Friday, September 20, 2013

HMES Rocinante - a flying castle of sorts

Below is my submission for Kobold Press' "Flying Castle" cartography contest. I went through a couple different concepts such as a druid's flying grove of trees and a space flier of crystal trees before going with a steam-punk/Dark Energy == Magic/ether-astral traveling Windmill. The building was Sir Peter Sorensen's laBORatory (with ye old emphasis) where he experimented with Dark Energy through arcane magic items. He lined the windmill's vanes with precious and magical papers and metals to collect the "mana." The energy was channeled into his lab below. One day there was a mystical storm and *boom* Sorensen found him, his staff and the entire windmill ripped from Earth into the spaces beyond. The circle of dirt about the lab was larger, holding two cars and other gear. As it began to break apart, items were tethered to the base of the windmill. Later they cannibalized the cars to create two propellers to propel the HMES (Her Majesty's Ether Ship) Rocinante through the magical spaces they discovered.