Preview: The Iron Queen

I have the pleasure of announcing the upcoming release of my latest project: The Iron Queen. Designed for Old Style Essentials (classic version), it offers a detailed description of a spacefaring dwarven ironclad and an adventure module: Raid on Teros. The release includes a map pack with six full-size poster deck plans and a collection of maps for use with the adventure, all rendered at full resolution. The Iron Queen will become available on DriveThru as a digital release fairly soon. The manuscript and all graphicsare now in the hands of proofreaders. Keep your ears to the ground. Click here for the latest updates.

All deck plans and outside views of the Iron Queen will include 3 posters labeled and 3 more unlabeled. The present png files are 86 megs and 10800 x 7760 pixels (or 36"x 26"). See the views below for an idea of the contents. Click on the images below for full-res views. Some images may take a minute or longer to load, given their sizes.

                            

The author warrants that no AI was used or harmed during the development of this project.

Skyship Battle

I was exceedingly elated when I discovered a blog article Xaoseed wrote in 2021 about the game mechanics I posted back around that time. I didn't spot it until yesterday. He (she, they) playtested them and found that they worked as I'd intended. So, thanks awfully for that! I wanted mechanics enabling fairly detailed movement rules involving the speed and direction of winds while merging ship battles with traditional OSR player-character and monster combat. So: mission accomplished. With Xaoseed's permission, I'm reposting his article here, for the record!

21 August 2021

Actual Test: Calidar (Fantasy Space Combat Rules)

tl;dr: fantasy flying ship combat where the wind direction matters - surprisingly easy to pick up, lots of fun and some great old school damage tables detail that makes ship combat more than just slugging away at hull points.

After testing two magazine-published sets of rules for fighting magical flying ships - the 3e adaptation Shadow of the Spider Moon and the 5e Aces High aerial combat rules from Arcadia #3 published by MCDM as well as the original AD&D Spelljammer we come to the thing that kicked all this off - Calidar.

The Calidar supplements come from Bruce Heard, creator of the magnificent Voyages of the Princess Ark, one of the original D&D Flying Ships (*the* original?), as a vehicle for him to continue with flying fantasy ships as Princess Ark is no longer continuing. I grabbed the Calidar books because I love me my flying ships and also pulled down the skyship combat rules from his blog. Initially, the ruleset looks scary as hell but I cobbled together a word doc and sat in the pub and red-penned it until I figured out how it worked then took it to the table.

Mimicking the 'big vs fast' set up of previous fights I set up the feature ship of the setting - the Star Phoenix - against a fast ship, the Lucky Deuce. We put down a hex grid and ran the same altitude and edge-of-board escape conditions for the 'heavy' as before. The first really interesting thing about the Calidar system is that ship speed is wind-driven - the sails matter - and first thing to do is dice up the wind. We got a strong wind, just short of a damaging gale, blowing straight down the board. One of the hardest pieces of the system for me to grok initially was the points of sail until I finally got that the wind directions were split more finely than hexes have sides and suddenly it all made sense.

The second interesting thing is that initiative is diced per round for combat actions but movement is done in order of speed - and big ships can put on more sail and go faster. We were surprised to find that the Star Phoenix was faster than the Lucky Deuce (though harder to turn). We set off, everyone out of range to start then after movement where both gained altitude, the first long distance fire was exchanged. The Deuce landed shots to the hull and the Phoenix fired back and swept away almost a quarter of the Deuce's crew. Here another interesting system point came up where each hit led to a roll on a table to see what was hit - masts, crew, weapons or the hull. This was a very interesting aspect of the system, making it harder to knock out an enemy ship but inflicting lots of other pain on them.

Round 2 - we diced to see if the wind changed - as there was no DM we adapted the system by rolling 2d8 to get under the count of turns since the last shift in wind. The wind stayed stable for now. The Deuce fired, scored another hull hit and both ships soared onwards, with the Deuce using its superior maneuverability to stay out of the Phoenix's broadside fire arcs.

Round 3 - we diced and there was a chance for wind to change but testing for change in strength and change in direction led individually to nothing - a flutter but no actual change. The Deuce took advantage of their positioning to fire again, landing a ballista bolt and managing to knock out the starboard forward ballista on the Phoenix. Then both ships moved: the Phoenix diving and the Deuce keeping pace and lurking ahead of it.

Round 4 - a pattern was setting in with the Deuce peppering the Phoenix bows with mid range fire. The port forward ballista was knocked out this round, then after both had moved two shots threatened the Phoenix masts but failed to cause telling damage.

Round 5 - another round of fire and the Deuce knocks the Phoenix below 70% of hull points, worsening their maneuverability a grade and causing it to sink an altitude level per round - now they have to advance 2 hexes before they can turn one face, leaving the Deuce weaving circles within the Phoenix turning arc as it tried to bring its broadside weapons to bear. The chance to climb out of the gravity well and escape into the Great Vault was also closed, only one path to escape remaining - the board edge.

Round 6 - the Deuce fires and knocks out a starboard aft mast on the Phoenix.

Round 7 & 8 - the wind changes, slowing, and the dance continues at lower speed. The Deuce throws ballista and scorpion bolts at the Phoenix, shaving off hull points down to 50% of its original total.

Round 9 - the Phoenix captain finally figures out their tactics and races away across the grid before turning slightly at the end and leaving their broadside arc facing down the line the Deuce needs to approach (or if the Deuce turns wholly away it would allow the Phoenix to flee). Alas the damage to the Phoenix ballistae is telling and only the aft set remains to fire as the Deuce stays out of range of the Phoenix broadside catapults. Too close, and the Deuce weaves out of arc, too far and the catapults are out of range - the captain of the Phoenix is growing increasingly nervous about surviving.

Round 10 - the Deuce sails up and misses most of their scorpion shots while the Phoenix fires back with their lone ballista and flees for the board edge. The Deuce follows, allowing their own ballista to get to optimal range before firing and landing decisive hull hits. The Phoenix is looking shaky but is only one turn from the board edge.

Round 11 - knowing this is their last chance to stop the Phoenix, the Deuce fires everything, no matter the range and misses entirely. Heartened by this last spot of luck, the Phoenix flees off the board edge, with a shattered mast and two destroyed ballista.

A Hammership and Wasp paper mini standing in for the Star Phoenix and Lucky Deuce respectively

Overall the system was a lot easier to use than it appeared from the heft of the assembled rules. The points of wind took a little getting used to but once that was done, the challenge of turn limitations due to maneuverability class, fire arcs of the ships and the potential to shed or gain movement points as ships adjusted heading was a great fun part of it that really made the Calidar rules feel distinctly different to the 'powered flight' of the other systems tested.

The ships feel complex but not too complicated - initially I thought the 'roll on the damage table' for every hit to be preposterously fiddly but it quickly became easy to handle. The consequences of exceeding damage thresholds in certain categories was potentially very interesting - a lucky first shot by the Phoenix killed 8 out of 39 crew. Another similar strike to the crew would have been guaranteed at minimum to knock it below 3/4 of the crew, making all shots 10% harder to hit and that would have made life much easier for the Phoenix. On the other hand the Phoenix has nine masts and happily risked strikes to those as it would have taken at least 3 lost to impact maneuverability and each of those strikes was damage diverted away from the hull.

Another very interesting aspect of the system that I liked a lot was the 40 second round - if heroes had been present, acting individually, they could have gotten in 4 actions per ship combat round. This is also reflected in the relatively high rate of fire of the weapon systems - twice a round in most cases. Chucking fistfuls of dice about - however justified by the system - is a lot more fun than examples such as original Spelljammer with 1 in 3 rounds or 1 in 4 rounds firing rates.

The crews did not get to play a great part in this fight but could have. The boarding mechanics are very interesting with a compare ratios then roll table. I used it to stage out a guards raid on a safe-house in my home game and it is a nice neat system for that. We checked what might have happened had the Phoenix gotten to grips with the Deuce - the boarding party from the Phoenix would have been repulsed at a high cost to the Deuce, which would have left the Phoenix free to either sail off happy that they would be unlikely to hit them as they left or board again with even more chance at success.

Some really nice pieces of this system are:
1. How wind and facing matters along with relative speed and altitude change.
2. The 4-to-1 hero-to-ship action tempo is a nice way to keep the pace of ship activity high while also allowing heroes to make a real difference.
3. This was ship-on-ship but there is a large roster of monsters and clearly a lot of thought gone into integrating monsters as ship opponents. Taking a big dragon up against a ship could be a lot of fun.

If you read through all the posts as presented on the blog it is not easy to make sense of the system but assembled together and read through together (as in its intended published form) it makes a lot more sense. There is guidance on how to calibrate it to the system of your choice with multiple proposed approaches suggested from percentile to adapting d20.

My only complaint is that as the system is currently posted in parts, it is missing the editors run through of elaborating on terms the first time we run into them - it took me a while to find SR meant Structure rating, what windward meant and so on. There are some good worked examples in among the text to help it all make sense. I think the combat round sequence should be right up the front to help frame why all the individual pieces of the rules are important and where they come into play.

Certainly I would be happy to grab this when it eventually gets released. It has some real old-school flavour in the look up tables but I was surprised how universal a rule set it turned out to be. You just need to select the correct damage scale and then decide whether you want to use percentile or d20 to hit and off you go.

Star Phoenix Revisited

What a difference several years make. When I embarked on the mission to publish my own books eight years ago my skill level was minimal. Most of what I learned during my 15 years at pre-WotC TSR in the 80s and 90s was still there, but much of it no longer matched the self-publishing realities of the 2010s or the kind of work required when operating independently from an established publisher with somewhere near 100 employees. In the distant wake of the Voyage of the Princess Ark that I authored in the 90s for Dragon Magazine, I wanted a series of skyship deck plans to be featured at the World of Calidar's core. At the time, I had no idea what to expect from a Kickstarter, and the price tag of having these maps drafted by professionals seemed well over what I might be able to afford. So, I drafted the maps the best way I could back then. Here's a "before" & "after" snapshot showing what the original maps looked like vs. what I'm doing now.

Before: a simple diagram published in CAL1 "In Stranger Skies" in 2013

After: a work-in-progress rendition of the revised main deck & superstructures

I use a freeware application called PaintNet. Though limited in its graphic abilities, its learning curve is fairly low. It does require a lot of add-ons, and I rely heavily on 3rd party textures and stock art for details. Those took years to accumulate. The result speaks for itself. Here are a few more sneak previews of the final work.

Main Deck, Stern Section

Outlines Layer by Itself

Work files are raster graphics, which presents a challenge when adding colors or textures within line art. To prevent badly pixilated edges resulting from a simple attempt to fill in colors, layered graphics become a must. The complexity of fully detailed renditions often requires 15-20 layers (such as outline layers above color or texture layers, or whatever lies on a table layered above table graphics, which lies above chair elements, carpet graphics come next, and that lies above floor textures, and so on). Add to this any number of temporary layers that get merged with permanent ones during the drafting process. Patience with this is key.

Filled-In Textures Layer

Good luck making corrections later if something doesn't look quite right. Every single layer will need to be looked at. A common mistake is adding something to the wrong layer, and then spending precious time later to find which layer it was put on. This is when the cats perk up at the sound of muttered French swearing as I switch layers off and back on, hoping I didn't mess up something else.

How about some shadows?

The texture for the floor or in this case a ship's wooden deck begs for some thinking as regards how it might blend in with a grid. Some trial and error is to be expected here until the graphics are scaled properly.

Grid vs. Texture Layers

You're getting the idea. Add to this the layers for what should show "above" the walls' texture, such as doors and windows. Way up higher, you'll position layers for map symbols (stairs directions, secret doors, etc.) and labels.

Upping the Ante: the Lower Deck with full details

Here's another view with everything and the kitchen sink. Oh, the joy of making sure stairs connect exactly with those on adjacent decks. I'm a stickler for this, although most players and DMs won't lose sleep over a few pixels. While in game, this won't matter. I made precisely this kind of error in my original diagram of 2013, much to my dismay. It's now fixed in the revised version. Ugh. How embarrassing.

Just for fun, I'm including a screenshot of the hold's forward section. The final work includes two 12"x18" sheets and the digital files rendered at 600 dpi (with and without labels). I'll see if I can include VTT files for use with Roll20 and such; that's new territory for me. Drafting the revised deck plans took exactly 2 weeks, working pretty much full time, using the old map version and the original sketch produced by the cover artist, Ben Wootten. The design was part of the last Kickstarter project I ran, July 2021. Backers receive this as part of their rewards. The deck plans will become available to the public on DriveThru probably before the end of this year. Ideally, I'd like to redo all of the deck plans in CAL1, but this will have to wait until I'm done with the current project. If you have questions, contact me via Facebook or Twitter. Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Happy Flying!

D&D: Sky Warriors of Phrydias

Here's an oldie I originally posted on EN World more than 4 years ago. It's actually part of CC1 Beyond the Skies. I bet a number of people haven't seen this. This excerpt introduces an order of half-elven knights who ride giant eagles. Their base of operation is a circular structure hanging from a gigantic balloon.

This order of half-elven knights originally formed in honor of an epic hero by the name of Bambathiel. His legends tell of the first recorded case of a Calderan eagle being tamed as a mount. The giant raptors are reputed for being particularly difficult to approach, let alone to befriend and ride like a horse. Magic sometimes works in this respect, but followers of Thaëldar see this as an insult to their deity. For them, Calderan eagles embody their Lord of the Skies. Being entrusted with one is nothing less than a holy gift requiring utmost respect and devotion.

Bambathiel died in a fight with a night howler, a great beast of evil that had been preying on Calderan eagles in the Kaël Mountains. Though he who became known as the First Knight defeated his mythical foe, his wounds and those of his majestic mount were awash with deadly poison. No prior in Phrydias could stop its spreading, and both died in writhing pain. The High-Prior of Thaëldar prayed for their return to life, but the Great God of the Skies decided to keep them both at his side. Since then, faithful followers of Thaëldar, those who are pure of thought and brave at heart, have created the Order of Sky Warriors in memory of their fallen hero. Bambathiel and Oba Eagle-Lord together became scions of the cult and the order’s spiritual protectors.

The night howler is an enormous beast that sometimes appears late at night. It is born from the nightmares of slumbering evil Phrydians, and vanishes before dawn. What is unclear, however, is why so many people would make the same horrid dream during one fateful night. No Bongorese literature had ever mentioned night howlers. A sect of malevolent wizards or perhaps a demon are thought to be at work, summoning the beast when the moons are right, perhaps as the consequence of an unholy ritual planting seeds of evil into many a weaker or disturbed mind. Priors of Thaëldar have come to believe that in the heart of the eagles lies great spiritual power, which the wicked covet for their evil deeds. What they do with such wondrous power remains a mystery. As the beast unexpectedly rises again to wreak havoc upon Thaëldar’s flock, the knights scramble to deny the odious harvest. In truth, the beast springs from a curse. It was cast by the demon-prince Kokumo, when Thaëldar cast his spear at him.

This order is the armed chapter of the Faith of Thaëldar. Aside from safeguarding breeds of eagles small and large, they live to protect of the Sky God’s temples in Phrydias and elsewhere. A contingent resides in northwestern Alfdaín where the cult has found significant following. Their ethos is neither fundamentally malevolent or purely benevolent. Their philosophy concerns more specifically the order of all things in the universe. Most members of Thaëldar’s fanatical legion stick together as a military organization. Others ride their fabulous mounts, travelling the world in search of clues about who or what lies behind the summoning of night howlers. They are avengers, adventuring warriors looking for a worthy cause for the purpose of acquiring goodwill toward their quest and their faith. Their beneficiaries are to watch for defilers of great eagles and for clues about the night howlers, and alert them if such comes about. Following the belief that evil doers dwell in evil places, sky warriors aren’t loath to exploring dungeons and other places of despair, for hints may lie there was well.

Isn’t a knight anyone who desires it. Prerequisites include being at least a pious follower of Thaëldar. In this regard, race is not an issue. To become a squire, one must already be a fine warrior or a skilled prior (one with the experience of at least a dozen worthwhile dungeon expeditions should qualify). A time will come when the squire will have to seek out a giant eagle’s nest high in the Kaël Mountains and earn its occupant’s respect, a perilous quest on its own. Magic of any kind, clerical or otherwise, is not permitted, and the squire must act alone. Should a glorious fate shine upon the squire, an egg will be available for the taking. It must be safely returned to the order’s sanctum, wherein its new owner will have to care for it until it hatches. The squire must raise the young eagle, nurture its growth, earn its loyalty, and train it as a mount.

Note: The remainder of the chapter goes on about risks and rewards of being a knight, and creating a player-character. You'll find all this in CC1 Beyond the Skies. 

Ship Speeds Revisited

I recently looked up work I'd done years ago about the speeds of sea-going ships. Much to my annoyance and embarrassment, I found stuff that didn't work (in my opinion). Part of the problem is an old game trope that small ships are faster than bigger ones. That's not necessarily true. Smaller vessels are nimbler than larger ones and don't lose as much speed when tacking. On the other hand, ships with longer hulls possess greater potential for higher sailing speeds due to the way water flows along their sides: this is referred to as hull speed.

Temptation was to redo the chart entirely, but then an additional issue grafted itself on the whole, in that stats listed in my venerable old D&D Rules Cyclopedia don't really address sailing conditions. The game's intent, however, is to streamline mechanics as much as possible.

Nonetheless, as the endless tinkerer of things that don't need tinkering,
I tinkered.

I really didn't want to make an even bigger and more complicated chart. Instead, I came up with an Excel document that does all the number crunching to find out travel times, given that sailing conditions vary along the way. First, you select the ship type from the dropdown menu, and enter its length, beam, and draft into the next three cells on the right (see below).

Then you select up to 7 sailing conditions prevailing during the ship's journey from the array of dropdown menus shown below.

And there you have it: the average distance travelled on a map in miles per day, including variables that should affect the time it takes a ship to go from point A to point B. If more variety is needed, especially on a long journey, break up the voyage into separate periods of a few days each, and run numbers accordingly, adding up distances covered. This makes it easy to plot on a map perhaps ahead of a game where that ship will be at the end of each period (whereupon you might roll for random encounters).

Calculations are based on ship designs and hull speeds, and then calibrated to approximate historical sailing performances for the selected types of ships. As a DM, you can always adjust results as desired. This approach made it possible to break BECMI's single "sailing ships" category into three (Middle Ages cogs, late-medieval caravels, and later galleons). Cogs weren't ideal to cross oceans, while caravels were. Galleons were better able to cope with larger freight loads as well as oceanic sailing conditions.

The results given here are only intended as ballpark ideas They don't address magic or rowing. Sailing speeds for galleys and longships assume that some rowing might take place on occasion, but not more than this. When rowing alone (without the aid of sails), especially for galleys and oared galleons, assume 2-3 knots travelling speed. If you're unsure what the sizes of ships should be, a list of existing stats are also provided, along with a way to convert some numbers into metric. You can alter ship stats to see what the effects are. 

In-game encounter speeds quoted in Feet/round aren't realistic when compared with Miles/day. In-game MV rates are based directly on figures given in BECMI's Rules Cyclopedia, pg. 71. Number crunching had to reflect this to make sure adjusted MV rates for ships remained to scale with monsters' MV rates. Use your best judgement if figures get out of hand with the fastest sailing ships travelling at their top speeds.

An entry at the bottom of the spreadsheet helps compare MV rates for monsters and ships facing the same travel conditions (as may be relevant to the monster). Select from the dropdown menu whether the monster flies or swims. Enter its normal MV rate per round into the next space. Some monsters may need rest, so the number of hours travelled without interruption can be specified (see sand-colored cells in the illustration above). A chart suggesting travel hours per day for various monster types is also included. 

Click here to download the Excel document. Do download it since it won't work online; once the download is complete, open the file and (if that option comes up) enable editing at the top of the screen before using. The file is protected to avoid accidental deletions, but not passworded. The spreadsheet has already gone through one round of updates, so there may some minor differences between the illos above and the present document.

Skyship Revisited

I've continued working on the Peryton of Alfdaín (click here for the top view posted earlier), generating a side view and a cutaway version. It's been an eye opener on the matter of ship design. Let's just say, this is fantasy! I'm more interested in making sure the layout lends itself to D&D-style tactical combat. Here are a few snapshots of the latest draft. There still remains a good amount of work needed, with the rigging in particular. If your browser allows it, click on the images and open them on a separate tab to view them at full resolution.

The biggest challenge for the side view was getting a deer head that matched the one in the top view. I originally drew the head in the top view from a photo I found on the internet. The profile version was beyond my graphic skills, so I relied on Joe Garcia's talents to draft side and front projections. It worked like a charm. I added the colors, texture, and shadows. What do you think?

In the cutaway version, the illusory deer head vanishes to reveal the skyship's cockpit. Since "flight controls" aren't mechanical, the helm doesn't need to be positioned near the ship's rudder. The helm is therefore at the bow for greater visibility, unlike real-world seagoing ships but more like an aeroplane. One of the ship's organic deck weapons lies afore of the helm, pointing out through an opening at the bow (to be drafted later). The door at the cockpit's rear opens onto the main deck. The crew's head and sleeping quarters lie below, on the lower deck. The "L" tag marks the location of ladder rungs on the outer hull, allowing the crew to climb from the main deck to an open section of the lower deck (see side view).

This shows a closeup of the Peryton's midship. The door and windows connect with the lower deck's enclosed section. Ladder rungs lead up to the main deck.

The cutaway version reveals details of the cargo hatch and wooden supports for the masts. Reminder: this is a quad-masted skyship, meaning its masts are positioned in an "X" pattern, with two outrigger masts crossing through the main deck at 45 degrees, and two more below deck protruding through the lower hull at the same angle (definitely NOT seaworthy!) This is completely nuts, but hey, it's fantasy for ya! The four masts connect on the lower deck, blocking the passage. The only way past them is outside, on the main deck (as shown in the top view), or below, in the hold (as shown by the arrow.) 

The difficulty with the ship's stern lies in its rounded shape, which I could only hint at with shades in the side view. The aft castle (A & B) hangs over the lower deck (C) a bit too far, due to a miscalculation on my part when I originally drafted the top views of the various decks. It was too late to fix by the time I drafted the side view. Live and learn... The odd squarish structure at the back of the lower deck is a turret used as officers' heads.

The cutaway view reveals details of the hold (D). I had originally positioned the capstan closest to the bow, but the hold there is too narrow (10' wide or less). So I moved the whole element abaft. Calidar skyships use "air anchors" as airborne moorings. It's a bit odd, but for an airship being anchored astern shouldn't matter too much. If anything, sails can be unfurled with a convenient tailwind when lifting anchor. I'm not entirely satisfied with the capstan mechanism, which probably doesn't work as designed. I think it needs a separate axle for the anchor chain to wrap around. I may fix this later. Fortunately, because the skyship's aft section is so wide, there should be enough room to fit such a system. The hold also possesses a loading bay at its stern, a convenient feature when the vessel is moored at a docking tower.

If you ever wondered how to justify a druid character working on a skyship, fret no longer! I used the forward hold as the space for the vessel's organic "sap" stowage. Elven ships are semi-living structures that can grow deck weapons when needed. Weaponry and ship repair require a certain amount of sap, which is shown here. This spot is a weird, overgrown tangle of sticky, oozing stuff that no one but the ship's "plantmaster" should be messing with. You might have noticed the crew heads on the deck just above, which is part of the ship's onboard fertilizing ecosystem. On the smelly end of things, I now leave you to ponder the ship's design. Hope you enjoyed the preview. The final draft will be part of my present Calidar project, CAL3 "Wings over Alfdaín." 

Skyship: The Peryton of Mythuín

While design for the upcoming Calidar gazetteer, CAL3 Wings over Alfdaín, is proceeding, I felt the need to draft a new skyship. It's been a while since the last time I toyed with deck plans, so now seems as good a time as any other. For sure, this will have something to do with Captain Isledemer's next skyward adventure. This can obviously be retrofitted to Spelljammer without difficulty.

            I cropped the image posted above from a 12”x18” poster rendered at 600 dpi. Click on it and use your browser's enlarge function to see the full-res image. I’ll add armament, individual launches, and other deck details in the final draft. The other decks are positioned to its right and left on the original image, including the lower deck, the hold, and the aft castle (the latter covers the main deck’s stern section in the image above to give a complete “top view”). It’s the reason why parts of the sails are transparent, since they overlap adjacent floor plans.

Gimbal-like device

            The bridge is located at the fore (with a clear canopy, like in a modern airplane), concealed within an illusory deer head. This enchantment is invisible from the bridge. Though it appears like any other skyship helm, the wheel can be tilted forward and back or sideways to maneuver the ship in a 3D environment. Helm “commands” travel through the hull’s mycelium network to a large gimbal-like device located amidships, below deck. Calidar skyships hold enchantments providing lift and a movement bias along their centerlines. The gimbal controls this dweomer’s orientation, forcing the ship’s hull to progressively match its exact alignment. It’s what enables skyships to sail against the wind (like a keel on a sea-going vessel). Without it, skyships would only drift with the prevailing winds. Sails below deck also prevent the vessels from rolling over.

            Elven skyships are partially alive. Sap vesicles fitted inside their holds provide the vessels with their “life blood,” so to speak. Because of this, elven ships need to land when they run low on sap (usually at a giant tree used as docking tower and supply source). This biological feature enables various types of weapons to be grown from the deck when needed. One such device is also located on the bridge, so as to “shoot” out of the figurehead’s mouth. Theoretically, the vessel’s mycelium network enables a single crew posted at any one weapon to operate all of the others simultaneously. Although the image posted above does not show ropes and pulleys, they are nonetheless rigged to the masts, yardarms, and sails. The ship’s latent awareness helps manage the complicated sail arrangement, substantially reducing total crew numbers aboard.

            Many elven skyships feature a “quad-mast” design: two outrigger masts angled 45˚ upward, above the main deck, and two more masts at 45˚ downward, below the hull. The Peryton of Mythuín is a “double quad-masted vessel,” in other words it possesses 8 masts altogether. Her four upper masts are rigged with lateen sails. The other four have a different arrangement, which will become more obvious once I finish drafting her side and front views. If I can manage it, I’ll include one or two cutaway views as well. Those will be available in the CAL3 gazetteer and in separate (printed) poster format. 

Skyship Spells IX

             Welcome to the next 4 D&D BECMI spells. A complete index of skyship spells with links to their pages is listed at the end of this article:

1. Artificer's Range Distortion*
2. Artificer's Blinding Flare 
3. Artificer's Skyship Lure
4. Protection from Lightning

             Comments and suggestions are helpful to address loopholes and other design clunkers. Click here for the previous three spells.

Thanks!

Artificer’s Range Distortion*

Spell Level: 2 (School of Illusion)

Range: Own vessel

Duration: 1 hour per experience level

Effect: Makes a skyship look farther than it really is

                If the spell was cast before the affected skyship is first sighted, this vessel appears farther away than it actually is (no save). The caster’s experience determines how far away the recipient may appear, up to 100 yards plus 100 per experience level. The effect is dismissed at the caster’s discretion or if any attack is initiated from the recipient (q.v. invisibility spell). The actual ranges of weapons and spells cast from any of the involved vessels aren’t affected, though the victims’ range penalties to hit remain unchanged since they are based on perception. If it actually hits, an attack that should have reasonably fallen short due to the illusory range will dispel the recipient’s distortion effect. A spyglass or some other device enabling a closer look will not dispel the effect. This spell is reversible, causing the recipient to appear a lot closer than it actually is

Top Illustration: Lightning Airship by musegames
Digital Art/Drawings & Paintings/Illustrations/Conceptual©2011-2018 musegames.

Artificer’s Blinding Flare

Spell Level: 3 (School of Invocation)

Range: 100 yards +10 per experience level

Duration: Instantaneous

Effect: Create a large flash of light

                When cast at night, this ball of light is powerful enough to temporarily blind all who fail to shield their eyes. The spell has no effect in broad daylight. The primary area of effect is a sphere with a radius equal to half the spell’s range, centered at the point of impact. All victims within the primary area of effect must save vs. spells to avoid blindness (one collective saving throw per skyship is recommended—click here for details on skyship saving throws). Victims outside the primary area of effect receive a +1 bonus to their saving throws for every extra 100 yards radius. Blindness lasts 5 rounds +1 for every 6 experience levels of the caster; the effect can otherwise be negated individually (for those within a dispel magic’s area of effect). Reduce the duration for every extra 100 yards radius beyond the primary area of effect (1 round minimum). If the spell is cast at dusk or dawn, add a +2 bonus to saving throws and halve the effect’s basic duration. If cast during a moonless night (i.e. in pitch-black darkness, all lanterns doused), include a –2 penalty. (This spell is featured in the upcoming story introducing CAL2 On Wings of Darkness, June 2019.)

Artificer’s Skyship Lure

Spell Level: 1 (School of Illusion)

Range: 100 yards +100 per experience level

Duration: 1 hour per experience level

Effect: Create far away ship silhouettes

                This illusion can be cast at a vessel within spell range. The target is allowed a saving throw vs. spells (one single collective roll—click here for details on skyship saves.) The spell produces a small, barely identifiable skyship silhouette fading into view, at the limit of a victim’s sight range. The silhouette can be that of any vessel the caster has observed in the past. An additional silhouette can be duplicated for every 3 experience levels of the caster, behaving exactly like the first. Though these silhouettes are typically motionless, a high level caster may animate the illusions. At 9^th level and above, the caster may change their bearings and make them appear to approach the victim’s vessel, or turn back and fade away in the distance. If the spell is cast at night, ship lanterns can simulate the presence of faraway skyships or mimic the gleam of an illusory lighthouse. A dispel magic cast upon any single victim will dismiss any and all of these illusions.

Protection from Lightning

Spell Level 1: (School of Abjuration)

Range: Own vessel

Duration: 1 hour + 1 Turn per experience level

Effects: Protects vessel and crew from lightning bolts

                When under this protection, a skyship and its crew are immune to non-magical lightning, such as those commonly encountered in a storm. These bolts are deflected, missing the vessel entirely. A protected skyship sustains half damage from magical lightning bolts, or a quarter if the vessel succeeds its saving throw vs. spells (click here for details on skyship saves.)

                The caster’s level determines how large a skyship can be protected. The spell affects vessels whose hull length fit within 30’ + 10’ per experience level above the first. So a 7^th level sorcerer could affect a skyship up to 90’ long, including all its protruding masts. This spell was created by gnomish spellcasters to protect dwarven ironclads. A rare spell on Calidar, its original script requires skill in ancient gnomish in addition to being able to decipher magic. Ancient gnomish does not translate well into other arcane languages. Translated spells can malfunction—odds: 30% chance minus the caster’s Intelligence bonus times 5. Detecting magic is needed to verify whether the protection failed.

Skyship Spells Index
Spell Name	Level	School
Artificer’s Skyship’s Lure	1	Illusion
Booming Voice	1	Alteration
Find the Wind	1	Divination
Protection from Lightning	1	Abjuration
Protection from Rot*	1	Abjuration
Protection from Rust*	1	Abjuration
Structural Appraisal	1	Divination
Triangulate	1	Divination
Artificer’s Range Distortion	2	Illusion
Captain’s Jinx	2	Illusion
Helmsman’s Glory	2	Alteration
Helmsman’s Helping Hand	2	Invocation
Phantasmally Displayed Figments	2	Illusion
Restore Wood	2	Alteration
Sky Sight	2	Divination
Air Anchor	3	Invocation
Artificer’s Blinding Flare	3	Invocation
Artificer’s Mending Brace	3	Abjuration/Alteration
Smother Conflagration	3	Alteration
Unyielding Cord	3	Illusion
Wizard’s Tail	3	Enchantment
Artificer’s Unseen Shield	4	Abjuration/Invocation
Dimension Door II	4	Alteration
Guile and Treachery	4	Illusion
Captain’s Instant Skiff	5	Invocation
Spectral Sail	5	Invocation
Artificer’s Hold Distortion	6	Enchantment
Summon Crew	6	Invocation or Necromancy

Click here to return to first skyship spells article