Goblin Gear: Mammothship Part I

My attempt to make the Mammothship a more interesting craft.

Adam


Blood and Tusks: the Mammoths of Wildspace

            Before the Elven Fleet crushed to combined might of the goblin,
orc, and ogre fleets in the First Unhuman Wars, the most feared ship in
wildspace was the ogre Mammoth.  A massive capital ship, the Mammoth was the
terror of wildspace, carrying small armies of ogres into battles on distant
worlds.  Few ships could survive against the might of a fully loaded ogre
Mammoth.  Fewer still managed to emerge victorious.

            Mammoths are very dangerous ships to engage in combat, due to
their size and the number of ogres aboard.  In battle, ogres will close and
smash into the opposing ship to overwhelm the crew in a bloody boarding.
After the ship is looted, any survivors become slaves of the ogres.  Ogre
captains distaste long battles, preferring the direct method to winning
battles.

            Mammoths are almost always encountered singularly.  Rare is the
fleet that had more than one Mammoth.  Instead, the Mammoth most often
serves as the flagship of a fleet of ogre ships, all taken or stolen from
other races.  So successful were some of these fleets that they gave rise to
legends of vast nations of ogres migrating from sphere to sphere, conquering
and destroying everything they encountered.



The Mammoth

            The Mammoth is the pride of the Ogre fleets and is by far the
largest ship ever produced by the so-called goblinoid species.  The smallest
Mammoth displaces ninety tons, while larger variations range as large as two
hundred tons.  No two Mammoths are exactly alike, with subtle variations
between each ship.

            A Mammoth appears as an oval ship with the head, ears, tusks,
and trunk of a mammoth.  The head is small, enclosing a single room from
which a lookout directs the ship in battle.  Directly ahead of the lookout
is the trunk and tusks.  The heavy wooden tusk are sharpened into piercing
rams to catch a ship and hold it while ogres board it.  The trunk is a blunt
ram reinforced to absorb the shock of a ram and protect the Mammoth.  Ogres
will carve steps into the trunk to disembark when the ship is grounded.  The
ears are thick and wooden along the innermost parts.  Sails painted with
fearsome images are strung between the spars of the outer ear, radiating out
from the ship above the gravity plane.  Head-on, the sails make the Mammoth
appear larger and more fearsome.  At the very aft of the ship is a
rectangular tail that is the position for the ship's jettison.

            Mammoths were primitive ships by human standards.  The ogres use
stout timbers  around a heavy frame of ironwood or oak.  The hull is held
together by a peg-and-slot method, where rectangular wooden pegs are pounded
into slots in the hull boards.  Wooden nails are driven into the boards to
hold it to a frame of thick logs.

            The interior is made from unfinished timber; the bark is often
left intact instead of stripped away.  Ships with the bark left intact where
harder to burn than normal (3e: +1 to hardness v. fire damage; 2e: +1 bonus
to save vs. fire) but were prone to infestation by insects.  The boards in
the hull are also likely left unfinished as well.  Some ships will use a
thick plaster to cement the timber together, though most ships do not have
this innovation.  Mammoths will be covered by hides sewn together to drive
out rain and wind when planetside.  Otherwise, Mammoths leak badly.  Despite
their primitive construction, Mammoths are rugged ships that withstand
incredible amounts of damage (If using Leroy's Ship Construction System,
Mammoths have heavy frames and thick wooden hulls, giving the ship a total
of 113 hull points; otherwise, recommended that Mammoths gain a +10% to +20%
bonus hull points).

            A typical Mammoth had four decks and displaces ninety tons.
Decks are taller than average, about 12' high for their ogre crews.  The
ship will be armed with two heavy catapults, four heavy ballista, and a
heavy jettison.  These weapons will be crude and cumbersome by modern
standards but serviceable in the hands of ogre warriors.  Packed with as
many ogres that could reasonably fit inside the stout ships, Mammoths set
off in search of conquest.

            Inside, ogres will decorate their Mammoths with furs, mounted
animal heads, and crude furnishings.  Doors are either heavy affairs that
require great strength to open (min. str. 15 to open) or are curtains of
animal fur.  Rooms are dimly lit with torches, sometimes enchanted with
continual flame spells (usually on a War King's ship); the ogre version of
this spell casts much weaker light than normal, lighting only a 15' radius.
Ceilings soar 12' overhead in chambers and passages.  Floors are creaky from
ogres stomping over them and difficult to cross without making noise (3e: DC
15; 2e -15% to Move Silently).

            The top deck of the Mammoth is an open deck for the weapons.
The ears of the ship provide ogre warriors cover as the ship approaches its
prey.  Two heavy catapults with long arms are fired over the ears, directed
by orders from the lookout in the ship's head.  The ballista fire to the
sides and aft, two per side or all four can be fired aft.  The weapons are
not turreted and are moved by the brute strength of the ogre gunners, an act
they rarely do.  Moving a weapon takes an ogre crew at least 2 rounds to
move and then set with chocks.  The jettison can only fire aft and is only
used if the ogres encounter a foe too great to easily overcome.  More often
it is used to jettison garbage or prisoners.

            Below the top deck is the upper deck.  The forward room is
within the ship's head and is an observation room for the ship's lookout.
The lookout is always an experienced ogre who barks out his sightings to the
captain below and the gunners above.  Behind the lookout is a long room
where the ogres keep their weapons, cloaks, bags, and armor on pegs along
the walls.  Before battle, ogres will muster in this room to arm and ready
themselves.  Alcoves are divided from the larger chamber by curtains of
animal pelts.  Ladders pierce the roof above and a pair of ladders nailed to
the wall allows access deeper into the ship.

            The next deck down is the main deck, where the quarters of the
ogres, the bridge, and even guest quarters are located.  The crew quarters
mirror one another in the forward half of the ship.  The smelly rooms have
bunks sized for ogres and a few chests for the strongest ogres to lock
valuables.  Wedged between the two crew quarters is an open commons area
where ogre crewmen drink, play cards and knucklebones, and socialize.  The
walls are decorated with the stuffed heads of beasts, human skulls, and
animal pelts.  Behind the commons area is the bridge of the ship.  The ship'
s charts and death helm are closely guarded in the bridge.

            Beyond the bridge are the quarters for the chief, the ogre mage
or tribal shaman, and guest quarters.  The chief will have the best quarters
available.  A comfortable bed will be present, along with a wardrobe, a
table and chairs, a choice of weapons, warm pelts on the floor and walls,
and the best trophies.  He will sometimes share this room with his mate, or
wife, if she is present.  Opposite of his room is that of the ogre mage or
shaman, who is responsible for guiding the ship through the stars.  The
furnishings of the ogre mage include a bed, two or more tables, a bookshelf
full of stolen tomes, and a rack of weapons.  If the ship has a tribal
shaman, his quarters will have a wardrobe of ceremonial robes, two or more
tables covered by religious relics, and a weapon with religious
significance.  A quartet of guest quarters is aft of the rooms of the chief
and ogre mage.  These rooms can serve a variety of roles, depending on the
alliances and needs of the ogre tribe.  Sometimes, important guests such as
ogre or orc chiefs will be put up into these rooms.  At other times,
subchiefs, women and children, additional ogre magi, and other leaders will
stay in these rooms.  If a Mammoth carries a large number of slaves, the
rearmost rooms will be converted into slave pens.

            The bottom deck of the Mammoth is devoted to cargo and some
mundane operations of the ship.  The bottom deck is opposite of the main
deck on the gravity plane.  The two decks share opposite sides of the same
floor.  The forward half of the entire deck is a single cavernous cargo
hold.  The cargo hold is almost never lit.  Crates, barrels, and sacks of
stolen goods are tossed carelessly into this room.  Access to the cargo of
illicit goods is gained through double doors or hatches in the bottom of the
ship.  The hatches are heavy doors of wood that are laid over holes in the
hull.  A team of ten ogres is required to remove each door so that access to
the cargo hold is granted.

            The rear half of the cargo deck is given over to a secondary
armory, a sickbay for wounded warriors or torturing prisoners, a kitchen,
and the ship's mess.  The armory is where the ogres keep spare weapons and
armor that they are not currently using.  Spare swords, pole arms, shields,
spears, and javelins will be stacked in the room, with more valuable weapons
wrapped by furs for protection.

            The sickbay is a misnomer, as ogres rarely care for their
wounded.  Instead, it is most often used as a torture chamber, where ogres
inflict cruel torments on their prisoners.  The walls are covered with
instruments of torture, such as saws for amputation, whips, and many sharp
instruments.  There are several straw heaps that serve as beds for the
injured on the floor.  In case the ogres need to care for the injured, they
have several herbs and medical tools ready.  The stench of blood and death
permeates the whole room and is noticeable throughout the entire deck.

            The kitchen is always active with at least one ogress and two or
more slaves preparing meals for their ogre masters.  The kitchen has a small
brick stove, dozens of pots, pans, ladles, platters, and so on.  Sacks of
flour and baskets of vegetables are tossed into the corners until needed.
Slabs of meat, sometimes resembling humans or demihumans, hang from the
ceiling.  After the meals are prepared, slaves carry them on overturned
shields to the hungry ogres awaiting in the mess hall at the rear of the
deck.  The mess hall will be crammed with a large rectangular table
surrounded by benches and stools.  The tribal chief will sit at the head of
the table during meals, where he will show off his latest trophies, brag
about his conquests, and decide his next target of conquest.  The ogres keep
kegs of ale in the mess to have a steady supply when they are feasting.

            Larger Mammoths can approach a displacement of 200 tons will be
broader and longer than a typical Mammoth, with 10' wider and 40' longer the
norm.  Such a ship will have five decks instead of four.  The deck is
between the cargo deck and the main deck.  Crew quarters take up the forward
half of the deck with a second commons near the center of the deck.  The
rear half of the deck is a secondary cargo hold.  The ogres will keep
treasure, foodstuffs, spare weapons, and other stolen booty in this
secondary cargo hold.  The only access is granted through a double door, so
goods stored within must be small and easily moved by an ogre.  Such
monstrous warships could only be moved by two or more major helms linked in
series.

            Siege weapons aboard a larger than normal Mammoth will increase
proportionally to its size and to the tastes of the owner.  At the very
least two more heavy catapults are added topside.  The largest ships will
carry as many as eight heavy catapults and six heavy ballistas.  Such ships
have reinforced and armored hulls that provide at least a +3 bonus to armor
rating at the cost of making the ship virtually unmaneuverable in combat.
The ogres will use these large and armored ships as fleet busters, flying
straight into the thickest part of a fleet and bombard everything in range
of their numerous heavy weapons.



The Ogre War Kings

            Despite their primitive ships and intellectual shortfalls, the
ogres were one of the first races in wildspace.  Legends speak of an ancient
ogre magi empire that spanned across many spheres, a contemporary of the
elves, illithids, and thri-kreen.  Even then a violent race, the empire
spread out to conquer nearby worlds.  Given their numbers, strength, and
mighty magic, the ogre magi drove all before them and enslaved countless
beings.

            The empire fell in a great War of the Gods.  The Sun god died in
a fiery explosion that claimed the throne world and the heart of the empire.
Greatly diminished, the empire collapsed into barbarism.  The surviving ogre
magi were forced to seek refuge with their barbaric cousins.  In seeking a
return to wildspace and a rebirth of their empire, the ogres rebuilt their
fleets with what they had.  In the mammoth the ogre magi found a creature
that ogres respected, and they modeled their new ships after such beasts.
The ogres returned to space aboard their tusked Mammoth ships.

            Over many centuries, at times the ogre magi guiding the ogre
tribe would perish without successor.  In such times, a shaman would rise to
replace him and the tribe would become even more uncontrolled and
destructive than before.  Without the guiding influences of their ogre magi,
many of these tribes perished or returned to groundling life, though just as
many managed to survive, even thrive, in wildspace.

            For generations, ogre clans prowled wildspace, destroying all
they encountered.  At times, a grand War King arose from the ranks of the
ogre chiefs, uniting the ogre clans into powerful nations and set off on a
path of destruction and conquest.  Ogre War Kings were greatly feared,
commanding the most destructive armies in wildspace.  When a War King set
sail, those that could fled while stalwart warriors stood fast, many doomed
to be the ogres' next dinner.

            The armies of the War Kings took many forms.  Some War Kings
commanded a single, extremely large Mammoth of nearly 200 tons in
displacement.  The War King would unite all the ogres in a land into a
barbaric horde.  With 500 to 600 murderous ogre warriors, the War King would
set off for conquest.  Thus overloaded, the destination of these ogres had
to be near, else the ogres would suffocate before reaching battle.  Nothing
could deter the ogres from their conquest.  With such armies, the ogres
overthrew small cities, dwarven citadels, and even illithid or elven
castles.

            Other War Kings used their Mammoths to steal ships to add to
their own fleets.  Such War Kings command armadas that could number as many
as two dozen ships.  With ogre magi as their guides and pilots, the ogres
became nomads in the quest for food and booty.  The crews of stolen ships
faced grisly fates as either ogre slaves or the ogres' next meal.  Women
faced even more horrific fates as mothers of half-ogres before they too,
were devoured by hungry ogres.  Orcs, goblins, and even humans and evil
dwarves will become followers of ogre War Kings, so long as they are given a
fair share of the booty.

            Even more rarely, a War King would be so successful that his
name became legend throughout the Spheres.  These Legendary War Kings
commanded terrifying armies, easily ten times as great as those of the War
Kings.  Thousands of ogres from all across the Spheres rallied to their
banner.  With a fleet of as many as a dozen Mammoths and a hundred other
stolen vessels, Legendary War Kings invaded spheres and conquered whole
worlds.  Never was there more than a single Legendary War King at any given
time though that was little comfort to the peoples of the Spheres.

            It is fortunate that War Kings rarely lived long.  They were
just as likely to be murdered by their fellow ogres as to fall in the field
of battle.  None died of old age.  Their lives were short and violent, just
as they wished them to be.  At the death of the War King, his armies would
disperse, returning to their wandering ways if they could.

            The ogre magi, who gave the ogres the power to reach the stars
through Death Helms or by other means, sought out powerful chiefs and guided
them to be War Kings.  For their efforts, the ogre magi received the best
booty, magic, and their choice of slaves.  Competing bands of ogre magi used
assassination, sabotage, and blackmail to prevent their rivals from bringing
forth the next War King while grooming their own chosen ogre chief to aspire
to be a War King.  Many would-be War Kings died long before they could
achieve such power due to a knife in the back or an incorrectly charted
course into the depths of the Phlogiston.



The Clan Ships

            Most ogres in space were not War Kings or the followers of War
Kings.  Instead, many Mammoths served as a home for a single clan of ogres.
These ships carried few ogres, 20-30 adult male ogres on average.  With them
traveled their families, a like number of women and children.  At least one
ogre magi or shaman, sometimes as many as six, was also part of the clan.
Menial labor was done by the slaves the ogres kept, which could number from
as few as 10 to as many as 100 or more.  Unfit slaves were served up as the
ogres' next meal.

            The ogres were nomads in wildspace.  They constantly moved from
world to world, taking what they wished and departed before angry militias
could muster and strike back.  At times, clans sold their services to local
armies as mercenaries.  Many ogre clans found work with orc, goblin, even
human and illithid navies.  At other times, ogres were able to extract
tribute from nearby ports and towns with the threat of invasion.



The Helms of Death

            These horrific devices are gifts from deities of death and
destruction.  A Death Helm appears as an iron maiden with an attached chair.
A victim is tossed into the iron maiden to be drained of life.  The helmsman
sits in the chair to guide the ship through wildspace.  The victim can be as
small as a halfling or as large as an ogre.  The vile magic of the Death
Helm twists the mind of the victim, driving him to insanity before draining
the last life from him and discard his husk.

            The effects of a Death Helm are terrible indeed.  Every day that
a victim is trapped inside the iron maiden, which is designed to hold the
victim tight rather than inflict grievous injury, the helm drains 2d8 hit
points from him and he must make a fortitude save or perish (DC 15; 2e: save
vs. death or die).  Worse still is that the helm will drive the victim
insane unless a will save is successful (DC 18; 2e: save vs. spell with a -3
penalty).  If the helm successfully charms the victim, he will not wish to
leave the helm, instead fighting any attempts to remove him from the device.
If the victim is instead successful in his save, he will attempt to escape
from the helm at the earliest opportunity and will resist efforts to place
him back into the helm.  A victim must make a save every day he is within
the helm or fall under the enchantments of the helm.  In exchange for the
life drained from the being, the helm can move any ship that displaces 100
tons or less at one ship's rating point per every two hit dice or levels of
the victim.

            Death Helms are forged by fiends in the furnaces of Gehanna.
Black iron is mined from the slopes of Krangath, the Dead Furnace. The iron
is taken to the explosive slopes of Chamada, where the iron is smelted and
shaped into the Death Helm.  The helm is held together by rivets made from
the bones of fiends.  Tiny runes are etched over the helm, enchanting it
with necromantic power.  The final procedure it to concentrate the helm in a
bath of blood on the ashen plains of Hades.  Completed, the Death Helms are
given by agents of death gods to worshippers that request them.  Such gifts
are given freely, for the souls of those who perish in a Death Helm are sent
directly to the realm of the deity that commissioned the construction of the
helm.  Only divine intervention or a wish spell will save the soul from
eternal servitude in the clutches of the evil deity.

            The ogres consider the Death Helms religious relics.  Victims
tossed into the helm are offerings to the gods who grant them favors in
return.  Most other civilized races hate and despise Death Helms and will
destroy them if they get their hands on one.  Victims that die as a result
of the Death Helm can only be restored via a wish or true resurrection
spell.  All lesser magics will fail.  The deities of death may send undead
to reclaim what they see as their property, the souls of those that die in
Death Helms.  Known deities that make use of Death Helms include Nerull,
Chemosh, Orcus, and Hel.  Deities of destruction also work to ensure that
Death Helms remain in use in wildspace even if they do not directly benefit,
if only to spread destruction throughout wildspace.