The Gnomes

The Gnomes were once part of a large Empire which sprawled out a large section of Dural Stuk'daril. This Empire, as do all, eventually crumble and fall to pieces, like that of a poorly treated clock. The Gnomes now, live mostly in other Kingdoms and Empires.

Some whisper of a secret Gnomish kingdom, hidden away in a remote location. This is a fabrication, and a fatasy. The only group of Gnomes call themselves the Clockwork Army, and are known as master ship builders. This 'Clockwork Army' is only 200 strong, and due to this, the amount of ships that they create are much less than that of the silly humans. Anyone who is, however able to get their hands on a coveted 'Clockwork Ship', are praised by some, and envied by others.

These ships are flat, and long. They are flat bottomed, like that of a river boat. The design of the ship was to allow the ship to move litterally anywhere. That said, large sections of Dural Stuk'daril are shallow, and littered with many small islands, and large rocks, which would tear open any larger ship. There are also the dangers of reefs, and those which lurk in the deep parts of the archipelago.

These ships, which are more along the lines of glorified skiff-barge, things- have several coils positioned partially under the boat and to the side. These are fully maneuverable, and spin like a propeller to move the boat. After the boat reaches land, or an extremely shallow part which threatens to damage the bottom of the boat, the propellers uncoil themselves, and the boat proceeds to walk on land.

This is an extremely complex machine, with many working parts. However, to try to combat the problem, that with a hard enough hit, the entire thing will stop working, each 'leg' works independantly of the rest. To control the entire boat, each one requires a Gnome captain. That is the only required crew, and makes the clockwork ship a very valuable transport ship. With only needing one crew member, you can store a lot more cargo.