Pendragon Special

The Pendragon Special is a hand gun manufactured by Lands and Grooves, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Consolidated Head-Melters, itself owned by the Gudersnipe Foundation. The weapon was initially developed by Hunter Jusenkyou while he was a student at Gudersnipe School, then later re-designed and developed for mass-production. It did not acquire its name until the Age of the Dragon, when Hunter became Pendragon and began carrying it as his usual side-arm. Prior to then, Hunter refered to it simply as "my killing gun", while it was listed in L&G's catalog simply as "Special Model 23-2". At the time it was only available to Gudersnipe students and to Crimson Blade elite special forces. It was later made available to law enforcement, but was not popular, and a heavily modified civilian version was also sold.

Early Design and Variants

Original Design

The basis of the weapon is a semi-automatic revolver chambered four a .44 large-bore caliber round. Hunter chose this initially for its improved stopping-power, though he also usually had a standard-issue nine-millimeter, due to increased ammunition availability. He preferred the auto-revolver for it' faster rate of fire, and being a particularly accurate shooter, he chose a design that fired from the bottom chamber of the cylinder to provide better recoil reduction. Most of the design is well-known, but the primary improvement Hunter made was to add a second, larger barrel on top of the first. This was chambered for a sixteen-gauge shotgun round, and could be accessed with a selector-switch. The weapon was devastating at close range, while also being able to fire the hand gun rounds with incredible accuracy over distance. Hunter is said to have specifically delighted in combatants expecting him to be out of ammunition, only to find themselves dealing with a shotgun blast in close-quarters.

Hunter's original prototype was all metal and quite heavy. The gun was very reliable, though complex, and required every part to be laboriously hand-tooled. After showing it off on various missions, he began receiving requests for copies from other students. This greatly complicated the logistics, as the barrels wore out quickly and the hand-tooled parts were often fragile.

Working with Jason Bur'I, the pair finalized the design and published complete plans for the weapon to the school's intranet in the hopes of letting other students build there own. This unfortunately only let to an enormous flood of new requests. Hunter then turned to L&G who could mass-produce the unit.

Special Model 23-2 Design

The very first improvement to the design was to replace the tooled metal barrel with one made from the same materials as the Lance barrel, which was rated to fire one million rounds. The second improvement was to replace as much of the metal and wood with lighter-weight composites. While the design was certainly rushed, L&G's scientists had enough experience working with the materials to get it right on the first try. Various improvements would come later, but even the first models of the mass-produced weapon were solid, lightweight, and much more dependable than Hunter's hand-made version. In all, he was extremely happy with the improvements, and gleefully granted L&G permission to distribute the weapon as they saw fit. It quickly gained popularity with the Elites, whom already preferred revolvers for stopping power.

Initial Public Knowledge

While the Pendragon Special was made available to Crimson Blade special forces, it was not sold or licensed for export. This had less to do with proliferation concerns and more because the weapon was prohibitively expensive; L&G did not believe there was a market for a handgun that cost as much as a luxury car.

The first public appearance of the gun was in a series of comic books that stared a highly fictionalized version of Hunter Jusenkyou, and included such ridiculous victories as "punching a tidal wave into the sun", and deflecting a meteor by hitting it with the flat of a very large sword. Needless to say, the comic was neither accurate nor realistic. In it, Hunter's preferred side-arm was was a revolver-shotgun that included a second barrel, which was a larger shotgun. The character was very passionate about shotguns. In the comics, Hunter refers to the gun by multiple names and no model is given.

In A.Y. 6903, the first live-action film adaptation of the comic books was released, which featured a surprisingly accurate representation of the Pendragon Special. This was apparently accomplished largely by accident, as the film makers had only a rough description of the gun provided by interviews with Crimson Blade special forces members. They had no pictures of it and indeed did not even know if the weapon actually existed. As the films grew in popularity, they shifted towards use of the standard-issue Gudersnipe side-arm, which was regarded as "more accurate".

The Pendragon Special

While training to become a Slayer Dragon, Hunter mostly made due with his standard-issue hand gun. The decision was dictated by ammunition availability, as he could easily obtain standard handgun rounds while traveling, but usually had to special-order ammunition for his favored gun. He was also commonly using enchanted melee weapons at the time, and didn't run into many threats that could be solved with a bullet.

When Hunter took up the sword and became Pendragon, he reached out to L&G and requested a new replacement "Special Model 23-2" to use as his regular side-arm. L&G responded by issuing a re-design of the weapon and providing Hunter with the very first production model in a grand ceremony, and officially naming it: "The Pendragon Special". Special logistics were put into place to ensure Hunter would have better access to ammunition; but the publicity generated by the gun brought a massive surge in popularity for the round-type.

Open Market and Civilian Variants

Almost as soon as Hunter received the first Pendragon Special, various arms companies around the verse began to produce knock-offs of varying quality and capacity. While many were falsely advertised as "the exact same", within the more interconnected parts of the Known Worlds these were commonly understood to be forgeries.

Lands and Grooves, meanwhile, was flooded with requests for the actual gun, both by civilian gun enthusiasts and actual operators alike. The weapon was still prohibitively expensive, and due to the materials used was not approved for export in large numbers. L&G responded by producing three variants:

• The Open Special - effectively an exact copy produced without all of the restricted materials. It was considered just as accurate and just as reliable, though heavier and with a shorter operational lifespan. This model was popular with agencies who could not afford or were not legally able to purchase official Pendragon Specials. The visual appearance of this variant was also toned down to make it less conspicuous.

• The Civilian Special - an exact visual copy of the one carried by Hunter, but with the same parts as the Open Special. It had a less complicated trigger and required the use of a special tool to access the shotgun barrel. This weapon was aimed at collectors who could not afford a "true" version. It was also difficult to purchase because hand-held shotguns were often frowned upon by local ordinances.

• The Civilian Open - just an auto-revolver with a completely cosmetic secondary barrel. This model was aimed squarely at consumers who wanted to look like Hunter without actually having to buy a special-forces grade weapon. While made from all civilian-grade materials, it was still an excellent and very high-quality weapon, but made in sufficient quantities as to be affordable. While definitely far from cheap, it was in the same price-range as any high-end target weapon, and a popular seller. Though not any better than most high-end pistols, it became revered among target shooters, mostly because it was, in actuality, a very solid weapon.