A Description of the Ship
The Gnomish Tinker and Shipwright Alvaron Darkerpath designed the “Never Home”. Considered to be a genius in his field, the design of engines and levers especially, Alvaron was commissioned to design the shipboard systems for the “Cademan’s Call”, the ship’s original name, after the destruction of that island in the Great War. Alvaron was from Cademan, and was sad to hear of its loss. The ship may be his greatest design. He was killed two months later at the Battle of Mourning Hill when a catapult shaft cracked and sprayed Greek Fire on him and his artillery team.
The Never Home features a sleek galley-style hull. It is mast-less, depending entirely on the use of the side-wheel mounted paddles for motion. It is made of strong oak and teak planks and has some measure of Dwarven Brass fittings – including the paddle covers. The hull design is esthetically similar to other ships built in the shipyards of Cademan and makes use of many ridges and fin-like designs. The main hold is topped with a two supplemental decks – one fore mounting the catapult and one aft, mounting the wheel and Bridge.
Its forecastle is decorated with a winged woman holding a sword before her, representing the women of Cademan going into battle in spirit beside their men. The figurehead is maintained with great care and given great reverence by both the Captain and the Shipwright, both of them former sons of that tragic isle.
The heart of the Never Home is her Force Battery. This strange and intricate device is held in the aft potion of the hold and resides between the paddle-covers, in the deepest hard-point on the vessel. It is a twisting array of springs, cogs, wenches, belts, and spinners that serve to steal kinetic energy from the sea around it.
Most of the energy is taken from the water resistance the paddles encounter when moving into and out of the water. This resistance would normally reduce the effectiveness of the paddle design, but the force battery removes this effect due to its theft. The battery also steals wave motion from the sea itself, but the range of theft is fairly short and only the choppiest seas usually have enough energy to start the vessel or boost its power significantly. The water resistance on the hull is also lightened slightly, but the battery rarely is able to steal enough force to make a huge difference in this effect before it has it fill of force.
To restart the battery after downtime, the battery has a crank that two men can work to get an initial jump of energy to get the wheels moving. This process is tiring and takes several minutes to get underway – and the wheels are slow to ramp up after starting up.
The force battery provides power to the ship for its paddles, its catapult, its cargo crane, and the crow’s nest (discussed below). The use of the energy is usually well within the capacity of the battery, even under combat situations. Any device being linked to the force battery glows softly with purple runes on the surfaces being affected by the magic.
The signature design feature of the ship is its Gnomish side-wheel paddle mounts. These two paddles are covered with brass shields that protect the vital devices within. They are mounted to the aft of center and are the sole means of propulsion of the ship. The paddles can be independently rotated and throttled in either direction of spin, allowing the paddles to provide support to maneuvering, though the rudder is typically used for most navigation.
When in use, the paddle blades softly glow with purple runes and the wake of the ship has a barely-perceptible purple glow (not really useful to tracking the ship at night, but visible up-close). The paddles make very little sound, as the crew keeps the axles well maintained and lubricated. The splash of the paddles still sounds, even though much of the force of the motion is stolen into the battery.
The chief weapon used on the ship for defense against other vessels is the fore-mounted catapult. The weapon has the standard scoop and shaft design, mounted onto a rotating base, but the counterweight is a brass sphere that is the twin of a sphere placed below it in the weapon mount. When the force battery is engaged on the device, the twin spheres glow with purple runes and are swiftly brought towards each other, swinging the arm up. The power of this attraction can be selected by the artillery crew to control aiming.
Typical loads used are ballast stones, flaming coals, caltrops, chain shot, Greek Fire, and various other alchemical compositions stored in ceramic containers. It requires a two-man crew to aim, load, and fire. Rounds for the catapult are stored below the foredeck and can be reached through a trapdoor on the foredeck to allow crews to reload quickly.
Since there are no masts on the ship, the problem of a crow’s nest presented a problem to the designer and the shipwrights. This problem was promptly solved by the Wizard Tamgar, who created a crow’s nest worthy of the ship. The crow’s nest is a gazebo that is spacious enough to hold two men comfortably and three men in a pinch. It is made of solid marble of a blue and gray hue. It has two curving benches and a marble table in the center. The table has an ornate compass built into it as well as the controls that allow the gazebo to ascend. This ascension is achieved when the Gazebo accesses the force battery in order to cause a ring mounted to the bottom of the gazebo and its twin mounted to the deck to repel each other. A spell keeps the rings in alignment, to keep the crow’s nest from drifting away and falling. The gazebo can hover up to 20 feet off the deck by this method, affording a better view of the area around the ship.
The Never Home was designed and built to serve as a transport ship for the Gnomish Fleet during the Great War, and so her cargo crane is a feat of Gnomish engineering in its own right. The crane is a series of steel chain segments interlaced with cogs and metal cords, all connected to a versatile hook mount to support a variety of lifting rigs. The “crane” looks like nothing more than a large and exotically decorated steel chain when stowed, but once an operator sits in the control throne next to its deck mount; the Force Battery brings it to serpentine life. It is a very strong, lifting up to a ton of cargo, as well as flexible. Its motion is slow and measured, however and of limited use in any situation requiring rapid movement.
Mounted to the deck of the ship next to the cargo trapdoor, it is able to move cargo rapidly in and out of the ship’s hold. While it is in operation, the user is in a trance and cannot move, but may speak freely. The operator is able to sense the area surrounding the crane from a detached and dreamlike perspective and can easy will the crane to follow its commands by visualizing what it would like the device to do. The throne and chain glow softly with purple runes when in use.
It takes some practice to use the crane effectively, and the user must be careful to maintain concentration of the task to keep the connection to the crane’s interface. Its use in combat is limited, due to the vulnerability of the operator, but it is handy in a boarding action, if the operator is skilled and has nerve.
The Bridge of the ship is atop the aft deck. Here lies the navigator’s box, with its brass-fitted instruments and chart-table as well as the massive ship’s wheel and the throttle controls for the paddles. The wheel is a large brass and teak construct that has a cog mounting at its center to allow the wheel to be locked. The throttles are very precise in their metering as well, to allow maximum control over the vessel from the Bridge. The ship has a chronometer her as well, to aid in navigation – something fairly new in the region. The ship’s bell is located here and is a silvery metal bell with an embossed map of Cademan on it.
The captain’s office and quarters are aft, just below the bridge. The office has the collection charts as well as a table and chairs of solid wood. The table is suspended from the roof of the cabin by straps to keep it level during a voyage and can be unhooked and stowed should that be needed. This room’s ceilings also have plenty of hammock hooks to supplement those in the cargo bay should weather make sleeping on deck difficult for the crew.
The Captain’s quarters is the far aft of the two rooms and has a wide series of windows looking aft of the ship. It is smallish, but has room for some personal effects as well as the Captain’s footlocker. The captain’s hammock is made of gossamer that is enchanted with a spell to allow restful, but alert, slumber. There is a small harp here that is enchanted to play soft music when commanded, a possession of the previous Captain. A large roll-top desk and chair lie within as well, for the Ship’s Log and the Captain’s other business papers. A faded and battle-scarred Cademanian flag decorates on wall, a relic of the ship’s place in history. Like all of the interior areas, glowing crystals (suspended from the roof by netted fabric bags) light the room.
At the fore of the cargo bay, below the catapult ammo storage, lies the larder, where the ship’s food supplies and firebox reside. The firebox is flameless, using a rune to heat a hotplate instead of the more dangerous flames that would play havoc with the ammo stored above, should accident befall the craft.
A small shrine to Halta, Goddess of preservation stands to one side, keeping the food subject to spoilage from meeting that fate. The shire takes the form of chest of drawers with sutras from the Book of Keeping written upon it on every surface. Foods are sorted by type in the various sizes and shapes of drawers in the Shrine. None of them spoil, putrefy, melt, or rot while contained within the shrine, by the bounty of Halta herself.
There is no table or serving area here, just a trolley to deliver food to the crew wherever they take their rest. One of the ship’s freshwater barrels resides here (the other on the main deck). The barrel has a charm on it to purify water placed in it – and is often filled by a spigot mounted under the water line of the ship.