There are no Aquatic Elves in the Imperial Elven Navy, at least that is what most people say. However, there was a short period of about 50 years when this wasn't the case.
In the distant past the Aquatic Elves, wishing to join the IEN, were politely turned down. Unsatisfied with the IEN's continual rejection, several representatives of this Elven subrace, braved the discomforts of the surface to make a long uncomfortable journey through wildspace and personally appeal directly to the Grand Admiral. The Grand Admiral set up a special committee to consider the special problems that Aquatic Elves face in space. Many solutions were proposed and rejected by the committee. Magical items to keep the Elves wet, were not only costly and slow to make, but also caused everything touched by Aquatic Elf crew to become damp. Water retaining suits were experimented with, but were found to be far too awkward. A slightly more successful experiment was the "wet-bed". This was a waterproof box, filled with water, that an Elf could sleep in. The main objections to the wet-beds were that they took up a lot of floorspace and were prone to spillage. There were also complaints by surface Elves serving on ships, some of whom were upset by seeing Elves sleeping in coffins. However, the main problem with the wet-beds was a health issue. Over time the water in them became stagnant. Just as fouled air causes problems for ship crews these fouled wet-beds caused the Aquatic Elves using them to feel sick and weak instead of rested.
After several months of discussions and failed ideas, the committee finally decided that integrating the Aquatic Elves into the IEN would cause so many problems, for both Aquatic and non-Aquatic Elves, that it would be easier if they were given their own ships. The Grand Admiral accepted the recommendation and ordered the committee to start work on special ship designs.
Some of the early designs were merely modified versions of normal ships. They were both ugly to look at and unpleasant to work in. Finally an Elven shipwright came up with a novel idea. One that used the Aquatic Elves nature as an advantage, rather than an obstacle. A ship filled with water that could sink below the surface of a sea and travel where other Elven ships could not. With this design, the small group of ships small group of ships that formed the Aquatic Fleet, could be tasked to patrol wildspace around water worlds. While the other Elven races were at a disadvantage when protecting these worlds, the Aquatic Fleet could easily operate from underwater bases on the worlds themselves. Several experimental ship designs were built that could submerge after landing on water. The most successful designs were sleek ships, shaped like fish and aquatic mammals. Underwater the ships used small fin like sails to propel themselves along underwater currents and a tail that acted as a rudder. In very still waters, the tail could also be used to provide a small amount of propulsion. The ships themselves had a poor performance underwater (compared to other underwater transports that Aquatic Elves use), but just like other spelljammers their performance was drastically improved as soon as they rose above the waves.
The designs themselves are all believed to be lost but one has been described as looking like a very straight version of a battle dolphin.
When these ships rose to the surface and took off, the water around them fell away. To prevent the water inside the ship from being lost too, a ship of the Aquatic Fleet needed to have a sealed hull. (The ships worked on the same principle as a submarine, but kept water in instead of out.) Once a ship was up in wildspace the crew could come onto the deck via an "airlock" on the top of the ship. In theory, a second airlock could have been fitted to the bottom of the ship, but in practice this was avoided in case it failed while a ship was in the gravity plane of a planet.
The weight of the water made the ship less manoeuvrable, and the reduction in total air volume meant that the ships could not travel as far as other IEN ships of the same tonnage. But even if the aquatic ships were much less versatile than the rest of the ships of IEN, their crews were just as dedicated as other IEN crews.
Several waterworlds were selected for the Aquatic Fleet to operate from and underwater docks were built below their waves. These bases had areas for visiting air breathing Elves. It was possible to run an aquatic ship dry so that visitors could be taken to and from the bases without drowning (although ballast had to be carried to counter the bouncy of the air when this was done). Like the designs of the ships, the locations of these bases is now considered forgotten knowledge by most Elves.
The bases and the ships were initially very successful and over the next 50 years the number of Aquatic Elves joining the IEN slowly increased. With surface travel normally extremely uncomfortable for Aquatic Elves, the Aquatic Fleet of the IEN provided one of the easiest forms of migration. A few colonies sprung up around some of the bases, as families of the crew members moved to be with them.
Although the ships used by Aquatic Elves were less manoeuvrable, the water inside them provided additional protection against fire. The crews of the ships, like the designers before them, believed that this additional protection would counter the disadvantages of the ships. The Aquatic Elves living near these bases were also very proud of their ships. Even those Elves that stayed on the planets saw themselves as full members of the spelljamming community, rather than groundlings.
All went well with the Aquatic Fleet, until the First Unhuman War exposed a fatal flaw in the design of the ships. When holes were made in the water filled spelljammers, the water inside them gushed out of the sides. If a hole was small the crew could swim against the current, but water would flow out of a larger hole so quickly that crew members would be washed out of the ship, and fall into its gravity plane.
The Orcs soon spotted this weakness, and concentrated all attacks on the gravity plane of Aquatic Fleet ships they met. The Aquatic Fleet suffered much higher casualties than other Elven ships. When the they realised the weakness of the ships, some Aquatic Fleet captains dumped their water and ran dry, however this left the crew dehydrated and many ships were eventually forced to retreat to the nearest world with a sea.
After the war, there was an official enquiry into the loss of so many Aquatic Fleet ships. The enquiry committee was made up of Aquatic Elves that had served as officers of the fleet. The Admiral that ran the fleet headed the committee and chose his most senior captains to assist him. With great regret the committee came to the conclusion that the Aquatic Fleet was a failure in military terms, and that they had no alternative than to recommend that it was disbanded. The remaining ships landed at their underwater bases and were decommissioned.
The Aquatic Fleet lives on in rumours told across the table of taverns. Once in a while someone will entertain their drinking companions, with a story about a strange ship they once saw flying around a nearby water world. Or a tale about a ship that sunk when it landed only to later be seen again.
Some bards amuse children by singing comical songs about Elven pirates that live below the oceans and prey on the ships of the Orcs. Children laugh as these pirates pull fish out of their boots and throw them at their enemies.
While children laugh, most adults think these stories are unbelievable nonsense.
However, not all adults think that these stories are unbelievable, a few sages have researched these stories and found that there is an element of truth in them. Some of them believe that there is a secret organisation, similar to the Sindiath Line, that transports Aquatic Elves around wildspace and takes other Elves to visit underwater cities. When questioned, the Elves, themselves, remain silent.
Water Quality:
A wet-bed can support one Aquatic Elf for three weeks before the water inside it becomes stagnant. It can also be used by another water breathing creature of the same size.
This time applies to a wet-bed used by just one Elf, however onboard ships it is common for sailors to share bunks. The water in a shared wet-bed becomes stagnant quicker. If two crew members share a bed the time taken for the water in it to become stagnant is halved (one and a half weeks) and if three rotating crew shifts share the same wet-bed this time is reduced to one third (one week).
Stagnant water in a wet-bed smells bad and is discoloured. An Aquatic Elf that uses a stagnant wet bed suffers from a mild sickness, causing all their attacks and proficiency or skill checks to be made at -2. These penalties remain until the Aquatic Elf has a good nights sleep in fresh water and stack with any penalties for fouled air.
Water remains stagnant for the same time that it remains fresh, once that time runs out it becomes as deadly to an Aquatic Elf as normal water is to a surface dweller. An Aquatic Elf would not normally try to sleep in this depleted water. However, if for some reason they do try to sleep in it, follow the rules for drowning.
It is important to realise that it is not normal for the water in a wet-bed to become deadly. Stagnant water inside it can be disposed of and replaced by using spells. Alternatively a ship can land on a planet or asteroid and take on new water.
Alternative Use:
Wet-beds have occasionally been used in combination with the Softwood spell[CAS] to transport passengers in suspended animation. When encased in this magical cocoon a passenger requires no food and more importantly no air. Because the softwood spell ends when exposed to the air, people encased in this spell are pushed to the bottom of a wet-bed and have weights put on top of them to keep them underwater.
The water in Aquatic ships grants it additional protection against fire, but presents additional hazards when the hull is breached.
Fire:
Any natural fire is automatically extinguished inside the ship.
All characters automatically succeed on saving throws against magical fire while within the ship. For spells that do not allow a saving throw, they may make one while within the water. If they succeed they take half damage. Characters may still use abilities that allow them to reduce or ignore damage from fire. Both effects stack. In any event any magical fire effect can only occur for one round and is then dissipated.
Fire Elementals, usually avoid entering the water in the ship, as it causes them damage. Ordering a Fire Elemental to enter an aquatic ship may be regarded as a hostile action by the elemental. They may refuse to carry out the order or even attack their master.
Critical Hits:
Whenever a ship filled with water receives a "Hull Holed" critical hit, the water rushing out of the hole immediately causes a "Ship Shaken" critical hit.
Any crew members that "fall over" as a result of the Ship Shaken result are drawn towards the hole in the side of the ship. After 3d4 rounds they are sucked out of the hole and ejected into the ships gravity plane. Before this time expires, they can use any proficiencies or skills they possess to stop themselves from being sucked out of the hole. After being ejected into the air gravity plane a character can attempt to swim out of the path of the current and get back on board, by whatever means they have at their disposal.
It takes 10 rounds per ton for all the water to escape from the ship. During this time, crew members that did not initially fall over, must move at a quarter speed or face the risk of being knocked over by the current (same chance as a ship shaken result).
Unsecured equipment carried towards a hole may present a threat to characters, but may also be beneficial. For example: a table could hit a character, but could also be used to partially dam up the leak in the side of a ship. A DM should decide what happens depending on the exact circumstances of the adventure.
If part of the ship is sealed off, the parts of the ship on the undamaged side, become immune to the effects of the water loss and crew can move normally within them. The water still leaks away but at a rate low enough to not cause problems.
Any further "Hull Holed" results cause further leaks and further "Ship Shaken" results, but do not reduce the time taken for the water to be lost. They do however reduce the ships ability to seal off damaged compartments.
Using an Aquatic Ship as a Submarine:
If an aquatic ship has the water removed from it, it can function as a submarine for surface dwellers. However it is not primarily designed for this and the following penalties apply:
A ship becomes more buoyant when filled with air and must have extra ballast to counteract this effect. The ship looses one level of manoeuverability class while underwater. The ballast also reduces the cargo capacity, although this effect is variable as heavy cargo can be treated as ballast.
The amount of air inside the ship is significantly smaller than the total air envelope that a ship has access to in wildspace. When making any calculations of how long the air stays fresh or fouled, divide the total by four. (This penalty only applies when the ship is below water. Above water or in wildspace the airlock can be opened to let in fresh air.)
| [CAS] | Concordance of Arcane Space, from the Adventures in Space Boxed Set. |
