MelWong/LionHeart

Lionheart

By MelWong

Lionheart</i>
Artifact 4
Moonsilver short daiklave/projectile weapon.
Ranged Statistics
Acc +4, Dam 5L*, Rate 2, Range 20**, Ammo 6.
Melee Statistics
Spd +1, Acc +4, Dam +4L, Def +3, Rate 4

*Soak is halved before damage is applied, as with target arrows. Strength and Dexterity are /not/ added to the weapon's ranged damage.

• • Lionheart, as a projectile launching weapon and not a flame-launching weapon, is subject to the range increment rules of bows and thrown weapons. It can be used against targets up to twice its 20 yard range with a -2 penalty, and at up to three times its range with a -4 penalty.
    

Requires: Strength 2 Dexterity 2 Commitment: 8

Lionheart is an unusual and nigh-unique weapon harking back to the latter days of the First Age, where lost texts describe it as a single-edged short daiklave made of moonsilver inlaid and chased with orichalcum with the device of the lion rampant wreathed in flame. It was no more than three feet in length and a man's hand-breath in width, with an unusual, triangular chopping blade-edge. Hanging on a strong chain from the butt-end of the grip was a moonsilver ornament shaped in the form of a lion's roaring visage, silver mane flowing like flames. While all accounts agreed it was a hearthstone setting of some kind, no savants alive today can recall the nature of the hearthstone set in the pendant.

Mated to the daiklave is a frame with a grip at the hilt end with a trigger mechanism, and along the blunt edge of the blade runs a hollow, straight barrel lined with rails of black jade. In the middle of the weapon, where the complicated firing mechanisms lie, is a six-chambered rotating cylinder made of moonsilver and lined with red jade. Each cylinder holds a shimmery moonsilver bullet shaped like a teardrop, its rounded end tamped with a tiny plug of red jade.

Lionheart is sighted by a faint beam of light emanating from a tiny lens inset in the blade on the hilt-end, just above the barrel. The light is channelled from the Essence of attuned Exalt's anima - a Lunar will have a faint, silvery-purple sighting-beam, while a Solar's targeting beam is the golden color of the sun, and the different Sidereals will channel light in the colors of their patron Maidens.

When the trigger on the cylinder is pulled, the weapon's essence flows activate the jade magnets set in both the barrel and the bullets, propelling them with great speed at whatever lies on the other end of the barrel. The protean shape of the bullets' mostly moonsilver construction enables them to pierce through armor almost effortlessly, halving soak before damage is applied.

In its ranged function, Lionheart works very much like a repeating plasma caster, including where Charm function is concerned. Wielders may use either Thrown or Archery to fire Lionheart, and Righteous Devil Style users may use their MA instead.

If used in melee with bullets still remaining in the chambers, the Exalt wielding Lionheart may spend two motes of Essence, pull the trigger and roll Dex + Thrown (or Archery) reflexively on a successful strike, after dodge and parry successes have been subtracted from the original Dex + Melee roll.

On a successful Dex+Thrown (or Archery) roll, one of the remaining bullets in the chambers is vaporized in a burst of energy, running down the blade in a wash of silvery-gold flame. The successes on the Dexterity + Thrown (or Archery) roll are immediately added to those in the Dex + Melee roll for the purposes of calculating damage. This ability may only be used once per turn.

When all six shots have been fired and the cylinders are empty, Lionheart may be used in melee combat as a normal short daiklave, and serves ably in that purpose. However, reloading the weapon may be beyond most Exalts except for the Chosen of Luna.

When attuned to the anima of a Lunar Exalt, Lionheart's chambers "regrow" the jade and moonsilver bullets one by one. Normally, by moonrise of the next night the chambers will have been refilled. <i>In extremis a Lunar may spend motes of essence to "force" the chambers to refill, at the cost of 3 motes a bullet. More than one bullet may be grown at a time, provided the Exalt has the motes to spare.

The grown bullets are sustained in their current shape by the essence chambers of the cylinder; if removed the moonsilver and red jade eventually evaporate in a silver sparkle of motes.

There are, however, alternatives to spending essence or waiting for the slow regrowth of individual bullets. A successful Int + Crafts (Smithing) roll at Difficulty 3, and the appropriate materials (red jade and moonsilver) allows one skilled in occultic smithing to craft replacement bullets for Lionheart. The would-be gunsmith must have Lore 3, with a specialty in First Age weaponry, or at least two dots in the Savant background before he may attempt to do so. Reloading the chambers with self-made bullets takes a turn; to hurry up necessitates multiple actions and a Wits+Thrown or Archery roll at difficulty 2. While reloading, the character may not use Lionheart to attack without an appropriate stunt.

If the Exalt wishing to replace Lionheart's bullets is neither a Lunar nor a skilled artificer, he may instead socket the Hearthstone from a Lunar-aspected Manse of at least Lvl 2 in the lion's head pendant hanging from the grip of the daiklave, and forgo the increased essence replenishment it would grant. The essence from the Manse is instead redirected to replenish the cylinders of the weapon. This growth is exactly like that if the weapon were attuned to a Lunar's anima, with the chambers being gradually filled by nightfall. The hearthstone setting may be used normally if the bullets can be replenished some other way.

It costs eight motes to attune to Lionheart, and for all intents and purposes, Lionheart counts as a moonsilver weapon. It may only be attuned with double the motes for non-Lunar Exalts, as moonsilver's protean nature is too important to the functioning of the weapon. If an Exalt attempts to attune to it without the magical material bonus, the ranged functions of the weapon fail to work. It may still be used as an ordinary short daiklave, forgoing the +2 Accuracy bonus in melee, and the trigger ability.

Comments?

Well done! This is a good example of how a gunblade would work in Exalted, but I tend to wonder if the powerlevel is appropriate. Even piercing, I wonder how this weapon stacks up compared to other art4 weapons. Perhaps a power increase is in order? At any rate, the artifact idea itself is durn solid. -- DODurden