Yup, Sparky only thought that he had cleaned out
Vapula's stash of vintage anime tapes. Incidentally,
the VCR of the Prince of Technology is a subtle and
frightening artifact, indeed ... but that's for
another time.
The Wave Motion Gun is a sonic weapon, more or less:
anyone with a firearm Ranged Weapons skill may use it
at -2. The target, if hit (Celestial Shields will
protect, but not Corporeal) will take 1d6 Body Hits
for every level of the relic. If Stunned, the target
will also be knocked back 1d6 feet by the sheer force
of the blast. The user may choose to set the device
on area effect, causing half damage in exchange for
targeting anyone within a 30-degree forward arc. If
this option is taken, all Dodge rolls made by those
targeted gain a +2. Also, those with the Damaged
Sense (Hearing) Discord may subtract 1 die of
damage for each level of the Discord.
Range is a straight 100 yards, with a wrinkle: the
beam will harmlessly pass through anything that is not
Symphonically Aware: this includes all inanimate
objects and most animate ones. A shooter could use
this relic to sweep a crowd for celestials or
Soldiers, without risk to putatively innocent
bystanders. Lastly, ammunition is effectively
infinite and the relic is virtually indestructible.
All in all, this item would hardly seem to be an item
of Vaputech ... except for the minor problem about the
composition of the beam itself. Strictly speaking,
the Wave Motion Gun does not shoot sound beams at all.
It shoots beams of Disturbance.
Ignore the usual Disturbance rules when this weapon is
in use: it's redundant. Every entity within (CD of
the Ranged Weapons roll) miles that is capable of
detecting Disturbance will automatically learn
distance and direction. Everyone within a 500 yard
radius with Symphonic Awareness must make a Will Roll
at -4 or cringe at the horrific sound as the Symphony
is casually whacked with large metaphorical mallets.
This will include the user's own allies, of course -
and the user, come to think of it. Again, having the
Damaged Sense (hearing) will protect against the
latter side-effect (+2 for every level of the
Discord).
This is not a subtle weapon, and there are a lot of
entities out there that will be more than happy to
take out their poor, abused ears on anyone stupid or
brazen enough to use this relic on a regular basis.
This only makes it more attractive to most Calabim and
virtually all Servitors of Hardcore (the latter are
usually half-deaf, anyway). Saner celestials just try
to give a Wave Motion Gun to somebody else, then run
like Hell before it gets used: it does make a
wonderful distraction when one needs a quick
getaway...
Wave Motion Gun
Relic/6 (unknown and obnoxious Song): 18pt*
Self powered: 0pt
Disturbance: see above: - 8pt (fair, I think)
Fragility: Unbreakable, dammit: +5pt
Tracking: see above: -2pt (but anybody can play)
Use Restriction: Ranged Weapon roll: -1pt
Visibility: Automatically detected (hoo, yeah): -3pt
Total Cost: 9pt
*The Essence cost of zero adds 6 per level to the
cost, and the universal reaction modifier of -3 per
level takes it right back.
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