Design Notes for Flight of the Yardbird

I located my DM Notes for the Flight of the Yardbird adventure.  They are not super detailed as I prefer to have an outline to work from and improvise as needed.  This is because players never do what you expect and you cannot plan for everything.

Needed Reagents

I found the list of reagents the players would need to locate and where they could be found:

• Northern Dwarven Kingdom to have the hammer built.
• The Great Swamp or Borot Grotto for Bragolith, a grass that repels insects.  [This is to keep Scathos, the insectile god of secrets and conspiracies, from observing the ritual.]
• The Green Mountains to get Bryony berries from the Staff Elves. The berry is used to purge impurities.
• The Green Mountains to find Ellinrue, a cave algae that grants True Sight.  It will allow the hammer wielder to strike truly.  [I think I changed this later to another kind of berry.]
• The Horse Lords for Mosaliar, a mineral that provides a defense against the energies that will be released. [15 points Power Defense with a fade rate of 1/minute.]
• Freegate herbalists will provide Carsuth Root to harden the skin of the hammer wielder.
• Somewhere to find an Aetherstone anvil.

Description of the Yardbird

[Directly from my notes:]

The airship, named "The Yardbird", will use aether gas as a lifting power and propellers for motive force. There are four propellers mounted on spars, two in the front and two in the rear. Each pair of propellers is spun by an independent power plant consisting of four medium-sized golems working a crankshaft. The propeller spars can be rotated upward 90 degrees to provide additional lift. Otherwise, altitude is achieved via steering rudders and forward motion.

The Yardbird is still a prototype airship. It has four ether cells with an ether generator for each cell. Each cell is built slightly differently to determine the best construction method.

Airship Design Notes:
Inside the Yardbird:

• Four aether cells
• Aether generator for each ether cell
• The Bridge
• Cargo area
• Crew quarters
• Workshop(s)
• Passenger area (an afterthought)
• Eating area (known as "the Mess", because it is)
• Galley
• Golem works (three sets – two for motive, one for interior power)
• Landing craft bay
• Map room

Officers and Crew:

• Captain
• First Officer
• Chief Navigator and assistants
• Head Engineer and assistants

Lift:
Lift is generated via a semi-magical/semi-alchemical process. The source is an "Aetherstone" which is manipulated to release or absorb "aether". The aether is significantly lighter than air – 1 cubic meter of aether lifts 3 kilograms (in comparison, 1 m3 of hydrogen lifts 1.1 kg, 1 m3 of helium lifts 1 kg, and 1 m3 of hot air lifts 300 g). By partially immersing the Aetherstone in an alchemical solution and then running an electric current through it, aether is released in volume. By removing the current and heating the Aetherstone to a high temperature, the aether is absorbed by the stone.

Motive power:
Directional power is provided by two sets of propellers - one pair forward, one pair aft. Each pair of propellers is spun by an independent power plant consisting of four medium-sized golems working a crankshaft.

Gondola Length: 224 m

The Ritual of Keybreaking

The ritual is required to be performed on a 30’ square area of unshaped stone.  The ritual area will need to be prepared and have braziers burning Bragolith grass to keep Scathos away.  The Aetherstone Anvil will be placed in the center of the ritual space and blessed by a dwarven priest of “He-Who-Brings-Justice”.  The orb will be steeped in a mixture of fresh Bryony berries and herbs to leech out any impurities.  It will be ready when the liquid turns blood red.  Wizards will start chain casting The Ritual of Unmaking.  This will take 16 wizards an hour to cast and drain them of magic for 24 hours.

As the Ritual of Unmaking draws to conclusion, Dangar will be ritually prepared (without his armor) by being covered in a mixture of fresh Carsuth Root and Mosaliar to harden his skin and provide protection from the released energies.  He will then be fed Ellinrue (a cave algae that provides True Sight) and enter the ritual space with the Hammer of Unmaking and the vessel containing the orb.  He will quickly, but unhurriedly, remove the orb from the vessel, place it on the anvil, and strike a True Strike just as the Ritual of Unmaking finishes.

The energy release will be spectacular.