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

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Fri 09 Sep, Charles Sykora wrote:
> > Thermo Fungi - ROM, 07/Sep/05
> >
> > After an idea developed with John Dallman.
>
> Dreamer, you come up with some great stuff.

The ideas for this came from several sources, including "New
Scientist", some doubts about the ecology of the Underdark, and
reverse engineering from ideas about drow fungus ships.

You can see the latest spec at:

http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/frpg/dnd/race/tfungi.htm



> Mind if I steal it for my campaign?

Sure! That's the idea of putting stuff up here.


> 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.

I will have to look more at PCGen...

Almost all the stuff I've quoted is covered by the ROMsys Ltd
copyright, of "Freely usable for non-profit making purposes",
i.e. if someone is making money out of it, the people of ROMsys
at least want to have a say, if not a cut of the money!


> > 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.

Well...

You could use sirens if you want to, and it is the sort of thing
that might suit some drow.

I had in mind them being almost identical to standard dryads (I
thought making them very similar rather than different would be
fun). I deliberately left out a fear of fire, and any immunity to
heat or cold, which you might expect them to have, or poison
capability.

Deep Dryads are partly inspired by the "(Space) Dryads" spec,
which I put a first a very early spec of (brain dump) on this
list. A version still being worked on (a number of spell specs
need finishing) is here:

http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/frpg/dnd/race/dryad.htm

the space dryads make horribly effective marines, in boarding
actions, particularly if they manage to put a pseudo-life spell
on the (wooden) ship being boarded.

Haunted ships...

Note that "Space Deep Dryads" would not be anything as effective,
in that they work with fungi, not plants, whether currently or
once living. But, it might not be Drow who have recruited them...

"Wood Space" would be "Fungi Space" for Space Deep Dryads, and
could be an interesting thing to experience.


> > Spelljamming Fungi
>
> This is what I'm calling the thermo-jammer.  I think the concept is
> great!

Well, if that name works for you!

I don't think the Drow would call them that, though, which you
might want to think about. Who else might?

Glad that the concept is of use to people.


> > 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.

The latest version of the spec, URL above, includes these as
"shell ships".

Do you think it is worth re-posting here?


> 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.

Sirens might be a bit more devastaing than is desirable. You
might want to think about how to defend against these. Maybe even
run a play test. I don't know how you'd stop these with any form
of conventional forces. Elves with charm resistance? Bards?


> > 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.

Sounds workable.


> > 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.

That's what the Drow want - how well this works is another matter!

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