Rune Wrench of Aldore (Rune Wrench):
Legend:
A bandit had managed to acquire a Northern Gun Samson Power Armor and had set himself up on a major road outside of Tolkeen. He only went after single individuals that looked only lightly protected and had been very successful up to this point. This was until he saw what appeared to be the vehicle of a traveling mechanic and decided that the mechanic would be a good target.
The bandit stepped in front of the mechanics truck and shot out the front tires. The mechanic jumped from his vehicle a moment and turned out to be a dwarf. The dwarf was brandishing a large pipe wrench and the bandit simply laughed. The dwarf charged him and he simply continued to laugh instead of protecting himself. No pipe wrench was going to do any damage to his power armor.
The dwarf hit the power armor's right arm with the wrench and suddenly it was no longer funny. His piloting computer when crazy and the verbal warning was output from his speakers "Left Arm Servo Overload." He saw that a huge amount of armor had also simply collapsed as well. He did not react right away and was frozen for a moment. The dwarf swung his wrench again at the power armor's chest. His fire control computer went down and more armor literally fell from the armor's chest. The bandit tried to block the next blow with his left arm and found that the servos in that arm froze as well. The dwarf swung the hammer again and again at the Samson and the bandit was helpless to protect himself.
Background:
The Rune Wrench of Aldore is one of the most unique rune weapons ever constructed. The rune item appears to be a large adjustable pipe wrench. The wrench is virtually unique because it has moving parts and can actually be used as a normal wrench. The wrench itself is a simple dark grey and is plain with no decoration with the exception of the runes that line the sides of the wrench.
Stories have it that the wrench was created by an Asgardian Dwarf who was also a techno-wizard. It is believed that the Rune Item is less than one hundred years old. The idea behind the wrench is a tool that would also be useful as a weapon. Compared to many other Rune Weapons, the wrench only has a handful of powers but that does not mean that the powers should be dismissed. The weapon has also the lesser abilities of a Rune Weapon but once bonded with its owner, it also aids in mechanical skills by telepathically giving suggestions to the owner of the tool. The tool may be used a focus for the Techno-Wizard to cast spells though. When this is done, the techno-wizard has none of the standard penalties that a techno-wizard has when casting normal spells. The wrench can be used as a weapon against all opponents but inflicts greatest damage when used against mechanical targets. This included standard body armor, weapons, power armor, giant robots, and even vehicles such as tanks. When a weapon hits the metal or ceramic (or any other conventional material), the armor literally suffers structural collapse and will fall right off any support frame. The secondary effects can be even worse though they only last a short duration. Common problems are computer crashes, electrical shorts, and servos freezing but are not limited to these. Most problems will last for only about a minute but each time the technological item is struck, a new problem will be triggered. If the wrench is parried by something technological, such as the arm of a power armor or by a weapon, the item used to parry will be similarly effected. It can be quite disconcerting for a vibro-sword to shut off when it is used to parry the wrench. The wrench will inflict additional damage to magical and techno-wizard equipment but this equipment will not suffer from the secondary effects.
- Normal Abilities:
- IQ: 20 Communicates with the wielder through limited telepathy
ME: 12
MA: 8
Like all Rune Weapons it is completely indestructible
Inflicts 4D6 M.D.C. Damage in Rifts to normal targets
Can be used to parry energy blasts at -6
Links to the wielder within six months of constant contact
Once linked, Gives wielder +1 on all saving throws and +10% on all mechanical skills
Rune Wrench has an Unprincipled Alignment. Can be used by both Good and Selfish Characters. Anybody not of a compatible alignment takes 1D8 S.D.C. each time they touch the weapon. The weapon does 3D6 M.D.C. to Mega Damage creatures.
Special Abilities:
- Techno-Wizard Magic Boosting: Any magic cast by the techno-wizard
holding the wrench can cast spells directly (using the wrench as a focus)
with none of the standard techno-wizard penalties.
Machine Disruption: All hits on machines / technological items will inflict 1D6x10 (instead of 4D6) and will have similar effects to the spell 'Negate Mechanics' with a duration of 60 seconds (instead of 15 seconds.) Only one small system (system must be less than the size of a basketball) and only temporarily disables the system. Unlike the spell, negate mechanics, the item can be used to negate bionic systems although cannot effect life support systems on a cyborg and cannot be used to make a fusion reactor go critical. The negation of equipment happens every time the wrench strikes the target and multiple effects can be triggered. The weapon will inflict the safe effects on technological items used to parry this weapon. The item will inflict additional damage to magical and techno-wizard items but does not effect them with the 'Negate Mechanics' effects.
[ Altarain TM, Bandito Arms TM, Brodkil TM, Chipwell Armaments TM, Coalition States TM, Cyber-Knight TM, Federation of Magic TM, Free Quebec TM, Golden Age Weaponsmiths TM, Horune TM, Iron Heart Armaments TM, Kankoran TM, Kittani TM, Kydian TM, Larsen’s Brigade TM, M.D.C. TM, Mechanoids TM, Mega-Damage TM, Megaversal Legion TM, Millennium Tree TM, Mutants in Orbit TM, Naruni Enterprises TM, Naut’Yll, New Navy TM, New Sovietskiy TM, NGR TM, Nog Heng TM, Northern Gun TM, Phase World TM, Psyscape TM, Rifter TM, SAMAS TM, S.D.C. TM, Shemarrian TM, Splugorth TM, Stormspire TM, Sunaj TM, Tolkeen TM, Triax TM, Wellington Industries TM, Wilk’s Laser Technologies TM, Xiticix TM, and Zaayr TM are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]
[ Beyond the Supernatural®, Heroes Unlimited®, Nightbane®, Ninjas & Superspies®, Palladium Fantasy®, and Rifts® are registered trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]
Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).
Copyright © 2001, Kitsune. All rights reserved.