Leicester's Gap (GEP)

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There once was a wizard named Leicester. An Ethereal traveler (unassociated with the Etherfarer Society), Leicester was fascinated with ether gap phenomena and spent many long years attempting to find, catalog, and correlate conditions between different gaps in an effort to understand what they might represent. In his travels, the wizard eventually discovered an ether gap that manifested influences more potently than any he had previously found. Believing that he had stumbled upon the perfect opportunity to finally understand ether gaps, Leicester brought his resources and wizardly powers to bear and built a permanent research station. Once sufficiently energized by magic, the station was artificially suspended above the gap and somewhat shielded from the worst of the influences normally felt in the gap's proximity.
At first, research proceeded apace, and at long intervals, reports of Leicester and his progress reached those few wizards on the Prime (and even some few in Sigil) with similar interests. However, the intervals of noncommunication grew longer, until the last pause stretched on for many years. Although a few of those previously in contact with Leicester eventually grew concerned and sought to locate the incommunicado mage and his station, they failed to even locate the ether gap, and the mage eventually passed out of common knowledge. However, the site of his research is recorded as Leicester's Gap in a few dusty, archived documents in libraries long overlooked or dispersed. 
==Gap Proximity Conditions==
Leicester's Gap possesses additional proximity effects above and beyond those described generally for ether gaps on page 24. Note that the standard gap effects are added cumulatively to new effects described below as a traveler moves inward toward the gap singularity.
DISTANCE FROM GAP	EFFECT
5 miles 	Sleeping creatures in range are plagued with terrible nightmares. Each dream requires a save vs. spell; failure results in the loss of l point of Wisdom. Wisdom returns at the rate of 1 point for every sleep period outside this area of effect. Those who fall to O Wisdom are permanently insane.
4 miles 	Each time travelers disagree, arguers have a 50/o cumulative chance to fly into a rage (each individual must save vs. death magic at -4 to avoid effect). Affected creatures attack those involved in the disagreement for 1 d.3 rounds, at which time another save vs. death at -4 is permitted to shake off the rage. This effect lasts until a save is made or the affected traveler(s) is otherwise quelled
1 mile 	Any time a PC heals normally or magically for 8 hit points or more, "radiations" from the gap have a percent chance equal to the number of hit points healed to cause horrible mutations, usually in the form of a vestigial organ to her body at the point where the wound was healed. The organ or extra limb remains vestigial and useless 950/o of the time, but 50/o of the time it becomes fully functional; the Dungeon Master's discretion is required to determine the organ and benefit/ flaw (if any) resulting from the new organ/limb.
mile 	For every hour spent within this proximity or closer, travelers must individually save vs. spell or briefly dip into a slower time rate than unaffected companions and/or foes. The effect is similar to a slow spell on those affected for 1d4 rounds, except that it cannot be dispelled.
300 feet 	For every 10 rounds spent within this proximity, travelers must individually save vs. spell. Those who fail are "pushed" 1d4 combat rounds into the future. To those unaffected, the victim seems to disappear for 1d4 rounds, reappearing in the same position with no knowledge of any time having passed (for her, it hasn't!).
Leicester's Gap 	When a living being passes through the Gap, a phantom curtain of vaporous color is visible for a fraction of a second, suggesting the disquieting vision of sinuous horrors straining to escape into this realm. No record records the fate of those who pass to the other side ....
==The Station==
Currently, the research station built by Leicester hangs magically suspended only 1 mile above the gap and the disk surrounding it (and so is subject to the effects described above). Although the pull of the gap is normally strong at this distance, massive iron rods attached to the station possess a permanent enchantment creating a small local area free of the gap's attraction. If these magical rods are cut or removed their enchantment fails, and the station quickly falls into the gap below. The station is spherical, measuring some 130 feet in diameter, containing inner floors arranged as nested spheres.
The station is built of stone originally quarried in the plane of Earth, carefully laid and mortared to form the sphere. Besides the four visibly protruding iron rods (now corroded and slimed in places with an ichor smelling faintly of fish), the only other feature visible on the outer surface of the station are the dozens of small observation windows. Most of the windows measure 3 feet x 5 feet, and all are dark and resemble multiple blind eyes. The windows appear to be the only means of gaining entry into the structure. Observers within 30 feet of the structure easily note that it appears cracked and neglected in places, crumbled and worn in others, while small portions of the stone surface are discolored with a bluish ichor similar to the spatters on the static field rods. No sound is heard, nor movement seen from within the station.
The station may seem like an ideal place by naïve travelers for a rest stop, base, or other Ethereal waypost, if the obvious threats within can be neutralized and the place cleaned up a bit. Of course, there is nothing to prevent the calamity that befell the original builders from recurring, especially since the real fate of Leicester and his staff remain completely unknown, and thus difficult to guard against.
Observation Sphere. Visitors can glide into the station's outermost sphere through any of the observation windows. The many windows illuminate the curving cavity of the observation shell, revealing the disturbing contents within. The first thing noticed by a visitor is the emptiness and silence, followed closely by an oily smell of fish overlaying a second smell of sickly sweet copper. On the heels of the two initial observations is the realization that the faint brownish spots scattered about can only be bloodstains, long dried. No immediate hints present themselves as to who the blood once belonged to, or where the body-or bodies-have gone.
Columns support the inner cavities. Lying about are the outlines and shattered mounts of equipment that must have once filled the sphere, but are now missing. A determined search reveals a telescoping spyglass wedged between two stones of the floor. The lens at one end of the shattered spyglass is obviously broken, but whoever first looks through its shattered endpiece beholds a quickly advancing amorphous organic blob, moving to attack! Within the blob, a number of half-digested humans are visible, screaming and writhing. No one else witnesses this shade, but neither does the viewer once he or she removes the eyepiece; however, the viewer must make a save vs. death magic or temporarily lose 1 point of Wisdom (the loss lasts one day for each remaining point of Wisdom possessed). Looking a second time through the eyepiece reveals nothing further. Other items of a similarly horrifying nature turn up with further searches.
The inner wall contains circular openings are widely spaced intervals leading inward to the next spherical cavity of the station.
Medial Sphere. This shell is completely dark, and visitors must provide their own illumination. Sufficient light reveals that this floor apparently once served as quarters and kitchen to a large staff of researchers. Various mesh hammocks attached to bracing rods apparently served as beds in the weightless environment, but now, most of the hammocks hang in shreds, either tom or rotted through. The portion of this level furthest from the gap contains a kitchen area, though most of the cabinetry hangs open, and dozens of cooking implements hang weightless in mid-air. A few spin lazily end over end, their edges glinting evilly off any light.
At least one of the hammocks is not empty; a desiccated corpse is tightly tangled within. It's difficult at first to identify the species of the body in its advanced stage of decomposition, but a successful Intelligence check finally reveals it as human. Unfortunately, identification also reveals terrible mutations: vestigial limbs and organs hang on the body like sickly fruit! Searching the body reveals a shred of parchment, upon which is scrawled in planar common, "Do Not Look."
As was the case for the Observation Sphere, it's entirely possible that additional, similar horrors exist for those who wish to take the time to search. Anyone who spends any significant time at all in the Medial Sphere eventually notice a strange hum, as of machinery, audible through the wall separating the innermost sphere.
Focal Sphere. The innermost sphere of the station contains a magical device that once served to generate a space free of the gap's strange influences large enough for the station (protection from the gap's physical draw is provided separately, by the magical rods). Leicester called this device the Arbitrator. The device is situated at the station's exact center and is supported by six iron rods equidistantly spaced from all sides of the sphere's interior. The device appears as a sort of inverted orrery some 10 feet in diameter with at least three individual connected rings, all of which are still slowly spinning according to a magical impetus. By the constant clack and squeal made by the Arbitrator, however, it's obvious that something is wrong.
In fact, the situation could hardly be worse. Once designed to keep the influence of the nearby gap in abeyance, the Arbitrator was compromised. Not only does the device not perform its intended function, it actually draws the influence of the gap to the station like iron filings to a lodestone! In a way not recorded or understood, the gap's influence crested and overwhelmed the station, and when the wave of change abated, the station appeared as it is now. Leicester, his staff, and all his work were washed away like an edifice of sand in the face of the tide.
In a very real sense, the reach of the gap was actually extended by the Arbitrator-it proved the engine for Leicester's destruction. The robust device can stand a lot of abuse; however, a specifically worded wish spell can cause the Arbitrator to cease its endless movements. If the device is shut down after this fashion, the integrity of the rods on the station's exterior collapses and the station begins a quick plunge directly into the gap. Anyone unable to escape is finally thrust through the gap with the station and is lost to the multiverse forever.
Besides the Arbitrator, the Focal Sphere holds at least two additional curiosities. The first is the free-floating corpse of a small humanoid, slowly spinning within the cavity. The body is badly decayed, but careful inspection of its belongings reveals a bone scrolkase, in which lies a scrap of ragged parchment. Written on the parchment is a simple order: "Upon learning the fate of Leicester and the nature of the Gap, return forthwith. A great reward awaits you if the gap represents the suspected phenomena. -Madreus"
Finally, the sphere is the lair a single living resident, possibly something that drifted in to lair here or was thrown up by the wash of the gap's influence on the station. It is a dharculus, and it returns periodically to rest here near the orrery following its hunts on the nearby Border. Whatever its true origin, the influence of the nearby gap is obviously in some way beneficial to this creature, flushing it with excess power and vitality, as its statistics reveal. Of course, no creature is pleased when its lair is disturbed....
DHARCULUS: AC 3 (tentacle) {2}; MV Fl 9 (tentacle) { 9}; HD 16, hp 87; THAC0 5; #AT 6 or 1; Dmg 1d4x6 (tentacles) or 2dl0 (primary maw); SA Adhesion; SZ H (30' long); ML elite (14); Int very (11-12); AL CN; XP 5,000.
SA-Adhesion: Each of the dharculus' mawed tentacles attach to the prey where they strike. A successful bend bars/lift gates roll by the victim removes a tentacle, causing another 1d4 points of damage as the teeth tear free. If a dharculus scores a hit with three or more tentacles on a single victim, its victim must make a successful save vs. death magic to resist being drawn onto the Border at the beginning of the next round. Here the dharculus can bring its horrible primary maw to bear on the victim for 2d 10 points of damage.