The Limbo Cannon

By Moe Lane

**Flaming
Feather**

These relics are interesting, to say the least. They have the ability to temporarily send someone to Limbo, regardless of whether they have a functioning Heart or not ... or even if they happen to be celestial. This makes them popular. They also have a distressing tendency to implode. This makes them unpopular, too.

A Limbo Cannon looks like an electrical flame-thrower, more or less: there's a backpack and one needs two hands to use it, at least. Instead of napalm, however, what comes out is a pulse of purplish-green light that can send a living target on a temporary tour of nothing (roll versus straight Precision to hit). The target must make a Will Roll at -4 or immediately be banished.

Luckily, use of this relic will not sever a celestial's link to his or her Heart, or even cause any kind of damage, so the effects are only temporary. Use the CD of the failed Will Roll to determine the target's duration in Limbo: unfavorable Interventions will mean a visit of one corporeal month. The target will not be aware of the time spent, and will reappear in exactly the same spot and condition as when he or her left. Oddly enough, they will also find themselves fully stocked in Essence when they come out ... or possibly even covered with a dose of Primordial Clay.

The above is one of the side effects of using this relic: another, more troublesome problem is that the basic design is not too stable. A natural 12 on the original Precision roll will cause the relic to flare: everyone within 10 yard-equivalents of the Cannon must roll against Will -8 or go to Limbo. All in all, this is sufficiently troublesome enough that the facts that a Limbo Cannon may only fire once per hour, or that each shot requires 3 Essence, pale in comparison.

I bet that you thought that Vapula came up with this one, huh?

Well, actually, you'd be right. However, he's not the only one to manufacture these amusing little plot devices, so you'd be wrong, too. Jean would very much like to fix the bugs in this device, and testing it is the only way to do so - besides, the worst that can happen is that the tester pops out of existence for a few days.

Considering what normally happens when Vaputech goes badder, that's not so worrying, right?

The Limbo Cannon

Relic/6 (oddball Song, 3 Essence per use) . . . 18pt
Activation Time: one hour . . . -3
Convenience: Bulky . . . -1
Use Restriction: Precision roll . . . -1
Visibility: Automatically Detectable . . . -3
"Harms" user on a natural 12 (special limitation) . . . -1
Total: 9pt

**Flaming
Feather**

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