Caelum - Another form of travel.

Hello,

A note for beginnings: I would like to say on the onset that I haven't
played with D&D or spelljamming rules in the last couple of years. At
the moment I play a fantasy setting using the Alternity rules. The
reason I mention this is that I am going to put everything here in D&D
and Spelljamming rules, and I may not remember everything correctly, or
in most cases not at all.  So if you see any rules, or balance, issues
go ahead and mention them. Although I may or may not be able to make use
of them, others on the list may be able to. If anything becomes to vague
it is because I don't have access to my old D&D stuff at the moment. If
anyone would like to fill in the rules for me were they are missing, I
would really appreciate it.

Also note that the Caelum use a spell system that I designed - sort of a
cap system that works with any game mechanic. The exact details aren't
really needed for this email but if people are interested, I could post
it.

I also apologize for my spelling in advance. If you read this, you will
understand. 8^)

On to the guts and glory.

History:
    The Caelum were not created by the gods. They were created by a race
called the Caesicus. The caesicus are a humanoid race. They have a
strong sense of magic and physically they are composed of normal flesh
and an organic quartz like mineral.
The Caesicus needed help with small magical tasks that were taking up
too much of there time and power. So to help with all the menial work
they modified three races. Humans they modified and called them Caelum.
Aquatic elves they modified and called Caerula and halflings the
modified and called Caetarsis. This was not done lightly or quickly. The
final results took almost 10 generations to complete. Not too bad until
you consider that a single Caesicus generation is 5000 years.
    During the following generations the created races decided that they
no longer wished to serve the Caesicus. The resulting war ended in the
almost complete destruction of the created races. Almost all of their
knowledge about magic was  destroyed and lost. It took them several
millennia to even start to recover their lost knowledge, as they had to
figure out a way to survive first.
    The Caesicus for the most part were little touched by the war -
after all, if you are going to make a race, are you going to make it
able to defeat its maker? They were considering creating another set of
races to replace the ones lost, but the Consciousness decided that the
rewards were not worth the effort and so discarded the idea.
    The Caelum have come to the point of their magical knowledge where
they are ready to re-explore the universe that they had forgotten ever
existed.

Quick note about society:
    Caelum are born into jobs (classes), as they are born to their magic
(elemental based), although mages learn more.  Their physical and
magical abilities determine what they do in that job.

Physics and the universe:
    The Caelum come from a universe. Not a sphere, but an entire
universe, much like our own. It has physics mostly like our own, however
it does carry some differences do to the heavy magic nature of it. Of
note for this discussion are the difference in gravity and air. In the
Crystalline Galaxy Universe - the home universe of the Caelum - gravity
and air is done much like in our own universe. As such spelljammers are
enclosed and have to deal with air, gravity, and hull breach problems
like we do in our own universe.
    The Caelum have run across something interesting though. A portal
leading from their universe to a much smaller one that the natives call
a crystal sphere. Bet you didn't see that one coming did you? 8^)
    Well, I bet you could imagine their surprise when they came across a
native spelljamming ship, and then when they came across the Rock of
Bral. My, my, but they were interested. They then proceeded to rent some
space and set up an embassy, with the primary purpose of figuring out
the magic that allows such things. Of course eventually they will figure
out that it is just how things work here. How will they react to the
news? Don't know, but since that is for the future...

Getting around:
    Because of the physics in their native universe, ship construction
has taken a little bit of a different turn than in the normal
spelljamming universe.
    The Caelum have ancient ships that they have found over the years.
They are large versions of different animals that you might find in the
wild. For example dragons, hawks, etc. The interesting thing about these
are the fact that they move exactly like the real thing, so that it is
hard to tell if they are alive or not. They are all made out of a
fluidic crystalline substance. The modern Caelum, unfortunately, is
unable to duplicate such things. The knowledge and power is just not
there.
    And, since the Caelum are not able to turn into flying balls of
energy like the Caesicus, they had to figure out a different way to
travel.
    What they came up with was the Tear Drop. A very large ship capable
of sustained battles or long voyages, depending on the configuration.

For long voyages.
    Shape: exactly like a drop of water. Pointy end forward. From point
to back it is 70 meters and 40 meter diameter across its widest part.
(If we have any competent math people out there that would like to
figure out the SJ tons for this thing, I would be interested in seeing
the results) The outer hull is a meter thick all around. Inside it has
four floors (yes each floor is 10 meters at the widest part). The
top/first floor is where all the flight concerns are along with some
weapons. The front two thirds of the second and third floors consist of
the hydroponics, park and recreation areas. The remaining space for
those floors contains the propulsion of the ship. The bottom/fourth
floor consists of crew quarters, living areas, kitchen and weapons.
    Note that I haven't worked out the space usage exactly. So if things
seem a little off, they probably are. Just change to suite your own
ideas of how they should be.

Construction:
    The Caelum love to work in gems.  All of there structures are made
of gems. The tear drop is no different. The one difference of the Tear
Drop is that it is a construct - A physical object crafted and created
by magic. When a Caelum goes to create a ship, he must not only envision
how the physical aspects are to look but must also be able to visualize
how the magic aspects are to move through and interact with the physical
object. Some things like the propulsion, or helm if you will, can be
added latter, but all of the magic that flows through the physical parts
of the ship must be envisioned exactly how it will work. (Int 16+ and
Wisdom/Willpower 16+ for a tear drop - lower stats for smaller ships).
The Caelum then puts power to the image to make it a real construct. Now
this doesn't just happen, it generally takes around a year to create
just the physical aspects of the Tear Drop. Only a single Caelum can
build it, although others may, and usually do, donate power and company,
as that is the only thing the Caesicus does all year. As you can
imagine, builders tend to be a strange breed of people, craving the
strength of their power more than they do the company of others. On the
other hand they have all the females/males that they want as builders
are rare and the more children they have, the better the chances are
that more builders will be born.
    Lately they have toyed with the idea of linking the minds and
abilities of several builders together to build bigger ships, but with
the discovery of a planet made almost all of gems, the shapers of
society are being trained in the design and creation of ships - not as
capable of the magic options that a construct is, but the potential is
there. Plus there are a huge number of shapes compared to builders.

Propulsion - and the real reason I wrote this:
    The tear drop has the same movement stats as a hammership with a 9th
level mage at the helm. The item that does this is the Caelum propulsion
system. Remember that for a craft the size of the tear drop with the
movement capabilities that it has, the propulsion system takes up around
460 cubic meter, assuming I did my math correctly. Which is a good
portion of the ship.
    The system is a stable energy matrix that uses lines of travel to
move.

*/ Lines of travel: Imagine that lines connect each point in existence
to each other point in existence. That is what a line of travel is. Just
find a line that goes from where you are to were you want to be and move
along it. Now theoretically you could move between the planes and
dimensions with these lines, but the Caelum have yet to figure out how
to do it. /*

A small portal from the plane of magic is opened inside the matrix. The
power released from the plane is fed to the line of travel, powering the
matrix and the line of travel to achieve the motive force that moves and
maneuvers the ship. Smaller matrixes in other parts of the ship help
with maneuvering. The pilot expends magical power every time he opens or
closes the portal, to change speeds, or maneuvers the ship.

Globes of stored magical power are usually at hand to help with the
power cost expended by the pilot.

I know the info is sketchy in parts, well most of it, if you find
yourself interested, go ahead and ask questions.  Always happy to
answer. Also and comments about it are welcome.

Have Fun,
Darren
http://www.gamedistrict.com/center.html