F-Class Items
Item name: Kosu.
Type: Alcoholic beverage.
Stock: 2,000
History: Reputedly first brewed by the Selorians, kosu is the alcohol of choice throughout almost the entirety of the Comnenic Empire. Excessive consumption of kosu is said to be responsible for several psychovisual and auditory hallucinations.
Description: This robust drink is distilled from rice, yams or tapioca, and potent as the Flames of Sheune themselves. It ranges in hue from crystal clear - like the purest spring water, though should you mistake it for water, do not expect to survive through the night - to milky white, depending on the vintage.
Power Level: F
Price: 2vb
Item name: Gethro-Kothli destrier.
Type: Horse.
Stock: 15.
History: The high plateaus and endless steppes of Gethra have made her people horsemen by nature. It is thus no surprise that Gethran cavalry is some of the finest in the world, the cataphract-style later emulated by Comnena -- after Gethran cataphracts trounced several Imperial armies. After the Comnenic conquest, it was only a matter of time before enterprising Imperial officials began crossbreeding the massive Gethran stallions with the more nimble coursers found in the Kothli tundras.
Description: A purebred warhorse of roughly fourteen hands in height. This steed is of exceptional endurance and perfect training, well accustomed to the sound of cannonade. It is powerfully built, able to easily coil and spring to stop, spin, turn or sprint forward. These horses also have a short back and well-muscled loin, strong bone, and a well-arched neck
Power Level: F
Price: 25vb
Item name: Strategikon Komnenioi
Type: Book.
Stock: 50.
History: The Strategikon Komnenioi has been the field and operations manual of the Comnenic Army for a millennium and a half. First written by Menander I Magnus, every successive emperor and magnus domesticus has modified its body text and added personal notes. Over the centuries, the Strategikon has become a vast tome, its original text added to by numerous appendices regarding all manner of bellicose instruction, from tables calculating the needed provisions per day per soldier, to equations for calculating projectile range and distance for siege engines.
Description: A small book, its pages made of thick Comnenic vellum. This particular copy, and its fellows, are labeled in Comnenic script as Edition XIX.
Power Level: F
Price: 20vb
Item name: Cheiroballista
Type: Ranged weapon.
Stock: 25.
History: The Cheiroballista was developed by the Comnenic artificer corps in roughly 1300 aeA, though it was not disseminated wholly throughout the Imperial army's frontline units until 1400 aeA.
Description: The Comnenic Imperial Army's Cheiroballista is a versatile, torsion-powered ranged weapon designed to discharge metal-pointed darts and bolts up to range of one kilometer. This model is one of the exclusive, modified units employed by Comnenic special operations units such as the Navismani and Ordos Areani; it features an expanding bolt groove, articulated shoulder stock, and integrated dioptra fitted to the top of the screw housing. Mounted between the torsion stocks is a windlass-operated bolt feeder capable of holding sixteen additional bolts. In the hands of a practiced user, the cheiroballista is capable of discharging its full capacity in one minute and twenty seconds, or one bolt every five seconds.
Power Level: F
Price: 20vb
Item name: Lorica Segmentata
Type: Armor.
Stock: 100.
History: The lorica segmentata; 'armor of pieces', has been the Comnenic Empire's body armor of choice for legionary infantry since the founding of the legions during Menander's reforms. While slight modifications have been made to the pattern over the centuries, and the materials updated, the basic design remains the same as it was during the early days of Empire.
Description: The standard lorica is separated into four parts: the left shoulder, the right shoulder, the left torso, and the right torso. Each piece is constructed of articulated and overlapping steel segments, joined on the reverse side by bolted strips of tanned leather. The pieces are joined together over the body through a series of interlocking hinges and pins, creating an incredibly flexible and light-weight suit of body armor that the soldier is able to don without any help from his fellows. Additionally, its segmented construction allows it to be stored in incredibly compact spaces.
Power Level: F
Price: 15vb
D-Class Items
Item name: Orbes Tempestas
Type: Hand-held explosive.
Stock: 75
History: While the Comnenic equivalent of gunpowder, the substance known natively as fulmineus pulveris was opted for military usage in 1066 aeA, it was not considered for usage outside of cannon until the Faustian Insurrection, the highly flammable 'Flames of Sheune' having sufficed to service the army's need for incendiaries. Inspiring entrepeneurs, however, have taken to selling 'Storm Spheres', their pompous name for a grenade-like weapon marketed to outworlders.
Description: A single Orbis Tempestus is a clay sphere the size of a small canteloupe, lined with thin metal lames and packed full of fulmineus pulveris. The top of the device is fitted with a screw-activated rotary mechanism, activated by jerking a pin free of the crank. Removing the pin allows the articulated windlass to reel back the pin housing at high speeds, creating a spark which will detonate the weapon. Extra fragmentary firepower is provided by the device's metal shell.
Power Level: D
Price: 25vb each, 5 for 100vb.
Item name: Snaphance Repeater
Type: Firearm.
Stock: 15
History: The Comnenic Empire has a troubled history with gunpowder, steadfastly refusing to wholly abandon the cherished gladius as a small arm until absolutely forced to by circumstance. The Snaphance Repeater is the first firearm developed by the Empire whose effectiveness threatens to wholly usurp the Imperial legions' adherence to the old standards.
Description: A short-barreled firearm operated by a lever-driven snaphance mechanism. The weapon is loaded through the snaphance itself, into a compartment behind the breech, capable of holding up to five rounds. Before discharging the weapon, the user is required to prime the snaphance by turning a small crank that starts the clock and frizzen, exposes the firing pan, and delivers the flint upon trigger pull. A dioptric sight is also attached to the top of the snaphance mechanism, and a pugio stilleto is mounted underneath the barrel.
Power Level: D
Price: 125vb
C-Class Items
Item name: Polybolos
Type: Torsion artillery.
Stock: 5
History: The polybolos is the Comnenic army's venerable repeating ballista. It has been in the service of the legions for centuries, its dominance only questioned by the rise of cannon and even then, cannon cannot match the polybolos' rate of fire and incredible effectiveness at close range.
Description: This weapon is mostly identical to the standard Comnenic X-Pattern ballista, two things: a large trough mounted to the rear of the torsion housing, and two large chains affixed to either side of the mensa. The chains ran over five-sided prisms at each end of their loop. These prisms work as inverted gears; in other words, the chain-link drive for the cocking and firing sequence relies on an engagement between the lugs on the chain links and a pentagonal gear for accepting the lugs. The rear prism is turned by a winch, and the bowstring claw is locked and unlocked at the appropriate times by pegs mounted in the stock of the weapon, past which the slider moves. Hence by reciprocating the winch the polybolos may thus fire arrows automatically until the magazine runs empty.
Power Level: C
Price: 450vb
B-Class Items
Item name: Serpentinoi
Type: Firearm artillery.
Stock: 3
History: Cannon were famously introduced by Imperator Valen I Alexander in 1066 aeA, used to decisively smash the Cyraeic invasions at a time when the Empire's resources were stretched beyond measure. Since then, numerous refinements and enhancements have been made to the Ordos Obsidius, the Imperial Army's Artificer subsection of artillery experts. While this particular model of serpentine has been outdated by the latest evolutions in Imperial technology, it is still a vicious weapon when employed properly.
Description: A small caliber piece of field artillery mounted on a gun carriage, the Serpentine is capable of firing a three-pound projectile to impact targets at distances of more than a kilometer. This particular piece is sold in a package deal with fifty pounds of powder and ten fitted cannonballs.
Power Level: B
Price: 710vb
A-Class Items
Item name: Blackrock Vambraces
Type: Wrist armor.
Stock: 1
History: The mysterious substance known as Blackrock is almost completely indestructible. Blackrock can be found in small quantities beneath the ground, sometimes near lodes of iron ore or lead. Blackrock is found in Mysenna mostly in the high peaks of the Lefa Vale, although other sources are known as well. Blackrock can be excavated by conventional means, but melting it down into a malleable substance is thought to be impossible. The Imperial Artificers are the only humans to have reforged Blackrock, through magical means if rumor is to be believed. The armor of the Imperial Athanatoi is constructed almost entirely out of blackrock, and they are also the ones that possess most of Comnena's remaining Blackrock armor. There are other pieces, however - Sicarii often wear blackrock bracers or spaulders for basic protection, and it is standard practice that the Emperor wear at least one piece at all times,
Description: This pair of vambraces seem to swallow any light that shines upon them, rendering their surface an unimpressive black that seems unbroken by any shadow. Blackrock interferes enormously with the transmission of ethereal waves, tampering with the flow of magic around its wearer. Magical effects directed towards the wearer are dampened or outright negated, especially those involving the ethereal plane as their mode of transmission. The effect of Blackrock is cumulative; the more blackrock there is within a given area, the more disrupted magic becomes. Full suits of armor are capable of creating entire antimagic spheres, though these bracers can only protect their wearer. A combination of electrical energy and magnetic energy has a profound effect upon the blackrock. Together, these properties cause Blackrock to become permeable; that is, one can put one's hand through the substance as if it were water. Blackrock will also work as teleportation device if magic, electrical energy, magnetic energy, and the correct alignment of heavenly bodies act together upon the substance.
Power Level: A
Price: 1,700vb
Item name: Ἀποκάλυψις
Type: Polearm.
Stock: 1
History: Comnenic legend states that when August Comnenus fell to earth, he did so in the form of a brilliant meteor that lit up the skies. Legend also states that the fragments of this comet were salvaged by early Selorian smiths and fashioned into several pieces of weapons and armor. Over the centuries, they were passed down through the Selorian clans until the time of The Cataclysm, during which the Empire was sundered and its greatest treasures lost.
Description: This weapon would be considered a short lance or long spear; its shaft is five feet long, elegantly crafted from black wood that is covered on every surface by Comnenic liturgy. Its spearhead, leaf-shaped and roughly sixteen inches long, is forged of a metal that refracts light and gives off a muted glow in the darkness. A red-and-gold pennant hangs from the base of the spearhead.
Power Level: A
Price: 1,850vb
S-Class Items
Item name: The Flames of Sheune
Type: Weapon of mass destruction.
Stock: 1
History: While The Flames of Sheune are not quite, as their name might imply, divine in origin, their power is nothing short of deific. This chemical substance has been one of Comnena's most lauded weapons for centuries, and its exact composition an incredibly guard state secret; anyone even remotely suspected of sharing the formula is subject to incredibly intense and vigorous questioning, and those found guilty of conspiring to spread the secret of the Flames of Sheune are immediately executed for high reason. The Flames of Sheune are infamous and notorious throughout Comnenic history for their power. The Imperial Fleet is said to have burned the entire navy of Arhad to ash with but four Flame-equipped ships.
Description: A thick, viscous substance, the Flames ignite with any exposure to spark or flame and are virtually impossible to douse. The oil itself will float on the surface of water, seep into the ground, and cling most ardently to anyone it touches. Attempts to douse The Flames with conventional firefighting efforts most often come to naught; the only sure-fire way to extinguish the Flames of Sheune is to deprive the blaze of oxygen entirely. The Flames spread incredibly fast, often aided in this endeavor by the liquid dynamic of their oil base, which is wont to spread across any surface. The Comnenic Navy is known to equip its warships with great pressure tanks full of the substance, which is shot forth from a great cannon like dragon's breath. This merchant, however, has in his possession only a single jar -- which he is all too happy to inform you could easily be the doom of an entire city.
Power Level: S
Price: 2,000vb
Item name: Planar Rift Bomb
Type: Weapon of mass destruction.
Stock: 1
History: Comnena only recently began experimenting with magical gateways, the study and employment of these otherwordly portals quickly put under the purview of a top secret branch of the Ordos Areani called the Arcanos Initiative. One of the Initiative's first experiments in creating portals between planes and realms inadvertently created a two-way, energy transmittable gateway between the test facility and the elemental Plane of Fire. Though the results of this inadvertent breach were disastrous, the Arcanos Initiative was quick to realize the potential in weaponizing planar rifts.
Description: A hoop forged of blackrock and lined with countless eldritch runes. When activated and energized, the device's runes conjure into being a rift in the planes, linking the space contained within the hoop to the elemental plane of fire. This portal is coterminous and constant, allowing the free passage of energy and matter. The result is a catastrophic pressure wave as expanding fire and scalding air from the plane of fire is forced through an incredibly small gateway. This build-up of explosive pressure and elemental fire will quickly destabilize the portal, but the device needs only several seconds' connection to accomplish its purpose -- a massive explosion, similar to an impact event. The merchant, in his eagerness to sell what surely must be an incredibly 'hot' piece of stolen military hardware, cheerily informs you that this particular rift generator will generate an explosion whose radius is nearly half a kilometer.
Power Level: S
Price: 10,000vb
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