3rdEd Furnace & Artifurnace Helms

First draft.  Furnace and Artifurnace.  Furnace Helms are the
predecessors to spelljaming helms, so I'm rating them in most
cases as Minor Helm, but with the ablity to shift 100tns as a
Major Helm (this is something the SJ rules don't make clear). 
Artifurnace is a sort of sawn-off artifact, so I rate it as one.

Comments?


Spelljammer Helms - 11/May/06


Furnace: This is the same as the standard version sold by the
Arcane, but without access to their secret techniques is
considerably more expensive.  Creating one costs 100,000 gp,
takes 200 days, and costs 8,000 XP.  The listed weight is for a
heavy hardwood chair and attached furnace; some helms are heavier
or lighter than this, and note that they are normally bolted
down.

Note that unlike most magic items Helms are very, very, tough.
This is probably due to the immense amounts of magical energy
needed both to make them, and that flows through them just to
operate them.  They do not normally have a rated AC, hardness,
hit points or break DC, but you could use AC 5, and +18 save
bonus.

Caster Level: 15th; Prerequisites: Craft Wonderous Item, Create
Furnace Helm; Market Price: 200,000 gp; Weight: 100 lb.


Arcane Price: 100,000 gp

An early and primitive form of (major) spelljamming helm still
used in some areas, furnaces take their power not from living
spell energy but from magical items.  The items are fed into the
furnace (and destroyed) to power the ship.  Items which cannot be
destroyed by fire are unaffected and retain their spells and
spell-like abilities.

As a rule of thumb, for every 1,000 GP an item is worth, the
furnace will function for one week at SR 2.  On long voyages this
becomes an expensive proposition.  The SR can be boosted to 3 by
sacrificing more than one item simultaneously but there is a 25%
chance that the furnace will explode and cause 10d10 points of
damage in a 30-foot radius.

Furnaces are old devices, found mostly on ghost ships and crashed
hulks.  They are thought to be an early version developed by the
Arcane, then abandoned.  They are limited solely to travel within
a crystal sphere, as exposure to phlogiston causes an immediate
explosion (20d10 points of damage, 45-foot radius).  A Chill Fire
spell will reduce this to normal devestation.


Artifurnace: This cannot be made by conventional enchantment.

They do not normally have a rated AC, hardness, hit points or
break DC, but you could use an AC 5, and +22 save bonus.

Caster Level: 19th; Weight: 100 lb.


Arcane Price: priceless

An artifurnace is the ultimate stage of the development of the
furnace - a magically-powered spelljamming device which draws its
power from a magical artifact.  Each is a custom-made device
tailored to contain and siphon energy from a specific artifact. 
Because an artifact is practically eternal, the power derived
from it is equally so.

Once installed, an artifurnace provides SR 5 for as long as
needed.  Both artifurnace and artifact are undamagable as long as
they remain together (though the ship they are in is not).  The
artifurnace is destroyed if the artifact is ever removed,
however.

Artifurnaces are extremely rare, on the level with artifacts
themselves.  They also have the difficulty of attracting the
attention of those powers tied to the Artifact being used. 
Should an artifurnace be hooked up to the Eye of Vecna,
Greyhawk's immortal liche will likely come looking for it (or
send friends to the various spheres where the ship visits in
order to recover it).  No more than a double handful of
artifurnaces are recorded as having existed, and almost all of
them are destroyed or hidden.  Where they appeared they have
created insurrection as every captain in the area attempts to
seize it for himself.

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