“If it weren't for the airship, Capa City would wither up and die!” 
- Bjoran Stonewall, Airship Engineer

Airships are a means of transportation that enables the transport of people and supplies long distances. Unlike other methods of transportation however, airships do so by air. Airships got their namesake because they are vessels which sail the air.

The History of the Airship

Airships are relatively new technology, though many would argue that there had been something like it and even more advanced in the First Era. In the eras that followed the Great Magic War, there has been no artificial vessel that flies through the air, and really up until the Fifth Era there has been no need for such vessels. After all, why go through the trouble of making airships when one could just fly themselves, or better yet, teleport? In the eras following the Great Magic War, there was simply no need for technology.

This all has changed in the Fifth Era. Now with magic no longer as easy to use (and often extremely dangerous), Nor'Ovan's have been forced to find new ways to live and survive. Because of this, various technologies have made a come back, technologies long lost since the First Breaking.

One of the issues that had to be solved was the transport of people and goods over vast differences. Since personal flight and teleportation via magic are no longer ideal methods, a better way had to be developed. Thanks to the continual magic storms and other dire dangers of the wilds, ground transportation was also unfavorable. Only one option was truly ideal, and that was air transportation.

To our knowledge so far only two communities have really worked hard to develop the airship; Capa City and Sanctuary. Both design paths have been vastly different and while there were some small idea sharing here and there, it is easy to distinguish between a Caperian airship and a Sanctuarian airship. Sanctuary airships look more foreign, and seem to have a larger reliance on living organisms while Caperian airships are more industrial and more ship-like.

This is likely due to the differences in resources and where the two communities lie as well as how their first airships came about. Sanctuary is a mountain civilization and its first airship, if it could be called that, was a carriage attached to an air drake. Capa City has a port and is industrial. Its first airship was literally a ship rigged with cloth balloon of sorts and a crude steam engine to fill the balloon with hot air. As such, Caperian airships look more ship-like, to some degree, while Sanctuarian airships look more alien and somewhat more natural.
 

Caperian Airships

Since most Nor'Ovans that have dealings with airships are likely Caperians, to keep things simple we will only deal with the Caperian Airships here.

As noted above, the Caperian airships are more industrial and more ship-like in appearance than their Sanctuarian counterpart. But they aren't completely ship-like. Unlike ships of the sea, Caperian airships have a mostly flat bottom (some curve slightly), though some do have easily deploy-able 'landing braces' which give the bottom somewhat of a boat angle for desert landings. Instead most Caperian airships have 'rail slots' which allow the vessel to dock easily with the airship docks at Capa City.

Also true to the original design, all Caperian airships deploy the use of a balloon which is filled with hot air to maintain and achieve altitude, and the air is slowly cooled to descend. The balloon is often shielded behind a thin metal wall of some kind – mythril for the more expensive ships – to protect it from puncture or damage. Caperian ships are all made of metal with little wood due to the fact that little wood can be found near or around Capa City. The quality and type of the metal often dictates the amount of fuel needed and the cost of the craft.

That said, not every Caperian airship is the same. There are basically several models of Caperian airship and the model typically is used to describe the approximate size of the vessel, the use of the vessel – be it military, exploratory, or trade – and the engine of the vessel. Even then, there are those crafty caperians who create their own with whatever parts they can find that don't really match any model – we will refer to those as custom crafts.

The models are as follows: Small Craft, Steamer, and Large Craft.

Small Craft

Small Craft are small airships. These are typically powered by a runicteck core that used a bio-battery. A bio-battery is basically a living organism – typically a slime – that empowers the runicteck core. There are various types of small crafts; personal civilian, personal fighter, and team vessels. The distance a personal craft can reach without rest depends on the quality of its core, a clear core with a healthy bio-battery can get the craft across all of Capere and perhaps even to other continents.

Steamer

Steamers are airships that rely solely on steam engines. These vessels are often of a moderate size and require a crew of at least 5. Steam engines demand constant fuel so their distances are often limited to the amount of burnable fuel they have on board, though there has been some small success with using fire runestones to help with this. You could potentially also employ the use of several pyromancers who's sole job is to keep the water boiling. Steamers are often the most volatile so they are rarely used by militant groups.

Large Craft

These are your frigates, warships, and capital ships. These ships are often powered by two or more runicteck cores with two or more bio-batteries, and many have a supplemental steam engine as backup support. The largest of these vessels is the flagship PCR Capacitator.

Airship Parts

The following are parts that can be used to replace parts on your airship. These parts are too large to be carried by characters.

Airship Battles

Battles between airships are ran in a similar fashion as other battles. The only real difference is the size of the battlefield and that it is between airships and not individuals. Airships get 1 attack action and 1 move action per round.

Should an airship be boarded, regular battles can ensue.

The destruction of an airship causes it to crash which typically kills all on board. Typically, not always. It will depend upon the situation and ultimately up to the GM to determine if the people on board die or survive.

If an airship attacks living targets not on an airship, the damage is multiplied by 10.