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Fancy magic-tech should be available on akiton, but not in the "buy a laser gun in Hivemarket" kinda way. Flying ships are available, canonically, on Akiton, but should be fantastically expensive.
Stuff like the tech on the south pole should be acquired by the old trope of adventuring. A whole campaign could be set around snagging the awesome goodies lying around there, with whole the whole slew of level ranges that place provides.
The north pole hints that it may also have some goodies. The proto-shobhads had to have some technical acumen to wage a planet-wide war and have some left over for a couple tribes to take off in space ships, after all.
Both would be perfect examples of the recommended "re-skin a magic item to become an item of sci-fi tech" thing. For instance, the mi-go mist projector (statted in a certain AP not to be mentioned to prevent spoilers) is basically a rod with 27 charges that fires a cone of cold with a lingering fog cloud effect at CL 10th. So a UMD check could allow someone who's not a mi-go to operate it. The classic example of scorching ray-firing "laser pistols" might also apply. Other examples might be hover boots (winged boots or boots of levitation), cybernetic muscle enhancers (belt of giant strength that grafts onto the muscles, filling the body slot), and a billion more ideas I can pull outta my backside once I have more coffee.
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Fancy magic-tech should be available on akiton, but not in the "buy a laser gun in Hivemarket" kinda way. Flying ships are available, canonically, on Akiton, but should be fantastically expensive.
I like this way of thinking. Control the level of technology similar to controlling technology on Golarion. It really depends on what kind of flavor the players want. I think for my sidetrek, a little taste of tech is good enough for my players but I definitely am interested in developing what is out there just for world building interest.
Can you say which AP the mist projector is in spoiler tags?
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In the meanwhile, a random encounter I made a week ago. Provided to you for FREE!
Like, um, everything else so far, I guess. :P
Shobhad Hunter (CR 8)
A shobhad hunter and her trusty mount, an armored lizard similar to an anklyosaurus, have staked this area as their hunting range. They mistake the PCs as as rival hunters and attack them on sight. If the confusion can be cleared up before either party falls or flees, the Shobhad hunter can provide useful information on the surrounding terrain, providing a +4 bonus to Survival checks to prevent getting lost.
XP 2,400
Female elite shobhad ranger (trophy hunter) 2 (Distant Worlds 63, Ultimate Combat 67)
N Large monstrous humanoid
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +12
DEFENSE
AC 21, touch 12, flat-footed 18 (+5 armor, +3 Dex, +4 natural, -1 size)
hp 78 (7d10+35)
Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +6
Defensive Abilities ferocity; Resist cold 5
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee mwk lance +13/+8 (2d6+6/x3) or
mwk longsword +11/+6 (2d6+6/19-20), mwk longsword +7 (2d6+3/19-20), 2 claws +6 (1d6+3)
Ranged mwk shobhad longrifle +11 (2d6/x4)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks favored enemy (magical beast)
TACTICS
Before Combat The shobhad hunter has staked out her hunting range for days now, so she is considered to be taking 10 on her Stealth check from behind cover. She initiates combat by taking a potshot at the PC who appears to be the leader once the PCs come within 400 feet of her location.
During Combat The shobhad hunter continues taking shots at the PCs until the PCs are within 150 feet of her location and clearly determined to engage her in combat. She then spends a round stowing her longrifle, mounting up, and charging into melee. During combat, she eagerly strikes at any magical beasts the PCs may have in their party (familiars and animal companions, for instance).
Morale The shobhad hunter flees if dropped to 26 hp or fewer, or may surrender if she feels the PCs might be willing to exchange her life for information.
STATISTICS
Str 22, Dex 17, Con 21, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10
Base Atk +7; CMB +14; CMD 26
Feats Amateur Gunslinger, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Mounted Combat, Multiweapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (shobhad longrifle)
Skills Intimidate +8, Handle Animal +5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Perception +12, Ride +10, Stealth +9, Survival +12 (+9 tracking)
Languages Shobhad
SQ improved tracking
Combat Gear 3 +1 magical beast bane bullets, 20 Elysian bronze bullets; Other Gear +1 hide armor, masterwork lance, 2 masterwork longswords, masterwork shobhad longrifle with 20 bullets, 4 bronze ringlets worth 25 gp each, brass and carnelian necklace worth 100 gp, 33 gp strung on a leather string
XP 2,400
hp 75 (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 83)
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Oh, I forgot witches and summoners when I babbled about spellcasters.
Both I see being common to tribal areas (witches as, well, witches, and summoners similar to the write-up in the Sarkoris entry in Lost Kingdoms). Summoners might see bigger play in the cities, possibly due to schools devoted to summoning being present there, but witches are definitely tribal-scale (or smaller) casters.
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Random odds and ends I've been meaning to post on coming up, starting with Arl:
Rising from its sacred plateau above a long-dead sea, Arl stands proud and strong, a bastion of Azlant's civilized culture amid the barbarism of Akiton's vast cold deserts. Or so the people of Arl believe. The city is certainly among Akiton's largest, boasting an population of around 250,000 men, women, and children within its walls. Just under a million souls bow to Arl's banner, if one includes all the city's vast rural holdings.
Arl's government is a totalitarian communal theocracy, overseen by the clerics who interpret the will of the gods, the thuroks, and Azlant, in that order. Despite the fall of Azlant some ten-thousand Golarion years ago, the common people and even most middle-ranking clerics labor under the impression that the empire yet remains, and their good works as its most far-flung colony are noticed, appreciated, and rewarded. The higher one climbs the social ladder, however, the more of the truth is revealed: that Arl is alone, long cut off from its alien masters, and true rule lies in the hands of the clerics at the top of the pecking order. Most thuroks arise from this hierarchy, selected by their peers based on their obvious favor with the gods (or favor with their fellows in a baser political sense). During the times that a thurok from another world is in power, their decisions are subtly manipulated by these high-priests, and a thurok who takes too many liberties with their reign or attempts to enact wide-reaching reforms can expect retribution ranging from quiet assassination and disposal to public execution in Arl's Crimson Forum.
Upward social mobility outside of the priesthood is virtually nonexistent, though an occasional artisan might catch the eye of a priest and recieve state sponsorship. Each member of Arl's society is born into the role they will serve until death. Farmers farm, as their parents did before them, and as their children will, forward and backward through the millennia. There is no trade or coin in Arl; the state provides everything, with each farmer's harvest taken in toto and redistributed to the society. One-third of all product is reserved as a gift to the gods; one-third is taken to support the priest caste, whose metaphysical labors must be sustained or else Arl will fall; and one-third is distributed to all of the lower castes, so that farmers, craftsmen, artisans, and entertainers all benefit and suffer as the fortunes dictate. This said, Arl's society is a highly productive one, and no dire famine has occurred in well over a milennia.
Aside from the holy warriors chosen to protect the priests, there exists no standing army in Arl. However, every citizen recieves military training, and the average farmer proves as stout a combatants as most Golarion cities' guards or footsoldiers. In times of war, the citizens take up their arms, fighting and working in shifts so that Arl may retain her footing in war while still producing the everyday goods and services vital to society. A citizen-soldier may thus be given a two-week stint on the battlefield, then recalled to continue their labors for a like time, only to repeat the process once again. These shifts are staggered so that most of the army has served for a time as new soldiers are rotated in, allowing information from those on the front lines to be passed to the new soldiers replacing their comrades. Like all things in Arl, war is overseen by the priests, who give and receive their orders through the established heirarchy. That Arl has never been taken in military conquest is either a testament to the perfection of their society and favor with the gods, or else because few city-states on Akiton could muster the forces necessary to conquer the city, where every man, woman, and child can hurl a spear or weild a dagger with lethal accuracy.
Despite the lack of an internal economy, Arl does accept visitors and merchants who come to its gates. All visitors are assigned a cleric who appraises the visitors trade goods and assesses their wealth. This cleric then guides them to the state merchants or forms of entertainment they seek, oversees the trade, and tallies the total cost. Once the visitor's business is completed, this tally is then charged as a fee, payable in commensurate trade goods or coin, and the visitor is then free to go. Any visitor unable to pay their fee (whether by honest overindulgence or actual deception) is detained, their possessions confiscated, and put to work as the clerics see fit. The time of this service is up to the cleric to decide, based on the difference in value between the confiscated goods and the total debt, though some unscrupulous clerics use these rare events to essentially enslave the outsider for their own personal use.
A curious effect of Arl's economy is that while the priests (and only the priests) posess firearms, their state-run gunsmiths regularly underperform in the field of innovation. Research and development are hard to quantify with a value under Arl's government system, so such expenditures are rare, and more often undertaken by a particularly devoted (or ambitious) gunsmith on their own free time. Thus, most quality firearms are imported, some for direct use by the clergy, with others given to Arl's own gunsmiths for reverse-engineering and later production.
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I'll be getting into the religion of Arl (and religion in general) in another post. But let's say when you combine Azlant's odd theology with Akiton's extant gods and worship of living mortals as gods as well, plus priests with differing agendas sponsored by a massive city-state, things get... complex.
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Thuroks are what the people of Arl call their living gods. Traditionally, by Golarion reckoning, that means "the adventurers who stumbled out of the portal atop the big pyramid in the center of Arl, who are obviously emissaries from Azlant." But there's plenty of time when no one's passed through that portal, so the clergy nominates its own members to stand in as thuroks during those times.
The thurok functions kinda like a Pope, representing the will of the divine but in mortal form. Depending on who's in office at the time, this leadership may be a sincere believer, a devious pretender, or an ignorant non-native subject to the whims of the actual ruling oligarchy of high priests.
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On Akiton, water is the most precious daily commodity. Most people could, with time, scrounge enough food from the native flora and fauna to survive, but without precious life-giving water, those unlucky souls would soon die of thirst. Because of this, water comes at great cost to travelers of Akiton's vast cold deserts and unforgiving mesas.
The average community is self-sufficient, in that there are enough hunters and farmers to provide food for the community at its current size. Water, being rare as it is, dictates total community size and location; a tribal village may be able to support some 500 souls at maximum capacity, and thus never truly exceed that number without serious risk of drought. Official culling of the population is extremely rare, however, as most exist in a sort of population stasis where members are lost due to old age, sickness, or violence at approximately the same rate as new members are added by birth or incorporation into the community.
Communities on the upswing in population quickly become concerned with water supply, and are often the cause of fights with neighboring tribes or villages as they seek larger natural sources of water to keep their people alive. These balances in power keep overall community populations to a relatively set rate, with the exceptions of the city-states that dot Akiton's surface.
Any successful city-state has a regular source of water, whether a naturally occurring spring, regular shipments of ice from one of Akiton's poles, or other, more esoteric methods. Maro, for example, has quantities of ice from long-dead sea caves and small springs along the Edaio Rift, as well as emergency permafrost in its deepest, darkest crevices. The Hivemarket imports glacial ice in vast quantities, overseen by merchant families deeply invested in its safe harvest and plentiful supply (but without concurrent price reduction). Arl sits atop a deep underground reservoir, refilled both naturally and magically as necessary, and distributed by a network of covered (and well-guarded) aqueducts.
The current price for a day's supply of water (a half-gallon, by most humanoid standards) stays consistent at about 5 sp. Combined with the cost of a day's worth of food and shelter, the price compares equally with one metal cartridge for a firearm (1 gp and 5 sp). Thus, everyday needs are often referred to as a "bullet price": three simple meals, a safe place to sleep, and enough water to get by. This is more or less standard cost for travelers throughout Akiton, and in all but the smallest or most desperate communities, trade of general living amenities can be paid for with ammunition, almost as an alternate form of currency.
Within a community, this "price" is usually covered by the member's role in said community. A farmer farms and trades his foodstuffs for water, and owns his own home. A hunter brings her kills to market, after taking what she and her family need to survive. Artisans trade their works for living essentials, and the community's religious and secular leadership are provided food, water, and shelter by the community in return for their services, or as a tax.
Because of this connection (and the understanding that a bullet loaded into a gun might mean living another day, whether by killing a creature for food, or fending off a bandit), ammunition can take on a certain sacred value. Even primitive firearms are often beyond the ability for a simple farmer to buy (much as a composite longbow is fabulously expensive to a commoner on Golarion), but a metal cartridge traded to the local hunter or sold to a visiting stranger can buy some meat to round out the week's meal, new clothes for the family's growing child, or supplies to reinforce the sagging east wall of their home. The power of a gun, to a native Akitoni, is undeniable, even to those cultures who eschew their use (the lizard-men, for example, who pride their ability to thrive using only the most simple of weapons and their own natural armament). Even cultures without any firearms to speak of willingly accept metal cartridges as a trade good.
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I'll upload a sample pile of item prices for some random stuff on Akiton soon-ish. The prices of firearms are 10% of cost on Golarion/what you find in the UC and UE, but hey, I'd happily do the math and have it in one big pile, along with some other common services (travel aboard a sandship, cost of a sandship, cost of gas for a sandship, digestive ramifications for attempting to eat a sandship, etc.).
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Empires have existed in the past: I'm gonna guess the proto-shobhads did alright, being a civilized, technologically-advanced culture with abundant water. But the seas are gone, and the shobhads now just run around kicking tiny humans in the teeth for fun and profit.
This brings me to another point: from whence come the tech? First off, shobhads, as I mentioned before, used to have tech capable of space flight, and now they use single-shot rifles. I'm guessing as the old war wound down, so much of the old technology was lost, that they kinda fell back to simple, relatively easy-to-manufacture guns. The other races (humanity and the Ysoki, primarily) were prolly just grasping the basics of subsistence farming when the shobhads fell from their majesty, and I'd bet after a couple thousand years and copies made from shobhads slain in raids, they figured out how to make boomsticks themselves. The lizardfolk didn't much care, being natural hunters, and continue playing hunter-gatherer 'cause it ain't let 'em down.
Sandships are reverse-engineered tech; the utilization of natural gas for stuff was prolly rediscovered a few millennia ago, and well, sky ships are just too cool to not have, so they're pumped out and maintained by a very small, very select few tech whizzes who are practically sacred in their usefulness. Also, Verces isn't that far away, from a solar system point of view, and I bet they help out on the technical side of things in exchange for mining rights and such.
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Alright, firearms pricing:
One-Handers
Buckler gun- 75 gp- rare (and stupid)
Coat pistol- 75 gp- uncommon
Dagger pistol- 74 gp- rare (and stupid)
Double-barreled pistol- 175 gp- fairly common
Dragon pistol- 100 gp- uncommon
Pepperbox- 300 gp- uncommon
Pistol- 100 gp- fairly common
Sword cane pistol- 75 gp (rounding down)- rare (and stupid)
Two-Handers
Axe musket- 160 gp- rare (and stupid)
Blunderbuss- 200 gp- fairly common
Culverin- 400 gp- rare
Double hackbut- 400 gp- rare
Double-barreled musket- 250 gp- uncommon
Fire lance- 2.5 gp- rare, but easily made and often laughed at
Musket- 150 gp- fairly common
Warhammer musket- 160 gp- rare (and stupid)
These are primarily used in smaller communities, or the poor in city-states; few are still manufactured, so most of 'em are old hand-me-downs. The gun/melee weapon combo fell out of use a long time ago, and are more curiosities than conventional weaponry. Fire lances explode a lot and kinda suck, but are cheap and easy to manufacture, so a desperate community might have a stockpile of 'em just in case. Still, yer prolly better off just rolling a barrel of gunpowder into the enemy ranks and torching it, followed by volleys of javelins and stuff.
One-Hander
Revolver- 400 gp- common and awesome
Two-Handers
Double-barreled shotgun- 700 gp- uncommon but awesome
Pepperbox rifle- 700 gp- uncommon
Rifle- 500 gp- common
Shotgun- 500 gp- common
These are the guns used by city-folk, adventurers, and tribal leaders (when they can get their hands on 'em). Even a small community might have a few folks with a shotgun or rifle, used for hunting, and occasional defense (like a longbow-owning hunter might man the parapet in times of war in Golarion). A well-supplied sandship caravan will have some firepower on-board or with the guys riding along on various mounts.
Alchemical cartridge (dragon's breath)- 4 gp- rare
Alchemical cartridge (entangling shot)- 4 gp- uncommon, but popular with city guards
Alchemical cartridge (flare)- 1 gp- common
Alchemical cartridge (paper, bullet or pellet)- 1gp, 2 sp- as common as the old guns to fire 'em
Alchemical cartridge (salt shot)- 1 gp, 2 sp- uncommon, but popular with city guards
Black powder (dose) 1 gp- common
Black powder, keg- 100 gp- common
Firearm bullet- 1 sp- as common as the old guns to fire 'em
Metal cartridge- 1 gp, 5 sp- common as heck
Pellets (handful) 1 sp- as common as the old guns to fire 'em
Pitted bullet- 5 sp- rare (don't poison the meat, bro)
Siege weapons (cannons woo) and NEW! firearms (updated pistols and a few others) I'll get to in a bit.
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Y'know, Alexandra Pitchford wanted some of that stuff for her pirate cap'n, so this may be my next Side Trek (or whatever we call 'em now). A lot of it would be covered in the equipment stuff, once I jump on that. Dunno how much is convertible to actual sailing vessels (even if the engines work on a water-borne craft, if they're like little rockets, that'll tear the hull apart without a LOT of bracing), but clearly the thirst for it is there.
I'll be jumping into siege weaponry shortly now, Brian. Hold them horses. The wee one's loaded up on sugar and candy from her belated birthday celebration at my folks' and will require constant butler-ing.
There will be guns, sir. Massive guns.
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Siege cannons and sand-ship armaments! Batten down the desert-hatches, me hearties! We're sailing the crimson plains!
Bring out the big guns; we'll be equipping our city-states and sandships with the following large-bore goodies.
And yes, a character with iterative attacks can use the weapons with rotating barrels or internal magazines to make multiple shots, as per usual combat rules.
Large Siege Engines
These weapons can be fielded as per standard cannons, but are more common as ship's armaments.
Cannon- 600 gp- as per in UC
Cannon, multi-chambered- 2,400 gp- as a cannon, but five shots in a rotating barrel (rotates with each firing); reloads come in a heavy 5-chamber magazine; 2 rounds to load.
Huge Siege Engines
Weapons of this caliber are employed on the largest sandships, or occasionally on specially-designed weapons of war.
Cannon, fiend's mouth- 900 gp- as per in UC
Cannon, hellion storm- 3600 gp- as a fiend's mouth cannon, but five shots in a rotating barrel (rotates with each firing); reloads come in a heavy 5-chamber magazine; 2 rounds to load.
Firewyrm- 600 gp- as per in UC
Firewyrm, evergout- 3,000 gp- as per a firewyrm, save that it can continue firing as long as it has sufficient fuel. These weapons are almost exclusively used on specialized siege platforms, as they can devour a vehicle's fuel in a very swift fashion.
Can't make the boom without these.
Large Siege Ammo
Cannon balls- as per in UC(it still costs a lot for a big ball of lead)
Multi-chambered cannon magazine- 200 gp for the ammo (total), 50 gp for the magazine (mags are reusable unless broken by misfire or other calamity); weight is 30 lbs. per shot and 100 lbs for the magazine (most ships have pneumatic loaders to assist)
Huge Siege Ammo
Fiend's mouth cannon balls- as per in UC(it still costs a lot for a big ball of lead)
Hellion storm magazine- 275 for the ammo (total), 75 gp for the magazine (mags are reusable unless broken by misfire or other calamity); weight is 40 lbs. per shot and 150 lbs for the magazine (most ships have pneumatic loaders to assist)
Evergout ammo- as per in UC (we'll get to fuel in a bit; this will eat out of a ship's fuel capacity unless magical or hi-tech means are employed)
Firewyrm ammo- as per in UC (we'll get to fuel in a bit)
I might jump on indirect-fire weapons later, but they're going to be either rockets or long-long-long-range cannons (stuff that relies on a stable firing platform and a very stationary target). It will prolly be rare, since such munitions speak of city-vs.-city conflicts, which are pretty damn unusual.
Either feels, to me, like something you less have rules for and more that it's assumed the PCs will either operate as a strike-force under the cover of, or will need to complete an objective and GTFO before the bomb comes crashing down.
Also, specialized siege ammo could be covered in another entry, like gate-breaker bullets for cannons and stuff (similar to specialized ammo for ballista and other old-school siege weapons). These will prolly also be less common, since city-to-city warfare is rare.
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Special siege ammunition, as per in UC, functions more or less the same; I might have some new ideas for bombs, but otherwise, they generally rely on alchemy (or, as Akitoni, know it, SCIENCE!) and that hasn't gotten much cheaper.
The few that don't (blast shot, plague shot, I'm looking at you) rely on materials that are still at set values (like bundles of metal spikes or dead stuff).
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I see you asking, "what if I ain't got a ship with a pneumatic loader?"
Well, crap-monkeys, sir or madam. Guess you can just double the load time.
So the reloads assume one round to eject the mag, one round to load the new one. The loader PCHFWUMPHS the old one out, TING, and the crew readies the new mag, CLINK CA-TUNG. KRA-CHUK, the new mag slips into place with the loader arm's help.
Field crews on a weapon without a built-in pneumatic loader gotta heft the thing. Muscle work sucks.
N'wah, tell me of this 'science' you speak of! I'm really digging your stuff though, if I remember right the Desert Trader illustration form Distant worlds depicts a lizardfolk with a pile of junk at his feet wearing garb with pieces of metal attached to it. Maybe play this up as a delver for 'Science!'
also what other ways would be acceptable to cross the great deserts of Aktion?
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These weights are all Golarion weight, BTW. It may be easiest to assume standard weight for all Akiton equipment, and just adjust if your your gang is going to a heavier-gravity world, or are Golarion natives tooling around Akiton.
So, say you're a Golarion-native human fighter with a 17 Str. On Golarion, you can heft 86 lbs. as your light load. On Akiton, you can heft three times that, or 258 lbs. Awesome!
Since on Akiton, pretty much everything assumes similar mass, but weight is reduced, we'll just pretend an Akiton pound is three times a Golarion pound. So an Akitoni fighter with 17 Str lifts 86 Akitoni lbs. no sweat. But when he pops onto Golarion, that weight increases to 258 Akitoni lbs., putting his capacity just shy of max weight. Poop-tastic!
This is to say nothing of the standard penalties for high gravity, and, in my opinion, why the shobhads have yet to have any success in taking over parts of Castrovel, their most-visited neighbor.
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Freedom whose quantity is an undefined sixteen units, first things first:
"Science" is equal to tentacles squared. "Tentacles" are equal to HAWT divided by two. So the amount of science is equal to the amount of (T x T) HAWT / 2. This is represented by the following formula:
S = T x T = Ht / 2
If the amount of tentacles ever drops below 0, science cannot occur. If the amount of tentacles ever equals HORRORTERROR (much like infinity, this number lacks definition), all science is happening all the time, forever. This creates Elder Things, Mi-Go, and other creatures as residual fractions.
The "desert trader" is indeed an Akitoni lizardfolk, one who has most likely turned his/her back on his/her culture to function as a scavenger of the useful detritus laying across Akiton. This lizardfolk has not necessarily devoted his/her life to SCIENCE!, because his/her equipment consists of a metal eyepatch, a robe, and a funny, two-bladed spear. I mean, I could bolt on a metal eyepatch now, and I'm just a guy.
K, I just did that. Might I add, OW.
However, his/her collection of junk may further the goals of SCIENCE! depending on the campaign. Perhaps that canteen is an everfull canteen, whose replication could assist travelers worldwide. Or maybe that tube is an everfull tube, whose everfull-ness could aid scientists in understanding everfull-ness worldwide.
I mean, I've been to the buffet. Sometimes I wonder when the everfull-ness may end. Perhaps an everempty tube is what I require.
As for crossing the wide swaths of Akiton, well, we'll be getting to the sand- and sky- ships shortly. The other methods will be similar to those native to Golarion:
Walking (as per feet)
Riding (to be discussed once we jump onto Flora and Fauna [see also HAWT formula, above])
*MAGIC* (a wizard traveled it)
I guess you could take a cart, too. But that's silly.
BE ADVISED: travel on Akiton might require non-vessels, but Akiton is also smaller than Golarion.
You are making me do math, sir/madam. I deduct twelve of your sixteen undefined freedom units as penance.
Golarion is more or less equal to Earth (the thing we poop on a few times per day). Akiton is more or less equal to Mars (the thing we send rovers on a few times per century). Sooo...
Earth/Golarion is approximately 8,000 miles in diameter, rounding up for easy math.
Mars/Akiton is 4,220 miles in diameter, rounding down for easy math.
So travel by foot can be a pain, but it's direct, aside from avoiding the big landmarks, which you'd have to avoid on Earth/Golarion anyway.
This makes teleportation, for those who have access to it, even more effective. After all, the distances assume a flat plane. Once again, I'm bad at math, but when your planet's surface area is basically 0.284 Earths/Golarions, your "100 miles per caster level distance" just got much, much better.
And I thank you for your appreciation. :D
Indeed! Math is horrible but necessary in our community! RPG's do not run angel dust and mountain dew! I like to play up the natural environmental hazards meaning dehydration can easily happen if the party does not invest in proper fluids, had a player think beer and ale was a good substitute for water. Cant wait for the Flora and Fauna segment though!
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For a Skull and Shackles side trek, I have the Golarion side covered. This is really rough.
Part I
I There is a Raid - Can be done in either direction, them raiding or victory after being raided.
a - treasure map points to a a jungle island
b - interrogating crew claims that the map was claimed from a Katapeshi ship and that the crew only new that it lead to a weapons cache and their routes hadn't intersected with the island yet.
II Jungle Island
a - standard random encounters approaching and exploring the island but as they get closer to the source the party and crew should be attacked by tribals, perhaps even reddish lizardfolk
III Ruin
a. Lizardfolk village is near ruin. Foundations and small buildings but what the party cares about is a false wall in one of the buildings that leads to a stair case to a room with upside down features (upside down symbols on the walls and doorways coming from the ceiling.
a. construct encounters that look like Akitoni creatures
b. little clues leading to vague references to portals and pyramids
IV Inverted Pyramid.
The party slowly but surely works their way through the ruin realizing that they are in an inverted pyramid.
a. level 1 - a good amount of rooms, mostly empty with clues about where to find a "weapons cache" at the tip of the pyramid
b. level 2 - a few guardians. Akitoni flavor should get a little more overt. Maybe constructs with guns but nothing to lead them to believe they are going to another planet. A lot of images of figures with advanced weapons
c. level 3 - The last chambers before the tip. These should be filled with energy focusing apparatuses and traps
d. The tip - Guardian of the pyramid. This room should have a riddle in it for activating the pyramid
V. Flip
after the party activates the pyramid the whole pyramid flips and materializes on Akiton. This should have all the ramifications you would think this would have. A 80 foot high pyramid appearing somewhere on Akiton (I leave all the Akiton stuff up to you) and leaving a big, giant hole in the island.
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Here is a synopsis of the outline to make up for my own rough writing and disorganized and tired brain.
The PC crew comes upon a treasure map in the booty recovered from the crew of a ship they either raided or raided them. Clues lead the PC crew to discover that the map leads to a jungle island where reddish lizardfolk live protecting a jungle ruin. The jungle ruin is an inverted pyramid which after being explored and puzzles are solved inside it flips and is transported to Akiton.
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Hey, Freedom Four Quantities: tell your PC that this is NOT Everquest, and dwarves do NOT run on beer alone.
I, sir/madam, am a proud alcoholic; Heck, I'm drinking crap bourbon in lieu of my planned sleep. I know of what I speak.
I've also been to Colorado in the winter time, and I'll tell you right now: even sober, a pile of snow, freezing temperatures, and negative humidity does not equal a satisfied mammalian biped.
Unless you like shoveling snow while listening to your CD player (it was THAT long ago). Then you're pretty well set until your blood thickens into sludge and you gotta lie down.
And you WILL lie down. The blood-crystals will demand it.
Brian, I'll get to your idea shortly. If I can form coherent thoughts tonight, I'll jump on it then. If not, I'll be back soon enough.
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Alright, I've dickered around long enough. Here's what I'm thinking for Akiton sand ships.
Akiton Sand Hauler (the standard vehicle for transport)
Colossal land vehicle
Squares 40 (25 ft. by 40 ft.); Cost 15,000 gp
DEFENSE
AC 2; Hardness 10
hp 800 (399)
Base Save +4
OFFENSE
Maximum Speed 90 ft.; Acceleration 30 ft.
CMB +8; CMD 18
Ramming Damage 8d8
DESCRIPTION
This wide, squat sand ship has a covered pilot's cabin, a flat top deck, and an interior designed for bulk storage with a few berths for crew or passengers. Two large engines in the rear of the ship provide propulsion. A sand hauler can carry 50 tons of cargo or 100 soldiers.
Propulsion alchemical (4 squares of alchemical engines in the rear of the ship; hardness 10, hp 80)
Driving Check Profession (pilot) or Knowledge (geography) +10 to the DC
Forward Facing the ship's forward
Driving Device control panel
Driving Space the two squares in the rear of the pilot's cabin
Crew 1
Decks 1
Weapons Up to 2 Large direct-fire siege engines in one bank positioned on the foreward port and starboard sides of the ship, or one Huge direct-fire siege engine on the fore of the ship. The siege engines may be swiveled to fire on their side of the ship, or toward the forward side of the ship; Huge siege engines may fire forward, port, or starboard.
I'll add war barges and smaller, personal vessels in a bit, as well as the coveted flying ships. For now, though, this is the go-to vessel for bulk hauling and surface transport.
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Folks, I have been remiss- I forgot about the moisture collectors. Most of those I see being a small-scale thing, where a community wealthy enough to afford one will have a family (or families) of moisture farmers. Large-scale, commercial moisture farming is probably still relatively new, since few city-states can afford the sheer quantity of machines needed to make it viable, but I could see some in the richer parts of Maro, and definitely in Arl, where the tech was traded for or possibly outright stolen. You don't go to Arl for new advancements in tech (even when they innovate, they're hardly gonna trade the good stuff to infidel barbarian foreigners); you go to Arl for semi-religious bloodsport. They're VERY good at that.
Will the moisture farmers live in semi-underground, round houses out in the desert like it's Tatooine? Funny enough, I imagined a lot of curved walls in Akiton anyway (sand blows around 'em so you really only have to resurface instead of occasionally having a wall knocked down by excessive winds). Buildings like houses and other small stuff being partially underground makes sense, too: it can trap in heat so keeping warm is cheaper, it protects from the elements, and let's face it: it looks kinda cool.
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If you see this thing coming at you, I'd suggest running, but it can keep going while you uselessly flail your racially-determined sets of limbs in vain hope of not getting blown up.
Akiton War Barge
Colossal land vehicle
Squares 192 (40 ft. by 120 ft.); Cost 50,000 gp
DEFENSE
AC 2; Hardness 15
hp 3,840 (1,919)
Base Save +4
OFFENSE
Maximum Speed 120 ft.; Acceleration 30 ft.
CMB +8; CMD 18
Ramming Damage 8d8
DESCRIPTION
This vast sandship is the main war engine of the Akitoni city-states. The ship has a top deck, protected with metal shielding from attacks from above and housing the pilot's cabin, and three interior decks: a gunnery deck, a deck with living quarters for the soldiers and crew, and a lower deck containing the engine and storage. The massive engine in the bowels of the ship provides propulsion in the form of a primitive anti-gravity field. A war barge can carry 100 tons of cargo or 200 soldiers.
Propulsion alchemical (8 squares of alchemical engines in the bottom deck at the center of the ship; hardness 15, hp 120)
Driving Check Profession (pilot) or Knowledge (geography) +10 to the DC
Forward Facing the ship's forward
Driving Device control panel
Driving Space the eight squares in the rear of the pilot's cabin
Crew 50
Decks 4
Weapons Up to 24 Large direct-fire siege engines in twelve banks positioned on the port and starboard sides of the ship, or 16 Huge direct-fire siege engines in banks of eight on the port and starboard sides of the ship. The siege engines may only fire out the sides of the ship they are positioned on. They cannot be swiveled to fire toward the forward or aft sides of the ship. Alternatively, one bank of Large or Huge siege engines may be replaced with a similarly-sized siege engine on the foreward and/or aft of the ship, which can be swiveled to fire on the port and starboard sides of the ship, as well as foreward or aft, depending on their placement.
These thing look a lot like Jabba's sail barge, but the sails are replaced with metal coverings, similar to the shell of an armadillo or the plating on an isopod, with openings in the sides for soldiers to fire out of or climb onto a rival warship or city wall. The sheer output of one of these thing's guns would prolly tear most walls to part in a pretty quick fashion, but they're expensive and hard to maintain, so they don't get fielded that often, and they're only sent out in times of war between city-states or when a horde of tribes have flocked to a leader's banner with enough power to threaten a city-state. That said, I bet at least one unscrupulous sand-pirate has got one in their armada, and they're just too cool to not let a group of PCs invade. I'd suggest sneaking aboard and treating the thing like a large, moving dungeon.
The outer hull is steel reinforced with adamantine, hence the Middle-ground hardness. Alternatively, a particularly wealthy city-state might have one or two with mithral plating, keeping the Hardness the same but upping the max speed to, say, 150 ft.? The cost would be astronomical (double this price, at least), but the speed...
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Tech for the hovering ability of sand ships comes from one of three sources: reverse-engineered technology from the proto-shobhads of the north pole, reverse-engineered technology from the Elder Things of the south pole, or (more commonly) from interaction and trade from Verces. Sure, there's a few tech whizzes who have figured out how to do anti-grav, but it's much easier to wait for a Vercite craft to come by, trade some (to them primitive) tech for some mining rights in the middle of nowhere, and then build your sand ships and flying craft.
I really gotta talk about some tech-priests soon.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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N'Wah,
I know it's the wrong planet, but have you read any of Burrough's Venus books? One of the nation states there had landships you might steal concepts from.
Aside: When I saw the Thern weapon in the movie I thought "What are R-rays and T-rays doing on Barsoom? They should be on Amtor."
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Funny confession, Matt: I haven't read ANY of the Burroughs stuff. I've been keeping up on some of the Barsoom info via Wikipedia, but I also figured that not having read the John Carter books (I haven't actually even seen the movie yet) might help me throw something fresh into the mix without being a slave to the Barsoom canon.
I did read some of the Michael Moorcock stuff, though. Pretty much just that free book Paizo threw into the swag-bag at PaizoCon a few years back.