Lost in the Void Objectives: 1) learn to operate ship(s) All types of living ships can reach spelljamming speeds, but only the Nautilus and Vampire types are able to survive long journeys through empty space alone. other types must be attached to a Nautilus and hibernating for long trips. The living ships can be piloted by a skilled enough human ship trainer(guys in charge of raising the squids/etc until they are big enough to be used as ships) but not with much agility, and the ship may take matters into it's own hands. Of course a trained adult ship will not allow anyone without the telepathic "password" to give them orders, so a telepath would have to command them to obey a non psionic in the first place. A ship does require a psionic pilot to navigate it through deep space, a trainer just cannot use the ships navigation senses and give complex commands, so nautilus particularly should really be piloted by a telepath. Anyone with the contact skill can merge with the ship more fully, use it's senses, and exert fine control. A reasonably powerful telepathic pilot can almost always overide the ship's decisions if needed. Types of ships & their abilities: Common to all ships: All Illithid ships generate gravity, heat, and air envelope(but not fresh air). Living ships also need fresh air(can breathe underwater) to function, but all types can go into stasis and stop consuming food/water/oxygen. All can reach spelljamming speeds of 1AU~100 million miles/day. Without either wind and a skilled crew OR a well practiced telepathic pilot, all living ships lose one manuverability class. Trasport & scout ships need to eat their weight in organic matter every 4 months to stay healthy, Warriors eat 2x as much, vampires eat half. Ships lose very little water since they have closed atomspheres, a large drink every 4 months is sufficient to keep them comfortabely hydrated. Smarter ones could be trained to manipulate their ability to form air envelopes into simple telekinesis, but could probably not pick up an unwilling subject with it. They could repel non siege missiles, keep areas clear of gas, try to push creatures overboard for example. It's unlikely a ship trainer will think to try teaching them new things though. For combat details see Squid, Giant in the monstorous manual Transport (model: nautilus) 1.75x scale Tonnage: 200 tons Hull Points: 200(10 dmg absorption to non siege attacks) crew: 1/200 Air Breathale For(uncrewed/fully crewed):4 months/2 months(breathes as 200 men) Manuverability Class: E Landing - Land: Yes Landing - Water: No (doesn't float but can maintain air envelope underwater) Armor Rating: 2 Saves As: Bone Power Type: Self propelled (psionic living ship) Ship's Rating:3 Standard Armament: 8 Meduim Ballista(crew 2 each)(2-FP,4-F,2-FS) 3 Grappling Rams(Arms)(F) 1 Bite(A)(Hull Dmg:2d4,Personell Dmg:7d4,Thac0:12) Detonation Field(F)(Rng:8,Hull Dmg:3d12,Personell Dmg:3d12,ROF:1/5,Thac0:12) Mind Blast(F)(Rng:1(L:600',W:50'base,200'end,Dmg:as illithid mind blast,ROF:1/5,Thac0:12) Meelee(Thac0 16): grabx10(1d6+2d6 every round after),can use 10 tentacles/round, 18 dmg to sever Cargo Capacity: 150 tons (any ships carried count towards this limit) Keel Length: 200' Beam Width: 50' Notes:Large shell with hollow chambers, Slow moving and stupid, eyes cannot focus, up to 90 tentacles, Long range transport/siege tank/carrier, has an overwhelmingly powerful lethal(detonation) and nonlethal(mind blast) attack. Scout (model: squid) .75x scale Tonnage: 15 tons Hull Points: 15(5 dmg absorption to non siege attacks) crew: 1/15 Air Breathale For(uncrewed/fully crewed):12 days/10.9 days(breathes as 150 men) Manuverability Class: A Landing - Land: Yes Landing - Water: Yes Armor Rating: 6 Saves As: Leather Power Type: Self propelled (psionic living ship) Ship's Rating:5 Standard Armament: 1 Meduim Ballista(crew 2)(FPS) 1 Piercing ram(F) 1 Grappling Ram(Arms)(A) 1 Bite(A)(Hull Dmg:1d3,Personell Dmg:3d6,Thac0:12) Meelee(Thac0:12): grabx2(armx8)(1d6+2d6 every round after), 12dmg to sever, bite(3d6), smokescreen(60x60x80') Cargo Capacity: 7 tons Keel Length: 45' Beam Width: 20' Notes:medium range scout, fast, good senses, smart, basic camoflauge,"ink" is smokescreen, can dart in blind a ship, and retreat, possible to install a ram at point of shell, and/or add 1-2 ballistas. Can attach to Nautiloid with suckers for transport Warrior (model: cuttlefish) .85x scale Tonnage: 20 tons Hull Points: 20(7 dmg absorption to non siege attacks) crew: 1/10 Air Breathale For(uncrewed/fully crewed):6 days/5.85 days(breathes as 400 men) Manuverability Class: B Landing - Land: Yes Landing - Water: Yes Armor Rating: 5 Saves As: Leather Power Type: Self propelled (psionic living ship) Ship's Rating:7 Standard Armament: 2 Heavy Ballista(crew 4 each)(1-FP,1-FS) 1 Piercing ram(F) 1 Grappling Ram(Tentacles/Arms)(A) 1 Bite(A)(Hull Dmg:1d3,Personell Dmg:3d6,Thac0:12) Meelee(Thac0:10): entanglex2(tentaclex2)(2d6+pass to arm), grabx2(armx8)(1d6+1,2d6+2 every round after), 12dmg to sever, bite(3d6), breathe poison(as cloudkill,60x60x80') Cargo Capacity: 10 tons Keel Length: 50' Beam Width: 22' Notes: short range light fighter, fast, aggressive but fairly smart, will attack / eat each other if 2 meet, has 2 tentacles to grab prey, and 8 arms to hold it, quick & powerful camoflauge, bites through hull and injects poison gas into enemy ship, retractable claws on suction cups. Can track other living ships. Has 4 hearts, uses up its air supply quickly with high metabolism. Can attach to Nautiloid with suckers for transport Vampire (model: vampire squid) .75x scale Tonnage: 15 tons Hull Points: 15(3 dmg absorption to non siege attacks) crew: 1/15 Air Breathale For(uncrewed/fully crewed):4 months/2 months(breathes as 15 men) Manuverability Class: A Landing - Land: Yes Landing - Water: Yes Armor Rating: 8 Saves As: Leather Power Type: Self propelled (psionic living ship) Ship's Rating:4 Standard Armament: 1 Heavy Dual Ballista(crew 5)(F) 1 Grappling Ram(Arms)(A) 1 Bite(A)(Hull Dmg:1d3,Personell Dmg:3d6,Thac0:12) Meelee(Thac0:12): entanglex2(tentaclex2)(1d6+2d6 every round after), grabx0(armx6)(1d6+1d6 every round after),bite(3d6), envelop(20'square, enveloped creatures get stinking cloud with -4 save, or grabbed(1d6+1d6 every round after) with +4 to hit), breathe venom(as stinking cloud,40x40x60', failing a 2nd save the next round results in knockout), ink(as glitterdust ,60x60x80'), invisibility(3hrs/day) Cargo Capacity: 7 tons Keel Length: 40' Beam Width: 20' Notes: Uses little oxygen, very low metabolism, Has 2 sensory filaments to "see" in dark, can spend long periods not moving, but is fast and agile, can evade and hide again nearby, hide has small light organs, allowing it to appear as a patch of stars, "ink" is mucus filled with glowing spheres that spark and pop like fireworks, has spikes on arms, Cloaking/Invisibility for limited periods, long range - does not need Nautiloid to travel deep space, surround enemies with tentacle membrane and exhale dehabilitative venom into the space. Can attach to Nautiloid with suckers for transport 10 dmg at the same point -> 1 hull point of damage Heavy Weapon Range Damage Damage Time Crew Attack Threat Accelerator 6 1d2 1d10 0* 1 +5 19-20 Ballista, Light 6 0** 2d6 1 1 +8 N/A** Ballista, Medium 4 1d3 3d6 2 2 +6 20 Ballista, Heavy 2 1d4+2 3d10 3 4 +3 19-20 Bombard 2 1d6 2d10 2 3 +3 20 Bombard, Great 4 2d12 3d10 2 5 +1 19-20 Catapult, Light 5 1d2 2d10 1 1 +6 20 Catapult, Medium 4 1d3+1 3d10 1 3 +5 19-20 Catapult, Heavy 3 2d4 3d10 2 5 +4 18-20 Dual Ballista, Light 6 1d3 3d6 2 2 +4 20 Dual Ballista, Medium 4 1d4 2d10 3 3 +6 19-20 Dual Ballista, Heavy 2 2d4 4d10 4 5 +8 18-20 Greek Fire Projector 1 1d3 3d10 3 3 +4 18-20 Jettison, Light 3 0** 1d6 1 2 +6 N/A** Jettison, Medium 2 0** 2d6 2 3 +5 N/A** Jettison, Heavy 1 0** 3d6 3 4 +4 N/A** Sweeper, Gnomish 3 0** 1d8*** 3 3 +4 N/A** range: accelerator/ballista-12, bombard-16, catapault-4, greek fire-1 * An accelerator can fire once every turn. If crewed by someone with the appropriate Heavy Weapon Loader feat it can fire twice per turn at its full attack bonus. ** This weapon does not do hull damage, nor can it score a critical hit on ships. It can score a critical hit on personnel normally (20/x2). *** See description. 2) Survive => All Illithid ships generate gravity, heat, and air envelope(but not fresh air). Living ships also need fresh air to function. Gravity - negligible natural gravity from small objects Air - small objects have no natural air envelope, large meteors can have envelope, moon and larger have envelope + skyshield(thicker surface/edge of atmosphere), decompression not immediately fatal Temperature - -10 to -30c (-22 to +14 F) Their ships will eventually need to eat as well if they fly around too much. Any organic matter is fine. They don't eat often but they eat alot. The crystal cocoon holding shadowhawk should impact one of the transports as they are exploring/leaving Ordana. World info: Name Type Avg dist from Ixion Notes --- --- --- --- Ixion Fire Sphere 0 "Sun" Valerious Earth Sphere 0.7 "Golden Planet", hot, deserts/jungles Mystara Earth Sphere 1 mostly oceans, home of the majority of the immortals Tarastia Earth Sphere 1.5 seasonally on fire/frozen solid. electircal storms Asterius Earth Flat 5.2 "silver planet", weird orbit, somtimes it flips or reverses Vanya/Eloysia Air Cluster 9.5 3 layers of floating continents, glowing core Khoronus Air Sphere + Rings 19.2 no land/breathable air; surrounded by a torus of earth and water Ordana Air Cluster 30.1 floating continents, maelstrom at core, flaming moon Protius Water Sphere 39.5 watery! Thanatos Vacum sphere 53.7 invisible/black, absorbs energy/balances out the sun(S) Comet Belt Asteroid Sphere 88.8 they smash anyone investigating Sphere wall Sphere wall 90 what's it made of? what's on other side then? "Negative bodies" (actually sargassos)invisible, push away? other bodies. mess up navigational calculations major races: plasmoids, humanoids, fey, dragonkin, elemental beings -------------------------------------- 22.3 days in they realize they are almost out of air, and need to hibernate their remaining ships. with this done, they have 4 days of air left, not enough to get anywhere. clockwok horror adventure history: The gnomish Blackbeard family produced many fine engineers and achitects. Funbul Blackbeard was a well to do son of a seige weapon designer, and the famous inventor of the auto gnome. The mages somehow got an asteroid into orbit,and using autognomes it was outfitted and converted into a mining vessel, using some gnomish propulsion system to propel it through the void. Funbul was chosen to go along on this prestigous mission, and he brought along a prototype sub-core. He took the fabrication sub core and built it into a mechanical hampster. A clockwork horror began eating metal all over the ship and multiplying, eventually destroying the propulsion system. Fumbul took counter measures, spraying a substance over most of the interior that corrodes the innards of any clockwork horror that attempts to chew on it. The crew fought back against the horrors by spraying this stuff as well, but the horrors fought back with suicide troops, ranged atackers, and elites plated with corrosion resistant metals. Eventually the horrors routed the crew, and Fumbul and the ships resident priestess hid in his room, where she used clerical magic to put them into stasis in a block of inanimate wood, which the horrors ignored. clockwok horror agenda: 1. eat metal->propagate 1b. kill intelligent creatures that tend to guard metal and smash clockwok horrors 2. survive 3. retrieve the prototype core from mechanical hampster -------------------------------------- Poker Game Adventure: amber, jamier: there is a rumor about a high stakes poker game among high ranking crew members where they will gamble over magical items and divine tools looted from the "new gods". Time for cards(jamier), free food/wine/loot/sometihng to do(amber)! -------------------------------------- Peacekeeper Adventure: meanwhile sunshine and Natas are investigating crimes among the crew.