# Floating Castle



## The Disquieted Pen (Jun 2, 2011)

I'm a DM for two different on-going campaigns in a homebrew world. This summer, we've started up a secondary campaign that is nautically themed. I want the players to encounter a floating island with a castle on it. The island would be able to move; in fact, it'd be steerable and maneuverable with the right team of wizards and such.


How do you guys suggest I go about designing this castle? What mechanics are making it work? (I imagine magic of some sort, but I'm not entirely sure what.)


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## Greenfield (Jun 2, 2011)

If it were me, I'd keep it secret from the PCs, at least for a while.

You could float it a number of ways.  If you want a neat backstory, it's the remains of a sunken city drowned by a volcano.  The foundation stone is one huge piece of pumice, hurled up by that volcano in its death throes.  It landed in the sea and crystalized instantly, foaming itself up with steam even as it cooled and hardened.  Refugees from the sunken city made for it as it was the only piece of anything in sight that had survived the cataclysm.

Maneuvering should be shrouded in mystery and ritual.  Orders can only be given from a particular balcony, one which conveniently the "bow" of the island.  There will be carved channels hidden among the adornments on that balcony, voice tubes in effect, that lead to a lower chamber where the Gnomes work their weird steam-powered mechanisms.

One thing about this type of construct:  If you make it grand enough, people will accept pretty much any explanation they get, since trying to figure out whether or not it would work becomes far too much effort.


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## Theo R Cwithin (Jun 2, 2011)

Welcome!  A few ideas....

- Immense sails + wind & weather magic.
- Rowers up top (humans, orcs, giants & such).
- Rowers (or propellers) down below (merfolk, tritons, sahuagin, or whatnot).
- Decanters of endless water have a geyser mode... with thrust!
- Water elemental or aquatic gnome crew runs the "undulation drive portals" (or something).
- Graft kraken jets to the underside of the island.


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## Tovec (Jun 2, 2011)

In the games I have played (or run) we've had floating/sailing objects three times. I'll give you the rundown on each.

The first happened to be a large trade city, it was propelled partially by magic but mostly by giant wind turbines. In fact one of the quests we were assigned to accomplished happened to be infiltrating the bowels of the city to fix... or was it destroy... I think it was fix... the turbines to stop it from losing height and crashing.

The second appearance was in my own game when (though a NPC) hired the party to go collect a substance called "Floatstone" which was a stone which was lighter than hair but as though as [insert tough metal here]. The entire island was just floating out in the middle of the ocean. Free from conventional mapping systems, the party failed on their attempt to teleport directly onto the island the first time.
Eventually over the course of that game, they learned the island was possibly steerable but annoyingly slow. It also hosted a landing party from other explorers (evil of course) as well as the tombs of a forgotten king and his knights.

The final object seen is again a city, this time propelled by magic alone and directed by some xenophobic elves. They used their city as both a safe haven but as well as a launching platform (and death from above dealer) to local ground-based installations. The city's central weapon was akin to the flying island in that one episode of Transformers: Beast Wars/Beasties - if you haven't seen it then just skip the image.

My main goal of telling you all this is not to necessarily give you ideas on how it would be flying, once the shock wears off in the fact it _is_ flying, the players will move on. The important bit is to give it flavour and a place and purpose in the setting. Make challenges for them to hold onto the installation, instead of just challenges in making it move. If it can move or does move quickly then have it occur chances of hitting things. Or better yet, taking the control out of the oafs trying to steer it to avoid hitting things. Give it character and a reason, instead of just a description.


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## Jack Simth (Jun 3, 2011)

The Disquieted Pen said:


> I'm a DM for two different on-going campaigns in a homebrew world. This summer, we've started up a secondary campaign that is nautically themed. I want the players to encounter a floating island with a castle on it. The island would be able to move; in fact, it'd be steerable and maneuverable with the right team of wizards and such.
> 
> 
> How do you guys suggest I go about designing this castle? What mechanics are making it work? (I imagine magic of some sort, but I'm not entirely sure what.)



Any number of ways.  Ask yourself a couple of questions, first:

*What flavor/theme do you want the island to have?*
There's a few basic routes that directly impact how the island works and it's method of propulsion.
Magical Theme: Island uses lots of magic.  However it's done, it's magical.  So the island is moved by enchanted breezes blowing sales, oars that row themselves, Decanters of Endless Water on Gyser mode, whatever.
Science Theme: Island uses lots of tech.  However it's done, it's science-y.   Variation on Magical theme, really, but more steampunk-ish.  Boilers running water wheels, nuclear powered turbines, whatever.
Animals Theme.  The island is "nature friendly" to an extent - much of what they do revolves around training and making use of some form of animal life (variation: Plant life that can be made to work in a similar manner).  However they do it, it involves lots of critters (or a small number of really big critters) dragging things around.
Labor Theme.  The island is run by mundane hard work.  Perhaps half the population mans oars.  Perhaps they've got some REALLY big sails and anchors.  Perhaps someone has a really good understanding of oceanic currents, and they use controlled drops of water-drag anchors at different depths to steer (basically, a chain with a big object at the end which is designed to produce drag at the end, but not along the chain - you drop the end into a current, and the object is dragged along with the current... applying a bit of force to the island, and moving it.  When you want to go a different direction, you find a different current; if you want to stop, you drop it all the way to the ocean floor - you can go almost anywhere... eventually... but the schedule and route will always be funny).  They may be slaves, they may be paid, but by whatever means, it's done by people.

*What role do you want the floating island to play in the game?* 
Do you want it to simply be a pretty piece of background?  Do you want it to provide a single adventure hook?  Multiple adventure hooks?  This doesn't directly impact things... however, it does change flavors around.  
If you want it to be a pretty piece of background only, then you simply make everything as it appears to be - the place is straightforward and honest.  
If you want it to provide a single adventure hook, then it seems to be one of the above on the surface, but is secretly a different version - perhaps the animals towing the place are actually intelligent creatures, compelled to labor against their will.  Perhaps those magical, sourceless oars / winds are actually powered by sacrificing the soul of someone once a month.  Perhaps all the technology is only window-dressing, to distract from the actual source, which turns out to be mundane magic.  
If you want it to provide multiple adventure hooks, then you arrange for everything to seem mostly honest, but just be slightly off.


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## xigbar (Jun 3, 2011)

If it's the center of your adventure, I would go so far as a Castlevania-esque complexity eye to detail. If you have a guy behind the curtain (such as the one with the voice tubes spreading around the castle as mentioned somewhere above), give him sort of higher significance, such as the descendant of a deity, or something, and have the relative encounter difficulty increase with your proximity to him. It might be interesting to make the exploration of the castle as a singular giant dungeon  the basis of a campaign, sort of like UnderMountain(?).


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## RUMBLETiGER (Jun 3, 2011)

If you want an official suggestion, Stronghold Builder's Guide has the Sailing property for making a stronghold buoyant.  It requires an individual with a caster level 11, Craft Wondrous Item, _Water Walk_ spell, costs 3,000 gp per Stronghold space.  

You'd also apply the locomotion speed.  Slowest speed is 1/4 a mile per day, at an additional 5000gp per Stronghold space, all the way to 10 miles and hour at the cost of 25,000gp per Stronghold space.

the SBG suggests tying the control of the mobility to touching a specific object and using a command word, a specific room that you stand in and speak the command word, or a single creature who can utter the command word from anywhere within the stronghold.  You'd probably want the first or second option, unless you wanted a guardian construct or something to be the controller, and players need to use some diplomacy to get it to cooperate.  

Now, here's the rub.  You're talking about an entire Island, not simply a castle.  A stronghold space is the equivalent of 4,000 cubic feet, or a 20'x20'x10' space (Expected to be an interior room)  You are taking this to epic levels.  If it doesn't matter to you how the island castle was constructed, you can just assume somebody spent a bazillion gold at some undetermined point in the past.


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## anest1s (Jun 3, 2011)

On a giant turtle! A giant air bubble protects the fort when underwater! 
The strange harpoon guns whose placing makes no sense, when underwater protect the city from dangerous predators!


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## GameDaddy (Jun 3, 2011)

Originally constructed in 2003.... Powered by a huge crystal...







...Or you can go with the flying village... The wizard's tower costs extra...


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## GameDaddy (Jun 3, 2011)

Yes I created these... They were originals created using an app for Windows called Vue D'Esprit, a 3d art and rendering package that can use models from just about any 3d modeling package out there.... Vue has been embraced by the movie Industry, and mattes and scenes built using Vue are included in some of your favorite movies including _Star Wars_, _Avatar_, and _Pirates of the Caribbean_ franchise. Interestingly enough, a bare bones version of Vue is available as a free trial download from the website. 

The second scene was built in 2005 for my Eberron campaign... There's more game art up at photobucket in various albums here.


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## nijineko (Jun 4, 2011)

i suggest using stronghold builders guidebook. it has rules for enchanting large scale buildings complete with cost breaks for spellcasters who can do the work themselves, and other considerations. make it submersible, flying, plane hopping, earthgliding, and more. lots of fun stuff there.


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## Aeolius (Jun 4, 2011)

anest1s said:


> On a giant turtle!




The zaratan was my first thought, as well.





Though if you want to go with something a bit less fantastical, you might look to the Jungle of Lost Ships for inspiration. The PCs in my game are currently at that locale, though I made it a bit more realistic by making it a floating island overgrown with vegetation partially provided by drift seeds and situated over a seamount .


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## Jimlock (Jun 5, 2011)

kind of reminds me this...


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## Arkhandus (Jun 5, 2011)

Stronghold Builder's Guidebook has gotcha covered.  Except, well, it's now an out-of-print official 3e D&D supplement, from Wizards of the Coast back in 2002.  You might be able to find a used copy somewhere online like Amazon or E-Bay or whatnot, I dunno, or in a used bookstore perhaps.

I could do the calculations and whatnot for you, but it'd take awhile and I'd need very specific details on the size and number/type/quality of rooms in the castle and how many guards, how many nobles, and how many other people it contains (plus how many and what quality of guest-rooms, if any), etc.  Materials, magical properties, etc.

Mobile strongholds come in 12 types: Astral (move stronghold back and forth between the Astral Plane, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Burrowing (stronghold moves through the ground like an earth elemental, requires paying for a movement speed), Crawling (stronghold crawls or slides along the ground, requires paying for a movement speed), Ethereal (move stronghold back and forth between the Ethereal Plane, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Flying (stronghold floats in midair at a fixed height and position unless paying for a movement speed), Inner Plane-Linked (move stronghold back and forth between a particular place in a particular Inner Plane, protects against the plane's environment, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Outer Plane-Linked (move stronghold back and forth between a particular place in a particular Outer Plane, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Plane-Shiftnig (allows the entire stronghold to Plane Shift as per the spell to other planes, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Sailing (stronghold floats on water but can be moved by currents, otherwise stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Shadow-Shifting (move stronghold back and forth between Plane of Shadow, stationary, must pay for a particular number of hours per day that it can remain in the Plane of Shadow), Submersing (stronghold withstands pressures of up to 20 miles underwater, stationary on the seafloor unless paying for a movement speed to let it move like a submarine), or Teleporting (stronghold may Teleport Without Error (or Greater Teleport in 3.5 rules) one or more times per day based on how much you pay).  The Shifting mobility effects are limited to 5 shifts per day and require paying an appropriate amount for each shift the stronghold is able to perform per day.

Of course, as the DM you don't need to worry about the cost of the stronghold.  The costs and prerequisites in the book are there for PCs who want to make their own strongholds.  But each form of stronghold mobility does require enchanting the entire stronghold like a magic item, using the Craft Wondrous Item feat and certain spells and paying a certain cost, with the cost based on just how big the stronghold is.  Stronghold locomotion is measured in the book by miles per hour or a fraction thereof, which determines the price of any given locomotion for the stronghold (based on size, again).  Mobility forms like Crawling or Sailing are relatively cheap (1,000 or 3,000 GP per "stronghold space," respectively; stronghold spaces are roughly 20x20 feet with a 10-foot ceiling) and can be infused in a stronghold by a low-level mage or priest (Sailing requires the Water Walk spell, while Crawling requires Augment Object, a spell from the SBG itself, available to most primary spellcasters in the core rules).


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## PureGoldx58 (Jun 5, 2011)

RUMBLETiGER said:


> If you want an official suggestion, Stronghold Builder's Guide has the Sailing property for making a stronghold buoyant.  It requires an individual with a caster level 11, Craft Wondrous Item, _Water Walk_ spell, costs 3,000 gp per Stronghold space.
> 
> You'd also apply the locomotion speed.  Slowest speed is 1/4 a mile per day, at an additional 5000gp per Stronghold space, all the way to 10 miles and hour at the cost of 25,000gp per Stronghold space.
> 
> ...





Is the best way mechanically to do this.


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## Sorrowdusk (Jun 5, 2011)

GameDaddy said:


> Originally constructed in 2003.... Powered by a huge crystal...
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Except the crystal screams "HIT THE WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE" its a big fat obvious target if its exposed like that.


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## TarionzCousin (Jun 5, 2011)

Sorrowdusk said:


> Except the crystal screams "HIT THE WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE" its a big fat obvious target if its exposed like that.



A smart Evil Overlord™ would have the real power source hidden. The big glowing crystal only does one thing: reflect energy blasts back at the points of origin.


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## Theo R Cwithin (Jun 5, 2011)

TarionzCousin said:


> A smart Evil Overlord™ would have the real power source hidden. The big glowing crystal only does one thing: reflect energy blasts back at the points of origin.


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## lordxaviar (Jun 5, 2011)

Arkhandus said:


> Stronghold Builder's Guidebook has gotcha covered.  Except, well, it's now an out-of-print official 3e D&D supplement, from Wizards of the Coast back in 2002.  You might be able to find a used copy somewhere online like Amazon or E-Bay or whatno.




 figment


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## GameDaddy (Jun 6, 2011)

Sorrowdusk said:


> Except the crystal screams "HIT THE WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE" its a big fat obvious target if its exposed like that.




...hrmm??? Indeed. For some very good reasons...

From the ground the crystal is difficult to target as most of the solid stone castle is in the way.

Attacking from the air would at first seem to be the easier option. Note however, the four spacious archery/wizardry platforms located both fore and aft to the port and starboard. Also, the crystal is overshadowed immediately fore and aft by two SOLID STONE TOWERS... which also happen to feature battlements for archers and wizards intent on defending this stronghold.

_To first get close to the crystal, you have to get even closer to the defenders protecting that crystal._ 

Good luck with that... 

The archery platforms port and starboard are quite useful for sweeping the surface of the ground during a low altitude flyover as well. This stronghold does egregious and wanton damage when sieging traditional ground based fortresses as it can hover directly over walls and defenses and overlooking the castle walls from the defenders side can rapidly clear those pesky defenders who are intent on raining rocks, arrows, and flaming objects down on your hapless ground based castle assault group.

Even if you could bring it down, it's probably not the best idea to wipe out the magic that is sustaining flight, while the flying stronghold is directly over your castle walls, or the Royal palaces... Nothing says loving like tons of rock suddenly falling directly down on you....


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## Arkhandus (Jun 7, 2011)

lordxaviar said:


> what not.... you can down load all over the place as pdf. as with any of the out of print dnd... hell even all the new stuff, for what good it is...
> 
> but if you need i could post you a link to that book... i mentioned earlier  the JG mod...under the storm giants castle... there is an article on mage's constructing such a structure, it would easily be used and then altered to add maneuverability and control - see previous post... has that aspect covered no matter your world set up.




Please don't, as that would be illegal. -_-

And one reason for the decline in friendly local gamestores.  If people aren't buying the books there, then the FLGSes go out of business and we run out of places to hang out and meet other gamers/join groups/run games.


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## Umbran (Jun 7, 2011)

lordxaviar said:


> but if you need i could post you a link to that book...





*EN World does not support copyright infringement.  

Please do not use this site to trade in blatantly infringing materials, or to direct others to where such materials can be found.  Thank you.*


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## Aeolius (Jun 7, 2011)

If by floating castle you mean an aerial fortress and not an aquatic one (I assumed the latter, as you mentioned nautically-themed), I started a similar thread over at Canonfire , the other day.

    An upcoming adventure in my undersea game will involve the Cloudsea, a "severed sea" stolen from the oceans below and entrapped within a floating cloud fortress, like water trapped in a bowl. The cloud is currently held by a covey of storm hags who dwell within the ruins of a cloud giant's castle.

   The storm hags replenish the waters of Cloudsea through the use of waterspouts, which drop down from the cloud island to siphon water from the seas below. They are searching for a hapless soul who possesses the bloodline of a cloud giant, so they might unlock the mystery of the ruins. Also, they seek a mysterious artifact known as the Cloud Pearl .


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## nijineko (Jul 21, 2011)

i recall such a discussion over on penandpapergames. fun game that. 

on topic, here is one of my personal favorite flying fortresses:











Two different angles. Laputa, the castle in the sky. great anime too.


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