The Gravity Cone is an unassuming device, two irregular slabs of black metallic stone that just barely fit into a man's outstretched palm. Carefully tracing one's fingers over the surface or shining a light at an angle reveals a tapestry of razor thin squiggles carved into the material. Delicate hinges surround the edges, making it seem impossible to open.
Taking a rubbing of the etchings is difficult, but possible. Occult likens them to a specific crop circle design made by hovering spacecraft. Supposedly they're the impression left behind by an 'antigravity drive.' Archeology notes the similarity between one of the patterns and the seal of Antaeus. In one version of The Twelve Labors, he first challenged Herakles to lift his halteres, which were impossible for any mortal man to separate from the earth. History compares the alien symbols instead to a series of runes employed by Merlin in one version of the King Arthur legend. Rather than pulling a sword from an anvil (the stone was a later addition), he just picked it up. No one else could lift it because the runes on the anvil increased the sword's weight tenfold for the unworthy.
What the Agents don't know is that the two stone faces are just the tip of a much larger macrodimensional structure. Poking and prodding the device or trying to pry the stones apart causes the hinges to latch and unlatch and the shiny plates rotate in and out of existence like a hypercube spinning through 3D space. This costs 0/1 SAN from unnatural. It's 0/1D4 if the Agent has Science (Mathematics or Physics), but they gain the same amount in Unnatural.
The Mi-Go deftly manipulate these plates to form gravimetric sigils as they desire, like a sliding block puzzle. Only the blocks slide through hyperspace and there's more than one possible image. When inactive, all the sigils are either scrambled or pressed flat against each other, perfectly canceling out the other's force. Deep in the labs of Project PLUTO and REDLIGHT, MAJESTIC scientists experimented with a similar process derived from research on the Bucket, albeit on a much simpler scale: pushing two halves of gravimetric sigils together and pulling them apart to produce gravitational pulses. PLUTO even designed a wide array of gravity-powered 'firearms.' Perhaps the prototypes are locked up in a safehouse owned by the Program's Project SHARP ATLAS (Handler's Guide, page 274), or languish in an Outlaw's private Green Box.
No counter-force is generated. After a moment, the plates snap shut like a flower blooming in reverse. This is a failsafe, built in by the Mi-Go to protect themselves and the device.
But now what everyone's been waiting for, the stats.
To use the Gravity Cone in combat, Agents can roll their Ritual Activation rating or Science (Physics) skill as an attack roll. Manipulating the device requires both hands and concentration. It projects a cone of gravitational distortion as far as the operator can see, up to their target. However, the cone grows wider with distance, so attacking distant targets is liable to cause collateral damage. Armor may protect against failed Lethality rolls, as the gravitic pulse doesn't even last a second, and most of the injuries inflicted are from flying debris.
Success: Inflicts a Lethality attack with a rating equal to the result of the attack roll.1 This costs 1D6 SAN for an activation roll. Creatures and objects are thrown back a number of meters equal to the sum of the dice the Lethality roll. Those who survive must roll CON or be stunned.
Critical Success: As success, but the operator increases their Unnatural skill by +1% as they gain a better understanding of the device's inner workings.2
Failure: The operator mishandles the device and takes 1D6 damage as they subject themselves to gravitational shearing forces. If the operator failed with Physics (or a special training), they're flung 1 meter in a random direction for every point of damage they took. Either way, the operator may need to roll CON or be stunned by vertigo.
Fumble: The spacetime surrounding the device collapses in on itself, threatening to compress everything within 3 meters into a tiny sphere of neutronium. The operator and any bystanders are permitted a Dodge roll to escape. The operator gets a +20% to Dodge if they fumbled an activation roll; their deeper connection to the unnatural lets them know what's coming. Those who can't get out of the way in time suffer 10% Lethality. An even numbered Physics fumble crushes the device into a mildly radioactive osmium marble with a bright blue flash of heat, destroying the gravity weapon.
'Aim' isn't the best word for it, but Agents can still take an action to apply their Unnatural skill as a bonus to their attack roll with the Gravity Cone, up to a maximum of +20%. No benefit is gained from surprise.
Agents can Study the Unnatural in their Home scene to gain special training with the Gravity Cone. This costs 0/1D6 SAN from unnatural, but Agents without Physics automatically fail the SAN test. The special training lets them use DEX or INT to attack instead of Science (Physics). NPCs with 0 SAN automatically gain this special training if they don't have a good Physics score.
Agents don't have to roll to use the Gravity Cone if the circumstances are calm and controlled, like trying to use it as a demolition tool. Trying to consciously configure the device for maximum destruction costs 0/1D6 SAN from unnatural and acts as a Lethality attack. The Agent chooses the rating, but it can't be any higher than their Science (Physics) skill or special training. If they let the muscle memories of their fingers do all the work, they can spend 1D6 SAN and inflict up to their Ritual Activation rating as Lethality, or up to 99% by spending 1 POW and 1D8 SAN.
As for the MJ-12's protoype gravitic 'firearms,' they're small and sleek, lacking any sort of stock, ejection port, bolt, or slide. It's just a barrel, grip, and a magazine. The weapon has absolutely no recoil when fired, and makes no sound other than the tiny supersonic crack of the projectile. It takes an Alertness test to notice. Firing it for the first time costs 0/1 SAN from unnatural, 0/1D4 if the Agent has Firearms 40% or higher. When the trigger is pulled, an electric current runs through a series of carefully designed wires. They briefly deform into the shape of a gravimetric sigil, propelling the bullet out of the barrel at supersonic speeds.The guns don't rely on combustion to drive the rounds and don't need to cycle a bolt to strike a primer or eject a casing, so they can fire as fast as they feed. This, combined with the lack of recoil, means they're perfect for use as machine pistols. These are capable of selective fire, inflicting 10% Lethality when fired in bursts.
Because these guns have so few moving parts, they have a different set of fumbles.
- There's a failure to feed and the gun jams. Clearing it takes an action and requires a successful Firearms test. If the shooter tries to fire another round while the gun is jammed, it explodes, inflicting 1D6 damage from shrapnel. This is all but guaranteed with selective fire, roll Luck to see if it jammed on the last bullet and doesn't explode.
- The wiring has overheated or shorted out. The gun can't be used until it's repaired.
- The attacker shoots something or someone they didn't mean to hit (eg: friendly fire when allies are downrange).
Physically abusing the gun (like banging it into things) requires a Luck roll. Failure means the trigger, sights, barrel, or feeding mechanism are broken. Something easily fixed with Craft (Gunsmithing). A fumble breaks the delicate wiring responsible for 'firing' the bullets.
Fixing the gun's wiring can take anywhere from hours to days to weeks depending on an Agent's Unnatural skill. This requires Craft (Microelectronics) and Science (Physics) and costs 1/1D4 SAN from unnatural. Knowledge of the Create Gravitic Warp ritual (detailed in The Conspiracy and Eyes Only) is helpful but not required. Without it, the Agent must either spend a permanent point of POW or start over and try again if they succeed on the SAN test.
The initial prototypes simply pressed two pieces of tile together in the breech, completing a gravimetric sigil. These never jam and don't have any wiring to burn out, but are incapable of selective fire. They also get a +20% bonus to any Luck roll to see if they break. Fumbles damage the mechanism that pushes the two halves of the sigil together, making the gun unusable until repaired. This is easily fixed with any kind of Craft skill.
2 Zero SAN NPCs and Mi-Go get to pick what Lethality rating they use on a critical hit, so long as it's not higher than their skill or special training. For example, Mi-Go have Tool Use 55%, so they could inflict 55% Lethality with a critical hit if they wanted. ↩
The Gravity Cone is based off the template I wrote up last month. Because Physics starts at 0%, the mundane roll isn't very different from the activation roll. If it had been something more accessible like the lightning gun's DEXx5 mundane roll, it would be riskier to use.
ReplyDeleteI still think they should be flattened like a pancake in a 2 meter radius if they crit fail twice in a row while using it.
ReplyDeleteI like the mechanics of a successful "attack" because, as you stated, the damage to people/structures in the cone is primarily from flying debris, not the gravity pulse itself.
ReplyDelete