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RETURN TO EDEN

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Seahawk

The seahawk is a lesser version of the voidhawk, a version the Edenists helped the Da Soochans in our campaign setting develop (with apologies to Star Wars, Da Soocha was an all water world mentioned in the Dark Empire comics, and the Da Soochans are roughly based on the Mon Calamari - Admiral Ackbar's race; a red-skinned amphibious race of good-aligned beings). In our campaign, the Da Soochans were already developing organic and sentient technology when the plane-hopping Edenists discovered them. They aided the Da Soochans to create seahawks, as well as their own version of a habitat.

Seahawks resemble a smaller and less intelligent voidhawk in nearly all respects. The chief differences are that seahawks lack a number of the psionic abilities of a voidhawk, chiefly empathy, dimension door, dimension walk, and etherealness. Seahawks cannot journey across the planes unaided. Though most are found on the homeworld of the Da Soochans, those that exist off plane arrived there through pre-existing gates or portals.

Like voidhawks, seahawks are bonded with captains from birth, though unlike voidhawks these captains are generally Da Soochans. Non-Edenist humans however are from time to time bonded with seahawks. In our campaign, a multiplanar organization known as the Planar Rangers exists, similar to the Harpers of Toril (of the Forgotten Realms setting) but with its "jurisdiction" the various worlds of the Prime Material Plane (Oerth, Toril, various world we created for the campaign, etc.). To expand their numbers and their reach, the Planar Rangers have instituted a program whereby non-Edenist humans are bonded to seahawks. In return for a set number of years service to the cause of good under the Planar Rangers, that captain is released and allowed to keep his bonded seahawk.

Lastly, seahawks do not possess ballistae and have fewer launch tubes. They are also able to fire at a much slower rate. However, they are quite capable of using combat wasps, if available.

Edenist Sergeant (Tranquility Sergeant)

These are a special type of golem, resembling a smaller iron golem. Bipedal and roughly manlike, they appear quite fearsome, as part of their power. In the books of Peter F. Hamilton, the habitat known as Tranquility uses them as a police force and for crowd control when necessary, and as a military force in extremis.

Only Edenists can construct them, as only an Edenist and a habitat, using their psionic abilities and affinity are able to do so. The method of construction is not widely known, and it is not thought that those who are not Edenists are able to produce one.

The sergeant always remains under the control of the habitat. In a case like Tranquility of course they will also follow the commands of the habitat's leader(s). True Edenist habitats however don't have leaders per se, but operate under Consensus, though the sergeants would gain their orders through the habitat. Any Edenist who is a member of the habitat can ask for aid from a sergeant, but the sergeant will not do anything to cause harm (unless that individual is in direct danger and not a stated enemy of the Edenists) or work against the Habitat's plans and desires.

In addition to striking, a sergeant can fire two magic missiles every other round, doing d4+1 points of damage per missile strike.

The strength of a sergeant is such that it can do one point of structural damage per five melee rounds.

Normal weapons do not harm a sergeant, though magical weapons affect it normally. Cold, acid, fire, and gas attacks also do not harm a sergeant. Electrical attacks do damage as normal. No spell repairs damage. Like iron golems, sergeants are subject to attacks from rust monsters.

Edenist sergeants understand both speech and are capable of responding to Edenist telepathy, though otherwise they have no telepathic powers of their own. They cannot respond by the use of telepathy, but instead only be a relatively slow and understandably metallic sounding speech.

HABITATS

What follows is a more bare bones description of the habitats, ubiquitous to Hamilton's works. Each DM will have to decide for himself or herself what the exact statistics for a habitat is, as DMs will vary as to how powerful they wish them to be. In truth, a habitat might be unbalancing for a game, so what follows is more along the lines of a series of suggestions, as well as a partial overview of how habitats are portrayed in Hamilton's writings.

There is no equivalent to an Edenist Habitat. They have an infinite lifespan and can only be killed by the kind of destruction brought about by the physical incarnation of a god, an avatar. They are the most intelligent and wisest of all non-divine beings and most of the time they are repositories of truly vast amounts of knowledge.

At this point in time habitats are found only in aquatic areas, either seas oceans or sizable lakes (both freshwater and saltwater). They are in effect smallish islands ranging from only a few yards across at birth to an average of 2 to 3 mile diameter at the point of maturity (some grow even larger). They do however continue to grow throughout their entire lifespan, and there is no real limit to how large one can expand to. The rate of growth averages about 1-foot radius per year after the initial burst of growth required to reach maturity.

From the surface a habitat looks much like a small tropical island, almost perfectly round and in general covered in concentric rings of streets and buildings, interspersed with ornamental and food-producing plants (generally subtropical or tropical in nature). Docks and jetties protrude from the outer edge for the full circumference of the island allowing for an incredible number of ships to dock an any one time, servicing both Edenist ships and more traditional wooden ones.

Underneath the surface this calm peaceful veneer washes away completely. The underside of a habitat goes to a depth of up to one mile (in the oldest habitats), though usually considerably less. An inverted "forest" of tentacles grows from the tough polyp shell underside a habitat. The tentacles are very specialized and are vital to the proper functioning of the habitat. The largest group near the center intertwines to form an immense net that traps marine life. These trapped fish, squid, and what have you are shuttled through this living net into an orifice in the bottom of the habitat where the majority are consumed by the habitat itself for sustenance. Those not consumed are moved into internal storage areas where they are kept alive and gathered by the island's inhabitants for food and trade. This bounty from the sea is not processed by the habitat, but left in its natural state.

There are also a second group of tentacles, which are covered with a very fine hair like structure, which filters plankton and algae from the water as it flows past the habitat. These tentacles are a good deal smaller than the group detailed above.

Dispersed throughout the underside is a third group, maintenance tentacles, which repair damage, clean the shell, and help remove obstructions from the path of the living net (the first and also second groups of tentacles).

There is also a fourth and final set of tentacles. The outer edge of the underside is ringed by a large number of tentacles which can reach lengths of up to one mile (though again generally much shorter in length). These are specialized to facilitate ships docking so that when a ship that is a potentially cumbersome size gets near a habitat several tentacles will wrap around the hull and guide the ship ever so gently to a dock, not doing any damage to the hull. The crew drops sail and in general has an easy ride, though inexperienced crews may be somewhat disconcerted. These tentacles can also be used to hold hostile ships at a safe distance and if necessary to capsize the vessel, this however requires much effort. Each Dungeon Master needs to decide the strength of this group of tentacles, as mile long tentacles could be potentially quite devastating. We suggest adopting the strength and hit dice equivalent of kraken or at least a giant squid or octopus.

The outer ring of tentacles is mirrored on the surface of the outer edge by a ring of much shorter and stronger tentacles with claw like appendages. These are used to load and unload cargo from the holds of ships in dock. These tentacles can also be used as hull crackers of hostile ships that manage to get within a few hundred yards of the island.

The habitats are not the most mobile of creatures, but are able to maneuver in a very limited fashion and generally drift on ocean currents staying within 20 miles of a central location for purposes of navigation. In times of great need jets of high pressure water can be used to hold position or to move against a current but only at a snails pace (generally at a movement rate of at most walking speed).

All of the physical factors combine to create a fabulous floating city and first time visitors invariably wonder at the way things operate. As symbolized by the potential dual and deadly nature of its many service tentacles, habitats are far from defenseless though. A habitat can also generate kinetic torpedoes like voidhawks but in huge quantities and always has several of the most destructive combat wasps available. Since this is a very powerful ability, each DM needs to decide just how powerful habitats are. In any event, they need to be very difficult to overtake, the equivalent of conquering a large city defended by several castles.

In addition to the physical attributes of a habitat the psionic abilities make a very formidable set of abilities at a habitat's disposal. A mature habitat has complete clairvoyance and clariaudience up to a range of one mile in all directions and therefore is able to see and hear everything that goes on in and around itself. The knowledge of the ability eliminates most types of crime, and those who are unaware of it are in for a rude awakening because the habitat has the ability to store all this sensory data and project into the mind of any Edenist.

Edenist Habitats have an Intelligence rating that starts at 22 for a just mature habitat to 25+ for an older habitat. Although humanity could never create this kind of native intelligence, the rating comes from the fact that the habitat is essentially a huge intellect or personality (always benevolent) but with the ability to focus its primary attention on as many tasks as necessary all at once. Also, a habitat has instant access to anything it has ever seen or herd and the intelligence and wisdom ratings seem very appropriate. But there is anther reason for the knowledge and wisdom of a habitat. When an Edenist dies his soul does not go to reside on an outer plane. It does go somewhere but where is not known. However the consciousness of an Edenist, his or her thoughts and memories, transfers to the habitat upon death where it can exist as an individual for as long (centuries) as it wishes. While in a habitat in this manner an Edenist can still interact normally with any other Edenist within affinity range of the habitat. When an Edenist who lives in the habitat conciseness decides they no longer desire to be part of the living world the blend themselves with the habitat personality and all their knowledge and experience becomes part of the habitat. So it can be said that they never truly die.

This ability by Edenists to transfer their memories into a habitat is most disconcerting, and with the fact that Edenist souls apparently do not journey to any of the known planes of existence causes them to be looked up with some suspicion, but non Edenist humans and non humans alike. While Edenists are certainly respectful of priests, as they respect anyone with their knowledge and powers, they do not themselves have priests, maintain temples, or conduct religious services of any kind. This has lead some to believe Edenists do not have souls and possibly are not truly alive. At the very least others treat them with caution and at most outright fear and xenophobia.

Conclusion:

We have just scratched the surface of Hamilton's works, but as anyone can see the idea is ripe with potential. There are warlike voidhawks called blackhawks, there are much larger habitats than this, the Edenists posses many smaller lesser animals to perform a variety of functions, and they use a number of biological implants which we believe can be adopted to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

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