Skill: Firearms-Shotgun/Firearms-Flame Thrower
Damage: 2D6 + Burn*
Range: 25 yards (75’)
Ammo: N/A
Malfunction: 93-00
Weight: 5 lbs.

The flamethrower first saw real military use in World War I. A frightening weapon, it was used primarily by German troops to spray down trenches with flames, flushing out allied troops. An effective weapon of terror, it was also good for clearing enclosed bunkers, houses, or other areas where an enemy was pinned down in a small area. However, as a weapon, there were many drawbacks to the flamethrower. The backpack fuel canisters were bulky and an enticing target for snipers, as a good shot could cause the fuel to ignite. The weapons also ran out of fuel fairly quickly, giving only a few shots before they were essentially useless.

Malcolm asked Penelope to deal with some of these issues, and she did in her own unique style. She created the Dragon’s Breath Flamethrower from discarded parts of the Cygnus’s original engines, building a compact weapon that shoots flame similarly to a regular flamethrower, but it does not consume fuel. It also doesn’t have a backpack fuel tank, making it lighter and safer to use. The weapon draws water vapor in from the atmosphere and converts it to liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen, using the hydrogen for an ignition source (along with an electric sparker) and the oxygen as fuel.

While the weapon is safer than a normal flamethrower, it can still catastrophically malfunction. On a roll of 93-95, the weapon just fails to spark, requiring an action to clean out the carbon from the sparker unit. However, on a roll of 96-00, the hydrogen and/or oxygen tank rupture, exploding for 4D6 + Burn* damage to the user and anyone within 10’.

*Burn: the target must roll Dex to avoid catching on fire. If they fail the roll, they take the weapon’s minimum damage (i.e., 2 for a normal attack, 4 for a catastrophic malfunction) on the following rounds. This damage doubles each round until extinguished (providing target is flammable) via a successful Dex roll or other means.