We stay on the airships this week with the area you have been waiting for.
This week we give you the Hammer of the Gods Array
Notation: Create Lightning in an array Contained to the circumference of the array and to a length one million times that of the array’s diameter.
Description: Never have so many thunderstorms graced the world of the Runed Age since the discovery of the Lightning rune two years ago. Once men learnt how to put ships up among the clouds, it did not take long for the megalomania to set in and for the airship captains to think they are as gods when the sail so high above the world. It was only a short hop, skip and a jump to the idea that the activity the gods like the most is to hurl down lightning at the unbelievers. History and legends are full of this very thing, and if man is so great as to fly among the clouds, why can’t he hurl lightning like the vengeful gods above?
That is where the Hammer Cannons and the Hammer of the Gods array comes into the picture. The Hammer Cannons are simply wooden poles one metre long and twenty centimetres across, set on a swivel and having a trigger. At the front of this is the Hammer of the Gods array. It is slightly different to the array you see here as it includes an If-Then trigger so that it can be charged with energy and fired upon command. The cannons are made of wood as it is the most non-conductive material airships have and this is much needed as when the cannons fire down at the world below the airships and the planet are connected (for just an instant) with a brilliant beam of lightning. It does not take many of these thunder shots for the Hammer Cannons to be burnt beyond recognition, but they are simple stumps of wood and are easily replaced.
This array and the cannons that use it are terror weapons, made to reduce the morale of whoever they are firing at. Lightning can easily kill, but it is the sound of the thunder and flash of light that can turn night into day that makes this array so valuable. More than any other weapon, these Hammer Cannons can drive the toughest and hardiest of men into buildings where they lie cowering beneath tables. And when two airships battle it out amongst the clouds at night, the whole air seems electrified as they shoot dozens of lightning bolts at each other a minute, the light unbelievable and the sound monstrous to the ears.