Viking longship travel rates

Hmmm...what if they have a powerful cleric or undead who could wrest control from us?

...maybe we shouldn't be giving Jonathan ideas?

With animal control spells/devices maybe we could get whales or sharks to help pull the boat.

On land... Yes... Elephants are too big and costly for us to maintain. Rhinos however... (kidding)

As much fun as these living things are, they need air, food and water. Undead are a far better alternative.

Since the party will object to using undead, if we want to look into animals for defense, we should look at raising a standard cavalry for starters. Maybe get a dog to guard the front door. Cats could help with the rodent problem.

I'm sorry but, we start off with Zombie powered long ships and are now reduced to very pedestrian alternatives. That said I'll give it some thought... sigh...

Maybe we should do some research and see if we can figure out how to make living ships that will row themselves. Then all we need to do is find some way of feeding them...maybe leaves and stuff. Some movie or tv show had something like that, and it was in a book i recently read. Then because it is purpose designed/built we have no moral or ethical dilemma with using or making it. And best of all, we could then license manufacturers (or make our own shipyard) and supply the navies of the world.

kubera wrote:

SteveL wrote:

On the other hand, if all work is performed for free, who would need a job?

but only those that owned zombies would control the means of productions leaving necromancers as the ruling class, considering most of them are very evil it would not be an pleasant society. Peasants would be left to starve while the rich were supplied with everything by the zombie hoardes, the poor would only be bread as animation fodder. [...]

Why wouldn't zombie employment be an economic benefit like other labour saving devices?

As Carter mentions "unscrupluous" zombie providers would most likely procure new zombies from the homeless and those least likely to be missed. I imagine that all penalties for breaking the law would eventually be ramped up to the death penalty as well. Zombies would certainly be an economic benefit, but there is a huge ethical dilemma attached. As it stands now, if your washing machine breaks, you don't have to worry if someone will die when you replace it.

Jonathan wrote:

As Carter mentions "unscrupluous" zombie providers would most likely procure new zombies from the homeless and those least likely to be missed. I imagine that all penalties for breaking the law would eventually be ramped up to the death penalty as well. Zombies would certainly be an economic benefit, but there is a huge ethical dilemma attached. As it stands now, if your washing machine breaks, you don't have to worry if someone will die when you replace it.

We wouldn't need to kill anyone. I can control zombies that we encounter.

I think his comment was about an hypothetical all zombie economy not our situation.

I think it comes down to only using the item to turn undead against each other, which is certainly a useful skill for a few more levels. The loss of prestige, face, settlers and soldiers because the see us as unsavory is not worth the advantage a couple dozen zombies would afford us.

What you do with it out of our lands( or in the basement of your own tower) is your business but it would seem the council finds this issue too contentious and will not sanction it open use. I have no free will on the matter due to my new found religious restrictions.

However a breeding and training program for more wholesome beasts might be in order as shock troops.