Coatl

The Coatl is the party's airship and primary means of transportation.

Appearance[]

The Coatl is a very heavily modified Manta-class transport, one of the most common artifact vessels in the Second Age. Lookshy keeps over 100 in constant operation, and they form the core of Lookshy's aerial force. It scarcely resembles its father model, however.

The Coatl is about 38 yards across, 25 yards long, and 17 yard tall. It is shaped like a sort of hybrid between a cobra and a manta ray, with a large blue dome in front of the cockpit and five more spread along the front, back, and underside as gun emplacements. The "wings" are primarily black and blue jade, forming complex, graceful designs, and broad, sweeping sections. The snake is primarily orichalcum, with black jade scaling in certain areas. It has two bright blue jade eyes, which are the core of the ship's Storm Shield system. This system, when active, coats the entire vessel in a pulsing mass of blue lightning. They also serve as nice large windows from the captain's cabin.

Entering the Coatl is possible from the front, through stairs on either side of the cockpit, provided a cooperative pilot or AI, or the accompaniment of Cid. It is also possible from a secret hatch on top, or from any of the gunning stations, all requiring similar approval.

The cockpit has an enormous display of instruments, even for a First Age vessel. Directly behind it are eleven chairs surrounding a large glass table. The front five of these chairs can rotate and move along tracks to assist the pilot. This central room has three hallways leading from it in right angles. At the end of each is a gunner's station. Turn left, and the left chamber is Amyana's, the right Arkadi's. Turn right, and the left chamber is Brigid's, the left is Amber's. Directly above the pilot's chair is a hatch that leads to Shadow's Grace's cabin. Each door has a small orichalcum caste mark over it. Straight, and the left has a cargo hold that has been outfitted for Simhata use. The right has a cargo that that holds actual cargo, but this is mostly filled by a small archive of books (mostly empty shelves) and a small but very high quality workshop. Keep going straight to reach the largest gunner station and a hatch down to the lower level.

The lower level is smaller, and shaped like a wide, short letter T. The bottom is the entrance hatch, and on either side are the whirring jade Essence turbines. Straight ahead you can see the Essence core, the power source of the ship. It has large orichalcum sockets holding great pieces of the highest quality black jade, wrapped in orichalcum wire. Above this rests the ship's primary Hearthstone socket. Below it is the core of the ship's stealth systems. Each of the two side branches lead past complex magitech equipment to a gunning station. The left side also holds a large barrel filled with a strange semiliquid gel, and several grenades. The right side has a small clearing just large enough for the seats of a partially expanded Resplendent Dolphin submarine, as well as a holster for keeping it in its compact form.

Shade, the ship's AI, appears as a 20-year-old male with a crew cut and in military uniform. He is very disciplined and never backs down from a challenge, and a very quick thinker. He is, however, very easily tricked, rather naive, and tends to take other people's statements as facts without questioning them.

Stats[]

Speed: 50/100 MPH/2400 miles a day

Dragon Drive: 800 MPH/19200 miles a day

Maneuverability: +5S (Lore 2, Sail 5)

Currently +5S, with an additional -1 penalty to all piloting rolls

DV with Dax as Pilot: ( 5 (Wits) + 5 (Sail) + 5 (Maneuverability) - 1 (Damage) / 2 = DV 7
DV with Fern as Pilot: ( 3 (Wits) + 2 (Sail) + 5 (Maneuverability) - 1 (Damage) - 3 (Failure to meet Minimums)) / 2 = DV 3

Endurance:

Requires a level-4+ hearthstone plugged into the essence core to operate
Pilot must commit 5 motes during flight
Requires about one man-hour of maintenance spread out each day of flight

Crew: 5/3 (Lore 2, Sail 2), 1/1 with Solar Captain

Cargo: Several dozen cramped passengers, luxurious quarters for five plus a simhata

Armor: Soak 25L/25B, Hardness 10L/10B
Currently Soak 15L/15B

Health Levels: Ux25/Mx15/Cx10/Ix5/D
Currently has 25 levels of damage

Weapons:

Storm Shield
Speed 6, Acc +4, Dam. 3L to 30L, Rate 1, Range 10

Aimed by pilot with Wits + Sail
Cost: 1m per 3L damage, maximum 10m for 30L

Light Fire Cannon x2
Speed 6, Acc -3, Dam. 20L, Rate 1, Range 50

Aimed by passenger with Dex + Archery
Cost: Resources ••• of firedust
Two of these are currently equipped in the two small slots

Grenade Distribution System

Aimed by anyone in ship
As thrown; use individual grenade statistics

Mechanics[]

The Coatl has a 100 mph flight speed. It is fairly nimble but still makes occasional unexpected swerves.

The Coatl has a single 35-mote Essence Core. Combined with Shade's reserves, it has access to 45 motes.

The Coatl has plenty of room for comfortably holding five passengers and a Simhata. It could carry another ten or twelve with a slight cost of privacy, and another forty at the cost of comfort. Cramming more than 60 people in the ship is probably best left for emergencies.

The Coatl has a mechanism for deploying a Resplendent Dolphin-class submarine with passengers, albeit no way of cushioning the impact, so the mechanism is currently somewhat limited.

The Coatl has exercise equipment ideal for training physical attributes in Arcadi's chambers, a musical storage system in Amber's chambers, a temple in Amyana's chambers, a written archive in Brigid's chambers with several rare spellbooks (including three that were previously unheard of), and a quick release mechanism to the cockpit in Shadow's Grace's room. Careful inspection of Shadow's Grace's room reveals a secret passage to the roof of the vessel. In its cargo hold it carries supplies for a First Age Master's workshop as well as storing Brigid's archives.

The Coatl needs an enormous amount of general repairs, and each subsystem needs to be repaired individually. Examination shows that it had been involved in a collision of some sort and the damage was never fully fixed. More importantly, Shadow's Grace tore out core components of virtually all of the ship's subsystems, and was none too gentle doing so.

Completing the Coatl's general repairs requires a flawless workshop, Resources 4 in materials, and skills for Repair 5. It takes 25 successes at a difficulty 5 with an interval of one day. This would restore the full integrity of the ship's armor and health levels, as well as completely eliminating the more general problems around the ship.

Upgrading the Coatl is entirely possible; the ship was designed with that in mind. Tapping into the Essence Core is a downright trivial addendum in artifact creation.

Primary Subsystems[]

Essence Core: Stores the ship's Essence reserves, a 35-mote pool.

There are two additional slots for Essence batteries. These produce motes as an artifact-socketed Essence battery, and may be crafted out of one Fair Folk Heart per dot and a large amount of black jade. Higher dot versions require the hearts of more potent Fair Folk. Could theoretically be constructed with other materials. Additional slots could also be made, with some difficulty, but the individual batteries would then lose some fraction of their potency.
This is also the location of the primary Hearthstone socket.

Essence Turbines: Recharge the ship's Essence reserves, and are also tied to the ship's drive systems.

The ship maneuvers smoothly and flies without scarcely making a noise.
The turbines draw on enough ambient Essence to restore Essence to any on board as a demesne with the properties of the set Hearthstone. These do not supersede any manse the ship happens to be in; use whichever is higher.
Most importantly, this allows the ship to restore its essence at the rate of one mote per tick even when outside a manse; however, the storm shield must be inactive as it interferes with the ambient Essence. Parking on a manse allows for near-instant regeneration at quadruple the manse's rating per tick, but reduces the ship's DV to 0 and makes it impossible to use the Storm Shield offensively (though not defensively).

Dragon Drive: Propel the ship very quickly in the direction of a manse of which a Solar Captain is attuned to, and is potent enough for the Hearthstone to power the vessel (rating 4+). Follows dragon lines. Requires 20 motes to engage; places ship on top of destination manse for quick recharge.

Oblivion's Eye: Shrouds the ships from any viewing, be it visual, Essence Sight, or even some workings of Fate. It redirects all Essence that touches the vessel's hull directly to a coin-sized piece of pure Oblivion. This gives the ship three automatic success on Stealth rolls, which is augmented by the fact that it makes virtually no noise in flight. It also allows a Solar Captain to affect the entire vessel with Stealth charms such as Easily Overlooked Presence Technique. When combined with Shade's Camouflage charm, the ship could likely fly directly over the Imperial City and park there for several days.

The system is fully intact except for one key piece. You guessed it; the piece of pure Oblivion.
Repair 4, but only five successes are necessary

Reality Engine: The party has placed a Reality Engine belowdecks near the Essence Core. The engine is a beautiful golden First Age mirror in the shape of the sun. It protects the ship and its inhabitants from the Wyld.

Shade[]

Shade, Reborn: Restored to Essence 2.

20 mote pool.
Capable of serving as an Omniscient Literary Adviser.
Allows sight from pilot's chair at any angle, not just the windshield.
Allows long-distance verbal communication with other vessels.
INT 2, WIT 3, PER 2, CHA 2, MAN 1. Valor 3, Temperance 3, Conviction 1, Compassion 2. Considered sentient being.
Can pilot itself with Lore 2, Sail 5.
Charm added: Measure the Wind, one mote to analyze the exact statistics of any non-First Age ship and grants two automatic successes to detect hidden or "cloaked" vehicles.

Shade, Complete: Fully restored to Essence 3.

30 mote pool.
Capable of using the ship's Dreamscape Training Simulation Systems.
Telepathic communication with all crew members up to five miles away, also allowing party intercommunication.
INT 3, WIT 5, PER 3, CHA 2, MAN 1, APP 2. Valor 3, Temperance 3, Conviction 1, Compassion 2. Considered an Exalt for some purposes.
Charms added: Essence Bite, Tracking, Camouflage, Uncanny Prowess, Spirit-Cutting. See WotLA:146.
Requires a very powerful Dreamstone. These grow naturally near the Wyld, but the most powerful ones are controlled by the Realm and Lookshy, particularly in sorcerous academies.
Repair: 4
Current Status

Secondary Subsystems[]

Creation Map Readout: This is the central glassy table in the central meeting room.

Five-Star Compass: Points to each of the elemental poles.

Sympathetic Elemental Scanner: This is the thing resembling a swimming pool underneath the glass table.

Requires elementals to be bound to it.

Dragon Lines Scanner: Displays all local dragon lines.

Hearthstone Compass: This serves as a Hearthstone Compass for all hearthstones set in any of the ship's systems.

Personnel Tracker: This tracks the location of each crew member relative to the ship.

Portrait: Marvelous portrait in the central command chamber.

Dreamscape Systems: Allows the party to train in supernaturally ideal conditions via their dreams.

Counts as sleep, so training times are halved again, as well as being halved if a properly formatted dreamstone exists.
Training regimen may also be interspersed with normal daily activities.
Formatting a Dreamstone requires Shade's assistance, but simply requires one night and the desired ability rank. This allows members of the crew to train each other.
Alternately, entertainment dreamstones may be played for particularly restful sleep, allowing the full restoration of Willpower after a single night. These can be easily uploaded with music from Amber's chambers as well.
Dreamstones may only train abilities and specialties, not Essence or Attributes.
Helmets exist in each of the private chambers, as well as on each chair surrounding the command center table. Currently thoroughly smashed and lacking any dreamstones.
Requires orichalcum and a powdered Dreamstone per helmet, as well as any Dreamstone for actual use. More importantly, it requires Shade to be fully restored.
Repair 3 per helmet.

Weapons Systems: The Coatl has five weapons stations.

Current Weapons
- Two Small Fire Cannons
Two are capable of holding weapons up to a Warstrider Fire Lance, Light Implosion Bow, Essence Twister, Small Essence Cannon, or any Light cannon or ballista (including Sailcutter).
Two are capable of holding weapons up to a Medium Implosion Bow, or Medium Essence Cannon, as well as the above.
One is capable of holding a Heavy Concussive Essence Cannon, Lightning Ballista, or Heavy cannon or ballista, as well as the above.
With a Repair 1 and no particularly expensive materials, any magitech weapon can be modified for use at one of these stations. They allow the gunner to draw essence from the ship's Core.
Alternate weapons, such as a Panic Projector or even something like the weapons system of a Glorious Scythe, could be integrated into the ship or stations with a bit of work.

Grenade Distribution System: This allows the any crew member in a gunner station to reflexively have any grenade stored in the system.

Current Grenades
- 3 Sun's Fist Chakram (*) Deals 8A Holy damage, radius 5 yards / 15 yards
- 5 Essence Bomb (*) Deals 10B Piercing damage, radius 10 yards / 30 yards
Obviously, additional grenades can be crafted out of a wide variety of materials. Particularly exotic materials may have interesting results.