1) Travel via silt skimmer. To my understanding, a silt skimmer is a boat on stilts with wheels that roll through the shallows of the Sea. The silt is so fine that it can not provide buoyancy, but also does not hinder the stilts. Is this actually an effective way to travel or transport cargo? If you're restricted to the shallows anyway, why not just stick to land in a cart with sails? Is there a way to portray a boat on stilts as anything other than ridiculous and awkward?
2) Sea life. Is there anything out there besides giants and Silt Horrors? I'm thinking some kind of jelly fish or manta ray could float or "fly" in the silt. I also imagine that birds could have adapted to dive in and out of the Sea and temporarily fly under the surface. Any ideas on plants that might live in or around the Sea?
3) Sea life travel. I love the idea of giants wading through the shallows. I don't like the fact that the Silt Horror in the DSCC has a burrow speed. How can you burrow through something that is so much less dense than water? Maybe they just crawl along the sea floor, and in the shallows they can reach up and attack things on the surface. Since the silt is so fine, I feel like it's more appropriate for creatures to float or fly in the silt, rather than swim or burrow.
4) Levitation. I love the idea of a giant psionic-powered ship floating out over the Sea. I just don't know why it would be out there. Maybe it's a massive cargo barge? Balican flag ship? Is there some important resource that could be found deep in the Sea? I'm imagining the Athasian version of an oil drilling platform.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for offering your thoughts! I think that with a little help, the Sea of Silt has the potential to be a really interesting environment.
The main problem I have is that since things are not bouyant in it, they sink immediately, maybe slightly slower than falling through air. Which to me generally means a dead PC/NPC if there's combat atop a skimmer or flying creature. I've never been able to reconcile this aspect in my games.
1) Below is a piece of Baxa art, from City By the Silt Sea, which is a great supplement, as well as Valley of Dust and Fire for silt based encounters.
So as you can see, they're not on stilts so much as on giant wheels, which are sometimes hollow with slaves running in them, like hamster wheels.
I'd guess that this one is 40x15 feet.
Here's a great image by Geneome of a model he did for a game. This one looks like its 65x25 feet on the deck.
2) As for life in the sea, I'd say Silt HOrrors, Silt Serpents, Silt Spawn, Terrors of the Silt Sea (Dragon Article), Silk Drakes, Silt Elementals.
If there's a watersource it'd make the silt muddy and create mudflats, so there would be plenty of life on mudflats, including more creature, like bog waders and cistern fiends.
Another danger is the flying creatures, cloud rays, rocs, wyverns, pterrax, floaters, aarakocra, razorwings, kes'trekels. Then you have the things that can float or wade, such as, giants, krags, silt runners, ruktoi, undead who can just walk in it etc.
3) I think they just called it a burrow speed because if they called it fly, then people would assume they could fly in the air, so burrow was just easier.
4) In previous edition psionic silt skimmers were not so rare, in 4e it says that Balic has some psionic silt dromonds, so it sounds like they're more rare. Bascially they'd just be boats that float psionically on the silt. ALso in an old dragon magazine there's an adventure called Raiders of Chanth that features some Wind Howdahs that are psionic flying discs with sails, about 10' diameter made of bone and leather then psionically empowered.
Here's an old idea, the Ruktoi ferry: siltskimmer.org/ttsand/ruktoi_ferry.html
I'm having some trouble understanding the Sea of Silt and how it fits into the world of Athas. The nature and uses of the Sea often feel contradictory or unclear. The Sea is described as a hazardous, impassable barrier, and yet prosperous trade posts have grown around it (especially Balic). I could use some help understanding these things, as well as fleshing out some of my own ideas.
The nature of silt makes it very dangerous to the random traveler. In specific areas merchants can find safe enough routes to profit despite the danger.
1) Travel via silt skimmer. To my understanding, a silt skimmer is a boat on stilts with wheels that roll through the shallows of the Sea. The silt is so fine that it can not provide buoyancy, but also does not hinder the stilts. Is this actually an effective way to travel or transport cargo? If you're restricted to the shallows anyway, why not just stick to land in a cart with sails? Is there a way to portray a boat on stilts as anything other than ridiculous and awkward?
It is a difficult way to travel, and you have to have the money (most on Athas are very poor) to own a silt skimmer. And, you have to not run afoul of the Sorcerer-Kings or Merchant Houses. Because of that, most merchants will be associated with one or the other (probably both). Yes, restricted to shallows, except for the kind of silt skimmer that is levitated/moved by psionic power. These are described really nicely in the Prism Pentad's The Obsidian Oracle. Even more expensive.
Merchants use this travel both because it can be faster than going the long way (take a look at the map) and because it affords access to islands with rare things they can sell.
For purposes of adventuring, a DM will want to identify the right time for the Silt Sea to fit into a campaign, then think about how the players will traverse it. Book travel on a silt skimmer? Find one? Spells or rituals?
2) Sea life. Is there anything out there besides giants and Silt Horrors? I'm thinking some kind of jelly fish or manta ray could float or "fly" in the silt. I also imagine that birds could have adapted to dive in and out of the Sea and temporarily fly under the surface. Any ideas on plants that might live in or around the Sea?
Yes! Check out the Dark Sun Creature Catalog for 4E, as well as the fairly recent article on DDI with more Silt Sea terrors. Also, in the DSCC it mentions how to make creatures, with one example being a silt/sand shark. Also, you may find something coming up in a future DDI article... ahem. There are jelly fish and other such fun creatures that can be brutal (especially when PCs might get thrown into the silt). There are additional threats in Dark Sun lore (see the two AD&D monster books for Dark Sun).
1) Below is a piece of Baxa art, from City By the Silt Sea, which is a great supplement, as well as Valley of Dust and Fire for silt based encounters.
These seem like great resources, I'm going to look in to them.
Big wheels make more sense for silt skimmers. I'm not sure where I got the idea of stilts from! Putting slaves inside the wheels is pretty messed up (and very Athasian).
Also, thanks for the link to the Ruktoi Ferry, that site seems like a great resource.
Merchants use this travel both because it can be faster than going the long way (take a look at the map) and because it affords access to islands with rare things they can sell.
So silt travel is difficult, but it allows you to take short cuts and access new places. That makes sense!
As a follow-up question, when do you think is a good time for a Sea of Silt adventure? It seems like a dangerous and lethal place. Maybe it's not appropriate for low-level players?
As a follow-up question, when do you think is a good time for a Sea of Silt adventure? It seems like a dangerous and lethal place. Maybe it's not appropriate for low-level players?
It depends. You can have quick visits at low levels. For example, the border between silt and non-silt is tricky... when the wind blows you can get silt (and flying silt creatures) along the borders. If you look at the map you can see places where major roads can have this kind of very limited encounter. Also, in these places shallow areas fill with silt - possibilities abound for a mini-silt experience. We had a scene in a skill challenge in Ashes of Athas AOA1-3 that was an example of this.
You could have some short exploration or involvement (a chase on a silt vessel, escaping from Balic, a quick merchant voyage to shave time) in upper heroic and find some good creatures to use.
An extended adventure to explore some silt islands is most fitting in Paragon or beyond. Epic is a great place to have your campaign shift to the Sea of Silt, such as with explorations of Athas' ancient ruins and secrets in distant islands and/or interaction with Ur Draxa.
But, I'm a firm believer in story-first. Something as simple as working for a powerful psionicist master with a silt schooner could be a way that the PCs are largely safe on the ship, but get to experience some voyage dangers and then island dangers while still being low level. It's all about what makes sense in your campaign.
So a PC who falls over can stick a weapon up in the air (out of the silt) and hope for a thrown rope, or possibly stumble over to the wheels and climb out, if you're merciful. It's not an instant death sentence, but is exceedingly perilous.
I agree that, realistically, there would be far more giant wheeled sailing vessels on land. There's a cool adventure floating around online somewhere that casts PC as Nibenese slaves escaping a fortress-sized wheeled land-sailing ship on a mission to make undead war beetles. However, I don't really want to pursue that aesthetic in my game and would rather silt skimmers stuck to the silt. It requires a bit of handwaving, but I think the in-game justification will have to be something about how rough the terrain usually is, and the bottom of the silt sea is fairly smooth, maybe scoured clean, I dunno. There are little light wind-powered vessels in the rulebook that can only run on wide, smooth deserts, which is OK with me.
Waxingslain, I see what you mean about the aesthetics of having wind-powered vehicles everywhere. It's not very Dark Sun themed to have people cruising around in sail-cars! I agree that they can be explained away by saying that they can't handle the rough terrain, or that the wind is too unreliable away from the sea. However, I do kind of like the idea of such a vehicle being used to rapidly cross salt flats... Hmm...
The only way the Tyr-Region isn't covered in dust half of the year is that their is some sort of super-natural connection with the silt. Either a Spirit of the Land is controlling the sea or the silt is very heavy and can't be picked up by the wind as easily and is negatively-charged to repeal each particle from each-other to give it it's minuet density.
My group in AoA1-3 missed the silt entirely. Did we stay on the wrong side of the encounter map?
@OP,
Have the PCs join a merchant caravan travelling near the Sea of Silt. They see a storm pass by ahead. When they get up to where the storm was, the caravan master calls a halt. He does not recognize the lay of the land - because silt has blown into the low ground. He sends the PCs ahead to check the roadway. Gives the PCs some man-deep dust pools to wade into, plus some small things to fight. Also maybe a Silt Runner squad out looking for ... lost caravans? ... targets of opportunity. Note that Runners ignore the silt; it's just like solid ground to them. (Perception check to notice something wrong about their feet / footprints.) Silt is a terrain hazard, mechanically. You have to add fluff to get the cool factor.
@Alpha,
My group in AoA1-3 missed the silt entirely. Did we stay on the wrong side of the encounter map?
As part of the chariot race skill challenge the PCs go through an area with deep pools of silt. They can either steer clear of them or end up riding through them (and taking damage accordingly). It is a very brief scene, but could be expanded easily.
Some other ideas:
- Narrow causeway of stone with deep silt pools on either side. Halfway across, foes strike.
- Chasing a foe, the foe runs across a terrain like that, then is suddenly attacked by a creature from below (such as Anakore). Maybe what the foe is carrying falls in...
- Terrain is mostly normal, but a few silt pools into which PCs can force move opponents. This one is mainly fun for players. Maybe have one monster have a limited push you use once.
- Silt channels that force the players to jump across to reach artillery and ranged controllers/strikers.
- Terrain is mostly normal, but there is a small silt moat around something desirable/interesting, such as a strange tree with potion fruit. PCs have a reason to interact with the tree during combat. For example, the combat starts with chasing a foe and then a beast shows up and initiates combat... thus the players know their only way to explore the tree is to have one PC traverse the silt as the rest work to quickly dispatch the beast.
- Short expedition when they are hired by a silt village to guard a silt schooner. Or, the PCs need to beat a foe to another village and voyage by silt schooner is the best way. This allows for a very short silt encounter.