Meltdown Battery Mk 1

Technological

Consumable

Meltdown batteries are covert weapons used by Directive 9 agents anticipating oncoming hostilities. They’re almost indistinguishable from standard batteries, identifiable only through close examination and a successful Engineering check (DC = 15 + meltdown battery’s item level). A weapon loaded with a meltdown battery appears to be fully charged but is in fact an explosive trap, as long as the item level of the meltdown battery is equal to or higher than the level of the weapon. If such a weapon is fired, the meltdown battery enters a rapid-response feedback loop that causes the weapon to explode. The weapon is broken and deals its normal damage to all creatures in a 10-foot-radius burst; creatures within this radius can attempt a Reflex save for half damage (DC = 10 + 1/2 × item level). A meltdown battery loaded into a weapon with an item level higher than that of the battery doesn’t explode but doesn’t fire; the meltdown battery is destroyed.