Eberron: How do skycoaches work????

[MavrickWeirdo]

For an unique kind of transportantion, but very important and abundante in the main city of Eberron - Sharn, the city of towers -, I think there is very little information regarding these. There is a lot of information of where you can find them, but I couldn't find it anywhere HOW they work. I have searched even for interviews online done by the creator of the setting, and nothing. The closest I got was that the manifest zone allows the boat to soar on th sky like air ships. But who drives the damn skyboat and how? Do they need air elementals? The book says it is similar to a rowboat. Do we have to row the skycoach? Does anyone know about this? I'm so lost....

Magic

 

[Jeff Wilder]

According to the appendix of City of Towers, skycoaches are crafted with flight magic (presumably by magewrights or artificers) which only works because of Sharn's proximity to the plane of Sy*cough*nikto!*cough*. They don't have bound elementals. I would treat them as I would a motorboat ... anybody can pilot one, but in high traffic or tricky conditions, you're gonna want some actual skill. Anyway, I kinda pictured them as similar to the gondolas of touristy Venice.

(As a completely unrelated aside, Eberron continues to grow on me. I thought I'd never have anything to do with the setting up until a year or so ago. Now it's probably going to be my next campaign.)

 

[mcrow]

I'm pretty sure that the Eberron Campaign book explains the larger ships as bieng powered by large elementals. Maybe I misread that section or something.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I'm pretty sure that the Eberron Campaign book explains the larger ships as bieng powered by large elementals. Maybe I misread that section or something.

The skycoaches of Sharn are different from the larger, more powerful elemental galleons and storm-ships.

 

[Emirikol]

I prefer that the ones in our game aren't bound to elementals, however the elemental bound ones could have better maneuverabiliy or something cool if necessary.

jh

 

[mcrow]

jeff: i think we agree here. I mean that coaches are powered by an enchantment ( I did mention the fact that they work because of the proximity(sp?) to Sharn) , but ships use elementals. So to me it looks like I agree with you & you agree with me, we just didn't know it.

 

[Stormborn]

I am hoping that the Explorers handbook will clarify this and the larger question of contruction of airships. However I do think its clear from what we have seen so far that not only are skycoaches effectively Wonderous Items, but that the magic used in their construction is somehow tied to Sharn. Which, given the explination of planar affinities and convergences, makes me think that it is more than a simple fly spell. Perhaps some kind of planar attunement? Or do fly/levitate spells simply work better in Sharn? Would the sky ships function in some fasion outside of sharn, or not do anything at all?

 

[Klaus]

Skycoaches wouldn't work out of Sharn.

And yes, all flight- and levitation- (and jumping-) magic is affected by the Syrania Manifest Zone in Sharn.

The skycoach probably has the same attributes as a flying carpet, only it's more enclosed.

 

[Wycen]

I do like the "don't touch the sphere!" idea though. I wish I'd thought of doing something like that previously (my group just left Sharn for a goodly while so it's a bit late for me to implement it now).

We've had an "incident" or you could call it encounter. The party split up after a job and the rogue took the sky coach home, with an orc thug onboard. Words were exchanged and the orc touched the sphere. The two of them plunged to the ground below, swords drawn, stabbing frantically at each other. Finally they both activated feather fall tokens and then the rogue cut the orc's from his neck and the orc met a messy end.

 

[Lord Morte]

The DM for our Eberron campaign has personalized his coaches.

Ditto. Ours has them as actual coaches, only sans wheels and horses. Of course, some also have magical safety belts that activate when you think 'safety' and a rare few have what seem to be scram jet thrusters

He is fun like that.