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Description
Hand Mortars are a form of firearm used by a few nations west of the Dragonspine Mountains. These weapons have large bored barrels as to launch grenades. For the most part these have been simple cast iron spheres filled with black powder and a lit fuse, which were launched into enemy formations to explode among their ranks. Properly used, these weapons could do signifigant damage to formations of lightly armored enemies. Other times these weapons were used to launch incendiaries or potions. Never the less these weapons were heavy, comparatively expensive to make, inaccurate, often ineffective against armored soldiers, especially runic armored soldiers, required skilled specialists to use, were very sensitive to water and many things could go wrong even under optimum conditions, ranging from the fuse being extinguished in flight to the weapon exploding, killing the operator and those around him. Some spells, such as Quenching Mist spells were quite effective at neutralizing grenades by extinguishing the matches. As such many nations did not bother with them. If there was ever a need for them, they would simply hire one of a number of mercenary grenadier companies. This weapon belongs to one of said companies.

With the introduction of Infrastructural Technology, these weapons have been refined somewhat. The Committee experimented with a few units of grenadiers using Hand Mortars during the wars of unification to some success, despite a few setbacks to the Grenadier Companies due to explosions. Some of their experiments with Flintlock Hand Mortars were sold off in the 20s with little fanfare. However, most of the modifications which were implemented in the 30s were more likely to be based off other Infrastructure derived firearms. The most obvious modification is simply to switch to more reliable flintlocks and caplocks. However, more notably is the fact that a new generation of grenades is now being employed, rather than just spheres, these are more bullet shaped. They also now often have percussion caps on the tips. These weapons are improving by trial by error by dozens of small groups, never the less the technology is being refined.

Description
Hand Mortars are a form of firearm used by a few nations west of the Dragonspine Mountains. These weapons have large bored barrels as to launch grenades. For the most part these have been simple cast iron spheres filled with black powder and a lit fuse, which were launched into enemy formations to explode among their ranks. Properly used, these weapons could do signifigant damage to formations of lightly armored enemies. Other times these weapons were used to launch incendiaries or potions. Never the less these weapons were heavy, comparatively expensive to make, inaccurate, often ineffective against armored soldiers, especially runic armored soldiers, required skilled specialists to use, were very sensitive to water and many things could go wrong even under optimum conditions, ranging from the fuse being extinguished in flight to the weapon exploding, killing the operator and those around him. Some spells, such as Quenching Mist spells were quite effective at neutralizing grenades by extinguishing the matches. As such many nations did not bother with them. If there was ever a need for them, they would simply hire one of a number of mercenary grenadier companies. This weapon belongs to one of said companies.

With the introduction of Infrastructural Technology, these weapons have been refined somewhat. The Committee experimented with a few units of grenadiers using Hand Mortars during the wars of unification to some success, despite a few setbacks to the Grenadier Companies due to explosions. Some of their experiments with Flintlock Hand Mortars were sold off in the 20s with little fanfare. However, most of the modifications which were implemented in the 30s were more likely to be based off other Infrastructure derived firearms. The most obvious modification is simply to switch to more reliable flintlocks and caplocks. However, more notably is the fact that a new generation of grenades is now being employed, rather than just spheres, these are more bullet shaped. They also now often have percussion caps on the tips. These weapons are improving by trial by error by dozens of small groups, never the less the technology is being refined.