“ The Omen Star: In the West, in what appears to be an eccentric orbit, appears the Omen Star. The appearance of the Omen Star in the first house of the sky bodes 'great things' for good or ill are about to happen. It is the rest of the stars that determine if it is for good and ill. Thus people are always looking for things to happen during the time of the Omen Star.”
“ Daedalus Station is a 550-meter long space hulk drifting in trans-Uranian space, reduced to a derelict by the catastrophic failure of its dimensional reactor. The failure of the short-lived Paradigm VI reactor created a stable dimensional bore, a three-meter wide disc in the engineering section.
What is on the other side of the rift?
Why is the rift anchored to the ship instead of a point in space?”
“ The court wizards of Angolterre have been working for several generations to protect the dynasty. They see to it that the new monarch's names acronymically refer to a rune of protection. Once completed, the rune will make the dynasty almost invulnerable in battle, wise in counsel, etc. Unfortunately the next name, the only one that starts with the right letter to complete the rune-name, happens to have belonged to the worst monarch in living memory. Not much chance of getting the current ruler to name his child that, or for the people to put up with it if he did! What's a court wizard to do? The magic requires that the plot be kept secret of course...”