HYPERBOREA / Ghostship of the Desert Dunes: Actual Play

**Posted by rhialto** 2/10/2016 5:34 pm

So, my group just completed this in a frenetic two-day affair over Superbowl weekend, and have secured the orichalcum prize of the Amazonian Skyship...I'm pondering how to deal with that, but wonder if anyone else has played through this? I haven't done the math yet on how far they can get on the green diamond shards they have...the easy answer is "as far as the nearest roc will let them get", but that would be cruel.

The worst they took was one victim of lycanthropy, soon cured by the Cleric of Apollo.

Since my mixed group of clever grey-hairs and their offspring made a bee-line for the wreck of Ymir's Serpent I think they may investigate some of the side sites now (all of which they ignored in favor of the real goal).

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/10/2016 6:02 pm

Rhialto, my friend, I have been where you now are.

I have done the math, and the diamond supply can get them pretty far. At least to New Amazonia, for example, if not back. My players found that flying 100' of Hyperborea (or the Hyperborean Sea) is pretty dangerous. And that owning an Amazon skyship makes them targets in "civilization." They should start looking for a way to be rid of it at the best price they can get! It's a great way to introduce a powerful NPC as benefactor/patron/inevitable betrayer* if you want.

*Patent pending!

**Posted by Chainsaw** 2/10/2016 9:01 pm

rhialto wrote:
So, my group just completed this in a frenetic two-day affair over Superbowl weekend, and have secured the orichalcum prize of the Amazonian Skyship...I'm pondering how to deal with that, but wonder if anyone else has played through this? I haven't done the math yet on how far they can get on the green diamond shards they have...the easy answer is "as far as the nearest roc will let them get", but that would be cruel.

Sounds like fun! I am jealous. Yes, that would be cruel, heh. Anyway, I played it at Gary Con, but obviously the convention format didn't have quite enough scope for us to have to worry about powering the ship.

The worst they took was one victim of lycanthropy, soon cured by the Cleric of Apollo.

What happened:

to the wizard? They kill him?

Since my mixed group of clever grey-hairs and their offspring made a bee-line for the wreck of Ymir's Serpent I think they may investigate some of the side sites now (all of which they ignored in favor of the real goal).

We missed those when I played at Gary Con. Love to know how it goes!

**Posted by rhialto** 2/11/2016 4:35 am

Chainsaw wrote:
What happened:

to the wizard? They kill him?

Also cured of the madness: I may have stated before how free-wheeling I am as a GM, so when my player's asked, for example, "Can I use a Remove Curse on him?" I rolled randomly to see how he'd react. But they were all itching to dispatch him at a moment's notice after the episode with the hermit.

**Posted by rhialto** 2/11/2016 4:40 am

Handy Haversack wrote:
Rhialto, my friend, I have been where you now are.

I have done the math, and the diamond supply can get them pretty far. At least to New Amazonia, for example, if not back. My players found that flying 100' of Hyperborea (or the Hyperborean Sea) is pretty dangerous. And that owning an Amazon skyship makes them targets in "civilization." They should start looking for a way to be rid of it at the best price they can get! It's a great way to introduce a powerful NPC as benefactor/patron/inevitable betrayer* if you want.

*Patent pending!

That is indeed far...does that include burning 10 shards/burst of the bow-crossbow? Because it would be *hilarious* if they went off sailing and shot themselves out of their remaining fuel...and yes, I've thought of all those scenarios above too: anything that cool is obviously going to draw attention of all the wrong kind.

Boy, I heard you had a reputation as a miserly GM: seems undeserved if your group had this to play with!

**Posted by Blackadder23** 2/11/2016 11:12 am

Personally I think the ship should fly until it would be entertaining for it to crash.
Failing that, I would make the mileage per diamond random rather than fixed. I don't like the players to ever be too sure of what's going to happen in a given situation.

**Posted by rhialto** 2/11/2016 5:44 pm

Yeah, I don't think I'll give them a formula for how many miles to the shard...they'll just have to eyeball it.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/11/2016 6:15 pm

rhialto wrote:
Yeah, I don't think I'll give them a formula for how many miles to the shard...they'll just have to eyeball it.

I did the same. They had their theories. I had mysterious dice rolls.

Random encounters while flying included a regulation ghost ship (skeleton crew) near Orcist and a ghul in the desert who managed to hit one of them with a gelatinize bones as they flew past! And now every name-level Entowered in Khromarium knows what they have . . .

**Posted by Chainsaw** 2/11/2016 9:25 pm

Handy Haversack wrote:
Random encounters while flying included a regulation ghost ship (skeleton crew) near Orcist and a ghul in the desert who managed to hit one of them with a gelatinize bones as they flew past! And now every name-level Entowered in Khromarium knows what they have . . .

Mo' money, mo' problems, yo!

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/12/2016 12:53 am

Chainsaw wrote:
Handy Haversack wrote:
Random encounters while flying included a regulation ghost ship (skeleton crew) near Orcist and a ghul in the desert who managed to hit one of them with a gelatinize bones as they flew past! And now every name-level Entowered in Khromarium knows what they have . . .
Mo' money, mo' problems, yo!

Exactly. You get me, man.

**Posted by cudgel** 1/08/2018 1:31 am

Reading this just gave me the idea that diamonds used to power the air ship might work well with the usage die system. Not exactly sure what the dice would be. Seems d100 would be too high, d20 would be too low.

Here is a link to a discussion on usage dice

Maybe roll d20 every hex of flight, and roll d20 for each shot with the crossbow. The party would be able to fly about 30 hexes or fire the crossbow for one hex of flight. The exact number would vary.

Another alternative might be to subtract a d6 of diamonds each time the usage die comes up 1 or 2.