PCs vs. 1-mile long living airship!

[Impeesa]

As far as the dragon goes, make sure you don't use the instant kill optional rule. 12000 crossbows should be scoring a triple-20 about once or twice a round.

The first thing that comes to mind for defenses is colossal lungs + air mage. It should be trivial for the ship to be able to channel its 'breath' down certain passages, blowing troops out the portholes by the hundreds with hurricane-force winds.

--Impeesa--

 

[ascendance]

Just some thoughts for additional cruelty...

A creature a mile long is going to require an enormous amount of blood pressure to sustain its blood flow. It just doesn't seem reasonable for it to have one heart. Maybe, in true CRPG style, have the different NPCs the PCs have to fight through posted to defend different hearts and major organs scattered throughout the beastie.

I send your friend's remark to a doctor (well, actually intern) friend of mine for a second opinion. He suggests that if the filling pressure is high enough, the wound will tamponade close and the beast will be fine, at least for bit. Err, whatever that means

 

[RangerWickett]

So we have a few stages for the adventure.

1. Arrive on airship, take in the sights, take down the defenders on deck (scouts and such).
2. The flocks of crow-ish birds . . . I want some sort of creepy white bird. Black birds are too over-used. Something cadaverously white. Know any good ideas? Anyway, the flocks take flight when the ship first shudders into movement.
3. Ship begins a slow maneuver to go into a spin. It will take a good three minutes before it's ready to dive.
4. Meanwhile, Pilus casts a projected image to talk with the group on deck, trying to stall them while being very congenial and curious. Pilus does this a lot. He's adept at defusing people's aggression toward him. If things turn sour, he'll offer not to kill them if they give him the Torch. They will undoubtedly refuse.
5. There are several large passages from the deck to the belowdecks area, but they'll be sealed and guarded. As the army tries to force its way in there, the ship will twitch to try to get them off. The lightning dragon comes out of the clouds and attacks.
6. A minute or so later, the ship has angled up sharply, and it begins to roll sideways.
7. If the group manages to get inside, and they probably will, the shock troops come out first, fighting in the corridors. Meanwhile, biomanced flying humanoids will emerge from hangars on the side of the ship, and will harrass anyone clinging onto the skin of the ship as it rolls.
8. The main badguys are in the area that would be the aftcastle on a real ship. The organs of the ship run down its central axis, with the 'breeding' areas toward the aft. Who knows where they'll go, but toward any of those ways, the approach passes a respiratory path.
9. There'll be a lot of defenders to get past, and there's only one main entrance to Pilus's control chamber. Sure, they could try to teleport in, but they'll probably need allies to get all the way in.

I'm thinking they'll have to retreat and wait for Pilus to be more vulnerable. They had a plan once to wait for Pilus to disembark his army and then strike. That'd certainly be easier, but they'd have to disable the airship's weapons of mass destruction, or else Pilus wouldn't really need to disembark.

 

[Kyramus]

So we have a few stages for the adventure.

1. Arrive on airship, take in the sights, take down the defenders on deck (scouts and such).
2. The flocks of crow-ish birds . . . I want some sort of creepy white bird. Black birds are too over-used. Something cadaverously white. Know any good ideas? Anyway, the flocks take flight when the ship first shudders into movement.

2) how about wight crows? hehehe. they won't be black, and well makes for a very interesting fight.

Pilus as a projected Image. Since he could cast spells through project Image, you could have him floating to the side of the ship. Anyone trying to jump/grapple the image falls down into the ocean. hehe

 

[Bauglir]

I get the impression this thing isn't capable of stopping or turning sharply, in which case a Wall of Force or two placed in its path would be devastating to it..

 

[Keith]

Hello,

Lots of cool ideas in this thread. Here is my one thought: What if this creature is not, per se, a willing participant in what is going on? What if it is being controlled in some manner that can be interrupted? What if it has an immune system that is currently being repressed, but if certain constraints (physical/magical) were removed, it would be able to flush out its system and free itself? What if, freed from the evil control it is currently under, it could become a benevolent creature willing to coexist with people?
In any case, sounds like a good adventure, and best of luck.

Cheers

 

[F5]

Great plan, RW.

I'm assuming you've already thought of this, but if the ship's alive, rather than a construct, will it be vulnerable to Slay Living, or Finger of Death spells? What about something like the Symbol spells that effect "a creature" or "all creatures within X"? Or level drains? What about Polymorphing the ship into, say, a normal baleen whale? All of which is seriously anti-climactic, and should be avoided...but I know if I were a player in this situation, I'd want to try.

As for the parasitic bird-antibodies, how about using Stirges as a base, and just change the appearance, so they look, I don't know...goopier?

 

[daTim]

The range is so short on Wall of Force you would have to be virtually standing on the beasts nose to put it in a lethal area so that it could plow into it. Otherwise it would just sort of deflect off of the wall.

 

[Bauglir]

Or flying in front of it.. how fast does this thing go?

(This sounds like a really fun game btw RangerWickett - I love the whole concept and feel. ^_^)

 

[Black_Swan]

This looks great

Quick question:

How much can this ship hold? You're going to instantly drop 12,000 men with armor and equipment onto it. Will it be able to sustain flight with that kind of wieght on it?

I also think you should have the ship head towards the city the PC's care about while they fight. If you can keep the fight going long enough it will increase the tension as they see the city on the horizon.

Anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun.

Good luck and make it tough. They won't like it if it isn't hard.