Lepid Gun

By Moe Lane

**Flaming
Feather**

Power: 4 Accuracy: +2 Range: 40 Shots: 12

It's odd to say this about any item of Vaputech, but the Lepid Gun is honestly a work both of art and of craftsmanship - even if it was made by the Baroque Weapons Division (motto: "For all your Evil Mastermind needs"). The craftsmanship is obvious: there is none of the usual Vapulan shoddiness, haste or poor design flaws enshrined in the gun. It looks exactly like what it is: a properly machined over-and-under pump action shotgun with no corners cut and all sensible bells and whistles. The artistry is self-evident, too, showing up mostly in the carefully selected materials that it's constructed from - and the way that someone with a real aesthetic sense carefully chose how those materials were put together to please both the eye and hand. In short, this gun is functional, reliable and really, really pretty.

It's a shame that it can only fire dead bugs.

Razorwings

Corporeal Forces: 1
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Ethereal Forces: 0
Intelligence: 0
Precision: 0
Celestial Forces: 0
Will: 0
Perception: 0

Vessel Equivalent: 1
Body Hits: 4

Skills: Fighting/5, Dodge/4

Songs: Numinous Corpus/1 (Acid)

Disadvantages: Need/3 (Blood)

This is your standard, everyday Undead butterfly. Well, admittedly it's an Undead butterfly with razor sharp wings and a taste for human blood, but even so it's not really unusual for zombified creatures. It's got a mean temper, too. Once it gets going, it doesn't stop until either it goes down or the targets do: usually the former applies, as Razorwings on their own aren't exactly the most dangerous zombis out there. This is why, of course, that Vaputech decided to use them as self-mobile ammunition. There's something about the idea of a bullet that can cut it's way out of a target and go looking for more to slice and dice that just appeals to the Technological mind.

The delivery method is simple enough. A standard shell is just that: a translucent blue gel cylinder with the Razorwing in the center. The blue gel collapses shortly after firing, cushioning the initial shock while allowing the Razorwing to survive both the firing process and the later impact with the target: it also keeps the zombi in stasis (so as to avoid the degradation process). Once the Razorwing 'wakes up', it cuts itself out and attacks anything within range. This includes the owner of the gun, so keeping your distance is probably a good idea. If you want to seriously maim or freak out a bunch of humans, this does quite nicely.

For celestials, well, there's always Tickshot.

Tickshot

Corporeal Forces: 1
Strength: 1
Agility: 3
Ethereal Forces: 0
Intelligence: 0
Precision: 0
Celestial Forces: 0
Will: 0
Perception: 0

Vessel Equivalent: 1
Body Hits: 2

Skills: Fighting/6, Dodge/3

Songs: Numinous Corpus/1 (Acid)

Disadvantages: Need/3 (Essence)

These are, well, Undead ticks. A standard ammo load is about fifty or so, which can be important. Note how well the initial gun attack succeeded: for every point that the roll succeeded by, ten ticks will attach themselves. They only do active Body hit damage when they first attack: afterwards, they merely burrow in and start sucking out Essence. Every ten ticks that infest a target will suck out 1 Essence immediately and 1 more per hour. If they go more than 4 hours without sucking Essence, a Tickshot will drop off and go look for another victim. Aside from the obvious Essence drain, there's the problem that the Essence is immediately spent, meaning that the target is now regularly causing disturbance. This has made the gun popular among some elements of the Game.

The bottleneck for the Lepid Gun is, of course, ammunition - but not as much a one as some might think. It would seem that some Vapulan industries produce Razorwings more or less industrial pollution: the Lepid Gun transforms this from a minor annoyance into a benefit. However, Tickshot is much harder to acquire, to the point that most Lepid Gun users usually only have one at any given time.

**Flaming
Feather**

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