by Bert Sassen
[ Deckplans ]
A rare ship in space, the human built Deathspire is mainly used by privateers and wealthy pirates. It was designed and built by a powerful pirate order called 'The Nemesis' that was a threat to all spacefarers until the Elven Navy decided to put an end to their existance.
The Deathspire has been designed with speed, maneuverability and strength in mind, resulting in an ideal fast-attack ship. All Deathspires have additional rigging installed, which has been accounted for in the ship's statistics. Although the ship can be controlled with a minor helm, most are equiped with a major helm. The Deathspire has been designed for battle, so both windows (one in the library and one on the bridge) are the results of a glasssteel spell.
The ship's ram is hollow and made from hardened steel. The tip of the ram has been designed to fall off after ramming, so that a boarding party can enter a rammed ship and surprise it's crew by attacking from within. Ten to fifteen medium sized creatures can fit into the detachable tip. The ships maneuverability class drops to D when the tip detaches.
During ramming, the crew waiting in the ram tip need to make a Strength check to hold on. On a successful check, nothing happens. On a failed check, they take 1d6 damage and must make a Dexterity check to remain standing.
Since this is a fairly new design, no major modifications have been seen to date. There are a few ships with which have permanently attached the ram. This way it acts like a cone ram.
