Fleshing out a Demon Ship

[heretic]

My group of four PCs (level 12) have been tasked with entering the Nine Hells in order to recover a soul imprisoned on Minauros, the third layer.

I'm ruling that it isn't possible to Plane Shift to layers deeper than Avernus, the first layer. Instead, they are going to hitch a ride on a Ship of Chaos, captained and crewed by demons. The ship will be able to travel to Minauros by exploiting some sort of loophole in Hell's defense that allows ships to pass through layers by sailing a fairly short distance on the river Styx.

In any case, I wanted some help brainstorming the stats, abilities and fluff of this vessel.

Here's what I'm thinking so far:


The ship is constructed of stitched together demonhide that isn't quite dead yet. Possible healing/resistances?
Ability to Fly
Ability to Planeshift--perhaps limited in some way? Need to feed souls to a furnace inside or something? It will be possible to Planeshift out of the Hells, just not in.
Much of the ship's magical power comes from a still-beating Balor heart at the center of the ship.
armed with six light bombards (3d10) and two heavy bombards (6d10)--maybe some kind of extra magical punch? Also considering making these touch attacks.


Some stats, based on the Greatship from Stormwrack

Colossal vehicle; Seaworthiness +6; Shiphandling
–4; Speed wind × 25 ft. (poor) or fly 35 ft (poor); Overall AC –3; Hull sections 240 (sink 60 sections); Section hp 100 (hardness 5); Section AC 3; Rigging Sections 4; Rigging hp 100 (hardness 0), AC 1; Ram 6d6; Mounts 6 light and 2
heavy; Space 150 ft. by 40 ft.; Height 20 ft. (draft 20 ft.); Complement 500; Watch 20; Cargo 500 tons (Speed wind × 15 ft. if 250 tons or more);

The idea is that there will be substantial riverside defenses/siege engines, boarding attempts, possibly Devil ships, etc, and the PCs will have to defend their ship as it sails through towards the next layer. They will likely be ECL 13 by the time they attempt this.

Any thoughts, suggestions, comments?

[ShadowPsyker]

Why would they bother with mundane attacks like bombards (which are slow), when the demons spell-like abilities are more dangerous. Is the crew all low CR demons/half-fiends or what? Also why does it fly if it's supposed to use the river Styx?

[heretic]

It's going to be crewed by various Demons in the CR 5-9 range (Succubi, Babau, Vrock, Bar-Lgura, Yochlol, maybe some half-fiends) with the captain and first mate higher.

I want the bombards to be there mostly for fluff, and I'm willing to make them powerful enough to make it worth the Demon's while to use. I'm thinking of having them do force damage for starters, and possibly do more damage than mundane bombards and hit on touch attacks. Also, most planar opponents have some kind of energy resistance or spell resistance, which makes SLAs unreliable, especially for mid-level demons.

As for the flying, the ship is capable of flight and usually flies, but is sailing the Styx for this raid only. I haven't decided the details yet, but I'm thinking that the Hells are warded against flying demon vessels, and thus sailing the Styx is a way to circumvent this defense. The only reason I include the bit about flying is if the PCs decide to use the vessel for some sort of further adventure.

So here's a question: How much damage should the bombards do if they reload in 3 rounds, do force damage and hit on touch attacks? (i.e. how much damage would make them superior to SLAs?)

[Spuddles]

The nature of the styx is pretty magical- it has the ability to make travel take a finite amount of time across infinitely large and infinitely many planes. So even though the ship can fly, it lacks the proper ability to navigate between the lower planes.

I definitely like the idea of making the ship a living, breathing creature, complete with organs and stuff.

[umbergod]

Not sure about the mechanics of it all, but there was a demon ship described and used by a band of drow in the War of the Spider Queen book series. The ship in question was living, and indeed needed souls to fuel its ability to plane shift, so great start there :D

[ShadowPsyker]

So here's a question: How much damage should the bombards do if they reload in 3 rounds, do force damage and hit on touch attacks? (i.e. how much damage would make them superior to SLAs?)

That works fine with those enhancements. Also, Heroes of battle has some good info on siege and magic siege engines/ammo.

[Pika...]

I LOVE the idea of this adventure! Brilliant my friend!

Just curious, though. Why is a crew of Demons helping the PCs get into Hell? O.o

[heretic]

I LOVE the idea of this adventure! Brilliant my friend!

Just curious, though. Why is a crew of Demons helping the PCs get into Hell? O.o

Thanks!

It will depend on how the PCs negotiate...it's possible they will kill the captain and commandeer the ship, with the surviving crew serving out of fear. It's also possible that the Demons will agree to take them on with the intent of killing them at some point in the raid. The PCs do have quite a few magic items, and mortal souls could prove useful in powering the ship during the escape from the hells.

There is also another plot complication that could help or hurt the PCs case for hitching a ride, but I can't reveal it. All my players read OotS and I know for a fact some of them used to read these forums, so I can't be sure they're not reading now. I'll post an update after our session on Saturday explaining the situation.