Monday, May 22, 2017

Three Guns of Scarabae

Hexenburn
Discovered in a hidden underwater burial chamber, the legendary sword Hexenburn belonged to a king of a rain-soaked and dismal island. The machinations and maneuvers that brought the sword to the Western Territories are many and lurid; a number of tall tales circulate about the weapon’s westward move–its own sacred Manifest Destiny–and all of them feature some admixture of assassination, seduction, unholy curses, and base deceit.

Hexenburn’s form was changed–though its nature remains the same. The fabled blade was melted down and its metal used to craft an exceptionally fine pistol. 
The newly-reborn Hexenburn has had a number of supernatural powers attributed to it. It’s said to give its bearer a powerful, commanding presence. It’s also a boon companion for gunfighters; when drawn from its holster, it emits a blinding flash that often stuns rival shootists. The holster is at least as remarkable as the weapon it holds. The wearer of Hexenburn’s holster may be wounded grievously, but his or her wounds never bleed. 



Mortal Pain
The ornate, enchanted rifle known as Mortal Pain is adorned with scrimshaw inlays carved from the bones of a great sea serpent. The rifle itself is beautiful, but mundane; it is its scrimshaw ornamentation that holds the weapon's deadly magical power. Mortal Pain is often thought of as a weapon of last resort--it has been used to kill brothers and sons who refuse to quit their quarrels with their siblings and fathers.

Shot fired from Mortal Pain hits with the force of seven pieces of ammunition; indeed, each ball fired from the gun splinters into seven separate projectiles within the body of its target, causing tremendously damaging wounds. Anyone wounded by the rifle can never heal completely from its shot–whether through natural healing or magic–until the shot is removed. 


Oathbreaker
Built from materials salvaged from an ancestral relic, Oathbreaker is a fearsome double-barreled pistol with a curious history. In its original form, the weapon that would become Oathbreaker was passed down through the generations by the scions of a blooded family of the northern reaches. When the current bearer of the gun was executed for treason, it was disassembled and refashioned into two powerful weapons, one of which was named Oathbreaker.

Oathbreaker given to a warrior by his noble father as an incentive for the son to give up his knighthood and govern the familial seat, but the knight refused his father's offer and instead gifted the weapon to a woman he tasked with finding and protecting the daughter of the supposedly treasonous northern lord. Anyone bearing Oathbreaker is effected by a powerful geas to complete the task of import. The first barrel transmogrifies its shot into a ball of abyssal flame. The second barrel transmogrifies its shot into a blast of elemental cold.