by Isaac Stone
Magical Item
Brine Charm: It is a piece of leather fitted to a strap, in between this strap, which is worn tightly over the nose and mouth, is a living sea sponge. This sponge has been enchanted by either a powerful mage or more commonly a salt cleric to filter the oxygen out of the water ad into the swimmer’s lungs. As the swimmer breathes in, the sponge takes in the water and pushes the oxygen into the swimmer’s lungs and empowering their bodies to cope with the increase pressure from deep sea diving. The longer the swimmer wears the charm the weaker the sponge becomes as its life-force gets used up in the magical process of filtering the oxygen. Eventually, usually after about an hour total of underwater breathing, the sponge will whither and die, leaving the swimmer without a way of underwater breathing. Experienced swimmers can gauge how much time they have left to breathe by the color of the sponge. This piece of equipment is a standard item on-board most sea going ships, though rarely enough are kept on hand for the entire crew, there is often a stock vat with enough sponges to allow for underwater repairs, scouting, and salvage operations.
…And across the realm of fallen gods sail the skyships…
Lost in the Clouds
The three Skyships are the ancient remnants of the great city of Armantua. They are powerful magical artifacts that still sail the skyways even two hundred years after the destruction of their beloved city. Each one is a flying warship that shares a symbiotic psychic relationship with its crew. The personalities and resonance of the deeds of the crews alter and define the ship, while the ship encourages the crews to continue to act in tandem with that established resonance. It is in this way that a pirate skyship takes the form of a sleek black cutter, and the crew’s evil is encouraged by the very ship itself. Some ships pursue piracy, others heroic adventure, but once someone is a member of the crew, they find it quite physically and mentally difficult to leave. Doomed to live out life as the crew of a ship from times long forgotten.
History
The city-state of Armantua began as a small hunting village high in the misty mountains of the north. The game was plentiful and the land was bountiful, so the village prospered and grew into a township. As time wore on the townsfolk took to logging the strong hardwoods that grew in their mountainous homeland, sending them down the river to marketplaces further south. The town grew wealthy and prosperous, so much so that after several generations of loggers had come and gone the town had become a city. Major trade routes developed, and the city became a hub of trade and culture. Though it was high in the mountains it soon became a popular place for mystics and scholars as well as merchants and adventurers.
Yet with fortune and fame also comes jealousy and rivalry. For Armantua this rivalry came in the form of the massive armies of one of the kingdoms to the south. Greedy and thirsting for control of the wealth of the mountain city the kings of the southern countries had amassed a great army to lay siege upon the city. It was hoped that the stubborn mountainfolk would eventually relent to southern control, but it was not so. The army was held back, and the siege continued for some months.
It was during this siege that a young artificer mage named Marcus Oraster came upon an idea to break the siege. Under the cover of night he sent several stealthy and hardy messengers across the mountains and to the port city of Naluta. They had been instructed to find a shipwright who was willing to join them in defending the city, for an outrageous sum of money. The messengers, who had been paid handsomely themselves, found an older man named Bar-Han who agreed to return with them to the besieged city. Upon their arrival they witnessed that the southern troops were pushing hard to finish the city by launching a savage assault upon the eastern walls. It was beaten back, but not without heavy losses for the defenders as well as the attackers.
Bar-Han was taken to Marcus and told why he was brought and what was expected of him. Marcus Oraster intended to build a number of ships, only these ships were intended to sail through air instead of water. At first Bar-Han was unable to fathom the idea, until Marcus demonstrated the material from which the ships were to be built. As an artificer Marcus had access to a great many strange and beautiful materials from which to construct his magical devices and machines. In his travels he had learned how to magically combine a complex alchemical paste made from many herbs and rare plants, with the crushed powder of a psychically receptive crystal that he had discovered in one of the deepest dwarven mines known to exist. Marcus told Bar-Han that he could use these magical ingredients to make the ships fly.
Still dubious but willing to work for the high pay he was being offered, Bar-Han set to work. Many additional workmen were hired to help finish the project quickly, given that the siege was not going well for the defenders and help was needed in short order. After a whole month of working all day and well into the night, the ships were built. There were four of them. They were large war galleys, armored and bristling with bastilla and catapults. Crews had been prepared for the ships, and all that was needed now was for them to fly.
Marcus went about the four ships and completely coated them with the magical mixture he had concocted. Once every inch of the ships was covered with the crystalline paste, Marcus explained its purpose. According to the young artificer the psychically receptive crystals were used by powerful mages to store spells, so that the mage could cast a spell and store it for later use. When crushed and spread all over the ships, a flight spell could be cast upon each ship, and the spell would last indefinitely because of the alchemical mixture. The paste would simultaneously hold the spell in, making it permanent, and graft the spell’s effects to all of the parts of the ship covered in the paste, which was hardening all over the ships to form a sort of second skin.
As Marcus cast the flight spell the crewmen were amazed at the sight of the ships slowly lifting off the ground and floating in midair. Marcus explained that the ships would sail through the air just like they were in the sea, but instead of oars the ships had artificial wings that could be deployed. This gave the ship the ability to descend and ascend at will, giving it a tremendous advantage in both agility and combat flexibility. The crewmen clamored aboard and readied for the coming battle.
It was then, as the ships sailed out from Marcus’s workshop and towards the battle, that the crews mutinied. To Marcus’s horror it became clear that Bar-Han had decided to keep the ships for himself. The crews battled each other as those loyal to Armantua fought the shipwright’s bribed traitors. Marcus cried tears of sorrow as he watched his city fall before his eyes while the ships designed to save it rocked back and forth from the ferocious combat aboard their decks. The young artificer watched as one of the ships caught fire, someone had ignited the stores of alchemical fire kept in the lower decks, and crashed into the city walls. Seeing one of his creations destroyed alongside his beautiful city broke something in Marcus’s heart, he turned and strode across the deck in search of Ban-Har.
The shipwright was standing his ground on the captain’s deck, fighting off loyal crewmen with his saber. Marcus walked straight towards the traitor, ignoring the battle that raged about him. Ban-Har noticed the mage approach, and after quickly dispatching the last crewman with his sword, drew a long knife from his belt and flung it at the young man. Marcus simply held up his hand and spoke a word of magic, the knife came to a stop right in front of his fair face. The mage looked calmly into the eyes of the surprised shipbuilder as the used his magic to turn the point of the knife away from him and towards the saber-wielding murderer. Ban-Har took a step back and raised his saber as if to parry as the blade was magically propelled through the air and into his chest. The force of the blow carried him off the captain’s deck and over the side.
Marcus walked over to the edge of the captain’s deck to see where in the city below the shipbuilder had fallen. Yet as the mage leaned over the side Ban-Har, who had been clutching the railing of the captain’s deck, reached out to grab him by the collar. The shipbuilder used his considerable strength to pull the mage off the deck and fl
ing him into the air. As the mage fell to his death he reached out and grasped the shipwright’s ankle. Normally the strong seaman would have been able to hold on, but the wound in his chest had stolen much of his vitality, and he was not able to maintain his grip. Ban-Har and Marcus plummeted to their death together as the battle on the ship’s deck continued.
Soon the battles were over. The southern armies had laid waste to Armantua and the remaining ships were now under the control of the traitor crewmen. Though without the firm leadership of Ban-Har they soon fell into dispute. After many hours of debate and duels the three ships went their separate ways.
Little did these traitor crews realize that their decisions on that frightful day would shape the destiny of many for years to come. And so it was that the three Skyships of Armantua entered the world.
The Skyships
The magical crystals used by the young Armantuan artificer were far more powerful than he could have imagined. Its magical properties were known by both the dwarves who mined and marketed the stones and the artificers and spellcasters who paid high prices for their possession. The crystal was extremely receptive to magical input, and thus was used widely as a method of storing pre-cast spells for later use. This was extremely useful for magic users because upon casting a spell they had to relearn it before using it again. This made for a continuous life of rigorous study, which at times interfered with daily life and its myriad ups and downs. Depending upon the size of the stone, which determined its capacity, magic users could store the more frequently used spells within its crystalline boundaries and focus their attention on other matters.
During his studies Marcus Oraster discovered that the potency of the stones could be increased a hundred-fold when coated with a mixture of magical herbs and roots. It was at the time of that discovery that the siege of Armantua began. As the siege raged on he developed the crushed crystalline paste, which to his amazement had the ability to permanently manifest any enchantment placed upon it at the time of its creation. After doing a few experiments on edged weapons, which remained enchanted long after the magic should have worn off, he first had the idea for flying warships.
Though he never lived to see the fate of his creations, the skyships were successful beyond his wildest hopes and aspiration. Though no one is aware of it, the crystal has another power. The stone is an extremely psychically sensitive substance, much more so than such people as Marcus believed. After the mutiny in the skies above Armantua the three ships and their crews sailed off in three different directions, to three different fates.
The crystalline paste that had hardened into a second skin around each of the ships not only held within it the permanent flight spell, but also had the tendency to both absorb and alter the psychic resonances of the various crews aboard. In the two hundred years that have passed since the razing of Armantua the skyships have moved through the world, relentlessly pursuing their destiny. Each ship has over the years become permeated with the desires, hopes, and personalities of the crews that have manned them through time. The ships not only soak up such things, but are also changed by them, and grow to reflect the crew. Yet the crystal’s receptiveness doesn’t only go one way. Even as it is soaking up the psychic resonance of the crew, it is projecting those resonances back upon the crew. Thus over time the crews of the ship tend to be the same sorts of people. The ships are also quite alluring to people of similar persuasions as those of the current crew. It is said quite openly by many that once a person crews a skyship, they will never leave it, simply sailing the skies until their deaths. Some say that is because the ship helps and encourages them to live out their ideal lifestyles. Others say that the crew becomes possessed by the ship and that at the same time the ship is possessed by the crew. Whatever the truth, it is a fact that once a person has served on a skyship they never leave it of their own choice.
The ships themselves are radically different, but all are fearsome to behold. While each one looked the same on their first flight over Armantua, they have all been changed by their crew’s resonance into three very different ships. The only reason one would know that they were fundamentally the same sort of ship is that they all have the power of flight.
As far as game mechanics go the ship has a few unique features. It gives bonuses, in whatever system is being utilized, to members of the crew when they perform actions that further the basic resonance of the ship. For example, if a ship is attuned to piracy, then acts of violence and pillage will receive bonuses as long at the crew member in question is on or near the ship itself. Also, for plot purposes, the ships become not only attuned to the crews, but to the basic elements of their current resonance. Again, if the ship is attuned to piracy then the ship will inadvertently lead the crew to situations ripe with the potential for piracy. The same would go for a ship attuned to heroic adventure.
The Bladestorm
In the shadows of dusk and the impending night skulks a sleek pirate cutter known as the Bladestorm. Once a proud ship of Armantua, now it stalks the skies in search of plunder. The ship looks very much like a barbed spearhead as it sails through the skies. Its main deck bristles with catapults that fire clusters of jagged scrap metal. All along its broadsides both top and bottom decks are covered in arrow slots for the pirate crew to rain down death upon ground targets. All over the edged hull there sprout wicked blades and spears for ramming ships and strafing ground troops. The entire ship is black in color, from its wooden hull to the triangular sails and dragon like wings.
Two hundred years ago the crew that had originally mutinied and captured the ship had used their newfound ship to take up piracy. Utilizing its sky borne capabilities to ravage the countryside without fear of capture or retribution. Over the years the ship has raided all over the world. Sometimes the ship is crewed by greedy pirates in search of wealth. Other times it is manned by savages who merely reveled in the din of battle. Bladestorm has been a raiding ship, a slave ship, and a mercenary warship. It is presently crewed by vicious pirates who love wealth, but only if they have to kill and torture to get it. The crew is fond of wearing hauntingly blank faced masks and bedecking themselves in weapons and war trophies. The sight of the black ship, decorated with still-living victims, is burned into the minds of many.
The Spiritchaser
There have been times throughout history, when the threat of doom and evil has oppressed the land, that the silver prow of the Spiritchaser has been seen cresting the horizon. Of the three surviving ships of Armantua the Spiritchaser most closely represents the symbol of hope and freedom that Marcus Oraster had intended them all to be. Though sporting a dizzying array of catapults and bastilla, the ship remains one of the predominant peacemakers in history. Its cargo holds are always full of food and supplies, and the ship is known to land in impoverished areas and dole out such cargo to the downtrodden and needy, only to take flight again without a word. The Spiritchaser is a well-balanced ship with no distinguishing features from other fine sea bound warships aside from its retractable mechanical wings and the fact that it has a palpable aura of heroic might, as if the ship itself is one of the heroes.
After the fall of Armantua the crew took it to a rich trade city far to the south, and there sold it to a merchant for a handsome price. The merchant had it in her mind to finance a group of adventurers, taking her cut of whatever riches they accumulated in their travels. While it was not difficult task to crew the ship, the merchant felt herself drawn to the ship, and ended up sailing with the crew on its maiden voyage. After the first campaign the merchant had been wrapped up in the resonance of the ship and its crew, and so sold her financial empire and remained on the ship. Soon the name of Spiritchaser became legend as the ship and crew slayed monsters, liberated the oppressed, and battled the armies of evil that surfaced from time to time. Still sailing the skies over two hundred years later, the ship and its crew embody the idea of heroic adventure.
The Mountain’s Hammer
Whenever or wherever there is a drastic shif
t in the balance of the world, the Mountain’s Hammer is sure to be involved. This ship is the most mysterious of the three skyships. This is due to the fact that its resonance is so difficult to discern. Bladestorm has the appearance of a pirate cutter and is crewed by the greedy and the bloodthirsty. The Spiritchaser is a resplendent galley and manned by heroes and healers. The Mountain’s Hammer has no such features that makes its resonance, and therefore purpose, apparent.
When the original crew of the Hammer fled the fall of Armantua the ship was seen to sail into the misty skies over the northern mountains. Merely a few generations after Armantua’s demise the Bladestorm and the Spiritchaser began to become more and more widely known. Yet nearly a hundred years passed before the Mountain’s Hammer made its first appearance since the fall.
It is a wide and bulky ship now, looking much less like the sleek warship it once was and much more like an armored ramship. The entire prow of the ship is a single armored plate, making the ramship’s tactic of plummeting from the sky and slamming into targets as especially effective one. While the ship does sport a few catapults and arrow slits on its decks and broadsides, its primary combat feature is its design. Being a ramship it is armored from top to bottom and is equipped with boarding engines for both ship-to-ship assaults and air to ground attacks. The ship quickly gained a reputation for being able to deliver large numbers of shock troops into battle from the air.