The Titan's Spine
"It does not fire bullets. It does not fire bolts. It fires you. Every shot is a prayer that your body will still be standing once your soul is finished leaving."
The Titan’s Spine is not a weapon forged by mortal hands. It is a rib torn from something larger than faith, bound with steel that remembers fire. The barrel is etched with veins of light that pulse faintly, like a creature waiting to breathe again. When it fires, the world itself seems to pause — stones tremble, shadows recoil, and the air smells of marrow.
No ordinary soldier can lift it. Those who try collapse before the trigger is even touched. Even heroes stagger, their bones ringing like bells under its weight. It does not ask whether you are strong enough. It simply answers.
What It Does to the World
The Spine does not fire quietly. It carves a scar across the battlefield, a line of pure force that erases stone, armour, and memory alike. Walls crumble into powder. Titans fall to their knees. Entire streets are silenced in a single pulse of light.
And yet, the shot is never free. The wielder feels their soul torn loose, compressed, and flung screaming into the horizon. Those who survive speak of the echo it leaves in their ribs — an ache that lingers long after the blast, as though the weapon is still inside them, waiting.
What It Does to the Wielder
The Titan’s Spine consumes its wielder with the same eagerness it consumes its target. One shot may leave a hero breathless, coughing blood, their bones splintering beneath invisible weight. A second may leave them broken, crawling in the dust. A third often leaves nothing but ash.
Legends tell of warriors who endured a handful of shots in their lifetime. None tell of warriors who lived long afterwards. The Titan’s Spine does not run out of ammunition. It runs out of wielders.
A Final Warning
Do not mistake the Spine for a prize. It does not travel well, nor does it forgive. To hold it is to declare yourself ready for the Pattern to notice you — and the Pattern will.
It is not a weapon. It is an argument shouted once, in a voice loud enough to kill gods. Everything after that is just the aftermath.
Titan’s Spine
Weapon (Exotic Heavy Rifle), Artifact (requires attunement)
A rib torn from something older than mountains, bound in iron and marrow-light. It does not fire ammunition. It fires you.
Weapon Statistics
Type: Exotic Heavy Weapon (artifact)
Weight: 600 lbs. (requires Strength 18+)
Properties: Heavy, Two-Handed, Exotic
Range: Line 300 ft. long, 5 ft. wide
Damage: 8d12 force. Targets in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 8 + PB + STR mod), taking half damage on a success. Objects and structures take maximum damage automatically.
Sunder. The Spine’s beam ignores nonmagical cover and armour.
Cursed Ammunition (Your Soul). Each shot consumes a fragment of the wielder’s soul. After firing, the wielder must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw. On a success, they take 1d10 force damage. On a failure, they take 3d10 force damage and gain one level of exhaustion. If exhaustion from the Spine ever reaches 3 levels, the next failed save reduces the wielder to ash, and the weapon locks until ritually repaired.
Catastrophic Misfire. On a natural 1, the wielder is hurled 20 ft., knocked prone, and suffers the Spine’s full damage as though struck point-blank. The weapon locks until the wielder completes a long rest or it is repaired.
Attunement. Requires attunement by a creature with Strength 18+ and proficiency with Exotic Weapons. Attunement is not optional; once grasped, the weapon insists. Ending attunement requires remove curse or equivalent intervention.
Additional Details
“Your continued reading is more valuable than coin. However, the author assures me that Ko-Fi support assists in ‘keeping the kettle on.’ I am told this is a metaphor. I remain unconvinced.” — Seraphis Nightvale Ko-Fi: #madmooncrow
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