Thus Spake Zarataylor/OutcasteArtifacts

izzylobo - 02/11/2004 21:16:46

...oh my!

Okay. Here's the skinny, now that Geoff and I have had a chance to talk.

The Tornado Cannon was originally supposed to be in the book, but got cut to keep the page count somewhere down around a dull roar (I.R. Be Wordy Bastard, Writes Am Too Much!)*

However, thanks be to the beneficience of the Five Elemental Dragons, and, more importantly, The Great And Mighty Grabowski, here are the stats -

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Tornado Cannon (Artifact ••••)
Repair: 2
One of the most feared weapons of the First Age, the tornado cannon was, fortunately, not only rare, but difficult to set up - it was more commonly used as a siege weapon than as field artillery. Each tornado cannon is a complex assemblage of esoteric devices, surmounted by a flawless crystal holding a captive air elemental (Essence 4+). The whole device stands nearly 12 feet tall and requires two warstriders to carry and set up - once assembled, there are various stands and ladders for the three operators, who must include at least one Exalt. Setup requires two hours, and breakdown five, and this time cannot be decreased through the use of Charms, as this only partly represents time spent actually building the weapon - there are various rituals and sanctifications that must also be performed. Tornado cannons require two level 2 Air Hearthstones (minimum) to function correctly.

When fired, the tornado cannon disgorges a short-lived whirlwind that semi-randomly spins around the battlefield, leaving destruction in its wake. The whirlwind lasts a number of turns equal the sum of the permanent Essences of the air elemental, the operator and the number of dots of the Hearthstones beyond the minimum. For example, a tornado cannon with an Essence 4 operator, an Essence 4 air elemental and two level 3 Hearthstones birth a twister that will last 10 turns.

Each shot requires 5 motes of Essence and three turns to set up - when fired, roll the Exalted operator’s Archery + Wits. Each success generated allows the operator to shift the direction of the whirlwind once. While in existence, the whirlwind moves at a rate of 500 yards per turn and attacks everything in its 20 foot diameter as if it were a character, with the stats shown below. Armor protects against this damage with only half its bashing soak. Anything near the path of the whirlwind (within 30 feet on either side) suffers environmental damage.

Few things can stop the whirlwind of a tornado cannon once it is set loose on the battlefield. Smashing it against fortifications will do its normal damage to them, then dissipate the whirlwind. If cast out onto a body of water, the lifespan of the resultant waterspout is reduced to two turns. If two whirlwinds intersect, they will cancel each other out, explosively - deliver a final attack to everything in a 50-foot radius, with damage equal to the combined whirlwinds.

Tornado cannons require frequent maintenance - two hours of maintenance for every hour of combat (including setup and takedown - merely using a tornado cannon once requires 16 hours of maintenance). There is no grace period - if maintenance is not performed, the weapon will function less reliably the next time it is used, doing only 24B damage and requiring an extra turn to set up each shot. These penalties will continue to accumulate (-6B damage, +1 turn/shot) until the weapon fails to work at all. At that point it must be repaired - this is treated as requiring Repair 4, rather than 2.

Whirlwind: Speed 19 Accuracy 12 Damage 30B Defense 8

Environmental Damage
Hazard Diff. Resisted Failed Interval
Effect Effect
Whirlwind 2 2L 4L each turn
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The versions on the towers, naturally, are hard-mounted, and don't require setup or takedown. Some of them may (at the Storyteller's discretion) also be more powerful - probably not beyond 40B, however.

The Storm Lance never made it into even a draft - it was initially thrown in because I like having three examples of things (in this case, mortal usable artifact weapons), but the word count just wasn't going to be there - *sometimes* I actually realize I'm a wordy [...] before I get over my word count... :-/.

The following is a fairly rough draft of it - I never polished it up, because it wasn't worth the time. I don't *think* it's drastically overpowered or anything - the fact that Archery Charms don't aid it prevent it from being too horribly gruesome (since you can't roll a billion successes to add to the weapon's damage, and thereby blow a Skywolf out of the sky with a single hit).

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Storm Lance (Artifact 3)
Storm Lances were designed to give specialized Gunzosha units the ability to engage heavily armored opponents with some chance of success. Each lance resembles a long spear with a twin-tined spear head forged of fine steel and inlaid with copper. Thin panels of amber are embedded in the weapon's haft - these panels shine and arc static electricity when the weapon is charged.

The Storm Lance stores 20 Motes of Essence, and the wielder can draw from these motes to fire a coruscating bolt of lightning at an opponent up to a hundred yards away. This bolt is extremely effective against armor, halving lethal soak, but less efficient at damaging the target - divide any damage that penetrates soak in half, before rolling damage. (This halving does not apply to non-living targets - this includes zombies and other animate Dead, but not ghosts, spirits, demons, or elementals). Each bolt costs 4 Motes of Essence. Storm Lances use Dexterity + Archery, and are incompatible with Archery Charms. An Exalt (or other Essence channeler) pays 5 Motes to attune to the Storm Lance, which has no Magical Material bonus. Exalts can choose to power the Storm Lance using their own Essence, or that stored in the Lance.

Melee Mode
Name Speed Accuracy Damage Defense Minimums
Shock Pike +3 +1 +4L +0 S••, D••
Ranged Mode
Name Accuracy Damage Rate Range
Shock Pike +1 +8L* 1 100**
*Damage done by the Storm Lance halves Lethal Soak from armor. Damage that penetrates soak is halved.
** The shock pike has no extended range. [END TABLE]

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The Chariot of Aerial Conquest's original entry in CB:Dawn has no entry for soak or health levels - it’s basically invulnerable to everything. You can keep the Chariot that way if you want - it explains why there's so few of them, and why they are so limited compared to other flying craft in terms of speed and mobility. Just rule that while it's buttoned up, nobody inside can get hurt by anything directed from outside, and nothing gets through it - they make great bunkers this way.

If you want it to be just plain tough to hurt, I'd suggest giving it 50B/50L soak, with it being immune to ping - you have to do 50 damage to do any damage. I'd suggest giving it a whole passle of Health Levels as well - 60 was the number I had listed - it's *tough*. If you want to limit it, it ought to be Repair: 2 or 3 (the original had no Repair rating), but if you do that, it should be able to Just Plain Fly, instead of being a skimmer.

* Ten Crusty points to the first person who gets this reference)

Scott Taylor

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izzylobo - 02/11/2004 22:19:59

> Agent333 > I.R. Baboon from "I Am Weasel"?

We have a Winnah!

Step right up and get yer prize! Here ya go, ten one hundred percent USDA certified Crusty points. Usable on nothing, because there aren't any Crusty Burger joints within a dozen realities of here! But they're yours, son, so wear them with pride! (nails, staples, lapel pins or duct tape extra...)

:-)

Scott Taylor

Comments

The spacing for weapon stats and so in is all wonky, and I don't know the commands to fix it. Anyone care to show me the way? - DigitalSentience

Replace the \\'s with <br>'s. - Miedvied

...Oh, alright. I'll do it myself. - Miedvied