Harpoon Gun

A harpoon gun is a ranged weapon that can be used to fire harpoons at an enemy. The weapon is extensively used by the Rorian gnomes, who in fact invented the devices. They are extremely versatile implements, known uses include: fishing, snaring ships, scaling cliffs and detering or even catching seamonsters.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

A basic harpoon gun has a long barrel into which the harpoon can be inserted. To "charche" the gun, a crank on the side must be turned to wind up a large spring inside the mechanism. When the tension is deemed sufficient, a switch will disconnect the crank from the spring, and arm the gun. The weapon can now be aimed at an appropriate target. Pressing the firing trigger will cause the mainspring to dump all of the stored energy into the harpoon, launching it at the target at great speeds.

Custom Design

Harpoon guns are rarely made exactly the same as the next one, as Gnomes like to tinker with a design and produce a product specifically suited for the task at hand. Some common variations are:

Hand-held

These harpoon guns are on the smaller side, and have convenient handles so that the wielder can rest it on the shoulder in order to aim. The wire spool is usually separate from the gun itself, and has to be carried by a second person.

Hand-held with integrated spool

This variant is the same as the hand-held variation, except it has an integrated spool and retraction mechanism for the harpoon wire. While convenient on paper, these designs are often plagued by spool problems during either the firing or retraction steps. Additionally, the weapon can be pulled out of the hands of the wielder if the target is particularly strong, or intelligent. Smaller variations are however very handy for the lone fisher who wants to take on some bigger types of fish.

Mounted

The larger cousins of the hand-held variants. These harpoon guns might be more appropriately described as harpoon cannons, and the noise they make when firing would be appropriate for the name. Rorian Submarines, surface-ships and even some of their seasteads are known for carrying varying sizes of mounted harpoon guns.

Item type

Weapon, Ranged

Related ethnicities

• Rorian