Concerning Moon Boats,
> From: "Andrew Solovay" <asolovay_at_...>
asks "A couple of wacky questions" and got some good answers from others.
I just want to add a few more.
> 1. Can moon boats only travel inside the Glowline, or can they travel
> outside the Glowline when there's a full moon?
As everyone has concurred, they can certainly travel outside the Glowline, but the distance and speed, etc. depends primarily upon the phase of the moon, and also on the quality of the crew.
> (1a. Can they travel in the Glowspot? e.g., could the Crimson Bat be
> followed by a moon boat cargo ship, carrying cultists, goods, etc.?)
Sure, possible. But if I owned such a valuable commodity as a moonboat, I would not want it so close to such a monster, even WITH the priests cooperating. After all, if they did not find the requisite victims to feed it, it would go for the closest food, no matter what the priests say.
> 2. Does a moon boat suffer damage when it's "beached" (outside the glowline,
> and not in the full moon)? Are they built to always be in the air, or can
> they be landed and powered-down safely?
The larger ones have landing gear which, in my sketches, looks a lot like runners on a sled.
Some of the smaller moonboats have a flat bottom, like a skiff.
> 3. How far can a moon boat travel in a day? (Does that depend on the size of
> the moon boat and/or magic skill of the crew?)
I defer to the people with sources handy who gave this data.
> Question 3 is really the question I'm interested in. It seems to me that
> there would be two distinct lunar "borders" for strategic purposes: a. Areas
> within round-trip distance--the moon boat can leave the glowline, get to the
> place, and turn around and get back into the glowline, all within a single
> full-moon day;
A fairly short area, even on a full moon.
> and b. Areas within one-way distance--the moonboat can get
> there in a single full moon, but then has to wait a week before its return
> voyage.
Why wait a week, instead of returning in several shorter hops?
> But that assumes moon boats *can* travel outside the Glow Line (and
> that they're not relying on, say, some hinky Yara Aranis magic to fly. And
> if moonboats are damaged by being beached, they can presumably only make
> round-trip voyages outside the Glowline--though they could make emergency
> one-way trips if bringing some vitally important person or cargo, if it's
> worth damaging a boat over.
Also, note that there are many moonboats which are considerably smaller than the huge cargo cogs as shown in the cover illo.
The masts and sails are not like on a sea ship. Their masts are V-shaped, and strung between the uprights are the "sails" which are fairly fragile net-like constructions to capture the moon beams.
Some of the larger ships have vertical sails, but some also hae horizontal ones sort of like wings. They have the same V-shape.
Some of the smaller ones which ae just boat sized actually are propelled by oars which act as if they were sails. The oars are the same V-shape with the gossamer netting between the prongs.
Also, in reply to some other questions from later letters:
Yes, of course they would protect the reeds with various things. Dry reeds are pretty darn flammable. But too much weight (bronze armor, for instance) will weigh it down significantly and are not used.
Many of the larger moon boats actually have "bubbles," made of net-like wicker, that allow archers and magicians to look down from beneath the hull, for defense of course.
These are extremely valuable things, and generally too slow for real combat. A few archers with long distance magic and fire, a good fire caster, a single grotaron with fire arrows, a sunspear, a lightning bolt, a wind child with a pot of burning tar; a good windstorm, a handful of flying fighting priests, a wyvern landing on deck, almost anything that can ruin the sails; these all are easy ways to destroy a very rare item.
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