The Spike

The hundreds of levels extending below Absalom Station’s radial plane—often collectively referred to as “Downside”—are simultaneously its most crucial and least appreciated. Here, sandwiched between other heavy industry in the station’s gritty underbelly, the vast machines in charge of the station’s life support and defenses chug away, some only partially understood by the engineers who maintain them. The poorest classes of Absalom Station’s citizenry live here, gradually trickling down and away from the light and wealth of the upper levels to build slums in former access corridors or venture into the half-explored Ghost Levels, discovered abandoned at the end of the Gap. Monsters of all sorts hunt in the depths of the Spike, from simple criminals to bizarre creatures with no apparent reason to be on the station at all, creating whole ecosystems in the gloom. Politicians occasionally champion purging and resettling everything below the lowest official neighborhoods, but they are inevitably dissuaded by scholars and experts in both science and magic who posit that the Ghost Levels and their bizarre ecosystems may contain keys to the station’s function or destiny—not to mention mysterious treasures that expeditions into the unmapped levels occasionally bring back.

Districts

Botscrap

Nothing is wasted on a space station, even one as big as Absalom Station. While recyclers and biovats take care of breaking simple waste down into its components, more complex items and robotics often end up in the private junkyards of Botscrap, hauled there by the ysoki-dominated Salvage Union. Just about any spare part—including some suspiciously functional and restricted military “scrap”—can be found in the Botscrap yards, but the area is constantly plagued by gangs of goblin squatters inhabiting cramped warrens dug into Botscrap’s mountains of accumulated trash.

Conduit (Pipetown)

Few locals use Conduit’s official name, instead preferring the vernacular name of Pipetown, and many proudly bear the kinked-pipe tattoos that proclaim them natives of this district. Even engineers armed with the best schematics struggle to find their way through the dense, seemingly endless forest of pipes that sometimes create a three-dimensional labyrinth with settlements in their clearings. As such, locals often act as guides, hunting not just for breakages that spill precious water and other resources but also for creatures such as power-sucking garmels, ferocious water tigers, and sewage-drinking colemars that feed on the pipes—and on the local inhabitants.

Downlow

Offering affordable housing and retail space, Downlow is the largest and safest of the Spike districts, as well as one of the most cosmopolitan. Complex maraquoi family units live above shirren-run option bars along the crowded corridors, while kasathan youth and ryphorian battleflowers dare each other to visit dangerous Kuthite sensation houses. Like poor but trendy neighborhoods everywhere, Downlow is disparaged by wealthy residents of the Eye even as they succumb to its allure. While law enforcement can be scarce except during raids, the powerful Lowrigger gang keeps the neighborhood relatively safe.

Sparks

The engineering bays of Sparks range from cramped, one-person custom-tech shops to titanic dry docks for starship manufacturing and repair. Despite the massive wealth passing through the corridors of Sparks, most residents remain poor laborers and middle-class specialists, with the majority of profits flowing “upstairs” to the corporate towers. Primary corridors are kept safe by both public and private security, while access corridors and workshops off the beaten path are often plagued by vexgits and other gremlins, mephits and lightning elementals attracted to (or summoned by) large electrical discharges, and disgruntled street gangs who prey upon wealthy visitors.

Points of interest

Diamond Defense and Surplus

Absalom Station has any number of places for mercenaries and private citizens to purchase weapons and armor, from tent stalls in the Freemarkets to high-end emporiums in the Eye. Those with more particular needs, however, frequent this dingy shop off a dirty, neon-signed alley. Always covered in her beloved knives, Lhana “Diamond” Nokoriso has a surprisingly large selection up front, but those who earn her trust can enter the basement: a warehouse-sized space filled with black-market, military-grade munitions of astonishing value, many magical and all completely untraceable. Via her connections as a member of the Golden League, Diamond is legendary in criminal circles for being able to get anyone anything they need, for the right price, as well as for being a notorious font of underworld information, so long as it doesn’t jeopardize her deals. She’s also extremely fond of brokering favors, and those able to accommodate her feisty personality and complete her “little jobs” can earn discounts and introductions to the station’s criminal elite.

Rig House

This tumbledown establishment is so large that no one’s sure just how many rooms it has—and that’s exactly how its proprietors like it. Run by the Lowrigger gang, the infamous Rig House is simultaneously an eccentric flophouse, avant-garde performance venue, elite nightclub, community center, and makeshift government building for the Spike. As neutral territory, it hosts meetings of the rich and powerful from all over the station and beyond, and it is a well-known place for adventurous starship crews to pick up new jobs and patrons, as long as they know how to keep their mouths shut. Rumor has it that the Lowriggers have, interspersed among the public chambers, a whole set of secret rooms called the Backstairs, where those who’ve earned their respect can train, view privileged information, hide from the law, or access smuggling tunnels running throughout the station.

Starstone Reactor

Deep in the heart of the Spike lies the Starstone Reactor, which powers the entire station. Given the incalculable value of the Starstone within, Absalom Station’s elite Starstone Defenders keep the chambers surrounding the reactor under intense guard at all times, and only engineers with the highest security clearance are allowed access to the systems that transfer the artifact’s energy to the rest of the station. These safeguards hide another fact: no one can actually reach the Starstone directly. The Starstone itself is housed in a small chamber floating in the center of a large, mostly empty space called the Core, connected only by power conduits and four narrow bridges to the outer chambers where the engineering staff work. While heavy blast doors lead out onto these bridges, the codes locking them were apparently lost during the Gap, and any attempt to tamper with them or gain access to the Core from another direction activates overwhelmingly deadly magical defenses and causes a station-wide brownout. Still, foolhardy people occasionally try, as legend holds that those who manage to touch the Starstone and are found worthy can ascend to godhood, as Iomedae once did. This only compounds the need for the Starstone Defenders, though engineers peering through the observation windows report strange phantoms—some of them humanoid and dressed in modern station clothing styles— flickering in and out of existence inside the Core, leading some to wonder whether the Starstone has guardians of its own.

Location under

Absalom Station