Helm Pilot

Helm Pilot

There are many places in wildspace a good helm pilot
is needed to navigate
certain sections. Where there are multiple Sargasso
areas, anomalies, grinder
asteroid system or just plain hazard, a pilot is
needed to guide a ship through
this dangers. The helm pilot is really nothing more
than the local helmsman or
navigator, or even just the sailor that knows the area
like the back of his
hand. In most cases a harbor will be at both end of
the hazard and the fee
charged by the pilot is nominal. The pilot will not
man the helm itself but
will give orders and direction for the helmsman to
follow. The pilot's
reputation alone is good enough for the captain to
trust his
whole ship to the pilot.


Grinder Asteroid System

Asteroid system is prevalent on most crystal spheres,
some even sport two and
sometimes even three complete asteroid systems in the
sphere. Most are torus
shape and they follow the procession of other heavenly
bodies and planetoid in
the systems, but other are like the one found in
Greyspace where it is in a
spheroid configuration. This in itself is not a
problem, unless it is a grinder
type asteroid field. Grinder asteroid field move in
every direction imaginable.
Entering such field invites damage if not destruction
to a spelljamming ships.
This miles thick belt can challenge even the best
navigator, helmsman and crew
of any ship. There are however a few places where a
stable corridors are
located. This corridors twist and snaked through the
field and only an
experienced pilot will know where to turn, dive, rise,
speed up or slow down to
avoid the hazards. Most corridors have been stable for
centuries and outposts
are established on the outside and inside opening of
the corridor. A healthy
trade is generated between the inside and outside of
the asteroid belt and helm
pilot make it all possible.

Secret corridors have been found and guarded by
nations, or races that
discovered them at out of the way locations in the
asteroid belt. There are
also short live corridors, dead end corridors and even
pocket of asteroid free
areas. These free areas for some reason does not have
any asteroid for hundred
of yards, but does not have a corridor that leads to
it.

You can stop and hire yourself a pilot to help
navigate your ship through the
corridor. Most pilots have a high reputation and are
sought after and they can
demand high payments. The best pilots never lose a
ship in their care. There
are competing guilds that pilots are members and guild
price wars are not
uncommon. It is buyer beware, though, as some pilot
are working for wreckers,
who deliberately guide a ship into hazards. These
wreckers would then contact
their friends to salvage any cargo, ship items and
passengers to be ransomed
later.

An apprenticeship system is used to teach the next
generation how to become
competent pilots. A five year apprenticeship under a
master pilot is needed
even before a young apprentice is allowed to guide a
ship through a corridor.
After finishing the apprenticeship, he is now called a
novice pilot and after
guiding for another five years, he is elevated to
journeyman pilot. Master
pilot status is only conferred by the guild and only
after about 25 years of
exemplary service. Master pilots are the only ones
allowed to take apprentices
and certify them for service status.


Sargasso

Sargasso magic dead areas are present in some crystal
sphere. Most are thousand
of miles of magic dead areas that no spelljamming ship
can traverse safely.
These are usually circumnavigated with a delay that
most ship captains chalked
up to part of the business. Most notable and known
Sargasso are marked both in
the maps, ship's planetary system devices, and also
with space buoys. Sargasso
detection devices are uncommon and very desirable. A
company that can supply
the spelljamming ships which such a device would be
very rich. The Arcanes are
reluctant to talk about the lack of support they have
for a Sargasso detection
device. A rumor that a ship leaving Edill received a
Sargasso detection device
from the dragon inhabitants after helping them. There
is a flock of
speculators, merchants, and adventurers to the
Greyspace world of Edill to try
to secure trading rights for the detection devices.

Some Sargasso areas are not uniform in its area of
influence. The Sargasso is
amorphous and as well, as porous. The Sargasso would
tumble, spin, yawl, in
every imaginable direction. It can cause areas on the
edge of the Sargasso to
go in and out of the influence of the Sargasso. Ship
circumnavigating this area
would sometimes find itself in a dead area and would
be stranded for a few
hours to a few days until that area is out of the
influence of the Sargasso. A
new breed of entrepreneurs are using non-spelljamming
engines to tow these
ships out of the dead areas.

A porous Sargasso area is like Swiss cheese with all
the holes that can run
through the entirety of the Sargasso sea. Helm pilots
are trained and will lead
a ship though a desired location. Master pilots and
guilds over time have their
own routes, which they guard jealously, that are tried
and tested. Some pilots
are mavericks and claims to have the fastest route
through the Sargasso sea.
Ship's captain must choose the right pilot for the job
because foul play by
pilots could lead the ship in to harms way. The safe
routes are plus or minus a
few days, while a fast route might take only a few
hours. Not all destination
have a route that would lead to those areas and pilots
will try to use the
safest route that is close to that desired
destination. Mavericks have been
known to punch through small Sargasso barriers to jump
into another route
relying on the momentum of the spelljamming ship to
push it through the next
route.


Space Anomaly

Helm pilots are used to navigate most hazards that
trading and private ships
are not familiar in the area they are traversing.
Ship's captain usually hire
pilots to save them time and keep the ship safe while
in a hazard zone. Space
anomalies can mean a lot of things to a spacer, from
black holes, giant space
creature layer, and anything you can name. Hazard
constitute anything that
might hinder and damage a ship from safe transit
through an area.

Black holes are anomalies that are dark vortices, that
will overpower anything
that comes close to the event horizon. Black holes are
not visible unless they
eclipsed a visible object in the background. Black
holes ranges from pinpoint
holes in fabric of wildspace to huge funnels that
sucks all nearby mass. It has
been said that if swallowed by a black hole that one
can end up in the negative
plane, others into an entirely another sphere or prime
material and other
speculates that it can transport object into another
time period. Helm pilots
skill in knowing where these anomalies lies help the
ships avoid these hazards.

Areas have been know as hunting, lair or breeding
ground of certain space
creatures. The extermination of such creatures might
not be possible or not
desirable. Spelljamming ship that entered a kindori
breeding ground might find
itself being rammed, tail slapped or even amorously
bumped by bull kindoris.
Also a celestial dragons will not take it kindly that
spelljamming ships would
be cruising in and around it's lair and area of
influence. Many ships have been
lost because of presumptuous captains taking liberties
of cutting across a lair
of a celestial dragons. It is also been know that
certain areas of space are
krajen hunting areas and ships have been lost
transiting these areas.


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