What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

[Kraven Kor]

The party in my current campaign are planning to try and take an Airship that is parked and supporting the enemy they are about to attack. Or they might all get killed by it

 

Anywho, just looking for some ideas as to what they might find on this Airship. It is the personal ship of a Sorcerer who worships a Fire God, who is on a quest to restore the Ulohen Empire by anointing a new Emperor.

 

The campaign is somewhat low magic, so probably not a lot of magic items. The campaign is also a bit steampunk; and the Sorcerer is an adept astrologer and mechanical engineer as well.

 

He has a personal Golem, but that is within the ruin where the nefarious deed will be done, not on the ship. The ship just has his normal crew on it for now - any thoughts on the crew would be great too.

 

Again, just looking for some unique ideas on what the party may find should they survi... er, take the airship in one piece

[Old Man]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

Lifeboats.

 

Some quick Googling suggests that zeppelin crews were pretty small--anywhere from 9 to 20 people. In addition to officers and helmsmen/navigators, there were also mechanics (obviously) as well as carpenters and even a sailmaker (to repair the gasbags). And two gunners per machine gun, of course.

 

Generally it sounds as though zeppelins didn't require much crew to operate... which makes sense given the technology at the time. I can see the crew size ballooning if, say, the rudders have to be operated by hand crank, or if the engines ran on hand-shoveled coal, or if the hamsters in the hamster wheels needed tending. And then there is the matter of what kind of staff the payload (if any) requires.

[Pizza Man]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

Hmmm. An enslaved fire elemental powering the ship.

 

A lesser elemental in the kitchen, trapped in the stove. He entertains himself insulting the players. Give him a french accent and play the Monty Python bit.

 

a shrine to the fire god, with a curse for those who defile it...Stealing the inset gems is considered defilement, so is pushing it overboard.

 

a beautiful captive. A recent acquisition. She can lead to the next adventure...make her an elf or a flighty cat-girl, she comes on to several players, starts a competition, robs them blind at the next stop and disappears...HEY! That cat girl was a thief!

[Old Man]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

Captive, or stowaway?

[Steve]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

The 'captive' girl could be the sorceror's daughter or niece. She could be an innocent bit of fluff, a young Baroness wannabe, or she could be a total bitch in sheep's clothing. Perhaps she has a treasure map she's been looking for... partners, yeah, that's the word... that can help her find the loot and deal with any guardians.

 

The crew could be an all amazon one, now that I think about it.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

Well, some notes on the airship tech: The airships would have a helmsman, possibly a navigator, but smaller ships the two are the same man. Each cannon requires a crew of 2, or 3 can operate two cannons in a pinch. The chainguns need one guy each, and possibly another for reloading. Then you would have the engine room team, usually 2 to 3 men depending on the size of the ship. Lifeboats are pointless if in the air, but it has two in the case you have to ditch in water - all airships are functional boats as well. The engine room is essentially an aether-powered steam engine; high compression tank to store the aether, pumps to inflate or deflate the gas bag, and then the aether burner to power the propellers or airscrews.

 

This craft, being smaller (about 25m x 13m x 13m), relies on a smaller crew - Captain (The Sorcerer), Helmsman / Navigator, 2 Engineers, 6 on the Cannon crews (4 gunners, 2 mechanics / loaders), 3 on the Chainguns (2 gunners, 1 mechanic / loader), and 4 deckhands / soldiers - 17 men total. It can carry about 25 people, more if emptied of cargo, and can carry about 200 tons at most (aether offering lift from both lighter than air qualities and by reacting with the planet's magnetic field.) It is currently empty, as they intend to use it to recover an artifact from this ruin.

 

The crew are all men, being from Ulohi where women.. don't exactly have much in the way of rights, though some women there do hold positions of relative power within the church. Ulohi is my ultimate 'evil empire.'

 

I had already intended for them to find a captive - a plot hook for my cat-person sorcerer; a captive Nephil they intend to sacrifice, haven't fully decided what she will be all about once - if - they free her.

 

I do know that, whether they get the airship or not, stop the sacrifice or not, prevent the recovery of the artifact or not... I want them to be kind of 'stuck' in yet another mess once this one is over. Naturally

[Kraven Kor]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

Here is the current draft on the Airship:

 

*sigh* Why does the HERO Boards HTML format not actually post correctly to the HERO Boards?

 

Nevermind, figured it out.

 

This is a very rough draft so far; I'm sure some things are not 100% properly built, etc. Any recommendations there welcome as well.

 

I think the flight works out to about 18km / hour, 72km / hour non-combat, and up to 120 km / hour when flying with the wind (about 75 miles per hour for us 'mericans.) Though I think I need to remove the x4 noncombat from the extra flight from flying with the wind for that to actually work out...

 

Crimson Praetor

 

Val Char Cost

65 STR 0

10 DEX 0

30 BODY 9

 

12 PD 15

12 ED 15

2 SPD 0

 

0m RUN -12

10m SWIM -2

0m LEAP -2

Characteristics Cost: 78

 

Cost Power END

 

11 Aether Tank and Airscrew: Flight 30m, x4 Noncombat (35 Active Points); OAF Bulky Durable (Requires Multiple Foci or functions at reduced effectiveness; -1 1/4), Limited Maneuverability Only 1 turn per Phase at Combat speed; only 1 turn per Turn at Noncombat speed (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2), 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 1 Week (Fuel is Difficult to obtain; -0) [1 cc]

5 Flying with the Wind: Flight 20m, x4 Noncombat (25 Active Points); Conditional Power Power Only Works with strong, favorable wind (-1 1/2), OAF Bulky Durable (Requires Multiple Foci or functions at reduced effectiveness; -1 1/4), Limited Maneuverability Only 1 turn per Phase at Combat speed; only 1 turn per Turn at Noncombat speed (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2) 0

 

3 Airscrews (On water): Swimming +10m (10m total) (x4 Noncombat) (10 Active Points); OAF Bulky Durable (Requires Multiple Foci or functions at reduced effectiveness; -1 1/4), Surface Only (-1), Restrainable (-1/2), 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 1 Day (Fuel is Difficult to obtain; -0)

 

34 Twin Rotary Chainguns: Killing Attack - Ranged 2 1/2d6 (x2), Armor Piercing (+1/4), Autofire (5 shots; +1/2) (112 Active Points); OAF Bulky Durable (-1 1/2), Beam (-1/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Limited Arc Of Fire (180 degrees; -1/4), 4 clips of 500 Recoverable Charges (Increased Reloading Time: 2 Full Phases; Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; +3/4) [500 rc]

 

14 Aether Cannon: Killing Attack - Ranged 3d6 (x4), Area Of Effect (8m Radius Explosion; +1/4) (69 Active Points); OAF Bulky Durable (-1 1/2), 32 clips of 1 Recoverable Charge (Increased Reloading Time: 2 Full Phases; Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; -1 1/4), Limited Arc Of Fire (1 Hex row, but row can be altered using a full turn action; Only on same horizontal level; -3/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Required Multiple Users (2 people; -1/4) [1 rc]

 

Powers Cost: 67 Total Character Cost: 145 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

[Markdoc]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

I do know that' date=' whether they get the airship or not, stop the sacrifice or not, prevent the recovery of the artifact or not... I want them to be kind of 'stuck' in yet another mess once this one is over. Naturally [/quote']

 

In my current game, when the players stole a sorceror's airship, they "turned on" the autopilot. It took off and headed for his home base (which as it turned out was two week's flying time away!) They had no way to control it and their biggest problem was eking out his food supplies so that they wouldn't starve before they landed ... somewhere.

 

As to what's on board - treat it like a luxury yacht. Spartan crew quarters, a luxurious bedroom and study, plenty of books (or whatever it is the owner does to pass the time). In my game the "reward" for getting the airship (since they didn't get to keep the airship itself) apart from escaping horrible tentacular monster-y doom! was stealing his personal jewellery and looting his library. The library also enabled me to feed the players lots of plot/background info.

 

cheers, Mark

[RexMundi]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

How about, his exotic pet.....the worlds most spoiled Pekingese type dog or some such. You can probably get a session out of the party trying to figure out what it is (It's a Familar! It's a Demon! It's a ...it Slobbers!), and even make it worth Lot's to the right person, if delivered healthy and intact.

 

~Rex

[Old Man]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

The airship also needs a gangplank, plenty of rigging for buckling swashes in, levers to throw accidentally, ropes to cut, ladders to get on top of the envelope, a total lack of safety equipment on top of the envelope, windows, trapdoors, tools of all kinds lying about, engines to fall into, propellers to fall into, boilers to fall into, steam pipes to break open...

[Steve]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

Lighting is also an issue that needs to be addressed. Fire on a ship can be a bad idea, so chemical lights or even something more exotic like trapped lightning would be good. If it has electric lighting run off of some kind of aetheric generator, then it gives a certain mood that might be very steampunkish.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

Most electrical stuff in the campaign is solidly in the realm of mad science. Many cities have gas lights and such, but not electric lights. Certainly "bottled lightning" is common enough, but generally not in a "slow release" form I guess (still thinking some of this through, obviously.) And all the Aether airships are fire-treated; aether is highly volatile when compressed, so after the first few hindenberg-esque events they rethought how to build things. Electricity would actually be worse than fire, to be honest.

 

Aether in my campaign is complete unobtainium / handwavium. It is highly flammable and unstable when compressed, making it better than gunpowder for firearms and such. It is also less flammable than hydrogen when not compressed. The flight aspects of it have to do with it being magnetically active, and most aether weapons or engines rely on electric sparks for ignition. Aether actually reacts more to electricity than fire.

 

That is a good question though, I'll have to think on that.

[Shadowsoul]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

Let's see.

 

Loot.

 

A small flamethrower, for exterminating pests which might eat the cargo or nibble the balloon. Surely a Fire Sorcerer in a steampunk setting can justify having one of these.

 

An aether clock. Timekeeping is important when on a journey. Don't ask me how you tell the time with aether.

 

A really ornate compass.

 

Book of prophecies.

 

All-weather armour. Specially treated leather and/or rubber suits that provide an almost unnatural amount of protection against the elements as well as a point or two of Armour. Not for the fashion conscious, however.

 

A precious gem. The original owner of this gem has sworn to kill anyone who gets their hands on it, (the Sorcerer stole it). Being hunted by this person could be the next mess that the party gets into.

 

Bottles for catching lightning.

 

 

Rooms.

 

A relaxation room with; dice; board games that have been marked onto cloth, (to take up less weight); some cheap books/penny dreadfuls and a few erotic postcards.

 

An observatory. Complete with telescopes, a glass floor, star charts and various arcane calculating machines.

 

An arms locker. Weapons are issued to the sailors/airmen only when a fight is imminent.

 

Surgery. For shipboard injuries and the treatment of altitude sickness.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

This sorcerers relaxation room will likely need to be converted... His idea of relaxing would usually involve something bad happening to someone else.

 

But a lot of those other ideas are gold! Thanks!

 

(Firing up Autorealm now to map it all out!)

[Steve]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

How about some kind of calculating engine that can run the ship in the absence of crew? If there are golems, then maybe intelligent machines? It could resent the sorceror and happily join up with the adventurers. The 'Aethericalc' (or whatever such devices would be called) could give you an additional NPC voice to guide the party around and make suggestions.

[Pizza Man]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

This sorcerers relaxation room will likely need to be converted... His idea of relaxing would usually involve something bad happening to someone else.

OK, so there is a personal torture chamber attached to a brig. make the cell floors secret trap doors so those who bore the sorcerer can be dropped in mid flight...like the other trash

[Kraven Kor]

Re: What might you find on a Sorcerer's personal Airship?

 

Rough draft of the deck plans (created using AutoREALM)

 

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