscour’s native creatures is both the planet’s curse on any
who might wish to establish surface habitation on there, but
are also the prize that draws many to it.
==The Lure of Beasts==
When men come to Burnscour, they come for the beasts. So
little does the jungle and rain tolerate the presence of man
that beast-hunting parties are usually dropped onto the surface
of the planet and remain for as little time as possible before
hailing their waiting drop craft with a homing beacon. These
hunters and their ferocious harvest are often hauled off the
surface into hovering dropships that never touch the surface.
Others defoliate the jungle with anti-plant bombs and heavy
flamers to create brief landing clearings---which are swallowed
again by the jungle within days. Dangerous it might be, but
the price commanded by hunters for living beasts of Burnscour
is enough to blot out the tales of hunting parties vanishing,
never to be seen again, or the whispers of the things that stalk
unseen beneath the dark leaves and hissing rain. It is said that
even the feared Beast House of the Calixis Sector has invested
a small fortune to secure constant supply from Burnscour.
Such are the prices that its predators can command from the
wealthiest and most discerning patrons.
Category:Planets
Category:Death Worlds
Category:Koronus Expanse
Category:Ragged Worlds