Hermes Merchant Fleet
Oreth Republic Navy
Maj Empire Ships
Survey Ships
Free Belter Navy
Pirate Ships
The Ashkintini Free Fleet
Hermes Merchant Fleet (HMF)
The Hermes Merchant Fleet (HMF) is a flag of convenience used by the elves and dwarves of Hermes in their trading, and occasional larceny, across Maj Space. Ships flying this flag, a staff with two snakes twisted around it in yellow on a black background, are rarely trusted, and their crews have a reputation of stealing everything not bolted down, then coming back later and stealing that, and the bolts, to.
However, they also have a reputation of regularly carrying the best physicians met in Maj Space, which results in them being far more tolerated than they otherwise would be.
Oreth Republic Navy (ORN)
The Oreth Republic Navy (ORN) of Isis is in some respects not a military organisation, as the Oreth elves do not consider warfare a civilized activity. Instead it is an arm of their diplomatic service, though the Special Circumstances division of that crosses over into military activity. If pushed too hard the elves, like almost any people, will resort to war, and their civilization could if needed build many ships in a remarkably short period - they still have all the designs.
The problem however would be finding people suited and trained to fly them, as the closest thing to a military force that the Oreth have are their Peacekeepers (police). Some crew could be obtained by using sundered squerth, possibly with other constructs for combat purposes - Iron or Crystal Golem equivalents. Military action on Isis would not be a problem, as the magic that the Oreth can wield there would crush anything less than an invading army of demi-gods, without any problem.
The Oreth do not commission privateers or mercenaries, not openly, anyhow, so their navy is quite small, and is considered by the unwise an insignificant force.
The civilian law of the Oreth Republic also applies to the ORN, in theory, but not always in practice, to even Special Circumstances. This prohibits mind magic except for that used for translation, enchantment or charm magic, magic which causes (potentially fatal) injury, and magic which is normally used for deadly violence against intelligent creatures, except in strict self-defence. Unprovoked violence of any sort is illegal, including unwilling transformation of the body or mind of others. In extreme circumstances putting others in stasis is acceptable, but you are then completely responsible for them.
There is a duty of care to prisoners, which extends to restoring them to life if they do not die by their own direct actions, and generally keeping them physically, and if possible mentally, healthy.
ORN "Ice Bird"
The "Ice Bird" is an ORN fast courier, a fully-enclosed 25 ton white-crystal spelljamming vessel, flown by a Major (spelljamming) Helm, and manuevered by the Fly enchantment woven into the fabric of the slowly self-healing hull. The Oreth Republic can probably deploy a couple of dozen of these. They are armed with two automatic turetted heavy ballista, operated remotely by the crew, which throw magical crystal bolts.
The typical elven crew is four helmsmen, Wizard 10, on three rotating eight hour shifts, a captain-navigator, Wizard 14 or Cleric 14, a first officer, Wizard 12 or Cleric 12, and a purser-medic-cook, Cleric 10. Some crews also include a Bard 10.
As supercargo there may be a diplomat, with staff, and possibly the peacekeeper and physician team meant to get the diplomat out of any trouble they get into.
Sometimes the peacekeeper and physician team are in a second, commonly invisible, fast courier. Note that this invisibility only works in wildspace, not in atmosphere, and the size of the generating equipment means that the armament is reduced to one ballista.
ORN "Excusable Mistake"
The "Excusable Mistake" is an ORN Special Circumstances ship, often used for pirate hunting. The ship has either a Major Spelljamming Helm, or an Artifurnace containing Finagles Boot*. The Artifurnace is a two foot diameter sealed crystal sphere inscribed with runes, 'obtained' from pirates some time ago and believed to be the product of the renegade Oreth elf spelljamming researcher Elas the Mad; its normally called the "Boot Helm". The reason that the Boot Helm is used is that almost invariably 'things happen' on voyages where it is the Helm, which tend to work out (eventually) for the Good, and it saves having to crew a spelljamming Helm.
Where the "Mistake", as it is called, is likely almost unique is that it is composed of a join of Squerth, the Oreth elf Ooze constructs. This enables it to shapechange into any ship which it knows about ('eating' a ship lets it make a highly accurate copy of it), and which it is large enough for. Just how big it can be depends on how many squerth currently make it up, as a join of two (Large) squerth can impersonate a one (SJ) ton ship, and every extra two (Large) squerth gives another ton, e.g. 8 for 4tns, 64 for 32tns. Shapechanging allows switching between ship types, down to an eighth of the tonnage maximum, e.g. between a Longship and a Tradesman, but this will loose air envelope, or not have a credibly large enough one for the new larger shape.
For every 1 hull point damage done the join takes 10 hit points, but seeing as a join has on average 69 hit points per squerth this is typically not a problem. As usual on zero hull points the ship breaks-up, in this case splitting the join into its individual squerth, and there must be at least three rounds before Join can reassemble the ship, plus one round for every extra double tonnage above one. Note that the ship has all the immunities of a squerth, so many attacks (including fire) wont harm it, or will go straight through (as assuming that they're not surprised they likely wont exercise the option of splitting into two). Using its shapechanging and Disguise the ship might fake that attacks are damaging it, that in fact aren't.
The visible crew of the ship are typically Intelligent Squerth, or Sundered Squerth, though the ship itself could fake a certain amount of crew activity by using using shapechanged extensions of itself - this wouldn't be credible to enemies too close up.
While it might carry catapult or ballista so as to look credible, and even discharge these at the pirates, the main combat mode of the "Mistake" is to close and grapple, then board and if possible subdue all the pirates into unconsciousness. Things like undead will be destroyed (as there is generally no safe prospect of restraining them), as will constructs which do not appear to have independent intelligence (the squerth Detect Thoughts can usually tell this), in which case they will be grabbed and restrained.
Captured pirate ships are 'eaten' (the squerth Disassemble special quality is used to break them down into raw materials, which are stored, for possible later Fabricate back into the ship), and the crew is imprisoned. Note that for each extra (Large) squerth beyond the first the Acid, the Disassemble rate, and the Fabricate rate, increases by a fifth/20%, e.g. a join of 16 squerth increases by fifteen-fifths, or +3 times (x4), or +300%, so assuming standard 6HD squerth the Acid does 76 damage (to non-living things) per round, and the Disassemble/Fabricate rate is 40 cubic feet per round (4 cubic feet if mineral). Note that 270 cubic feet capacity corresponds to a hull point, so disassembling a ship is a slow business. Supplies of alchemical materials are carried which the squerth Fabricate special quality can turn into air, as is food and water (squerth can recycle water), so prisoners can be packed in pretty tight, though they are kept from harming each other.
(*) Finagles Boot is a holy artifact of the religion of the dwarven Belter god Finagle (no, they don't want it back). It is supposedly half of a set of 7AU boots, which can take you striding across wildspace, though no one can find any reports about what happened to the other one - maybe there was only ever one? It resembles an ancient, well-used, leather walking boot, but occasionally morphs into the shape of some other sort of footwear, for no apparent reason - it is claimed that its true form is a yellow winged boot such as the god is said to on occasion wear, but it's never been seen in that form. Anyone wearing the boot(s) receives the blessing of the Great God Finagle, which almost guarantees you will have an interesting life! GM Note: If you have substituted AllSmith for Finagle in your campaign, you can make this All Smith's Boot instead, but give it the same properties.
ORN "Crystal Mountain"
The "Crystal Mountain" is the ORN capital ship, which usually resembles a large hill or a small mountain, covered in trees and glades, with streams, pleasant pools, and the odd half-hidden summer house. This is lit by gentle daylight, sometimes apparently shaded by clouds, cooled by pleasant breezes, and watered when required by brief rain.
In fact, this ship is surrounded by a powerful and nearly imperceptible space warp, and what seems to be the outside is in fact on the inside of an self-healing armoured crystal hull. The semi-intelligent ship continuously senses attacks and rapidly approaching objects, and these pass through the space warp to strike the crystal armour in a lightless, evacuated, void apparently within the ship, whereas visitors get to land their vessels, usually at the base of the mountain.
Crystal constructs patrol this 'internal' void, and clear away the debris. Also within the void are tens of concealed automatic turetted heavy ballista, operated remotely by the crew, which throw magical crystal bolts, grown by the ship. These bolts appear in flight above the space warp, to fly on and strike other vessels.
Within the mountain are breath-taking crystal caves, immense banqueting halls, and extensive guest accomodation, where you are waited on by invisible staff who tend to your every need, and magical shades who appear or disappear at will, to entertain with singing and dancing, or provide physical assistance. Restricted areas, only entered by those who pass extensive checks, and baffled against scrying and magical transport, contain the engines and navigation, magical engineering halls, and the command crew quarters. These are not quite as luxurious as the guest quarters, but are quite comfortable.
An almost unique feature of this ship is the Anti-Magical Engines, which will only function in areas like a sargasso. The core of the ship is effectively a portable sargasso, and in this the engines 'burn' triple-purified alchemical iron to create pure energy, that moves and powers the entire ship. If the ship actually flew into a sargasso then the space warp would shut down, revealing the true external crystal armoured hull of the ship, the woods etc. would be minimally sustained by dim non-magical light, which would also light internal areas of the ship, and the ship would continue to fly and be navigable, though considerably more slowly.
Walls of Force can be raised to protect the ship, and there are a number of other magical defences (GMs add these to taste). A minor detail is that the whole vessel can become invisible at any time that it is in wildspace - this is not possible in, for example, planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere envelope of the ship only mixes with that of any other body under the full control of the ship, which prevents it being sucked away by bodies without an atmosphere, for example, or poisoned by poisonous atmospheres. The ship can safely enter and navigate the phlogiston, but as usual precautions need to be taken against exploding flames (given enough warning and some extra work this should not be a problem). The space warp does not work in the Flow, which makes the gardens far less pleasant, with a crystal roof far too close above.
The appearance of this ship is enough to strike fear and awe into almost any spelljammers that see it, an effect only exceeded by those who have seen the Spelljammer itself. The "Crystal Mountain" rarely leaves its purpose-built dock on Isis, these millenia, though the elven families who maintain it still live within it, and regular drills and tests are carried out to ensure it is ready for flight. In fact, the ship has been out for a number of proving flights, over the last forty years, its absence concealed by an immense illusion, while its flight in and out of Isis's atmosphere was hidden by immense ground-based invisibility projectors.
There are so many empires on Maj that it is difficult to keep all their ships and organisations of ships straight, but notable are the Albion Empire (AES), Carthage (CES), Greece (GMN - Merchant Navy), Nihon (NES), Parthia (PES), Roma (RES) and the Norse, who are a law unto themselves.
Survey Ships (SS)
Survey Ships (SS) are those commissioned by the Great Lunar University (GLU) as part of its Great Survey of Maj Space. As is noted under GLU, "The Great Survey provides adventurers with space-going ships and crew and various forms of support (such as resurrections) in return for information and a 10% cut of the treasure.". Please see there for further details.
SS "The Ancient Spacefarer" (previously the "Delight of Thunder")
Originally a Giff-built Great Bombard in GLU service, "The Ancient Spacefarer" was loaned to the Great Survey after her bombard burst in a battle with pirates. She is supposed to be returned to regular navy when her new bombard is completed, but the University doesn't seem in any hurry to do that. In the meantime she has been serving as both a survey vessel and an experimental platform. An experimental Alchemical Synthetic Phlogiston Catalytic engine has been installed in her main hold and a light steel and wood ram occupies the space formally occupied by the bombard.
The theoretical crew for the current configuration is two or three spellcasters and eight space hands, but the numbers actually shipped tend to vary. In addition to the experimental engine, "The Ancient Spacefarer" caries a Minor Helm for the times when the Synthetic Phlogiston engine is down for repairs -- which are often!
The Alchemical Synthetic Phlogiston Catalytic Engine is a one-of-a-kind experimental unit produced by GLU's Department of Alchemy by Roger Culpepper and Namrod Turen, both junior professors of that department. It makes use of large amounts of scavenged alchemical equipment and parts of various damaged helms swiped from the Department of Wildspace Magics' storage rooms.
The Engine is powered by a large tank of "synthetic phlogiston", a substance resulting from the study of phlogiston, and not really a form of phlogiston at all. It is highly explosive -- use the rules for powder magazine explosions in combat. The Engine generates synthetic phlogiston when in the Flow, filling its tank in four hours while driving the ship. Outside the Flow, sufficient synthetic phlogiston to fill the tank can be generated by burning 100 gp worth of alchemical supplies in a specially modified spelljamming Furnace (such a Furnace can no longer power a ship). The synthetic phlogiston is in turned "burned" in a catalytic process to drive the ship. The tank holds enough synthetic phlogiston for four months of cruising.
The Engine works like a Minor Helm in practice in most respects, except it requires tending by alchemists instead of being powered by a spellcaster. It can be tended by up to four alchemists at a time, and its speed is calculated as if powered by a spellcaster of spellcaster levels equal to the total skill levels in Craft (Alchemy) minus the number of Alchemists, to a maximum of SR 5. It needs to be tended constantly, and has a 1% chance cumulative chance of failure per minute left untended, with checks every five minutes. A failure means the Engine becomes unstable and on any further failures roll as follows: 1-50 Engine disabled for 1 hour, 51-80 Engine disabled for five hours, 81-90 Engine disabled for 1 day, 91-98 Engine disabled for a week, 99 Engine needs to be completely rebuilt, 100 Engine catches fire and explodes. The Engine also requires 100 gp of alchemical supplies per month of operation.
In practice, the Engine can be somewhat alarming. It tends to bang loudly during take off, to the extent of shaking the ship from mast to keel. Landings can be abrupt, usually dropping the ship the last two or three feet into the water. Once in a while it will hum loudly for a few hours. The captain and crew, with the exception of the alchemists, are not fond of it.
The usual crew of "The Ancient Spacefarer" is:
Captain: Zanathan Telerandes
Engineers: Roger Culpepper and Namrod Turen
First Mate: Jan Able (ex Albion Space Navy, 6th level Expert)
Space Hands: Ivan, Mikhail, Peotr, Nikolai, Anna and Vladimir (Political refugees from Moscovy; possibly anarchists)
Ship's Cook: Sophia Guisippe (9th level Cleric of Hestia)
Navigator: Plato the Space Owl
See Crew of the SS "The Ancient Spacefarer" for their further details.
Free Belter Navy (FBN)
The Free Belter Navy (FBN), based out of the Belt, is the second service to the Dwarven Belter Navy (DBN), which is crewed almost exclusively by dwarves. The FBN does not precisely commission privateers, but it has no objection to mercenaries joining it. If you wish to have a ship with an almost free registration, which is (grudgingly) accepted anywhere in Maj Space, then you will be flying the white five-pointed star on a black background of the FBN. (The DBN flies a white pentagon (a 'crystal') on a black background.)
Any conflicts with the charter of the FBN are judged by three respected 'admirals' (owner/operators of more than one ship), usually on Demeter, in the Belt. Piracy, claim jumping, murder, kidnap for ransom, Helm theft and slavery are all clearly against the charter.
FBN "Gallant Sprite"
Some adventurers of various races have become 'pirate catchers', and one of the most notorious of these, the 'Gallant Sprite', has a very racially mixed crew, with a Dwarven (actually Dargold) captain.
Pirate Ships (PS)
Pirate Ships are not really organised in any clear way, but they are often given the prefix 'PS' to distinguish them as such. Some pirates proudly refer to their ships in this way, for example the PS "Jolly Balrog".
The Ashkintini Free Fleet (AFF)
The Ashkintini Free Fleet (AFF) is a group of pirates and sometime mercenaries that plagues Maj Space from The Belt inward. Their ships are mostly fast and heavily crewed, and they specialize in boarding action and sudden ground raids. They are a fairly ordinary bunch of freebooters, except in one way: they seem to be blocked against any form of divination or scrying, even by divine means. This is quite an advantage!
The Ashkintini are a racially mixed crew, but the fact that the preponderance of the pirates are either Scro or Argonian Highlanders seems to indicate they probably started on Isis. Where they are based now is anyone's guess, but it couldn't be on Isis given the barrier, unless perhaps it was with the approval of the Near Empire...
The Ashkintini have a long-standing grudge against the Republic of Democratica, as the city-state has handled them roughly both times they raided them. It is rumored that the Ashkintini's commander, a scro only known as "The Shiv" has plans to return someday with allies and teach those "ant-boys" a lesson they won't be forgetting soon.
GM Note: The Shiv's backers have lent him an ancient artifact called The Cloak of Night (made from "the skin of the Night God"), that hides one military unit from scrying as long its command wears the cloak. The artifact actually once belonged to an abandoned Thief god, from their tribal days as orcs, before they became scro, and it's use may one day wake him from his slumber, but The Shiv is willing to take the chance. Finding out about this artifact, or countering its power, will require significant effort by characters.
Crew of the SS "The Ancient Spacefarer"
Zanathan Telerandes, Captain
Alignment: Neutral/Good
Class: Wizard (Sorcerer) 8
Race: Half Elf
Str 12, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 19
A half-elf from Ximera, a small town composed primarily of half-elves in the GLU's territory; Zanathan is unusual in that his hair is entirely white as the result of exposure to Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.
As a youngster, Zanathan left dull, conservative society of Ximera for the excitement of university education and space exploration. After earning a degree into liberal arts he fell into out-and-out adventuring. This led him to join a disastrous scouting expedition to Anubis. Zanathan was one of three survivors out of forty. He never talks about what happened there, but that was when his hair turned white and he began drinking.
These days Zanathan works for GLU's Grand Survey as a spelljammer captain and helmsman. He drinks too much and lets too much slide (his appearance is often unkempt), but danger or need can still bring out the young half-elf that left Ximera for a life of excitement. However, if he continues to spend so much time conferring with "Mr. Bottle", who knows if this will continue to be true?
Roger Culpepper, Junior Professor of Alchemy
Alignment: Neutral
Class: Wizard 4
Race: Human
Str 12, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 17, Wis 13, Cha 9
Small and slender with non-descript hair and eyes and a neatly trimmed beard, Roger lives for alchemy. He is a rising star of the alchemy department despite his relative youth. He is best friends with Namrod Turen, and the two of them are immensely proud of the Synthetic Phlogiston Catalytic Engine. Roger is an orphan, but has been unofficially adopted by Namrod's family.
Namrod Turen, Junior Professor of Alchemy
Alignment: Neutral/Good
Class: Wizard (Conjuror) 4
Race: Gnome
Str 10, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 10
Namrod looks like a 3/4 scale model of Roger -- they even dress alike! Namrod, while not quite as obsessed with alchemy as his friend, does indeed take it very seriously, and sees a great future for their Engine. If he has to prove its worth by ferrying around survey and exploration crews, so be it. Namrod is the more grounded of the pair, reminding Roger occasionally to eat. Namrod comes from an extended family of gnomes who all work for the university in one capacity or another.
(c) Dreamer Publications, 1980 - October 2006
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