PCs vs. 1-mile long living airship!
- Thread starter RangerWickett
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RangerWickett
Legend
What, do your heroes spend their times helping grandmothers cross the street? Ha ha! True heroes will save the day, regardless of the danger.
RangerWickett
Legend
Rel said:It must be even more fun having Tom Jones in the group! Though I'll bet he jumps up on the table and sings It's Not Unusual a lot.
His character does indeed sing.
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
A few ideas off the top of my head:
What if the ship isn't one creature, but many fused together with various organic and inorganic parts? The whole should have some sort of hivemind, with the spokescreature being the helm the lich communicates with. If the PCs start disintegrating their way into the ship, at least it won't kill the beast outright from blood loss.
With a setup like that, you can have plants generating power along its surface, then set up an entire ecosystem within the ship. Trees and scrub would let at least a few soldiers hang on when it starts rolling over. Maybe *everything* is awakened! Eek!
What are they using for lights inside? Bioluminescence?
If you decide to go with the singular creature option, you can always steal a page out of Alien - acid for blood. They ought to come across a huge egg chamber at some point, if that's the case!
-blarg
What if the ship isn't one creature, but many fused together with various organic and inorganic parts? The whole should have some sort of hivemind, with the spokescreature being the helm the lich communicates with. If the PCs start disintegrating their way into the ship, at least it won't kill the beast outright from blood loss.
With a setup like that, you can have plants generating power along its surface, then set up an entire ecosystem within the ship. Trees and scrub would let at least a few soldiers hang on when it starts rolling over. Maybe *everything* is awakened! Eek!
What are they using for lights inside? Bioluminescence?
If you decide to go with the singular creature option, you can always steal a page out of Alien - acid for blood. They ought to come across a huge egg chamber at some point, if that's the case!
-blarg
Tars Tarkus
First Post
RangerWickett said:
Mid-to-low-magic? I would hate to see a high magic setting then!
Epametheus
First Post
Jesus Christ. My group would never come up with something like that.
A mile-long creature with a bajillion hit dice should have a fantastic fort save, though. Disintegrate isn't going to be any more effective in burrowing through it than just hacking at it with a sword. Also, the creature should have fast healing of some sort -- maybe fast healing 20 in every 10' or 20' block.
But if the party does have the firepower to punch a hole through the ship, then this gets very interesting. Getting its heart torn open is pretty heavy damage; if the creature wasn't a freaking mile in size and existed in open defiance of both God and Science, that normally would be fatal.
The simplest counter to this tactic that Pilus has would be a Wish spell; just forcing him to expend that to save the ship would make this is a pretty good blow in the party's favor. Pilus would also need to somehow force the PCs away from the heart, once he had repaired it. Is Pilus willing to fight to the death for the sake of his masterpiece?
Granted, he's a Lich. Even if he goes down fighting, he can always recover later as long as the phylactery is hidden.
A mile-long creature with a bajillion hit dice should have a fantastic fort save, though. Disintegrate isn't going to be any more effective in burrowing through it than just hacking at it with a sword. Also, the creature should have fast healing of some sort -- maybe fast healing 20 in every 10' or 20' block.
But if the party does have the firepower to punch a hole through the ship, then this gets very interesting. Getting its heart torn open is pretty heavy damage; if the creature wasn't a freaking mile in size and existed in open defiance of both God and Science, that normally would be fatal.
The simplest counter to this tactic that Pilus has would be a Wish spell; just forcing him to expend that to save the ship would make this is a pretty good blow in the party's favor. Pilus would also need to somehow force the PCs away from the heart, once he had repaired it. Is Pilus willing to fight to the death for the sake of his masterpiece?
Granted, he's a Lich. Even if he goes down fighting, he can always recover later as long as the phylactery is hidden.
RangerWickett
Legend
I'd prefer to have it be a single big critter with smaller symbiotes, rather than a hivemind of individual things. And disintegrating their way into the beast will take a lot more disintegrates than they have.
Acid for blood? Hmm. That may be a bit much.
But thanks for bringing up the light issue. I hadn't thought of it. Bioluminescence is the obvious answer, and I suppose I've got enough non-obvious stuff already. But I'd like a different answer if possible. Ooh, there is a sort of bioluminescence, but it's fire-derived, so the fire mage can control it.
Acid for blood? Hmm. That may be a bit much.
But thanks for bringing up the light issue. I hadn't thought of it. Bioluminescence is the obvious answer, and I suppose I've got enough non-obvious stuff already. But I'd like a different answer if possible. Ooh, there is a sort of bioluminescence, but it's fire-derived, so the fire mage can control it.
RangerWickett
Legend
This is where I grin evilly. Pilus has a brother. Pilus's brother is not a lich, just a really old guy (who looks like an older Jeremy Irons), but he's a wizard too. While Pilus specializes in making monsters, Pilus's brother loves dungeons and traps.
Guess where the phylactery's hidden?
Guess where the phylactery's hidden?
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Otto's Irresistable Dance would be kind of funny used on the ship
The lich ought to have at least a couple of clerics always on hand to cast Restoration or Heal should anyone attack the ship's Con score. (-2 Con = - 1 bajillion hp.. ouch!) Unless it counts as a construct, in which case it'll be fine. It'll also be proof against mind-affecting spells, etc.
What do the lich's troops live off? Pillage? Thousands of soldiers need a *lot* of food and water! If they're flesh-eating critters, maybe the ship automatically converts stone that enters its mouth to flesh, and they're like symbionts or parasites. (The equivalent of stomach acid that acts as a massive Stone to Flesh over the course of 12 hours?)
Water's the tricky one, unless it has cisterns along its back to collect rainwater.
-blarg
The lich ought to have at least a couple of clerics always on hand to cast Restoration or Heal should anyone attack the ship's Con score. (-2 Con = - 1 bajillion hp.. ouch!) Unless it counts as a construct, in which case it'll be fine. It'll also be proof against mind-affecting spells, etc.
What do the lich's troops live off? Pillage? Thousands of soldiers need a *lot* of food and water! If they're flesh-eating critters, maybe the ship automatically converts stone that enters its mouth to flesh, and they're like symbionts or parasites. (The equivalent of stomach acid that acts as a massive Stone to Flesh over the course of 12 hours?)
Water's the tricky one, unless it has cisterns along its back to collect rainwater.
-blarg
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