Looking at how the Lightning Rail is constructed, you wonder if House Cannith knew little about the Bournelli Principle. Every lightning rail coach could be aerodynamically designed to go faster along the conductor stones. After all, there is little technical difference from the train above and a lightning rail. The physical difference of travel is that the train above is like five inches off the track, while the lightning rail can be a yard off the ground.
When I describe a lightning rail being activated, I describe it rising off the conductor stones and then going forward. With electricity arcing around the Engine and the coaches, and the electricity arcing from the conductor stones to the bottom of the train. For romance purposes, I added a small steam engine so that the rail can "steam" into the station, blowing much steam.
So, what do you think of lightning rails and maglev trains? Do you also think they are basically the same techinically? Or not?
Here's a pic of a lightning rail that House Cannith designed and constructed better. browse.deviantart.com/art/Eberron-Rail-S...
I also pictured them always hovering over the stones, even at a station. I do like the visual of it rising to take off, but it seems if it lowered onto the stones it might crush them or at least not sit evenly (again with two rows it might settle down between them).
I hadn't thought about the trailing steam/smoke. I think I'd have trailing bits of static. And instead of the chug of the engine you would hear an electrical hum and crackling electricity. In fact the closer you were to the "engine room" you might have some hair standing on end and random static shock. (Just had a visual of the engineer walking out for a break with his hair standing on end like that scene from Spies like Us
)When I describe a lightning rail being activated, I describe it rising off the conductor stones and then going forward. With electricity arcing around the Engine and the coaches, and the electricity arcing from the conductor stones to the bottom of the train.
I like that idea. It makes for a nice touch, and is a great way to appeal to your players' senses, beyond merely describing the acceleration.
It might also actually be safer to turn the elemental off while people are boarding, if you don't want your paying passengers to become electrocuted, if the electricity surrounds the coaches. So the coach would be lowered. To avoid aeryk's concerns about the stones being crushed, a cushion-zone could be included in the station platform, so the coach doesn't touch the stones.
For romance purposes, I added a small steam engine so that the rail can "steam" into the station, blowing much steam.
I like steam engines, but would this be driven by a regular steam-engine, or would it still be the air-elemental creating the steam (rather than providing electricity)? An elementally-powered steam-engine could actually have been a prototype, before Orien/Cannith hit on using the electrical power of the storm. Or maybe they tried a fire-elemental first - they could be using those for other steam engines, such as massive hammers in a Cannith forge or pumps in a Tharashk mine, too.
I also like aeryk's ideas of static energy.
I do wonder what it does for the pulp-style battles on top of the train, though, if you have to dodge random (and potentially lethal) lightning bolts.
Here's a pic of a lightning rail that House Cannith designed and constructed better. browse.deviantart.com/art/Eberron-Rail-S...
Nice. Looks very sleek and aerodynamic.
and
Although, I originally envisioned that the steam would be used for effect. The idea is to create Chiaroscuro in the minds of the players, so that they'd feel like they are in a film noir. The fog in Casablanca was used to great effect:
It might also actually be safer to turn the elemental off while people are boarding, if you don't want your paying passengers to become electrocuted, if the electricity surrounds the coaches. So the coach would be lowered. To avoid aeryk's concerns about the stones being crushed, a cushion-zone could be included in the station platform, so the coach doesn't touch the stones.
Hadn't thought about the electricuting part. I like the idea of landing on a cushion zone, maybe made of the magical equivalent of rubber. Engineers on the rail probably have boots and thick gloves made of this, too, if not a full body protection from energy.
I do wonder what it does for the pulp-style battles on top of the train, though, if you have to dodge random (and potentially lethal) lightning bolts.
That would pretty cool actually. Probably the danger increases as you get closer to the engine car. And if you're fighting a demon or something immune to electricity, it makes the PCs job even harder.
When the rail stops, it releases oodles of steam, producing a romantic, noir atmosphere.
That is a cool visual, but I would want to tie it to the electrical effect somehow. Maybe it's a magic fog effect that neutralizes the electrical charge in the air. Or maybe link the effects together using a storm elemental.
It might also actually be safer to turn the elemental off while people are boarding, if you don't want your paying passengers to become electrocuted, if the electricity surrounds the coaches. So the coach would be lowered. To avoid aeryk's concerns about the stones being crushed, a cushion-zone could be included in the station platform, so the coach doesn't touch the stones.
Hadn't thought about the electricuting part. I like the idea of landing on a cushion zone, maybe made of the magical equivalent of rubber. Engineers on the rail probably have boots and thick gloves made of this, too, if not a full body protection from energy.I do wonder what it does for the pulp-style battles on top of the train, though, if you have to dodge random (and potentially lethal) lightning bolts.
That would pretty cool actually. Probably the danger increases as you get closer to the engine car. And if you're fighting a demon or something immune to electricity, it makes the PCs job even harder.When the rail stops, it releases oodles of steam, producing a romantic, noir atmosphere.
That is a cool visual, but I would want to tie it to the electrical effect somehow. Maybe it's a magic fog effect that neutralizes the electrical charge in the air. Or maybe link the effects together using a storm elemental.
A storm Elemental would be very cool to bind to a lightning rail! There is absolutely no reason why anyone would not bind a tempest or a storm elemental. After all, a thunderstorm carries the energy of a nuclear exploding device. Why wouldn't House Orien want to tap that?
(a) Ignore the blurb; it's the same book that claims Dread Blossom Swarms were used by Aerenal on their "enemies, ... the orc tribes", after all. In that case, Orien and Lyrandar might quite well use Storm Elementals already. Those people who have not studied binding magic or planar lore simply don't make the difference between an air elemental and a storm elemental, so the air-elemental-bound lightning rail could simply be a wrong assumption/misnomer, perhaps also based on early prototypes. Also, these elementals may come from Lamannia rather than Kythri, embodying not the chaotic nature of a storm, but its natural power.
(b) Say that they are trying to do so, but are still in the experimental phase. There is theoretical research, there have been prototypes, but nothing on the industrial level yet; Lyrandar and Orien spying on and sabotaging each other (as are all three factions in Cannith, and Sovereigns know what the Zil Gnomes are up to), and everyone is trying to find the funds in the post-war economy. They may be more difficult to bind (for whatever reason): considering magic in Eberron is rather like our science, binders simply need a breakthrough, recover an old giant-age schema, or fine-tune their incantations. Or find out what happened to that prototype scheduled to leave Metrol Station on Olarune 20th 994 YK.
I prefer (b) because I like there to be things in Eberron where scientists can claim they are still working on, rather than claiming, as Lord Kelvin (allegedly!) did, around 1895, that "everything that can be invented has been invented." Keith mentioned somewhere that the current-day fireball may have been a 5th-level spell in the days of Karrn the Conqueror, before people found out what happens if you add guano (or something along those lines). So storm-elementals are the next step up, but not quite there yet; perhaps what cold fusion would be for us. But I certainly can see storm-elemental powered vehicles working.
Speaking of storm elementals, it might actually be interesting to consider what other elementals could be used for - as well as paraelementals. Smoke paraelementals might be used for steam engines... if paraelementals can be bound.
Ice elementals can be used for refridgeration, that's for sure. I have no idea what a wood elemental from Lammania would be used for, though. There would be possibilities, but I can't think of any right now.
Encounter idea, a elemental escapes from the press of one of the house sivis printhouses and turne the inside of the building into a forrest.
When I describe a lightning rail being activated, I describe it rising off the conductor stones and then going forward. With electricity arcing around the Engine and the coaches, and the electricity arcing from the conductor stones to the bottom of the train. For romance purposes, I added a small steam engine so that the rail can "steam" into the station, blowing much steam.
A different take on this could be that the activation of the elemental ring creates a great deal of heat. This heat needs to be cooled of somehow. When the rail is moving windchill fixes the problem. But untill the rail gets up to enogh speed, watercooling is used, generating a fair amount of steam. Same thing when it stops at the station and needs a quick cooldown of the Khybershards.
This explanation have the added bonus of giving you steam on all elemental bound machinery. I imagine it would look quite cool when an elemental vessel started its voyage from the ports of lower sharn and water boiled from around the ship.
Or the airships suddenly were clouded in steam, as the left their towers. Could make for a crude cloacking device with a propperly trained wizard at the helm as well.