Description

These deadly craft are purely a military machine, intended for attacking and destroying other spelljamming vessels. By their nature they require a host vessel to operate from, and a ground crew of no less than 5 to prepare them for battle, although one ground crew can handle up to 4 stingrays given 1 turn per stingray.

They resemble the animal after which they are named, although they have no tail, unlike the actual animal. These fighters are intended purely as a tactical-range strike craft, similar (but far superior) to an elven flitter.

Always powered by a petty helm, the stingray is armed with 4 light ballistae. However, these are in fixed forward facing positions on top of the wings and once fired can't be reset by the pilot in flight. Aiming is a simple matter of pointing the stingray at the target.

The ballistae “bolts” for these weapons are very special indeed. Large conical heads are filled with a compressed mixture of hydrogen and normal air. Upon impact a small amount of sodium mixes with water, producing a flame, which ignites the main charge. The resulting explosion equals a 6d6 Fireball spell in all respects. Since these weapons don't require an open flame they can be used in the phlogiston, although extreme caution must be exercised by the pilot, since the resulting blast will be 18d6 each, and also 3 times the normal size! Of course the one bright side is the explosion prevents the target from catching fire in the flow...

    Of course no one likes to carry such warheads into the flow, because they're almost as dangerous to carry as they are to use, any critical hit is likely to set them off, destroying the carrying ship completely. Ships that do carry such bolts into the flow pack them in individual airtight cases, which triples the storage space required.  

In addition to these 4 "missiles", the stingray also carries two large "glide bombs". These bombs are filled with enough Greek fire to equal 5 hits from a Greek fire projector. Glide bombs are not carried into the flow!

Successful deployment of the glide bomb requires the pilot to dive at his target, release the bomb, and pull away sharply to avoid his own weapon's back blast. Against an unsuspecting target (or one that can't get out of the way) a skilled pilot can release the bomb well outside the target's air envelope with little danger to himself.

Crew

Stingrays are strictly single pilot craft; there is no "crew space" inside the heavily armored fighter (the cockpit is enclosed, with just enough room for the petty helm). In an emergency a second person could squeeze in with the pilot, but not comfortably.

Ship Uses

This ship can only be used as military strike craft; it is simply too specialized to be converted to other uses. It is barely conceivable that a Stingray could be used as a courier, since they can land and take off on planets, but even a lowly Mosquito is better suited to that task, since it can be fitted with a regular spell jamming helm.

Other Configurations

An array of alternative armaments exists for both ballistae and glide bombs. One popular choice is lining the inside of the missile warhead with needles; these are thrown with lethal force well outside the 20' radius of the fireball itself. Targets up to 100' away must make a save versus paralyzation or suffer 3d6 damage. Those that save take no damage.

Another choice is the "meteor swarm" missile, which is basically loading the ballista with small sharp poisoned fragments. Any one struck by a fragment must save versus poison or die. This type of warhead is frowned upon in Saruspace, but pirates have been known to use it to capture ships intact with little risk to themselves.

Glide bombs can also be packed with the air/hydrogen mix used in missiles instead of Greek fire. Such bombs produce a 10 dice fireball with a 30' radius. Placing needles in the casing generates 4d6 to anyone within a 100' of the blast, a save versus paralyzation negates.

Although rare and expensive, a glide bomb can also be filled with strong acid. Such a bomb can inflict 3d6 hull points of damage, although the acid costs nearly 20,000 gold pieces and is difficult to transport safely.

Finally, there are iron bombs. These are just 200 pound tear-drop shaped pieces of solid iron. How much damage they do depends on the speed of the Stingray when the bombs are released. A bomb does 1d6 hull points of damage per 2 SR points. For example if a Stingray were traveling at SR 6 then each bomb striking the target would do 3d6 points of damage to the hull.

Stingrays delivering iron bombs always dive perpendicular to the target's gravity plane to allow the target's own gravity to give an extra boost to the bomb. Failure to do so subtracts 1d6 in damage.