Quant

The Riftrunner (once it's completed) will be a magnificent vessel. It'll be capable of travel through not just space, but the void between dimensions! Weathering the worst conditions other planes of existence can muster, the Riftrunner will be the only thing between its crew and certain doom. But it'll survive those dangers with barely a scratch. And it's all thanks to the magical wards of Captain Quant! Not only does his magic infuse every surface of the Riftrunner with incredible fortitude, but he can surround the entire ship with an impenetrable barrier at will. Sure, all that magic would immediately dissipate if something was to happen to him. But he's the captain! Obviously his crew will do everything they can to keep him safe.

After all, Quant does the same for them. Whenever he has a good idea, he drops whatever he's doing and gets working on making that idea into reality before he forgets all about it. Why, only just recently Quant had the brilliant idea to modify his wards on the Riftrunner so that they keep all the air inside the ship. Now, even if someone forgets to close one of the windows before the ship enters a rift — no, Quant's never done that before — they'll still be able to breathe! With that and the artificial gravity spell he's set up, the Riftrunner should keep a Sornieth-like environment no matter where they go. They almost don't need walls!

Well, they do need walls. If only for Quant's sake. He's already fallen off the roof of the ship a few times when too focused on inspecting his wards. He doesn't need to worry about falling out of the Riftrunner while it's in travel as well. The crew would never let him live it down. Embryes already goes out of her way to include instructions like "don't trip over Lotorc's plants" and "remember to open doors instead of running into them" in her messages. Having her suggest he get his wings ready to fly back on board the ship every time they take off might be a step too far. Additionally, maintaining physical magical barriers of extended periods of time is exhausting. Wards on pre-existing material is much less work.

So the walls will stay. Heavily warded as they are, there's few places in Sornieth safer than inside the Riftrunner. Well, as long as Quant's around to maintain the magic. Unlike some dragons he could name, Quant paid attention in his history lessons. The Astrolab failed because the runes holding it together failed. Or were repurposed. Or were stolen. Or were eaten. There was a lot of claw-pointing in the fallout of the Astrolab's reentry, and exactly how so many things went wrong is a point of contention. But his point stands: runes are a poor choice for any vessel that plans to leave Sornieth. That's why instead of runes, Quant uses himself as the anchor for all his magic. The perfect solution: as long as he's around, no amount of meddling can damage the wards keeping the ship in functioning order. You can't steal an entire dragon, after all. And if you can, well, his crew had better rush to rescue their captain or they'll all be stuck in an alternate plane of reality.

With his magic protecting them, nobody needs to worry. Quant has everything under control. Well, other than the antics of the Riftrunner's pilot. Perhaps too trusting in Quant's protective magic (and far too trusting in his own skills), Jerrence seems determined to crash the Riftrunner the moment he gets it running for the first time. Quant hasn't put near as many wards on that short-range ornithopter that he's been practising in, but Jerrence immediately pushed that machine past its limit and never looked back. Once he's actually able to pilot the much larger Riftrunner, Quant can hardly imagine what stunts Jerrence will try to pull. Sure, he'll be able to put up enough shields to save the ship. But it's going to be exhausting.

Quant can also cast individual shielding magic for encounters outside the Riftrunner. Whether it's protecting Kirko as she flies ahead to scout or shielding Ulrik from an attack that might crush the combat robot, he will protect the lives of the crew. And they'd better fight for him, because Quant's more likely to be tripping over his own tail than actually accomplishing anything in a melee. He might be able to magically throw a rock at someone. Maybe. Odds are he'll miss.

There's a pile of those sound recording crystals that Cyrus uses in a corner of Quant's sleeping quarters. Quant picks up the ones that he finds scattered around on the floor while checking the strength of the wards, and then keeps forgetting to actually return them to Cyrus. Well, keeping them in his quarters isn't all bad. The recordings of Cyrus's research make for something mildly interesting to fall asleep to.

Other dragons have made use of Quant's skills with wards as well. Wren in particular. The wildclaw started by asking for some spells to keep his submarine pressurized, but it's escalated from there. Next it was strengthening the front of the hull so that it could be used for ramming attacks. Then he wanted to make it even more undetectable, travelling so smoothly through the water than it doesn't even leave a single eddy behind it. He's even had to use runes to bind the wards so that they keep working when he's not around. Quant would be annoyed with how much work Wren's had him do if the wildclaw didn't share his lax disposition. He doesn't even seem that worried about whether the wards actually work or not! Which is good, because honestly Quant doesn't know either. It's not like there's been much opportunity to test them.

(Don't tell the crew that.)