The Dhakaani team in my campaign, excavating ancient ruins and trying to find a 8000 year old scroll before the PCs do, will definitely make their escape via blimp. I'm stealing your picture for when that moment comes.
Maybe your Dhakaani could hide the blimp in an old shed, that transforms into the basket/crew area when the balloon is inflated? Looks to me like the picture is already suggesting that...
Its linked from Deviantart, according to the site it was created by an Australian named Rene Walk for a ccg game hes working on.
Personally, I really like the fire beetles; the tied up monster angle makes it too similar to the bound elementals of the gnomes. Fire beetles add just the right amount of functionality but also fit in with the quasi-antiquated/primitive feel of the whole contraption.
Absolutely beautiful. I love the idea of using thermodynamics instead of thaumaturgy. It just screams Dhakaani. Don't forget to use goblins on hangliders to secure the landing zone for it. (parachutes might do, but hangliders can scout farther afield without having to worry about dragging the gliders back to the blimp.)
Another cool idea. I think my Dhakaani antagonists at some point are going to be making use of this !:D
It still should be powered by magic though, just a different form than elemental power.
Even the beings from the demon wastes could be creating their own types of vehicles and transport by using foul infernal magic.
Nice. Lost goblin tech that is as useful as elemental transport but not reliant on the Houses will definitely be a way to rebuild the nations strength.
It would also make for a cool "industrial espionage" scenario involving goblin spies (players) trying to steal airship info from the Dragonmarked Houses as appropriate ! :evillaugh
It would also make for a cool "industrial espionage" scenario involving goblin spies (players) trying to steal airship info from the Dragonmarked Houses as appropriate ! :evillaugh
Or cannith, lyrandar and gnome agents trying to find out how the gobbos do magic. ;)
Or cannith, lyrandar and gnome agents trying to find out how the gobbos do magic. ;)
Mmm i sense a two party campaign coming on....:D
Another cool idea. I think my Dhakaani antagonists at some point are going to be making use of this !:D
Don't forget those clay things that they drop from the Blimp and the gliders. They look like darts but they're too big around to be thrown and they have a nasty habit of exploding when you bump into them or knock them off the racks they store them in....
Sorry, I couldn't resist. I remember the look of horror on my players' faces when my goblin scouts started tossing the Dhakaani equivalent of hand grenades. It's easy enough for an artificer to make starting at 3rd level. A fireball spell triggered by the breaking of the device made of clay. I made them 1-3 dice fireballs, but for a blimp I'd make them go up into the 7-10 dice monsters. Picture a blimp flying over your PCs dropping these things trying to snuff them out.
Don't forget those clay things that they drop from the Blimp and the gliders. They look like darts but they're too big around to be thrown and they have a nasty habit of exploding when you bump into them or knock them off the racks they store them in....
Hehe now that is funny and indeed usable.:D
Hehe now that is funny and indeed usable.:D
I've never quite understood why it is people think of goblins as weak or funny. Think about it for a moment.
Now, make your goblins intelligent. On par with humans if not slightly more. They're weaker than other goblinoids, yet they've managed to survive among them. That suggests an ability to think quickly enough to be out of the way when all hell is breaking loose. That higher intelligence also makes advancing technology possible.
Goblins are more dexterous than humans as well. That innate gracefulness means that alot of the safeguards* that we humans count on in our day-to-day lives wouldn't be there in a goblin society. Tall buildings would have narrow walkways without railings because the goblins don't need those.
Goblinoids are innately stealthy. Think about that one. A band of orcs will try to use numbers and your fear of what they can do to you as a group to break your resolve to fight. A single bugbear sneaking into your camp while half the party is sleeping will do more than a hundred orcs if he can get the jump on you and they're not the stealthiest of the goblinoids. If your PCs get a single night's rest in goblin territory, you're doing something wrong.
Goblins in Eberron are motivated, almost to the point of fanaticism. The Dhakaani remnant and the city goblins that have studied the Dhakaani have evidence that the goblinoids can and did rule for 11,000 years. With that kind of unifying thought, goblins will work together to remake the Dhakaani empire, even without understanding the day-to-day life in the empire. Their idealized view of the good old days will make them more likely to take risks that others might not.
Goblins are small. Can you imagine walking down a hallway built for someone three feet tall? Now apply that to fighting in trenches. How can you drive off an army fighting in trenchlines up to your city's walls when they dig trenches that are only a little above your thigh? Very little of the materials the goblins use will be usable by PCs. Remind your PCs of this constantly.
* By safeguards I mean things like handrails and such. Think about that as your PCs begin to go aloft in their newly liberated Dhakaani blimp. The goblins that would crew it wouldn't need much more than a something to grab onto when they're doing something particularly dangerous and they'd be at knee level to a human. Narrow walkways and nothing to hold onto?
I once ran a game of 2nd ed when the characters started in the thick of the action - no you meet in a tavern ! They were walking along an old trail in a forest when they were ambushed by goblins.
The players never found out who there attackers were and merely saw small humanoid shapes dressed in greens and browns moving from cover to cover before unleashing arrows at them. In addition the goblins had triangulated their arrow attacks and if the characters moved out of cover they could get shots off from behind, above,flanking etc.
Now this encounter was with 6 very experienced players all of whom cried foul when the last one hit the ground looking like a pincushion. Why you ask ? The reason the players gave - goblins arn't that clever !!!!!!!
Now after the players had calmed down i sat with them and went through the rough map id drawn and showed them i only had 3 goblins against 6 well armed and armoured adventurers and the only reason they had won was due to the players not responsing in kind and breaking the triangulation by taking one side head on. Still im sure they probably have forgotten all this by now which is good as i intend to use it again but this time in 4ed where the goblins really do get tactical combat now and the rules help them !
