History: The Lathe of Heaven
It was the year 1315 when a Jesuit missionary visiting a Ethiopian monastery witnessed an astonishing event. An object streaked across the sky and struck the earth only a few kilometers away. In the morning he and several of the local monks headed out to where they believed the object impacted. What they found was both frightening and amazing. All around was bright metal and debris of unknown origin. They began gathering and cataloging the items carefully collecting even the smallest of items; believing them to be some sort of heavenly chariot, or perhaps a seraphim’s wheel. All the items collected were packed and began their long journey to the Holy See. Nearly two months later they arrived at the Vatican, where they were examined by the Cardinal Librarian; he pronounced them the “chariot of a fallen angel, destroyed by God.” As such they were locked away in the archives and were forgotten.
Over 600 years later Giovanni Mateba a friar with the Swiss Guard’s Weapons Priory, was going over the archives’ records searching for items that may aid in the war effort. When he stumbled on the ledger entry for the receipt of “items fallen from heaven.” Mateba had only recently learned of the crash of an alien craft in America, and began wondering about these “items from heaven.” A series of crates buried under 600 years of other crates was like trying to find a specific needle in a needle stack, but after nearly a year of searching he located the items labeled “Diabolus Quadriga,” loosely translated it means the devil’s four horse chariot. Mateba had all of the items sent to the priory; then the research began.
After months of exhaustive research most of the crates contents turned out to be useless scraps of metal; except one. An item tagged “lathe,” most likely because it slightly resembled the woodworker’s tool, was found intact and soon discovered to be some sort of “electrical device.” After a few more weeks of research Mateba had finally developed the priory’s first working directed energy weapon, “The Lathe of Heaven.” While this may not have been its original purpose, now it is a new weapon against the Reich.
Briefing: The Lathe of Heaven
The Lathe is a alien directed energy weapon mounted in a wooden stock, and configured for use like a rifle. The weapon functions by emitting a “beam” of highly charged cold plasma, the plasma its self is not dangerous but acts as a conductor for a massive amount of electrical energy. The plasma is “contained” in a magnetic field untill impact with a target. After impact the field is dissipated nearly instantly, and the plasma “blooms” out to a radius of approximately 1.5 meters; releasing all of its electrical charge in mere milliseconds. This has the effect of causing severe injury to the primary target and lesser but still serious injury to nearby subjects. Also a the electromagnetic shock caused by the plasma bloom will damage and disable most nearby electrical devices.
The only draw back to the Lathe is what has been termed “electrometric recoil,” when the weapon discharges a small amount of power equal to approximately .15% of the discharged energy is sent back through the device. This has the potential to injure the user if not controlled and “siphoned” off away from the user. To accomplish this a system of capacitors and transformers have been connected between the Lathe and its power source. Not only does this prevent injury to the, but it recharges the batteries allowing for longer use in the field.
Tannhauser Game Rules: The Lathe of heaven
The Lathe will be a system of three tokens.
Token one:
The Lathe of Heaven: Type Automatic Weapon, Directed Energy Weapon: Make a normal combat and shock roll for the primary target, and lowest level combat and shock roll for each adjacent character; friend or foe. The primary target receives two automatic wounds, and each adjacent target receives one automatic wound. If the attacker rolls a natural 10 on a combat roll and the target does not counter with a natural 10 on a shock roll then any electrical devices carried by that character are discarded. (I.e. Nighteyes, Flashguns, BG-42, Tesla devices, etc.)
Token two:
The Recoil Buffer System: while carrying this token the recoil effect of the Lathe is canceled. If this token is lost, stolen, or dropped. The user of the Lathe receives one wound each time the Lathe is used.
Token three:
Battery Pack: this token is required to use the Lathe, if it’s lost, stolen, or dropped the Lathe cannot be used.
