Exploring the Ruins of Timgal

I have not talked about the Alusian Setting for awhile. This is the OpenQuest setting I am developing. A bronze age world with a primitive lost island. On the main island are the remnants of a once powerful lizardman or serpent man civilization.

Human explorers have ventured into the ruins they call Timgal on the main island for years. It appears on many treasure maps. The players will be following one of these maps to Timgal and spot a trail leading into a fairly intact structure rising out of the jungles.

Just one level is mapped. Further levels are accessible via the deep pits that are filled with water. The lizardmen come up these tunnels to raid the surrounding jungles after dark.

So without further elaboration here is the map of the Deep Pits of Timgal.

Deep Pits of Timgal Map Level One

Flying Wing Hull Type

From the beginning went I started using Blender I wanted to try my hand at a flying-wing style spaceship. A small trader that could be configured for atmospheric flight. I got side-tracked about 4 times now once I started manipulating shapes and saw something that looked like a spin hull.

But I finally took some time to rough out a new hull.  This time I took the time to change the blender scale to meters so I can actually create something that will be to scale once I create a deckplan. The hull shape is 80 x 40 x 10 meters. It actually has a shorter wingspan then the B2 Bomber but it is a lot longer and taller. I assume the shape is just to give it some lifting properties, powered flight it the primary method of staying aloft.

I also created a little man (a little better than a stick figure) and a Standard S Container to scale. I created them when I was trying to figure out if a container would fit in the ship and how tall an airlock would have to be. I took an image with the man and the container standing on the basic hull.

Atmospheric Hull Type Prototype Shape

Deckplan Niron Free Trader

I imported the Niron blender model image into a paint program to make the deck plans. The first problem was one of scale. I had wanted a large hauler and I had placed space for 4 shipping containers in the bay. But now that I had dropped a square grid on the ship I was thinking 5 foot squares. Once I had the deck plans laid out I realized that it needed to be at least 10 foot squares to carry anything of significance. Stars without Numbers assumes very little trade is occurring in bulk commodities. There are no mining worlds transporting raw materials to industry hub worlds. The inhabited galaxy is just too isolated and the spike drive ships are too small to make this economical. But I still want to be able to carry at least the equivalent of 4 large cargo containers.

Containers that get shipped across the ocean today in the real world are generally 48 feet long and 9.5 by 9.5 feet in cross section. I decided that in Wolf sector the standard sized container (M) is 30 x 10 x 10 feet but a large container (L) is 70 x 30 x 30 feet. So the Niron free trader can carry four of these large containers or 16 of these more standard (M) containers. The bay has locking mechanisms to hold the containers and can be configured for either. There might also be even smaller shipping containers (S) that are only 15 x 10 x 10 feet, the Niron can carry 32 of these small containers. Of course the automatic locking systems can be configured for a mix of different sized containers. They also have the benefit that they can be dumped in space should the trader captain be under attack and decide to drop his cargo.

Niron Free Trader Deckplan

The layout of the ship is pretty simple and greatly restricted by the enormous cargo bay. As you can see there is no access to the cargo containers from the ship. The Niron is simply a hauler. The crew is not poking around in the cargo. This opens the possibility of unknowingly carrying illicit cargo but I assume the Niron crew would carefully scan any cargo container they are locking on to. In Stars without Number the spike drive is used both for in-system maneuvering and spiking up through dimensions for interstellar travel. But in system the ship would not normally spike up in dimensions (unless under attack). So I decided the ship engines and the spike drive generators would be separate items. I included some fuel bunkers which look woefully inadequate but we will just hand-wave that.

There is room for a crew of six. But the Niron could be run by a single crew. I could make different layouts of the forward area with maybe a larger cargo bay for secure, pressurized cargo storage. The ship’s computer and the life support are in one area. Not much is said about ship computer technology in Stars without Number. I was thinking I would have near A.I. ship computers that would be an NPC in the campaign. The computer would be the representative on board of the company/bank/lending agency that actually owned the ship. This way if the crew got any idea about going to another system to skip payments the ship would immediately shut down and return to the nearest star port.

This is what I think will probably be the starting ship for the players in a Wolf Sector Campaign. They would owe the bank 600,000 credits when they pay the downpayment of 45,000 credits. With a 10% annual interest rate the players have to pay about 6,500 credits per month to pay off the ship in 15 years (standard ship loan contract).

Niron Class Free Trader

Niron MKIII in orbit

I watched the texture tutorial for Blender today so I wanted to use it right away. Because of the way I created the “Antelope” ship model adding textures would take some doing. So I created a new, simple ship.

This ship the “Niron” is my model for the big, classic free trader hauler that is most prevalent in Wolf Sector.  I build it with a big, open bay cut out into the hull where standardized containers can be held. The area to the rear of the cargo bay is filled with the engines and fuel bunkers. Forward of the cargo bay are the crew quarters, life pods and pressurized cargo space.

I ran it through the ship builder and came up with a fairly inexpensive ship at 645,000 credits. Possibly cheap enough for players to put in a down payment. With life support capable of supporting a maximum of 6 crew it is about right as a player owned (or leased) ship. I reduced the hard points on the hull to a single spot. I did not have the time to render something on the hard point. I figure many traders will not be able to afford weapons or defensive systems.

Niron MKIII Leaving orbit

I think there are likely dozens of the Niron class ships wandering about Wolf Sector and some might even venture further into other sectors. Next thing I need to do is come up with a deck plan for the Niron class.

A Niron Free Trader is approached by an Antelope Planetary Defense Ship

Antelope Class Spike-2 Trader

I spent a fair amount of time playing around with the blender rendering software today with the intent of building some spaceships. I am only about a third of the way through the tutorial but I wanted to try out some of the ideas.

IP Trevor Mallow (Antelope MK1 Class) performance trials near Kaitos

I came up with this little trader I call the Antelope class ship. It is a small trader but quick and perfect for mail routes and trading in small commodities. I have noticed anything about long distance communication in the Stars without Number setting and it fits with the isolated feel I think is right for my setting. The only quick method to get information from one system to another is with the quick mail star ships. They can pick up a data dump, refuel in system and jump to the next system in a matter of days.

Researchers for Imani Partnership found some old rusted out pre-collapse spaceship stored away in silos on Midwrath and were able to use the tech to build the first Spike-2 drive ships built in Wolf Sector. Panstellar Shipping immediately placed a large order and they are not an uncommon ship to see on Kaitos, Mizar, Bomar, and Delta Outeria. The engines were unfortunately offset by few hardpoints, defenses and weapons but it is primarily travelling in Wolf Sector Core space. Recently ships have started travelling from Onai to Comarid utilizing its 2-parsec jump capability.

The Raptor (Antelope MK2 Class) in orbit around Bomar VI

Blue Lizard King Map

I mentioned I would think about translating the hand drawn map for the Tomb of the Lizard King I showed in my last post.  I was already working on it for that post but it was taking longer than expected.  So it is in this post.

As I mentioned I used my version of the Tomb of the Lizard King as part of a dimension-hopping mega-adventure. The players had entered a Temple of Arik that was jumping between dimensions. At first they assumed that the Temple had portals to other dimensions. They took a long time to complete this adventure and the Temple had dimension hopped on to its next stop which was quite a shock to them.

Here are the notes from the campaign journal dated March-August 1984.

The Company of Heroes journey to the lair of the Black Dragon Aulicus in the Great SouthernSwamp. The lair is in the entrance to the Tomb of the Lizard King Sakatha. Realizing thatthe Black Dragon is too powerful to confront the players sneak past the dragon into theTomb looking for clues to why the dragon is attacking local villages. Inside they find a series of prisoners held in time capsules and release Sakalaith (previously encountered as the Blue Phantom of Haunted Mansion).
In the tomb they are attacked by and defeat several demons before confronting and defeating Sakatha who has become a unique Vampire Lizardman. They find the ruby eye of Arik that is the key from this dimension and track Sakatha to his coffin to destroy him at the paladin’s insistence. Returning to the Temple of Arik they are shocked to discover that it has been replaced by a ruinsubmerged in the swamp. Sakalaith is able to ascertain that the monument is jumping through dimensions and should return after a few weeks. The Company camp out in Waycombe for a few weeks.

The Tomb of the Lizard King re-imagined.

Tomb of the Lizard King (revised)

The Tomb of the Lizard King (I2) is a classic TSR module released in 1982. I always wanted to work it into my Campaign I was running in the early 1980’s. My campaign had taken a turn for some serious Dimension hopping with the players trying to find the missing Eyes of Arik (suggested by B3 Palace of the Silver Princess) across seven different worlds. This allowed me to drop in some published modules that would not otherwise fit together.  Since the players were pushing 8-9th level I did a complete re-write of the adventure (and I had to place the eye in amongst the treasure).

The resulting map bore little resemblance to the original. I recall the final tomb of Sakatha (vampire Lizard King) had a number of Type I and II demons guarding it. Attached here is the map I created of the dungeon and the close up I drew of the Tomb. All drawn in mid-1984.

I might translate this into a blue map as well, although it is a little complicated.

Revised Tomb of the Lizard King (1984)

Detail of the Final Tomb (1984)