Quad of Thay

Quad of Thay The quad of Thay was a type of spelljammer designed in Thay.

Description
The ship's source of propulsion was a unique type of spelljamming helm known as a grand helm, which encompassed the entire ship. Instead of a single chair that allowed only one occupant, the grand helm allowed up to four people to channel their magic capabilities. As a result, the quad was extremely fast and capable of outrunning most ships at spelljamming speeds when fully manned. Its top speed was 200 million miles (320 million km) per day.

This unique mode of propulsion, which could be described as a type of magical phasing, caused the entire ship to emanate a bright obfuscating light while the grand helm was occupied. When in flight, the ship also ignored the gravity plane of any other ship smaller than 200 tons (180 metric tons), which meant that it did not have to slow down when meeting any ship of that size or smaller. Its own gravity plane did not extend outside the ship as it normally did around spelljammers. However, despite the great speed, the grand helm could only function in wildspace. A quad entering the phlogiston could only do so by being towed by another vessel.

Quads of Thay had no weapons, except for the four tentacle-like appendages that could be employed as a ram. Because of the ship's unique helm design, any of the tentacles breaking off resulted in a loss of speed and maneuverability. Should the ship lose all four tentacles, it would not be able to move at all.

History
Because of its unique propulsion system and its limitation to enter the phlogiston, by the mid‒14 century DR quads of Thay were extremely rare in crystal spheres outside of Realmspace.