Thorny Speculations

Blackberry in Spelljamming - ROM, 02/May/05

A friend tells me he has been discussing, with another RPG/SJing
friend, the relevance and application of the blackberry plant,
possibly combined with non-oak tree dryads, to spelljamming.

The blackberry is a plant with long runners, moderately nasty
thorns, and a considerable resistance to gardeners who want to
control where it grows - there is also of course the fruit.

The main suggestions involved tinker gnome agro-biotech, generally
with giant versions of the plant.

The first was a space elevator or 'beanstalk', requiring quite a big
blackberry bush, with a runner reaching all the way to orbit. You
could use the thorns to climb on, but, it's a long way, and some
gnomish cog-wheeled vehicle, driven by giant space hamsters on
treadmills, which interlocked with the thorns, seemed a reasonable
idea to me. This might allow you to move a lot of cargo between ground
and orbit in quite a cost effective way, rather than relying on
spelljamming ships.

Spelljamming ships not capable of landing safely on planets could
load and unload cargo at the top end of the 'thornstalk'. Of course,
gnomish ingenuity might lead to some strange pendulum clock-like
climbing device, with counter-weights...

The second suggestion was a blackberry bush as a spelljamming craft,
with the runners reaching out in many directions and giving a large
air envelope. Living inside this, the thorny-leaved outside of the
bush would give quite a bit of protection from attack, though
all-over leather armour might be needed for protection (not, of
course, at all kinky!), and the gravity plane might be a bit
strange. Or, if the major thorns are removed on the inside of the
bush, and suitable platforms added, you could be living in a very
strange kind of tree house.

You will need soil or hydroponics to keep your bramble happy... But,
it was pointed out to me, soil may be easier to store and transport
than air.

If you had one or more dryads in your bush, they might be able to
control the brambles to give extra protection from attackers, and
open paths for residents or welcome visitors. Or, even use the
runners for grappling attacks on other vessels. If people cared to
use fire on a blackberry bush, while the leaves are easily damaged,
the wood is quite resistant to burning. If you want real trouble,
your bramble might be sentient, with some huorn influences in it...

I wondered if it might be possible to make (spiky) armour from the
skin of blackberry plants. And, if you could make the equivalent of
leather from it, it was speculated this might produce gnomish
grappling armour, a nasty martial art form!

The third suggestion was blackberry runners and an asteroid belt,
with the asteroids being held together, amounting to a sort of belt
of thorns. Worse than infinity vine? An extra wildspace hazard!


Just a few thorny speculations!

--
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/