Haku/DragonBlades

Dragon Blade Version 1.5
Material Used - Typically Jade
Weapon Type - Ranged and Melee
Artifact Level - 3
Hearthstone Slot - 2 (Located on the blade and in a holder INSIDE the handle)
Attunement Cost - 6 motes
Minimum Strength - 1
Minimum Dexterity - 3
Magical Metal Bonus - use the power bow stats for the ranged stats only.

Ranged Stats
+2 acuracy, 10L damage, rate 1, range 20

Exalted Combat Melee Stats
+1 speed, +2 accuracy, +4L damage, +3 defense

Power Combat Melee Stats
+3 speed, +4 accuracy, +4L damage, +1 defense, 6 rate

The dragonblade was the favored weapon of the terresterial exalted foot soldiers in the First Age and in the Dragonblooded Shogunate. The weapon itself is a work of wonder fusing the best of ranged and melee weaponary into a single elegant and functional unit.

First Age texts in the libraries of the Realm describe the weapon as possessing a single edged blade three feet long, four inches wide and half an inch thick, with a straight edge that grounds to a wicked fine point. The blade is unlike that of daiklaves in that there is more steel alloyed in there then magical metal, giving it a brilliant mirror surface with a tinted hint of the magical metal in the blade.

It possesses a handle and grip much like that of the 'Plasma Tongue Repeater', complete with a trigger mechanism.

Mated to the back of the blade, is a hollow barrel two feet long and shaped much like that of a dragon-sign wand or a fire wand, which is in turn fused with the weapon's handle and grip by a complicated firing mechanism.

The firing mechanism is a rotary cylinder forged of red jade with 5 chambers. Inside each chamber lies a single alchemical bolt forged of red jade, fire dust and other alchemical regents.

When the trigger is pulled, the flow of essence within the weapon ignites one of the bolts inside the firing chamber, and a gout of crimson gold flames roar out of the barrel. Once fired, the clinder rotates, giving a fresh round access to the barrel for firing.

Daring Exalts occassionally split their actions to permit them to do a melee attack and at the moment the blade sinks into their enemies, fire a gout of flame at point blank range. The combat is resolved as normal, however, do note that opponent isn't going to normally be able to dodge OR parry this method of attack without the use of charms or supernatural effects.

When the ammunition runs out, the weapon also functions well as a swift and defensive daiklave, in much the manner of a short daiklave and serves well in that manner.

To reload the weapon takes a full action and a single turn must be devoted to doing so, at least if the weapon is to be fire more then 5 times in a single combat scene.

The weapons were once common in the First Age and the Shogunate, however, they are rare now as the ammunition are difficult to manufacture under the current day conditions, and what stocks that once existed are long depleted. Most such weapons are either scavenged for material or placed in storage centuries ago. The bolts are NOT interchangerable with the rounds for the 'Fuel Bolt Launcher', but are identical to ones used by the 'Plasma Tongue Repeater'.

Outside of the Heptagram, Lookshy or Nexus, characters must have access to some sort of military chemical workshops and foundries to manufacture the ammunition. It is difficulty 3 and resources 3 to manufacture 5 rounds in such a locale.

The magical metal bonus works towards the ranged combat and is identical to the Power-Bow magical metal bonuses.

There are more powerful versions out there, typically meant for unit commanders. Such artifacts can actually fire without any rounds in them if the exalt is willing to sacrifice 2 motes for each shot fired, or is willing to forgo the power of a level 2 fire or solar aspect hearthstone.

For unattuned exalts or mortals, the Dragon Blade can be used as a crude chopping sword, while the firing mechanism works as per normal as long as there is a round in said weapon. The stats for such usage are as follows.

Stats for or un-attuned users -
Exalted Combat Melee Stats
-3 speed, -1 accuracy, +4L damage, -2 defense, minimum strength 3

Power Combat Melee Stats
+3 speed, +2 accuracy, +4L damage, -1 defense, 3 rate, minimum strength 3

Peanut Gallery

C&C Goes here and is always welcomed.

EDIT : changed the stats for melee combat. reducing the stats from the equivilant of a reaper daiklave to a short daiklave. ~ Haku

Well, the stats look ok, gunblades are always fun to have, hmm, do you think that these would work as weapons for RD style and Neph's add on style for gun mounted blades, that would make them better for DBs at the upper levels. -Blackedout

Righteous Devil Style would totally work as would Neph's bayonet style. As for DBs knowing those two styles... they would kind of need init charms and all the assorted issues that come from learning celestial MA. ^_^ ~ Haku

Well yeah, I was just checking if you thought it would work with the bayonet style, I know about the intiation. - Blackedout

Just checking but is this Artifeact 3 for a pair or just one? ~ Lestrade

The rating of 3 is for a single unit. If you get a twin pair, they would be artifact 4, and total attunement cost would be 8 motes, basically 4 motes between each of them. The range rate would be doubled for a single turn. ~ haku

It's 4 for each one? Then you may want to change it up top to clear any confusion. I asked because the attunement cost seemed kind of high for a weapon with only short daiklave stats. Maybe you could make another version that has stats like those of a reaper daiklave because the current stats makes me want to double wield it. Cool idea overall. Squall is one my favorite Final Fantasy characters. ~ Lestrade

Not quite, it's artifact 3 for a single dragonblade, and artifact 4 for a pair together. As for a reaper daiklave version, that's what an officer's dragonblade would look like, stat-wise. ^_- ~ haku

Um I don't think I was clear on what I was trying to say. My fault really. When I said 4 for each one I was refering to the attunment cost of each lvl 3 dragonblade. You have up top an attunment cost of 6. Would 6 be the cost for a dragonblade with reaper stats? ~ Lestrade

Oh no, the attunement cost for the level 3 version with the short daiklave stats has an attunement of 6 motes. It only costs 4 motes each when used together with a twin dragonblade, it's a discount that only applies there. The level 4 single reaper version would have an attunement of 6 motes. ~ haku

Oh that clears things up. I'm currently playing in a high powered Solar game and my Circle is allied with Lookshy standing against the Realm. The Scarlet Empress is back as an Infernal with the Ebon Dragon at her side in a weakened human form. He is getting stronger though and my Twilight character Shinn is working on an uber weapon to put in the hands of our Dawn Caste Yuri. He already uses both fire wands and a daiklave, (totally Dante in his fighting style) so Shinn is going to make him a Ragnarok Officer's Dragon Blade. I'm guessing it would be a lvl 5 artifact. ~ Lestrade

A Ragnarok type Dragonblade would be... insane in how much essence it would consume in a single combat scene. I can only hope that your Dawn has a solar variant of the Abyssal "essence engorgement technique" charm or the Alchemical "auxiliary essence storage unit" charm to boost his essence pool, because he'll need every single mote he can get. And yes, it would be an essence 5 artifact. ~ haku

You could always slap a hearthstone requirement on it, and use that to power it.

Thats a good idea with the hearthstone, probably a solar one would be the best since it works with both the Dragon Blade and the Ragnarok. Well Shinn is not planing on letting Yuri swing that thing around all the time when ever he felt like it. We plan on doing a lot of hit and run tatics and regrouping to tax the Ebon Dragon's Essence and then when he gets low our Dawn is going to lay the smack down sending him back to the Malfeas. It is going to be hard becuase our storyteller is going to pull out a bunch surprises at the last moment, but it turns out it isn't too hard to find allies to put the beat down on the big man on the hill. The guy who plays our Dawn has mad luck too. At first we thought he was cheating or something switched up his dice to see if his luck would change but it didn't. You can just about count on him to roll a success for every die he has, and sometimes he'll come up with more than the amount of dice he started with! Good thing you can't take over the world with just a roll of the dice huh? ~ Lestrade

There is already a hearthstone slot for use in replacing ammo for the dragonblade. The ragnarok is tricker as those things basically take your essence and go "wheeee, super extra amounts of damage!". And yes, the cost is actually committed, until you release it one way or the other. Definitely not a cheap artifact to pack. ~ haku

So what you really need is an Essence-containing Gem, or something like it. Dump all 60 or so motes into the blade, and you're good to go. After all, if you're building an Artifact 5 weapon, there's no reason not to make an Artifact 4 power supply. And there's nothing like +34L damage to make someone take their ball and go home. -- GregLink

Heh... exactly, why I recommended that some sort of essence pool booster be used. And as a fyi, it's criminal to boost the damage and then use a damage enhancement charm like Dragon force blow or some souped up solar melee version. There are laws against casually nuking entire mountains with a single slash... ^_- ~ haku

Would the Resources cost be one lower in the major cities of the South, owing to easier availability of firedust? - HandofOmega

Alas, no, it would not be lowered in the south due to fire dust being cheaper, it's a matter of where you can make those suckers, however, the Mountain Folk and Autochtonians would be able to manufacture the ammo much cheaper and in larger amounts. ~ Haku

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