How would you make a fantasy Ironclad "go?"

[Phineas Crow]

Bind an elemental spirit to the ironclad like a golem, effectively making the ship one gigantic construct. Instead of arms and legs the elemental controls the rudders, paddle wheels, weapons, etc. The ship could even be used unmanned by just giving it some simple instructions such as "go to Luthan, dock at pier 3, and wait for further instructions".

 

[DMH]

Minaton- the copper minotaur golem from Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.

Or ogre skeletons that row (and don't stink like zombies).

There was an adventure in Dungeon where a gnome had a dual paddlewheel driven by human zombies.

 

[warlord]

Buy burning cats in a furnace attached to the ship.

 

[The_Universe]

Magically bound water elementals? It would mean such a vessel would be rare and very expensive, but it should work. I could see such a ship being passed down through generations, with the owners being careful to keep the ship in good condition so the bound elemental doesn't escape...

Water Elemental Jet Propulsion. Essentially a tube that is open on both ends, the water elemental draw water in at the fron and expels it at the rear.

As best I can figure, it would cost between 463,000 and 480,000 Gold Pieces, in fact.

 

[The_Universe]

These are all great ideas! Keep them coming!

 

[Teflon Billy]

Oar Golems

 

[VirgilCaine]

Pixie dung. Chuh!

 

[Sejs]

Elemental Reactor, with Reactor Priestesses!

A couple fire elementals in a room under a chamber with something that's equivelant to a Decanter of Endless Water, basically.

 

[philreed]

or take a page from spell jamemer. A wizard of a certain level depending on size, compulation, speed, etc... sits in a chair in a special room. he then expends raw magical energy to power the vessel.

Which takes a page from The Light and Darkness War -- an alien sat in a special chair and powered stone ships that flew through space. Came out a year or two before Spelljammer and is awesome reference material for anyone looking to run an unusual planar campaign.

 

[philreed]

Or animate skeletons and put them to rowing the boat or like hamsters in the paddle wheel!

Or animated corpses lashed to the bottom of the boat -- all of them kicking and screaming in fear of drowning pushes the ship across the water (though they can't drown). Of course, you'll need a way to turn them off and on -- what quick way is there to deactivate and reactivate corpses?