Pascagoula Gagkula Barb

SANDMAN records note that only a handful of kulullû dart-throwers, or gagkula, have been captured over the years. The barbed hooks used as ammunition are almost as rare, but this object, which seems to have ontologically bonded with a standard-issue SANDMAN moper dart during the Pascagoula subduction event, possesses the power of a significant reality shard. It responds to psychic commands to secrete any number of Anunnaki-devised poisons or hallucinogens, bolstering the Project theory that the gagkula launchers themselves are psychic foci for the talented aquatic psis. Due to its existence in both histories, though, this barb can be infused by human wielders, not just kulullû. The wielder concentrates for a few seconds on what kind of substance they wish the barb to secrete (like mopers and gagkula, any number of Mental Disadvantages can be infused into the barb). During this psychic infusion, the dart will flash back and forth between its visual appearance as a tranquilizer dart and a gagkula barb but otherwise to mortal witnesses with no ability to discern History B, it looks like an ordinary tranquilizer dart.

Since the barb comes without its gagkula launcher, most often this object will either be used to deliver brush-past contact poison by snagging or piercing a victim's skin; it can also be fitted into a standard SANDMAN tranquilizer dart gun, but will fire at -2 to the skill roll due to the fact it is ontologically bound to a gagkula barb. Infusing the barb costs a standard 1d Corruption for activating a significant reality shard. After being fired, it can be retrieved and used again.

Specific Study: With Specific Study, Charley can see the dual origins of the dart very clearly; she had already done Shard Study on the barb when we found it in Pascagoula. On our side of history, the dart was manufactured by a contractor who supplies the CIA with all kinds of non-lethal weaponry. It was used by one of the Continuity Working Groups “UFO teams” to knock out Calvin Parker. On the other side of history, it came into being as the UFO abducting Parker and Hickson “flipped” from being an OZYMANDIAS operation to being an Irruption of History B on the night of October 11, 1973. Both darts had the same ontological purpose: to knock out a mortal witness and bring him to a place of quietude and safety to impress upon him the importance of his bearing witness to an important message about mankind’s future. The dart’s a functional item on its own but the emotional energy behind it remains strong, and lingers on the object. In fact, it seems to Charley that the reason why History B was able to “hijack” the OZYMANDIAS UFO abduction in Pascagoula is because the purposes behind each version of the abduction narrative were so similar. That’s all Charley gets from the dart.