Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 gladiusstormhand Feb 04, 2011 12:11:56	Aside from space travel via Spelljammer, underwater adventures are my other favorite setting, partly because I can achieve similar effects to space travel, explore exotic locales, and I don't have to build new planets every game. I'm starting to think about an underwater campaign setting, especially since I realized that Xen'drik is not the only place along the equator where you can find Siberys shards; the ocean floor is home to them as well. So I started thinking about an undiscovered society of Noviere whose human and half-elven slaves* mine Siberys and Eberron shards from the bottom of the sea, and the type of submarines they'd need to do that. Their submarine artifice is more advanced that that of the Sea Dart from Grasp of the Emerald Claw (an Eberron 3e adventure) but it has similar technology. I suppose I don't really need submarines and domed towns, but hey, it's a Rule of Cool, and it's SeaQuest DSV, Eberron style. Anyway, with the aquatic elves and half-elves using water-based powers (heck I can see aquatic elves and their half-elven children with the Mark of Storm, but not part of House Lyrandar), I can see the use of airy water or a ritual I've created called Displacement that would create a pocket of air inside the hull of the sub while still allowing portholes open to the sea. Extend the displacement effect beyond the hull, and the boat would fall to the seabed just like airy water. But equip it with soarwood or undersea wings, and then bind water elementals for propulsion, and you have a supercavitating submarine- essentially underwater spelljamming speed. I envision the oceanic nation spread out over thousands of miles above water on resource poor islands and below the waves in domed cities where there is an abundance of minerals, so supercavitating submarines would be pretty handy. Another use of Displacement would be to create ballast tanks. Instead of pumps forcing air into ballast tanks, controlled use of the displacement effect lets water into or out of the ballast tanks. Airy water had its place back in the day, but rituals like Displacement replaced it. Still, airy water is useful; ballistas enchant the spears they fire, and while the effects only last a few seconds, its enough to make underwater ballistas function just as well as their surface counterparts. Maybe one of the prototype supercavitating subs went down off the coast of Khorvaire and one of the nations is working with House Lyrandar at a secret underwater base to study it, but that's an adventure for another thread. I can also see the aquatic elves having psionic powers to manipulate water, giving them a need to use Siberys shards, and using water powers to fill the controller/striker role in some kind of character theme (imagine a tidal wave conjured out of nowhere thats knocks down people, furniture, etc. and makes a soggy mess), but that's another thread. *former slaves after the half-elves started manifesting the Mark of Storm three generations ago...
#2 Ogiwan Feb 04, 2011 17:12:27	Grasp of the Emerald Claw had a submarine in it. More on that later.
#3 gladiusstormhand Feb 04, 2011 20:41:01	Yup, I know about that one.
#4 ChaoticGood Feb 06, 2011 11:17:08	I like it so far. It's a great excuse for creating a new society in Eberron without really affecting the way the rest of the world's politics go. What effects would the Devourer would have on such a society? As the default deity of the seas, do the aquatic elves pay homage to him, or do they represent points of light against the sahuagin hordes of darkness?
#5 gladiusstormhand Feb 06, 2011 11:43:35	Ah good question! I haven't really thought that far ahead yet, but I could see the main society representing points of light against the sahuagin and perhaps territorial incursions by Lyrandar mercantile fleets looking for better trade routes. With the Mark of Storm inexplicably appearing on their half-elven children three generations ago, the Noviere emancipated their human and half-elven slaves, but not everybody was happy with that. A silent but growing minority want a return to the old days, and have turned to the Devourer for help.