Manna-Dancer Class Sky-Ships

The power as with all Sky-Ships is generated by Magi-core engines, overseen of course by the ship's engineer and their small but highly skilled staff. Recommended compliment of such individuals for this class of vessel is ten, ideally with two shifts, so two Engineering officers, working 14 hour rotations to cover the full day and night when deployed. These small staffs are also responsible for the Manna-Rigging itself.

This is where this class of vessel is unique, and has found itself a niche. Due to the Manna Rigging, specialized mithrium and obsidian alloy rods, a sort of skeletal framework protruding from the sides of the vessel near its aft, and from around the rails on the port and starboard sides as well as where its 'masts' would be were it a sailing ship. These protrusions, the 'masts' of course tall enough, risen on plain timber and steel to keep the manna away from crew members, are an interconnected system for raw manna, raw energy under complex manipulation being fed through copper and obsidian alloyed piping, with mithrium channels all about the outer edges of the vessel to guide this raw energy, forming what are known as 'Mannasails'.

These flickering 'blankets' of energy act much like real sails, which at the altitudes Sky-Ships travel are truly unusable due to cross winds, icing and dampness, problems raw energy does not have. This allows them greater speed and control, for these sails can be calibrated from the engine deck precisely using a complex system of ports, control apparatuses and switchboards. This is why this class has three Magi-core engines, not two. One is an auxiliary, one is primary, but one is designated as 'Secondary/Rigging' and is used for those two purposes, being utilized before the auxiliary in case of power loss, or whenever the captain and crew may desire the sails be active.

Normal Sky-Ships mostly cap out at about some 35-40 miles/hr (56-64 kms/hr). Utilizing these sails correctly, and insuring you calibrate them and the sensitive manna propulsion reader, or MPR system correctly can allow a vessel with Rigging to reach speeds up to a confirmed 50 miles/hr (some 80kms/hr). How this works in unison with the crew being capable of doing, well anything, is again tied to having the power of a two engines, allowing some of this raw manna to be utilized to create a sort of almost magnetizing stability within the iron framework of the ship's floors, not strong enough to truly interfere with other metal components and such, or tools, but just enough to create a light pull upon the standard issue aero boots, with a thin iron mesh in the toe cap and sole. Similarly all other equipment and non-fastened parts of Manna-Dancer class Skyship have such mesh as part of their construction on their bottoms, to insure though they can be moved, they cannot simply slide wildly and freely. This magnetism is a side effect of the raw energy coursing through and around the ship when manna sails are active.

These sails can also be precisely controlled by the engineering crew in response to orders from the helm or the captain to steer with. Deck side and rudder sails have dampener sliders and kill switches which will slide angled obsidian lenses into the pipework feeding the manna through to those nodes, slowing the flow and arrivial of energy, and even cutting it off outright for a time as needed. Doing this can allow sharper banking, swifter turns and maneuvers whilst airborne and swifter climbs and dives.

Besides the normal cannon and other such guns and tools one might expect, Manna-Dancer Sky-Ships have a unique close quarters weapon and defensive system. Should another vessel or some flying beast or other such close in from either side, the engineers can actually flip a different kill switch for the nodes facing the appropriate direction. Doing so instead of triggering any of the lenses instead opens all flows full tilt to that node and sees the energy overload through the mithrium node, pulled in and through the node and discharged as a short range burst of raw elemental destructive force. Skilled engineers can even manipulate the type of energy unleashed by manipulating the finer controls to dictate which types of elemental energy filter into the piping system and which types get vented out the exhaust ports back into the soup of reality once again. Further more deploying the nodes without powering them can, in some cases, actually protect or lessen the impact of arcane magicks being attempted upon the ship's structural integrity, though this has an exceptionally high skill ceiling not just for the engineers but for the crew in general and thus is a rarely seen defensive measure that can be attempted and has been performed successfully in the past. For such a move, timing is everything and the window is quite small to get it right.

These vessels are quite robust, generally built of ironwood timbers with steel frames and skeletons. As well, given they are not in the ocean or on the water, one cannot so easily cripple any Sky-Ship, as cannon fire though still highly dangerous, opening holes in the vessel and allowing dampness and ice to form at appropriate altitudes at areas open to those holes, such risks are more to her crew as opposed to the vessel's structural integrity. The Magi-core engine room is the only part of the interior structure that is not merely timber. It is steel walls, oft imbued with Topaz enchantments on the outside, to strengthen the metal further. The cores themselves are not truly open to the air, however are contained in small wells in floor, lined with a thin layer of obsidian plating, and a small lead door that can be closed over the engine core if needed, cutting off all connection to the ship. Such a procedure is dangerous but is protocol should the walls of the engine room be breached. Better to lose some power and start potentially falling, with hopes of restarting at least one engine safely to avoid crashing, than to allow a true meltdown.

Sky-Ships have impressive magi-tech guts besides the magi-core engines and this includes an empowered Aerocall system that allows contact through specialized nodes of opal dust encrusted tuning forks basically, heavily enchanted and connected to brass coilings and wires of copper that feed all through the ships guts to other nodes, allowing orders and communications to be heard and passed along through the vessel. This is a key benefit to how Sky-Ships can fight whilst airborne,

The engine room has dozens of sensory switches, lights, bells and other such apparatuses which those on the engineering staff are very familiar with and know how to address.

As noted one of the three engines will be designated 'auxiliary' which is to say it will ideally almost never be used. However this does not mean it is not properly checked and calibrated daily, or at least it should be, to maintain readiness and stability should it ever need to see use.