Cloud Castle II (Magic Castle)

Clouds are normally too vaporous and impermanent for any but the most insubstantial of creatures to make their dwellings. However, millennia ago, a being of an unknown species, traditionally called Gibberlin the Aerifier, made the discovery that when the blood of a storm deity is spilled on a cloud, the cloud changes. It becomes permanent and semi-solid, never fading, never completely evaporating. The cloud's appearance is unchanged to human eyes, but aerial entities (such as cloud giants) can recognize such altered clouds at a glance.
A cloud castle looks like a cloud from below. It moves with the wind, is white and fluffy-the only real difference is that it never dissipates, although its edges can change shape. However, anyone flying above it, and looking down, can view the castle, its gardens, perhaps even the forests, towns, and landscapes on the cloud's surface.
Construction: Manufacturing one's own permanent cloud is quite difficult, since godsblood is nearly impossible to obtain. Fortunately, storm deities are mostly a violent bunch. Their immortal ichor is frequently spilled onto clouds, so a cloud castle builder need only check out likely prospects until locating a permanent, ichor-saturated cloud.
Boarding one of these clouds is easy; flying creatures can simply land atop the foggy mass. Landbound giants must wait until the cloud bumps into a mountain, then climb aboard while it is still caught on the pinnacle.
Once aboard the cloud, it must be prepared for construction. The cloud-stuff itself is soft and fluffy, and while it can support enormous weight, it is quite unsuitable for use as building material. Fog cutters and fog tongs are needed to dig the castle's foundation and carve the cloudy landscape into the desired shapes of hills, lakes, rivers, and valleys.
Fog cutters are nonmagical shears used to snip out cubes of cloud from the surrounding mist. The shears must be long enough to chop out the largest cube possible, and they must be sharp, as must any shears intended to cut soft materials. Most fog cutters are sized for cloud giants, and much too large for humans to wield. Fog tongs are enormous, nonmagical pincers resembling oversized ice-tongs. They are used to grip blocks of cloud and move them about. Often a rope is attached to the tongs, so the hunk of cloud can be towed, floating at a distance above and behind the user. When a great number of cloud cubes must be moved, the easiest procedure is to net them and tow them with a long rope. If landscaping is to be done, grooves must be cut out for rivers, and depressions for lakes and ponds. A few holes are usually cut entirely through the cloud to permit the threading of chains.
The builder of the castle needs one or more huge, iron dredges, attached by colossal lengths of rope and chain to the cloud. These dredges are lowered to the ground as the cloud floats by, to scoop up dirt and lift it to the surface of the cloud where it is spread to provide surface for gardens and trees. Plants and animals may be caught in the dredge as well; in that case, the better plants are used as seed stock to start gardens, and the animals are eaten or bred. Cloud giants, having little concern for human needs, usually scoop up only the best farmland. Some giants use their dredges to scoop up entire human houses, using the inhabitants as serfs to work their cloudtop farmland.
Building the castle itself is a bit more arduous. Once the foundation is prepared, the builder, usually a giant, must be lowered on a rope or chain to a good source of stone. The cloud should be anchored so it won't float off, and slabs of stone are quarried in the normal fashion. Of course, with a giant doing this work, it takes less time than for human quarry workers. Buckets are lowered from the cloud to raise the quarried stone, then the giants return to the cloud and construct the castle.
A cloud castle is inexpensive, since everything used is of natural materials (or stolen), but it may take as long as an ordinary castle to build. Fog cutters, fog tongs, dredges, anchors, and chains must be made to order, costing an average of 500 gp each; the dredges, chains, and buckets average 5,000 gp each. These items may be obtained more cheaply from giant or dwarven blacksmiths. Some giants simply walk into a small town, glower at the locals, and order them to build a house-sized dredge equipped with a mile or two of chain-or the giants will devastate the town.
Statistics:
* Size: Larger than an ordinary castle.
* Structural points: As an ordinary castle or stronger. Cloud castles are usually larger, stronger, and cruder than normal castles, having been built by and for giants.
* Construction tools: Fog tongs and fog cutters are usually about 10 feet long and weighing well over 200 pounds. The dredges are at least 20 feet across, and weigh several tons. The anchor need only be a simple boulder attached to a long rope.
* Weight-bearing capacity: 50 pounds per square foot, per foot of cloud's thickness. Thus, a cloud 40 feet thick can support 20,000 pounds per square foot, sufficient for most building purposes.
* Movement: At the speed and in the direction of the prevailing wind.
Cloud castles are almost self-sufficient. Their gardens and animal life provide enough food to support many inhabitants, and if the fare ever gets dreary, the inhabitants need only lower a dredge to scoop up an orchard or a barn full of cattle. Waste materials are easily dumped overboard.
It does not rain very often on cloud castles, since they float at altitudes equal to or higher than those of many rain clouds. When drought threatens, a bucket is lowered to a pond and water scooped up and dumped in one of the cloud castle's lakes. The gardens and farms on the cloud must be irrigated, and that chore is done by whatever serfs the giants have captured.
A cloud castle makes an ideal raiding base. By its very nature, it provides excellent camouflage. It is almost continually on the move, rarely remaining behind to suffer retribution. When the castle drifts over a likely prospect, such as a wealthy citadel or a prosperous hamlet, the giants simply lower ropes and chains, then swarm down to rob the area blind. The cloud's motion can be controlled slightly by the use of huge bellows and fans, so it can be made to float directly over a ground castle, enabling the giants to bypass the fortress's outer defenses. If necessary, giants subdue defenders by dropping large boulders, tree trunks, dead horses, and similar debris.
While the cloud never completely dries out or disintegrates, its edges do change shape, and any structure built too near the edge may be damaged or even fall over the side. In addition, the cloud changes size with the prevailing moisture in the air. When traveling over a steaming jungle, the cloud swells, becoming much larger than usual. When over arid regions, it may shrink to a third its normal size.
Cloud castles are at the whim of the winds. If becalmed, the inhabitants may be unable to find loot, food, or water for weeks. They also suffer water shortages if the castle is blown over an ocean or desert. Castles are sometimes attacked by flying monsters, creatures that are both more rare and more fearsome than earthbound beasts. Dragons, wyverns, and griffins can be difficult to drive away, even for giants.
Category:Encyclopedia Magica Magic Items
Category:Magic Items
Category:Magic Castles