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Time Gun

Artifact (schematics) • Schematics stolen by Helisanna; whereabouts unknown since Interlude 11

Overview​

The time gun is a time-travel device from the wrecked world the party visited in Interlude 11. You travel through time by shooting yourself with it, and its invention destroyed that world. Helisanna stole its schematics from Marcus's tower. Where those schematics are now has not come up since. The party's worry is that Scarlet, a dimensional scientist in this world, will build one. As of Session 63 they shut her down "every time she starts to invent a time gun".

Properties​

As Marcus described it in Interlude 11:

  • The user must shoot themself with it to travel.
  • It can only reach "nodes", critical decision points in time.
  • It runs on bullets: going backward uses them, going forward restores them.
  • Its schematics show how to use explosions to tear through space-time.

The Time Gun Timeline​

In Interlude 11 the old dragon Sol sent the party to a shattered world in the Astral Sea, held together by the artist Scarlet's paintings and the roots of the dying world tree Matthew Broadtwig. The chronomancer Marcus told them the time gun had wrecked their world, and that he, Scarlet and Matthew had spent two millennia trying every combination of choices to undo it. Every timeline ended with someone creating the time gun. Marcus had one bullet left and was preparing to shoot himself back to the start again.

The gun gets built in every timeline, but not always by the same hands: in one it was Marcus, in another an alternate Scarlet. One of them always builds it. In this world the roles are reversed: here Scarlet is the time-and-space scientist and Marcus the painter (Session 25), which is why the party keeps a close eye on her.

The Party and Scarlet​

  • Session 25: the party recruited Scarlet on condition that she drop her temporal experiments and help build the pocket village instead.
  • Session 38: Silas raised his worry about Scarlet's inventions, and the party agreed to keep her on existing projects.
  • Session 63: Bru warned Olivia that Scarlet is "bad news" and never to let her near "the gun". Silas explained the other world's story; the party is "aggressively shutting her down every time she starts to invent a time gun".

Session History​

  • Interlude 11 — In Marcus's tower the party learns the time gun destroyed his world, and Helisanna steals its schematics.
  • Session 25 — The party meets this world's Scarlet, a time-and-space scientist, and persuades her to give up time research for the pocket village.
  • Session 38 — Silas raises his fear that Scarlet could build a universe-ending time gun, and the party agrees to keep her on existing projects.
  • Session 63 — Bru warns Olivia to keep Scarlet away from the gun, and Silas explains the other world's story; the party keeps shutting down her attempts to invent one.