Making the most of a ship

[Integral]

Hey all,


So, in a campaign I'm involved in at the moment, it looks like we'll soon be in possession of a (mundane) pirate ship. Party just hit level 5, and consists of:

Human Warblade3/Barbarian1/Fighter1 - Me, charger build
Grey Elf Wizard (conjurer) 5 - Heading in to Spellguard or Fatespinner, probably, ench and nec banned.
Human Cleric5 - DMM Quicken, heading Radiant Servant.

My question is: can anyone think of some fun things to do with this ship? Our campaign is centred around a pirate-esque port town and surroundings, so I think we're going to try to use the ship as a base of operations. With that in mind, my main concerns are

1) Protecting it, particularly when we're not there
2) Having a quick way to retreat to it - would be especially useful if one could retreat to it rapidly while it's moored offshore

Books allowed are any 3.5 non-region specific, FR, no Dragon mag.


Cheers!

[the_shadowmind]

Open the Stronghold Builder's Guide book for ideas/guide lines.

And find a way to make it fly. And have lasers.
For the Lasers I think DMGII has spell-turrets.
Some of these things will be out of the price range for a few levels.

[Gavinfoxx]

Once you get enough spells to be able to craft stuff well and and someone gets craft wondrous item, sell it (those things are expensive!) and build your own flying ship out of metal?

Here's some ideas...

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9278.0
http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=10182.0

[PhaedrusXY]

What's the name of that relatively low level spell specifically made to let really heavy things levitate? Cast that on it... and get some winged zombies to pull it around.

[Gavinfoxx]

Suspension is the name of the spell. Check those two threads! =D

[Mixster]

If you all grab leadership at the next level, you can have an army of mooks looking after your ship. If you give one of them some gold, you can make sure he can ask a guy to cast sending for him so he can contact you.

Another option is asking your Conjurer to choose Shrink Item, depending on the size of the ship.