Khel'ghor Scoutship by Chasmyr

MV: 360'/rnd or 25 miles/day

Hull Points:150

Hold Capacity: 3 cubic tons

AC: 4

ight vessel used by the humans of Mysaniti for scouting purposes. Designed based on shrikeships used by spelljammers on the human homeworld, the Khel'ghor has one major difference from the shrikeship. No spelljamming helm. The requisite spells were lost in the Exodus of Man, thus rendering all human-made vessels from being spelljamming capable. This does not, however, keep them from being a decisive force in keeping human-held lands free from the ravages of the drow and fainal aerial forces.

The Khel'ghor scoutship typically carries an 8th level fighter who doubles as ships captain and navigator, one 10th level ships wizard, who can also double as the navigator, and from 5-10 1st-3rd level men at arms. Frequently the fighter complement will be augmented by a ships wizard apprentince(1st-5th level wizard) or a ships priest(1st-7th level priest). In rare cases the captain is a dual classed fighter/mage(ret). All persons aboard are armed with exceptional quality weapons(+1 to hit only) usually long swords(forged in cold-iron) and crossbows. The men-at-arms are typically armored with leather armor, while the captian and priests wear chain mail.

The Khel'ghor scoutship is kept aloft and powered by means of permanenced flight spells on a set of devices called levitators set into the hull itself. The height of the ship is controlled by the person sitting in the helm chair. The speed of the ship is controlled from the helm. The pilot (person sitting in the helm) must be a mage or cleric or the ship only maintains it's current heading. If no-one is in the chair, the vessel lowers itself slowly to the ground. The scoutships wings provide limited gliding ability in the event the vessel can no longer be held aloft by the magic within the hull. This rarely gives more control than that neccessary for a controlled crash.

The Khel'ghor scoutships typical armament is a ballista fore, aft and amidships. The ship normally carries three types of ammo for the ballistas, which are stored in the ships armory.

1)Fire Bolts. These are made with Fire Trap (variable level) cast on a hollow glass head filled with greek fire. Obviously this weapon does a great deal of fire damage if it hits.

2)Grappling Bolts. These bolts come in various forms, the most common being a barbed head designed to embed itself into the hull of an enemy ship, and then spread the barbs.

3)Normal Bolts. These are normal ballista bolts.

A Khel'ghor scoutship is not constructed with heavy armor of any kind.

All Khel'ghor scoutships utilize rotatable continual light globes for cruising in a completely dark condition. These globes rotate into the hull of the ship so as to prevent anyone from spotting the vessel as easily by night. While the original use of these globes was for running lights, the same device has been used for inside the ships as well.

Chasmyr note-Players of Spelljammer will notice the extreme likeness of the Khel'ghor Scoutship to a shrikeship's layout. Yes, the floorplan is the same. See the first paragraph above. The floor plans of all spell jammers are available at TSR Inc.

Some notes on creating sky ships!