Re: Metal Space : NEW Sphere

From: "George "Loki" Williams" <chaos93@?????????.net>
Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Mtal Space : NEW Sphere

> > Alternatively perhaps the dragon got lonely after hundreds or thousands of
> > years with no company and did a deal with the arcane to bring the dwarves to its
> > island. It might be walking around in disguise and be the secret protector of the City
> > of Garotoch. Garatoch might even be the dragon's name.

> Very much the same idea I had when writing last night. I will name him
> Garatoch, a fine suggestion. He is going to be a Steel Dragon (converted on
> the WOTC site, I forget the exact URL.

If Garatoch is going to be named after one dragon, then perhaps Verdigris is named after
another. Verdigris comes from a word for green in a non-English language, doesn't it?
French I think. So it could be a green dragon

Maybe a dragon on the moon somehow caused some sort of effect similar to defiling magic in
the Dark Sun setting and the green dust is what remains of the forests that originally
covered the entire surface of Verdigris. Green Dragons are said to have a stinging
chlorine smell so maybe the dust could smell a tiny bit like this.

Maybe this dragon has now been disintegrated and scattered throughout the dust on the moon
or maybe it is now lying dormant under the surface, waiting for enough plantlife to return
for it to be able to feed.

Maybe the Scro found out about the dragon and came into the sphere to try to hook up with
it. The Scro are known for their hatred of elves so something like this could give them a
motive to be on the moon. If this moon was originally some sort of Elven haven and the
dragon ate all the elves and killed off their forests then perhaps it would be willing to
sign up with the Scro.

If Garatoch is a good dragon then perhaps he/she fought a war on the side of the elves.
Maybe this war killed almost all of the life in the system leaving only Garatoch's island
and some sort of place on Verdigris where the remaining forces of evil were pushed back
to. This could now be buried under the dust (or you could have the top of a mile high
tower/structure poking out of the dust in a similar way to the statue at the end of Planet
of the Apes - LOL).

Here is an idea. How about Verdigris has somehow gained the power to come back to life
when killed. He/she could have changed into some sort of undead or might have some sort of
permanent resurrection ability. Then the last remaining elves killed the dragon and cut
its heart up into six pieces before it could come back to life. The elves then took the
six bits of heart into orbit around the sun and created sargassos around their ships to
stop the bits being recovered (this could be the only way to stop Verdigris from
reassembling his/her body). Three of these sargassos might have failed and turned into
wild magic areas. The effects of the wild magic might have allow Verdigris to regain some
sort of partial awareness at random times and might occasionally allow him or her to
mentally get past the barrier of the crystal sphere and communicate with anyone outside
that is trying to scry into the sphere (in a similar way to the way Sauron in Lord of the
Rings can contact people scrying with Palantirs - crystal balls if you were on Mars and
haven't seen the film - LOL).

If you do want to do this you could place an elven flitter, man-o-war, armada or a base
made by several of these welded together at the centre of every sargasso/wild space
region. If you want a model for a big base see Kapri (Realmspace P34) or Lionheart (Night
Druid has written this up on BtM). These bases could either have been specially built to
imprison the dragons heart or might have already been there back when the IEN had a heavy
presence and both the moon and the sea of the world were covered with elves (a now extinct
aquatic elf race with steel fingernails and hair could have lived on Garatoch and
co-existed with the good dragons on the surface).

These bases could each contain a magical device to create the sargasso or wild magic
effect. Part of the magic could be similar to the mithals that protect the abandoned city
Mith Drannor on Toril (P124 of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting if you have it).
These artefacts could originally have been used to protect the forest on the moon and the
elves there might have sacrificed their protection (and therefore their home) in order to
defeat the dragon. If you do use something like this it would be fun to give the devices
the power to bring life back to the moon (the power can not be used while the device is
holding a section of dragon heart). If taken back to the moon, each mithal could have the
effect of a Plant Growth spell over a large area (it could also do other things like
permanently cast Liveoak on the nearest available oak). On the elven bases in the
sargassos and wild magic areas, the mithals could be protected by shambling mounds (as per
the 9th level druid spell Shambler, but with a permanent duration and with each site
protected by the maximum number - 6). You could even put a couple of mithals on Garatoch.
One could be at the eye of the storm and could be generating a permanent Whirlwind spell
effect - this could be intentional or a malfunction. Another mithal could be buried deep
in the volcano and could be causing a Quench effect on the volcano to stop it from
erupting - this can be used as a plot device to send the PC group on a rescue mission.

Maybe the dragon Verdigris was killed way back in the First Unhuman War and has spent all
the time since trapped in a sphere that the elves abandoned. Maybe he/she hates the elves
and has promised to fight on the side of the Scro in return for being rescued. The Scro
would benefit by having a dragon to fight by their side. The dragon would benefit by
having a spelljamming community willing to take it to new elven forest worlds where it can
eat as many elves as it likes.

If you go with the mithal idea then maybe Verdigris has gained partial control over the
mithals in the three wild magic areas and is using them to gain a Greater Scrying ability.
If the dead dragon's ability is somehow tied to the moon (where the rest of his/her body
was) then perhaps Verdigris can only scry in the direction of the moon and can scry
through the crystal sphere barrier in that direction of the moon (this hole would sweep
around the ecliptic over the course of a year, so Verdigris could only contact anyone
scrying on one day every year - roll a d365 - I realise that with 3 wild magic areas and
the back and forth movement of the moon this is not exactly accurate so if anyone can do
the maths then please come up with a better figure for me). He/she could even have the
ability to override the Arcane's protection and open a portal on the same point of the
crystal sphere. This could give you a potentially powerful but at present powerless NPC
that could help any bad guys that you want to bring into the system later in a campaign.
It could also help explain the presence of the Scro the lack of life on the moon, the
sargassos and wild magic areas.

As the PCs advance in levels you could make Verdigris gain more power too and when the PCs
were powerful enough you could send the Scro out to infiltrate one of the wild magic areas
and steal a bit of the heart. Perhaps Verdigris doesn't need his/her heart to come back.
Perhaps the resurrection effect only kicks in after death and the heart fragments are kept
alive to stop it. If Verdigris actually wants the Scro to destroy the heart, bit by bit,
this would make defeating the dragon a lot harder. As this is the reverse of what someone
would expect, the players might actually let the NPCs destroy half the bits of the heart
before they realise they need to protect it to keep the dragon away. I can just imagine
the PCs surrounding a group of Scro only to see the leader of the Scro actually eat the
piece of heart in front of them and laugh like a maniac as he makes his final stand. The
PCs might even be tricked into destroying one of the heart fragments themselves. You could
initially put them in a situation where a bunch of misguided dwarves have found out about
the heart and are trying to destroy part of it. Garatoch could be unknown to everyone
(except the Arcane) at this point and could try to fight off the dwarves to protect the
heart. If the dwarves are sincere and players think that Garatoch is evil they will
probably help the dwarves.

If the Arcane know about Verdigris but are keeping his/her existence secret then it might
help explain why they brought in so many extra people to defend a sphere that already
appears well protected. Maybe Verdigris told the Arcane how to find Metalspace but when
they arrived they were met by Garatoch, who did a deal with them first.

You could even elevate Verdigris to almost Demi-God status and allow the dead dragon to
grant spells to anyone in the sphere that worships it. If this ability was dependent on
the wild magic areas it could be random as well. Maybe this power is also focused by the
moon Verdigris. This power could focus on the City of Garatoch during a new moon. Or it
could be reflected onto it during a full moon if that sounds better (I think the second
option would be better as it would only work during the night - 3 nights a month if my
memory of werewolves serves correctly). The PrC could also have full power on Verdigris
during the day (because anyone with it is facing the wild magic areas and is in contact
with the dust).

If you think this is a good idea then perhaps you could knock up some sort of prestige
class that bumps up a character into a cleric when the moon is high (in a similar way to a
werewolf). Perhaps a characters other levels could be randomly converted into cleric
levels for that one night. How about the PrC temporarily converts d8* levels of other
classes into the cleric class? If the Scro trapped on the moon have lost their
spellcasters then Verdigris could power some of them up once a month and make them into
powerful priests. (Example: 18th level Scro fighter takes his 2 levels in the PrC and
becomes a 2d8+2 Cleric/18-2d8 Fighter for whenever the moon is high - the plus two
represents the PrC levels which are always added and the 2d8 on both sides of the equation
are equal numbers not two rolls.) The catch could be that anyone that rolls more d8s than
they have spare levels gets level drained. (Example: The same character takes a 3rd level
of the PrC and becomes a 3d8+3 Cleric/18-3d8 Fighter. One night their roll of 3d8s gives
them the result of 19 (one more level than they have free). They loose a level as per the
negative level effect of a Wight (as Fighter is their only other class it comes from
there, but if they have more than one class it could come from the one with the highest
level - I can't remember the rule for level draining). That night they become a 20 Level
Cleric and the next day they become a 17th Level Fighter/3 Level Verdigris PrC (you could
give them a Fortitude save to try to get their level back). As time goes by they will "get
lucky" again and beat their new fighter level, draining more and more levels until one day
they drop down so low that their negative levels exceed their total class levels. At this
point they could be totally level drained and turn into a Wight under the control of the
dragon.

During the times when the PrC wasn't powered up it could function as a Cleric of the same
level that wasn't in contact with its deity (Example 18 Level Fighter/2th Level Verdigris
PrC = 2th Level Cleric). They might even be able to use dust from the moon as a special
spell component that lets them cast a contact home power spell to stay powered up (or a
lesser version of the spell to gain temporary Cleric levels). However, this could be a bit
overpowered.

Alternatively the character could gain no clerical power in the times when the moon is not
reflecting the light from the wild magic areas onto them. They would then only benefit
only from being able to use skills, feats and saving throws and hit dice earned when
taking the levels in the PrC. I think the second option is more balanced and could be fun
because any Scro that took the PrC would gain enough power to stay alive on the moon, but
would loose that power if they tried to use a spelljamming vessel to escape from the
sphere (and if they did leave the sphere they would loose all benefits of the PrC). They
would also be more powerful on the moon (every day) and much less powerful on the planet
(three nights per month).

The pre-requisites for this could include: worshiping Verdigris, having its favour, being
a compatible alignment (LE, NE or LN*) and perhaps having killed or eaten an elf. The
domains granted by Verdigris could include: Air*, Animal*, Destruction, Evil, Law*,
Plant*.

* = I picked d8 out of the either, you could change it to any other dice (lower might be
better) or make it a fixed number if that was easier. I do admit it could be a bit of an
awkward PrC with a random number, but I think that would make it tie in well with your
wild magic areas. The alignment restrictions and domains with a star assume a green dragon
and might need to change if you wanted to use a different type of dragon.

Hope some of this is useful. If you like the PrC please ask someone that knows more about
making them than me to give you a hand as this is about the limit of my knowledge.

David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
http://virtualeclipse.aboho.com/