Gnomish sidewheeler

Gnomish Sidewheeler Gnomish sidewheelers were spelljamming ships built by gnomes out of collected materials from various sources and assorted gnomish inventions. They were sometimes referred to as dreadnoughts. "I hatesss gnomesss. Pesssty little devilsesss. Make Hashtak want to kill, sss, yesss, they do."

- A lizardman after traveling aboard the gnomish sidewheeler Whizbang Starwonder.

Description
Each sidewheeler was unique in design. Gnomes put their own individuality and practicality in their construction and repair, adding and salvaging new parts as needed, so over time a sidewheeler also gradually changed its appearance. The spelljamming helms on these ships were usually grandiose constructions, which the crew also tinkered with constantly.

Giant space hamsters were used to power the side wheels of these spelljamming craft, which is how they created propulsion for non-spelljamming speeds. Large running wheels powered by the hamsters wound up giant rubber bands, which stored the energy. The hamsters would run for hours at a time in this role. Before the gnome research committee invented giant space hamsters, gnomes ran on the wheels.

Because of their unstable construction, sidewheelers were usually ill-suited for landing on the ground or staying afloat on water. Since the chance of accident was high, sidewheeler crews either never landed or sometimes prepared to brace the ship together with improvised material. In other cases, they simply allowed the ship to crash and then rebuilt another one from the wreckage.

Sidewheelers were most commonly used by gnomes for exploration and transport. Less commonly, a ship might be loaded with large amounts of weaponry.

Notable Sidewheelers

 * The Unquenchable

Appearances

 * Into the Void