"Steel Gryphon"
To Sail In the Skies
"Behold, the 'Steel Gryphon', my masterpiece. A ship which treats the sky as an ocean to travel in!"Over the last few years, work had been underway on a special project in Eva Oceana by a small team of shipwrights and gnomes. Finally unveiled early in the year 1522 AF, the "Steel Gryphon" was the brainchild of gnomish inventor Cadence Steelbolt. His team of shipwrights had been hard at work discovering problems and quashing them, sometimes with disastrous setbacks as a result. Despite all this, the Gryphon took its maiden flight in late 1522 AF and managed to travel to a nearby fishing village before returning. Plans have been made to fix several issues noticed during this voyage, and Cadence has avoided making promises about a production model.
The ship itself hasn't been classified yet, since it is built entirely from a custom hull with machinery currently unique to the world. It utilizes quintessence crystals as a power source, though this is channeled through a modified steam engine to drive the flight mechanisms. Lift is generated by an initial pulse of magical energy channeled into a flight spell. The ship is kept aloft after that through the motion of wings, modeled after birds but made from canvas and steel struts. Steering is accomplished through a combination of mechanisms attached to the wings and a rudder. It should be noted, tests indicated the ship could not remain in the sky without sufficient forward motion. Later refinements to the Gryphon took this into account by allowing the quintessence crystal to power a slow-falling enchantment.
Despite being built using resources and expertise from the Imperial shipyards, the vehicle remains the property of Cadence and his working group. These "Steelbolt Shipwrights" have been buying up materials with the stated goal of making a more standard version of the prototype. For now, the most expensive part to acquire is the quintessence crystal. The rest of it is only a matter of time and tests, according to Cadence.
The Paper Trail
The Paper Trail
Records acquired by those investigating the development of the Steel Gryphon have discovered there is quite a lot to the project which never came to light during the presentations. Firstly, the development had been done over two decades before coming to Eva Oceana, and the engine had been purely arcane in operation at first. However, controlled flight spells proved difficult to maintain for long by most known rituals. The first prototype had been trying to cross from the Moonblood Isles to Lybermis, and was lost at sea when the essence crystals being used began to overload and simply ceased functioning entirely. No explanation of why was ever determined.The second prototype had been built to the northwest in Kivese, using the knowledge of shipwrights there to adapt a small ship hull. This hull failed structural tests, often catastrophically, until steel plating was employed to hold it together. Furthermore, the lift mechanisms were designed to resemble wings belonging to large birds instead of arcane mechanisms. This was when the project became known as the "Steel Gryphon". Trying to fly it over land ended in failure, as the lift being generated by the wing design simply wasn't sufficient to keep the weight aloft. The expense was too much for the shipwrights of Kivese to continue backing the project, though they wished Cadence luck.
The third and final prototype was developed in partnership with Imperial Arcanists, who provided the necessary breakthrough in a quintessence crystal and associated control matrix. Cadence had used the work of one of his partners to adapt a steam engine to driving a small boat as a proof-of-concept, then scaled it up to work the mechanisms on the Gryphon. Two incidents were quietly buried within the research notes, indicating catastrophic failures of the "quintessence drive". While there are allusions to loss of life, members of the Steelbolt Shipwrights insist there were no casualties in these 'unfortunate accidents'. When asked about it directly, Cadence would direct people to speak to the Imperial Arcanists managing the project. No information has been forthcoming from that avenue.
It is sufficient to say, there are indications this project is exceedingly dangerous and perhaps should be pursued outside our borders. For the good of the Empire, I must advise against doing further development in Eva Oceana.
Signed,
Adric Blackburrow, Imperial Surveyor
Nickname
The Gryphon (Informally)
Prototype Three-Seven(Internally)
"The Third Time" (Internally, Informally)
Prototype Three-Seven(Internally)
"The Third Time" (Internally, Informally)
Creation Date
1522
Current location
Rarity
Unique (Prototype)
Complement / Crew
4 Crew
- Captain
- Helmsman
- Navigator
- Arcanist
Cargo & Passenger Capacity
5-8 Passengers
Light Cargo Only.
Light Cargo Only.
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