ShadowFighter15
2010-08-21, 09:36 PM
Lately, I've been thinking about how airships would've been used in the Last War beyond simple troop transport/deployment. The only weapons they could mount (or that I'm pretty sure Eberron's developed) would be ballistae, blackpowder cannons and possibly Magic Missile turrets.
Then I remembered something that was mentioned in an off-hand manner in one of Keith Baker's novels; I think it was the third novel in the Dreaming Dark trilogy. In that, one of the characters asks another one to make something called a siege staff. Nothing beyond the name is ever mentioned, but my guess is that it's a magical device designed to break through siege fortifications; castle walls and such.
I may be jumping to conclusions, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're essentially Wave Motion Staves. From there, it's not too hard to imagine that some airships would've had some on-board to destroy fortifications that a siege staff on the ground wouldn't be able to reach or for ship-to-ship combat as a last resort (something designed to bring down stone walls would be kind-of overkill on an airship made out of soarwood).
What got me thinking about this was the published module, Voyage of the Golden Dragon. The titular airship, the Golden Dragon, was originally built during the war as a warship; the largest ever built, designed to deploy troops and elemental carts straight into battle while being large (and possibly armoured) enough to survive the punishment it would take in the process. A lack of funds prevented it from ever being finished so what had been built of it so far (the hull and various other components) were put in storage.
After the war, House Lyrandar looked into reviving the project, but re-purposing it as a luxury cruise liner. It's the largest airship ever built, so large that it requires two fire elementals to keep it aloft (one for propulsion like on a normal airship and a second for lift - presumably there's too much extra stuff on-board for the soarwood to cope with on its own). A water elemental bound inside the ship makes the two fire elementals work harder, increasing the speed of the ship beyond what the two fires could achieve on their own.
I'm planning to run the module in an Eberron campaign I'm running now (although we won't get to that stage for a while), but I'll be re-writing parts 3 and 4 of the module (3 feels tacked-on and 4 doesn't work without 3), but how the ship relates to siege staves comes after this module.
Somehow (I'm still working on the details), the party will have to assault a fortress the Lord of Blades controls in the Mournland. It started off as a tower with a planar connection to Shavarath (I think the tower's mentioned in Forge of War) but the LoBster's heavily modified it since then with Warforged spellcasters working in shifts to expand it with Wall of Stone and Stone Shape. The party will have to use the Dragon to attack and I was planning to have it be returned to a warship using some of the older components left in storage from the original project's cancellation. Including high-powered, rechargeable siege staff turrets.
The players won't have control of them, however, and their firing will purely be plot-controlled though since one of my players is a swordsage who likes the Mighty Throw manoeuvre, I may have the option of hurling enemies into the staff blasts as they go off (the ship will be under near-constant attack from boarding parties as well and they'll be busy keeping the enemy away from the bridge and any doors leading into the ship). I'm asking all this (and I apologise if any of the above seems superfluous) because I'm wondering if this might be going a bit too far.
Then I remembered something that was mentioned in an off-hand manner in one of Keith Baker's novels; I think it was the third novel in the Dreaming Dark trilogy. In that, one of the characters asks another one to make something called a siege staff. Nothing beyond the name is ever mentioned, but my guess is that it's a magical device designed to break through siege fortifications; castle walls and such.
I may be jumping to conclusions, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're essentially Wave Motion Staves. From there, it's not too hard to imagine that some airships would've had some on-board to destroy fortifications that a siege staff on the ground wouldn't be able to reach or for ship-to-ship combat as a last resort (something designed to bring down stone walls would be kind-of overkill on an airship made out of soarwood).
What got me thinking about this was the published module, Voyage of the Golden Dragon. The titular airship, the Golden Dragon, was originally built during the war as a warship; the largest ever built, designed to deploy troops and elemental carts straight into battle while being large (and possibly armoured) enough to survive the punishment it would take in the process. A lack of funds prevented it from ever being finished so what had been built of it so far (the hull and various other components) were put in storage.
After the war, House Lyrandar looked into reviving the project, but re-purposing it as a luxury cruise liner. It's the largest airship ever built, so large that it requires two fire elementals to keep it aloft (one for propulsion like on a normal airship and a second for lift - presumably there's too much extra stuff on-board for the soarwood to cope with on its own). A water elemental bound inside the ship makes the two fire elementals work harder, increasing the speed of the ship beyond what the two fires could achieve on their own.
I'm planning to run the module in an Eberron campaign I'm running now (although we won't get to that stage for a while), but I'll be re-writing parts 3 and 4 of the module (3 feels tacked-on and 4 doesn't work without 3), but how the ship relates to siege staves comes after this module.
Somehow (I'm still working on the details), the party will have to assault a fortress the Lord of Blades controls in the Mournland. It started off as a tower with a planar connection to Shavarath (I think the tower's mentioned in Forge of War) but the LoBster's heavily modified it since then with Warforged spellcasters working in shifts to expand it with Wall of Stone and Stone Shape. The party will have to use the Dragon to attack and I was planning to have it be returned to a warship using some of the older components left in storage from the original project's cancellation. Including high-powered, rechargeable siege staff turrets.
The players won't have control of them, however, and their firing will purely be plot-controlled though since one of my players is a swordsage who likes the Mighty Throw manoeuvre, I may have the option of hurling enemies into the staff blasts as they go off (the ship will be under near-constant attack from boarding parties as well and they'll be busy keeping the enemy away from the bridge and any doors leading into the ship). I'm asking all this (and I apologise if any of the above seems superfluous) because I'm wondering if this might be going a bit too far.