Items

One of the strangest devices to come out of Malfeas’ factory-prisons, the balefire thrower is a refinement of a design first seen fifteen years ago. Early models required a large backpack-mounted fuel tank covered in humming machinery, connected to a pistol-sized projector that wouldn’t look out of place on the end of a garden hose. The comical appearance belied the weapon’s devastating applications, but it lacked concealability. Newer designs appear much more lethal, aping the design of large, bulky assault rifles. They can still draw fuel from a backpack-mounted tank, or connect to a portable fuel reserve the

size of a large soda bottle. Unlike normal flamethrowers, balefire throwers don’t have a pilot light, though the fuel tanks give off a sickly green glow.

The balefire thrower sprays semi-liquid balefire out to a range of 30 feet. Hitting a target requires a Dexterity + Firearms roll at difficulty 7. Success sets the unlucky bastard alight with balefire. Most hits set the victim half alight, dealing two levels of aggravated damage per turn. Large fuel tanks have enough concentrated balefire for six bursts, the smaller tanks only have enough for two.

While the initial kinks that caused old-model balefire throwers to sometimes explode at random have been removed from modern versions, the fuel tank still remains a weak point.

Three or more successes on a called shot to a small tank (W20, p. 295) engulfs the wielder in balefire with­ out a chance to dodge. He’s set entirely alight, and takes three levels of damage per turn.

Striking a large tank with an attack that does more than five levels of damage makes the fuel tank explode. This is Very Not Good. The explosion douses the wielder in balefire, the same as if the smaller tank had exploded. If the character who cracked the tank did so with a Brawl or Melee attack, they suffer the same fate. Everyone within 10 yards must take an action to dodge the blast (difficulty 8). Those within five yards of the blast have half their bodies set alight, while those further away survive with only part of their bodies burning with sickly green flames.