Paladin Freight - Need assistance finding ways to properly haul/position heavy cargo

[Lothmar]

Ok here's the skinny, my special mount/animal companion (yes it's one creature due to a series of feats) is huge size classed, quadruped with a 40 str and I looked that up and was like 'Dang, freight train much…' So I figured it'd be a good idea to figure out a way to make hauling of unique cargo more possible, ie the stuff that cant fit in a bag of holding/portable hole - like giant stone obelisks or the remains of very large unique monsters that we'd like to disect at our leisure at our portable keep (think Daerans instant fortress but can be deployed as a much larger fortress or as a singular tower if requested so dont be afraid to come up with interesting ideas involving cranes etc).

Effectively I want to create a massive drawn container (probably hover sled or something) that the party can ride in cause I think it's slightly embarassing to carry them in the saddle bags and would like to give them an effective position to fight from and have cover etc. This container will also double in a pinch for hauling those incredibly large/unique items. My main problem seems to be finding appropriate ways of properly lifting said items and then depositing them to be hauled, after that it would be figuring means of hauling this stuff without damaging the container.

So yeah, we're a 15'th level party and one of us is a pretty darn good artificer but we usually keep him busy with other things so i'd like to have this proposal completely thought out before I bring it up to him in character. I've got a decent score at architecture and engineering as well drawing so I can design such contraptions etc but I always seem to never have a proper way of explaining to my gm how I get the really heavy/huge thing hooked up properly to haul it so im often forced to sigh and leave it behind or hack it into more convenient pieces to transport it (which takes a lot of work to cover up when we stitch it back together for the trophy hall).

[BowStreetRunner]

Check out the Frame Wheel and Sledge entries under vehicles on p104 of Sandstorm.

[Sgt. Cookie]

It's a special mount, right? Can't you just load it up, dismiss it to, wherever it goes, and then summon it back when you are at your destination? Or is that not what you're after?

[Lothmar]

Yes I can, it's the loading it up part that im trying to figure out for the uniquely huge/heavy crap we sometimes run into.

Effectively my mount could easily pull/drag almost anything we come across, it's just properly managing to hook the things up for transport that makes it a challenge sometimes (hopefully without excessive damage or destruction in the process).

ex: A 5000 lbs stone statue or the largest of a group of knot tailed hydra corpses.

We got lucky once and managed to summon our fortress around an ancient dragon and then killed it so it could then be considered transportable, but the terrain isn't always so forgiving for every encounter to just summon our magical keep around it and then have it vanish with the object im desiring to keep/haul.

That and it gets annoying to have a series of really heavy/immovable objects littering the courtyard of our magical keep so we need to figure out ways to move them and while sometimes breaking them down to components and disassembling them is useful other times i'd like to keep them in tact.

[ArcturusV]

Well, it sounds like a Howdah is pretty much exactly what you want. 200 GP, can comfortably carry 4 riders if needed, or cargo.

And of course pulleys are always a good source of loading up. Block and Tackle for it are listed in the PHB, some silk rope, you're good to go. Barring that you could lever it up as well.

[BowStreetRunner]

There is a portable crane on page 21 of the Arms & Equipment Guide.

[Saito Takuji]

for simplicitys sake could always get a sufficently sized card for the mount, and pull the stuff behind it, rather mundane, but gets the job done.

in regards to getting the stuff in the cart elaborte pulleys and the like, mabey a ramp to pull the item/s up into the cart as well, could cast a grease spell or just put oil on the ramp for lubrication to reduce friction. this would handle it in mundane means so you can leaf the artificer to craft other stuff as needed.

[Lothmar]

My main problems tend to be our parties lack of Strength for the most part as among the 'players' I have the highest strength at a 14.

Granted we have some 50 marooned sailors working for us at the moment and their minotaur commander (captain and other officers as well as 450 others died in previous episodes) so in a pinch I suppose I could turn these remnants of the kings royal navy into a moving crew if absolutely necessary but that seems somewhat insulting...

[CRtwenty]

Your character was granted a giant holy beast by a Deity of Law and Good to help you in your holy crusade against the Forces of Evil and you're going to use it to haul cargo?

I love PC plans sometimes... :smallcool:

[Lothmar]

This is from the same campaign where I said (ooc jokingly) "There has to be a more honorable term for the slaughter of innocents." (was in reference to automatically evil by birth/nature monstrous creatures that were still children and would grow up to be evil etc) and our group sometimes sings the joking song of "I will kill everything unlike me, for that is the paladin cree~" ~chuckle~

But yeah, I originally came up with this idea when I was playing a paladin of a merchants god whose special mount was a donkey. We would load that animals packs up and then dismiss it and resummon it on our arrival at a different place allowing us to buy low, sell high and never keep any of these trade goods on us for someone to steal/mug us etc. ~chuckle~

Also hauling cargo is very useful in times of war. It means im able to transport troops in a slightly safer manner and keep them fresh for battle. I can also transport cargo for allies, now granted considering we have a magical fortress we could load lots of cargo/soldiers in there and just unload it at our destination which means that's pointless but I digress.

But yes, it would be useful for taking out or relocating the bad guys ring gates amongst other massive/heavy artifacts and objects de magic / intrigue we tend to run into.

An example of this was when I returned a large stone dwarven crest from a fallen/forgotten city in the underdark to one of its few remaining family members. Gm was not expecting it and we got a few brownie points with the dwarves. ~chuckle~