For our runic arrays segment this week we’re gonna rock your world.
This week we show you the Repeating Hammer array.
Notation: Push Iron at a speed of 8 m/s if Ironis present within a Cylindrical area the height of the array’s width and Pull Iron at a speed of 1 m/s if Iron is not present within a a Cylindrical area 10 times the height of the array’s width.
Class: Utility
Description: Like many arrays created in Middelburg after the discovery of electricity, this one is named after the machine it powers. The repeating hammer is a large metal cylinder housing a metal rod and this array at the back. As soon as the array is activated, the iron rod is hurled towards the end of the cylinder where it is stopped by spar of metal that ensures only a fraction of the rod will protrude from the cylinder. The array then pulls the iron rod back towards it and once it reaches the array it is again thrown towards the end of the cylindrical housing.
It’s a very simple machine and so can be built on a massive scale. The only intricate parts of it is the array and the socket where the copper cable can be plugged in to carry the electricity towards the array. Because of the ease of creating the repeating hammer, it has found its way into a variety of trades in a variety of sizes. Builders and carpenters use a small, one handed version to hammer in whatever nails and rivets they need; while ship (sea or air) builders use larger versions that can also hammer in the planks together to fit more tightly.
Even the Middelburg constabulary and military have been eyeing the repeating hammer. The constables want to use it to hammer down doors and barricades that have been runically strengthened or protected, while the military is eyeing up the hammer as a basis for a repeating musket.
In the darker side of Middelburg, the criminals have been tinkering with the repeating hammer and have been attempting to make version where contact with skin sets it going, meaning you can put the hammer on a more traditional shaft and swing it at an enemy and the hammer will rocket forward within the cylinder the moment it makes contact with a person, shattering whatever it touches.
Another use for the Repeating Hammer Array is to build “bowless” crossbows, where the piston is used to provide impetus to the bolt, rather than a bowstring. In a world that has magic that can ignite gunpowder at range this is likely to replace firearms altogether.