Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bojangles_the_Barbarian 01-05-08, 04:37 PM	Ok, I understand perfectly the concept of the airship. Fire elemental is bound to ship, which provides magical lift, etc, and is able to fly the ship. Reason why it isn't an air elemental, I don't know, but that's besides the point. I can roll with this. The question though I have is what happens when you expose an air elemental to a fire elemental? As RAW is concerned. I know how it would go about in my world, but just curious how it would go about in canon Eberron. My thinking? Pure air (which is what an air elemental is composed of) fueled into pure fire (fire elemental), in real life would make a rather nice Boom factor. So if you had an airship, and then someone, probably an enemy tried to summon, or command an air elemental into the fire elemental, wouldn't you expect that to be pretty bad for anyone standing around twiddling their thumbs? I'd think so. But, once again, just curios if anyone else had ever had likewise thoughts.
Gurv 01-05-08, 08:52 PM	The elemental doesn't provide lift, it provides thrust. Airships are made out of soarwood, which is naturally buoyant. Enough soarwood, and it can hold up the contents of a ship. Some airships do use air elementals, but it seems that fire elementals work better for some reason. I don't really think that an air elemental coming into contact with a fire elemental will produce the effect you're thinking about. Air elementals are made of air, not pure oxygen. Air doesn't explode on contact with fire, as evidenced by the fact that we're still here. I would say that an air elemental in contact with a fire elemental would take whatever damage is listed for that particular elemental. Think of it as the fire elemental depleting the air elemental's 'oxygen component' if you wish. But I don't see any reason why a fire elemental and an air elemental would react in any significant way.
Amaril 01-06-08, 12:19 AM	Also note that air elementals have a faster fly speed than fire elementals as well as perfect movement. There's an airship in one of the Eberron adventure modules that uses an air elemental, too.
Nomadicc 01-06-08, 02:23 PM	The books (Magic of... and/or Exp HB) describe that airships can be powered by either fire or air elementals.
Jabberwocky888 01-06-08, 02:36 PM	Summoning an air elemental into an already bound fire elemental? Jet propulsion! (And yes, the Zil are currently working on it and yes, their assassins are probably after you right now.) ;-)
Garandene_Lyrandar 01-13-08, 07:07 PM	The soar wood does not hold the ship up entirely. If you read Dreaming Dark Book 1: City of Towers, one of the characters visits an airship which uses an air elemental to hold it in the air and a smaller fire elemental to propel it.
Hellcow 01-13-08, 10:45 PM	If you read Dreaming Dark Book 1: City of Towers, one of the characters visits an airship which uses an air elemental to hold it in the air and a smaller fire elemental to propel it. As a side note, that ship (which makes another appearance in the short story "Principles of Fire") is essentially the Lyrandar Titanic. It's far larger than the standard airship, and the air elemental serves to stabilize it in the air and to provide additional thrust. But as long as we're talking about City of Towers, the first chapter of the book mentions a "stormship" - which is a small airship that uses an air elemental for propulsion. So yes, it can be fire or air. They tried to make airships propelled by earth elementals, and it just didn't work out so well. While it's always up to the DM, I'd agree with Gurv's assessment on the impact of fire and air elementals. AFAIK, an air elemental doesn't suddenly vaporize if you throw a match at it - so I'd argue that it's not pure oxygen in a chemical sense.
RedRider 01-14-08, 01:07 PM	As a side note, that ship (which makes another appearance in the short story "Principles of Fire") is essentially the Lyrandar Titanic. "Iceberg, dead ahead!" "... What?!"
Hellcow 01-14-08, 03:39 PM	"Iceberg, dead ahead!" Well, if you read "Principles of Fire", you'll see that Pride of the Storm runs into its own unique problems... ;)
Ehtiar 01-17-08, 11:18 AM	Well, there's the fact that airships can use air or fire elementals for bound rings... (wait..what about a double-ring, helix like of fire and air? jet turbine? ;) ) But I think most people favour the Fire elementals for one basic reason... Like go-faster-red stripes on a sports car. They think it just looks cooler..:D That and the image of the salty airpilot leaning on a rail and throwing odd junk into the elemental ring to watch it burn.. It speaks to the pyromaniac in all of us ;)
Amaril 01-17-08, 11:34 AM	Here's another example of an air elemental bound to an airship. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20040629a The stormship dropped from the night sky. The sleek longboat's black hull was almost invisible from the ground. A ring of elemental air held the ship aloft, only revealed when lightning flashed around the ring. A roll of thunder heralded the arrival of the warship, and a wave of arrows rained down upon the Cyran army. Sorcerous blasts of fire shattered the battlefield, killing friend and enemy alike. Within minutes, hundreds of soldiers were dead, and the tide of battle had been irrevocably altered.
Hellcow 01-17-08, 12:21 PM	Here's another example of an air elemental bound to an airship. Which, while used in this dragonshard, is actually taken from the opening scene of City of Towers.
Amaril 01-17-08, 01:48 PM	Yeah, I remembered that as I was posting it. It was a pretty dramatic scene!