Re: SPELLJAMMER-L Digest - 6 Sep 2005 to 7 Sep 2005 (#2005-168)

> Thermo Fungi - ROM, 07/Sep/05
>
> After an idea developed with John Dallman.
>
Dreamer, you come up with some great stuff.  Mind if I steal it for my
campaign?  I'm working on trying to put SJ stuff into PCGen.  I have
a complete SJ collection and am going through slowly and cramming
the appropriate stuff into PCGen.

>
> Deep Dryads
>
Another interesting idea.  Would such Dryads exist on the Thermo-
Jammers of the Drow?  If so, perhaps they could be Sirens and their
song attracts large space beasts, who then become fodder for the
Thermo-Jammers.
>
> Spelljamming Fungi
>
This is what I'm calling the thermo-jammer.  I think the concept is
great!

> Many centuries ago, an almost unknown group of drow researchers,
> who had become envious of the elven plant ships, completed their
> researches on fungus ships. This was very difficult, as the
> Thermo Fungus that they started from quickly withered and died,
> even in indirect sunlight, but they managed to breed a variety
> with a dark brown, almost black, pigmented protective layer.
>
Why not have the original thermo-fungus but shielded by a layer of
rock from the sun?  This opens up the possibility that many
apparently devoid asteroids are actually drow thermo-jammers.  If
you allow the thermo-sirens (where the song is telepathically
tramsmitted to sentient creatures within a certain range), they
could simply 'park' on the space lanes and have quite the pirate
business.

>
> Embedded in the disc are many lumps of ice, which the fungus
> keeps frozen by pumping heat away from them, and act as the water
> stores for the whole ship. The drow store meat and other
> perishable food stuffs near the ice, wrapped so that the fungus
> does not consume them. This is their food store, along with other
> fungi they grow on the dark side of the disc, and with water from
> the ice, and the air that the fungus renews, they can stay in
> space indefinitely. Unlike the Thermo Fungus that they culture
> below ground, they do not harvest the material of the ship, as
> this upsets it.
>
Yes, this is great.  The drow periodically enter the rings around
planets with tow-ships stolen from the neogi and 'mine' ice to
resupply their thermo-jammers.

> These ships can come in a number of sizes, but as the fungus
> continues to grow, it may exceed the capacity of the Helm, and
> the ship may need to be split, for example in two. The fungus
> feeds by slowly digesting the embedded rock and organic material,
> and uses the energy gained by the difference in temperature
> between the sunward and spaceward sides of the disc. Every so
> often it may be necessary to feed the ship another small
> asteroid, which it will slowly pulverise over a period of several
> days, so as to sustain it for many months, or even years. Bodies
> of large space beasts also make a suitable food source for the
> ship.
>
This affords the appropriate kind of antithesis to the regular elves'
live ships.

>
And to Loki, may God shelter you and let you return to New Orleans
downstream.
> --