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| | ===NPCs of note=== | | ===NPCs of note=== |
| | * [[Anaximander]]: Human Wizard, owner/operator of the Emerald Heron | | * [[Anaximander]]: Human Wizard, owner/operator of the Emerald Heron |
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| − | ==The Jormungandr==
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| − | [[The Jormungandr]] is the ship that the group is assigned to. [[The Jormungandr]] has only a single mast, since its motive force is supplied by the equivalent of a steam engine, and the mast is only for steering and emergency maneuvers. The Jormungandr also has two "lifeboats"- small skiffs that can each hold eight men and are fitted with a heavy grapnel-throwing crossbow device that stows away when not needed.
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| − | The crew of the Jormungandr consists of a dozen men and dwarves who do all of the basic needs as far as rigging and ensuring the phlogiston processors and condensers remain in good repair. The minor helm is a large wooden throne with a metallic bowl, covered in runes. Yes, it looks like an electric chair. Unless a "spellcaster" (preferably a sorceror or psion) of the party uses the helm, a 1st level NPC sorceror helmsman guides the ship.
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| − | The better your INT, WIS, or CHA, the faster the ship goes. CHA gives it better speed, WIS gives it better handling, INT is a well rounded control.
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| | ==Threads== | | ==Threads== |
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| | ===General=== | | ===General=== |
| | AT means After Treaty. The grudging end to open war, the Treaty of Hallows delineated space between the Elves, Elf-Friends, Goblinkind, and the Others (such as illithids, dragons, psurlons, githkin, beholders, etc. etc.) Needless to say, the Treaty's border markings are almost universally ignored by everyone who isn't an elf captain or hobgoblin pack alpha. | | AT means After Treaty. The grudging end to open war, the Treaty of Hallows delineated space between the Elves, Elf-Friends, Goblinkind, and the Others (such as illithids, dragons, psurlons, githkin, beholders, etc. etc.) Needless to say, the Treaty's border markings are almost universally ignored by everyone who isn't an elf captain or hobgoblin pack alpha. |
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| | + | Stellar wind. Aka, how you get anywhere in wildspace. Usually blows outward in all directions from the central body of a system, where it joins up with the astral currents and eddies that make up the Planar Rivers. The primary rivers are the Oceanus, Astral, and the Styx, and they tend to link similar planets, with the Oceanus linking the prime planets to the upper planets, the Styx linking the prime planets with the lower planets, and the astral winding its way around the whole mess. Of course, there are plenty of lesser currents, but if you can't find your way from one major river to the other, you're pretty much useless as an astrogator, and people will make fun of you. |
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| | There are wind collectors on the Slayer's back which collect the ephemereal energy of the stellar wind and condense it for use in the city, much like the Jormungandr does. The Lamplighter's Guild, all dwarves, command a pretty hefty price in the neighborhoods that use their service, since gaslight is a hassle to install, costs a lot of jink to upkeep, and if you piss off the dwarves, you find out that all the fancy gaslight lamps in your house have an astonishing tendency to burst into flames, and not the way you intended. | | There are wind collectors on the Slayer's back which collect the ephemereal energy of the stellar wind and condense it for use in the city, much like the Jormungandr does. The Lamplighter's Guild, all dwarves, command a pretty hefty price in the neighborhoods that use their service, since gaslight is a hassle to install, costs a lot of jink to upkeep, and if you piss off the dwarves, you find out that all the fancy gaslight lamps in your house have an astonishing tendency to burst into flames, and not the way you intended. |
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| | The Common tongue is surprisingly...common. Human languages throughout Known Space tend to run to similarities, and so oddly enough people from one planet can speak to people from another with only a few minor differences in wording and metaphors, at least in most cases. Human is thus the trade Common for wildspace, though of course Elf and Goblin are popular as well. | | The Common tongue is surprisingly...common. Human languages throughout Known Space tend to run to similarities, and so oddly enough people from one planet can speak to people from another with only a few minor differences in wording and metaphors, at least in most cases. Human is thus the trade Common for wildspace, though of course Elf and Goblin are popular as well. |
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| − | ==The Elves==
| + | Of course, the higher planets are, in theory, actually UPWARD from the Prime planets, which exist more or less on a single plane. The lower planets are lower than then Prime planets, and lower still is the cold, broken space of the Abyss, where few sane pilots steer their ships. |
| − | The elven architectural design apparently resembles those of real-Earth Victorians. Go figure! | |
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| − | The Forest is the name for a chain of liveworlds and verdant earthworlds, considered by most to be the homeworlds of the elves. More importantly, it is the home sector for the Elven Armada of Sethes. | + | ===The Elves=== |
| | + | The elven architectural design, in this case, looks a lot like a Victorian. go figure! |
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| − | The elves, living on a number of extremely forested worlds of a bewildering variety, are experts at the creation of any number of drugs, poisons, and other herbal and alchemical viands. The opium trade is largely a result of their activities, though drug use is highly illegal for the elves themselves to partake in. | + | The Forest, the name for a chain of liveworlds and verdant earthworlds, considered by most to be the homeworlds of the elves. More importantly, it is the home sector for the Elven Armada of Sethes. |
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| − | ===Elf Greenbacks=== | + | ===The Ghuk-ma-Kali=== |
| − | Just like they sound, a particular silvery-green leaf used by the elves as a currency. Treated with an alchemical concoction that turns black briefly if it's touched by metal, to ensure veracity.
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| − | ==The Ghuk-ma-Kali== | |
| | Psionic ability runs strong in the Ghuk-ma-Kali, with blues having many positions of authority. Pureblood goblin blues are somewhat rare, and individuals such as Kajagiyet are common, no more than quarter or half-blooded but still able to manifest some wild talent. | | Psionic ability runs strong in the Ghuk-ma-Kali, with blues having many positions of authority. Pureblood goblin blues are somewhat rare, and individuals such as Kajagiyet are common, no more than quarter or half-blooded but still able to manifest some wild talent. |
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| | Ghuk trade talents are rectangular blocks of silver, sometimes alloyed with copper and/or gold. A silver trade talent is the nominal base currency for Kalispace, and is worth roughly the same as a dwarven gold piece or an elf greenback. | | Ghuk trade talents are rectangular blocks of silver, sometimes alloyed with copper and/or gold. A silver trade talent is the nominal base currency for Kalispace, and is worth roughly the same as a dwarven gold piece or an elf greenback. |
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| − | ===Kali's Throne=== | + | ===The Gatebuilders=== |
| − | The throneworld of the Ghuk-ta-Kali, a vast planet of rolling plains and dense forests, interspersed by barren towers of pitted iron far larger than the hobgoblins could have built themselves. It is thought these towers may be semi-natural, as an area of Acheron lies very near the planet and some of that strange energy may have leaked in ancient times. | |
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| − | ===The Thirteen Gods of Goblinkind===
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| − | Kali is the great Goddess of the Hunt, the Wolfmother, First Gobliness. Her six sons and six daughters comprise the rest of the Thirteen, and it is from their incestuous courtings that Goblinkind in its many variations (goblins, hobgoblins, blues, bugbears, and far stranger) spring forth and multiply throughout wildspace. Nobody knows which son of Kali is the Slayer, and no one seems to want to narrow it down, for fear of possibly angering the others.
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| − | ==The Gatebuilders==
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| | The Gatebuilders. An ancient and long extinct race of unknown appearance, whose sole legacy are the vast stone rings and the bizarre hybrid magic-psionic devices that power them. Much research has been done into the Gates, with most scholars deciding they have more productive things to do after ten or twenty years of not accomplishing a damn thing in their inquiries. Not even the libraries of the Celestials describe the Gatebuilders, and some of them are ancient beyond time. | | The Gatebuilders. An ancient and long extinct race of unknown appearance, whose sole legacy are the vast stone rings and the bizarre hybrid magic-psionic devices that power them. Much research has been done into the Gates, with most scholars deciding they have more productive things to do after ten or twenty years of not accomplishing a damn thing in their inquiries. Not even the libraries of the Celestials describe the Gatebuilders, and some of them are ancient beyond time. |
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| − | ==Wildspace==
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| − | ===Stellar wind===
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| − | Aka, how you get anywhere in wildspace. Usually blows outward in all directions from the central body of a system, where it joins up with the astral currents and eddies that make up the Planar Rivers. The primary rivers are the Oceanus, Astral, and the Styx, and they tend to link similar planets, with the Oceanus linking the prime planets to the upper planets, the Styx linking the prime planets with the lower planets, and the astral winding its way around the whole mess. Of course, there are plenty of lesser currents, but if you can't find your way from one major river to the other, you're pretty much useless as an astrogator, and people will make fun of you.
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| − | ===Navigation===
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| − | Of course, the higher planets are, in theory, actually UPWARD from the Prime planets, which exist more or less on a single plane. The lower planets are lower than then Prime planets, and lower still is the cold, broken space of the Abyss, where few sane pilots steer their ships.
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| − | ===Air Quality onboard Ship===
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| − | For the first month after putting out from an atmosphered port, your ship's air quality is perfect, as long as the correct number of crew are on hand. If the number varies by 25% above or below, it increases or decreases the amount by one week. After this period, all living creatures subject to it are fatigued as the amount of carbon dioxide increases. After one week of fatigue, living beings are nauseated at all times, and after that, living beings begin to take 1d2 points of CON damage each day. There are a number of spells and effects that can remedy this, the simplest of which is to bring some plants along. The Jormungandr, being a reasonably small barge type ship, doesn't have any major plants sufficient to correct breathity goodness. The Jormungandr does run a normal amount of crew.
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| − | ===Falling Off Your Ship===
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| − | If you fall off, you rapidly descend away from the plane of gravity of your ship, which is for many vessels is the "water line" that a normal ship would possess. With luck, another ship's plane of gravity pulls you toward it. If you are unlucky, you begin to free float through wildspace.
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| − | Gravity exists for you to make really cool jumps, and me to make you fall if you fail a jump check. If a ship is coming in at some god awful angle, it's so I can make neat things dive bomb you and you are able to use those boots of striding and springing you didn't buy to leap up Errol Flynn style and land on their crow's nest to the delight of your allies and rage of your enemies. Also, of course, if for example you are fired out of a bombard toward the sun, you need to know what happens.
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| − | Outside of the envelope of a ship, wildspace is usually intolerably cold, and the powerful wind is full of tiny particles of grit and unseen force that tear and pull away at the poor sod who's been cast adrift. Wildspace outside of an air envelope subjects a cutter to frostbite, hypothermia, and cold conditions of anywhere between severe and unearthly, depending on how far from a fire body one is. Of course, if one is too close to a fire body, one is subjected to the rules for extreme heat. The moral of the story is to stay in the magic bubble.
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| − | ===Ship to Ship Combat...===
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| − | Is basically pointless. That is, broadsides and attacking the ship itself. A destroyed hull won't stop the chunks that are still stuck together from moving, and it will only have a decrease in maneuverability. The vast majority of naval actions in wildspace are boarding actions by ships with rams and a large amount of surly marine-types with crossbows and boarding axes, whose main priority is to fight their way to the helmsman, murder he or she, smash the helm, and fight their way back to their vessel. Some navies and races (the hobgoblins and several nations of humans) do prefer to cripple a ship thoroughly with bombards and scorpions, but they are in the minority. The majority of onboard weaponry is designed to kill enemy crew- grapeshot catapults, fireball swivel guns, and the like.
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| − | ==Known Worlds==
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| − | ===The Hallows===
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| − | Eventually, most people find themselves at least passing through the floating city of Hallows, the city of dead gods. For that it is what it is comprised of- vast corpses of ancient elf and hobgoblin deities, their names long forgotten, locked in an eternal struggle. There are three of them, two elf and a hobgoblin. The first god, called the Lady by the irreverent townsfolk, is the district of the wealthy, and consists of the weathered remains of an elf woman. She kneels, cradling the fallen form of the second elf, the Fallen, upon which the bulk of the city is built. Connected by a vast spiked chain of the same chalky stone, wrapped around the waist of the fallen elf, is an armored hobgoblin, the Slayer, where the military and higher government of the city resides. Hallows is a holy place to both the elves and hobgoblins, and by treaty is the only place in all of Wildspace that the two races meet without elaborate truce discussions. The city is neutrally held by a joint council of dwarves, illithid, and giants, with the current mayor being a giant, a former pirate named Clever Jack who sponsors many privateers and merchant companies. The city is a flamboyant cultural melting pot, with staid elf Imperials meeting with hobgoblin sons of the Wolf in seedy opium dens, dwarf merchants selling slaves to illithids in the shadows of their great conch-towers, and members of a hundred other races going about their business and worship both above and below the city streets.
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| − | ===Kali's Throne===
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| − | The throneworld of the Ghuk-ta-Kali, a vast planet of rolling plains and dense forests, interspersed by barren towers of pitted iron far larger than the hobgoblins could have built themselves. It is thought these towers may be semi-natural, as an area of Acheron lies very near the planet and some of that strange energy may have leaked in ancient times.
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| − | ===Drakara/Trakash===
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| − | Drakara is a planet on the rim of currently charted territory. "Found" by Anaximander himself it is the home of one of his most trusted companions, Garash Merkel. The planet is dominated by the Drakar Empire, or The Empire of the Dragons, which is, not surprisingly ruled by dragons. The inhabitants of Drakar consider the dragons to be holy animals and their pantheon consists of five dragons and two dragonborn (the two last ones also the Commander in Chief and Prime Minister of the Court).
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| − | The name Drakara comes, not surprisingly from Drakar, in fact the rest of the planet calles the planet Trakash, which is the word for 'planet' in the second largest language on the planet.
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