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 it's 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 though 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 it's 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's 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 in it's design, 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 quite 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. His exploits, none of which were based on reality, included such ridiculous triumphs 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 in to too many threats that could be solved with a bullet.

When he 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"