Egaria Episilon is a system within the Egarian Dominion, located in Winterscale’s Realm of the Koronus Expanse. Egaria Epsilon, along with Egaria Gamma and Egaria Omega, has at least one semi-habitable world. It is a dry and cool desert world comprised mostly of endless dunes and rocky outcroppings, and is dotted by sparse, shallow bodies of brackish water.
The Ice Caverns of Egaria Epsilon[]
Situated upon the second world of the Egaria Epsilon system, there is a vast chasm that can be seen from orbit. So deep is this chasm that even the warming rays of the planet’s sun cannot reach; thus, the bottom is perpetually coated in frozen ice and permafrost. In 750.M41, a survey team sent by Rogue Trader Lord-Captain Aoife Armengarde discovered ancient hieroglyphs carved into the sides of the chasm walls and a set of ancient stone doors covered in a seal.
The team toiled for days attempting to breach the seal and gain entry to what lay beyond. Auspex scanners showed that an immense passageway opened up beyond the doors. After several days of work with beam-cutters, the team was able to burn the seal off and gain entry. The passages led the team further into the living rock, yet the area was so cold that the team leader ordered her members to don their heat suits lest they died of exposure. The servitors they brought with them eventually froze solid---dead in their tracks. The immense passages were slicked with ice and it was obvious that no one had set foot within the halls for millennia. The team pressed on into the unknown darkness ahead.
Seven days after entering the tunnels, a single member of the team stumbled out of the caverns, frantic, haggard, and half-dead from dehydration and exposure. The orbiting starship dispatched a lander, and he was quickly delivered to a horrified medicae crew. The team member remained catatonic until the head chirurgeon attempted to revive him, where he immediately leapt screaming from the gurney, fingers clawing the chirurgeon’s throat. Medicae vid recorders managed capture some of the man’s ravings—shouts of “It’s awake! It’s awake and it sees us! The cold, the cold!” were heard in the shrill voice of the maddened man. Attendants managed to secure and sedate him, returning him to an isolated medicae cell.
The medicae staff intended to question the man more thoroughly, but would not get the chance. During the night, he somehow slipped his restraints and rammed his head into the wall of his cell until he cracked his skull open. Armengarde chose not to send another team into the caverns, and soon departed the world.