Hawkeye XS-3

The XS-2 Modular Battle Rifle "Hawkeye" is a very interesting and almost entirely unique weapon, developed by Putay Yeovay in his army days. It wasn't particularly successful in the military as it's somewhat weaker than an average rifle and breaks with surprising ease, its true value only shining in the hands of either a highly accomplished gunsmith or, ideally, an Artificer. The version he gifted you is actually a slightly larger version of his original prototype called the XS-3. The weapon is surprisingly tastefully decorated, considering Putay's personality, with all the metal being coated in a special black paint, with a stylish redwood grip. On the barrel is written the name "Hawkeye" in gold trim letters, followed by a small drawing of a bird in flight. The design seems interestingly modular, with a number of attachments points and replaceable parts, though this makes the weapon feel somewhat fragile in your hands.

Statistically, the Hawkeye functions much like an average rifle, with some caveats. It deals only 2d6 damage and it Misfires on a 1 as well as on 0 and below. However, in exchange for this, it has the very unique feature of having two Module Slots. By default, you can fill both slots with the core material parts which basically turn it into a slightly above average rifle:

Enhanced Barrel - 1 module slot - Grants the Hawkeye +1d6 damage
Reinforcing Parts - 1 module slot - Entirely removes the Misfire trait from the Hawkeye

However, where it truly shines is in the hands of an Artificer like yourself. By utilizing 1 gc worth of parts from your bag for each module slot, you can create a number of interesting and modular effects to add onto it. The manual Putay included with the rifle contains his own ideas, though, as he put it, it is a weapon limited only by your own creativity and skills. Developing a new module takes about a week of downtime, with said time being capable of being faster or slower depending on what kinds of tools you have available and whether you have a reasonable in-character source of inspiration for a new module. As an example, you already have the Inspiration required to make something from what you learned from the Blast Lance, cutting research time down to 3 days. You can also craft a permanent version of a module given enough time and resources. It takes 2.5 gc of real (non-bag) materials per module slot and a week of downtime to permanently develop a module. Swapping modules is somewhat delicate work considering the finnicky nature of the rifle, requiring 10 minutes of quiet work to swap them out without breaking anything important. In essence, this means you can swap modules anytime you can take a Regroup action, and obviously over a Rest. Looking over the Hawkeye, you can already start to see some avenues of improvement to its core frame, though such will take some time... (Essentially you'll eventually gain more module slots as you grow into your powers as an Artificer. You'll go up to 3 module slots at 6 and 4 module slots at 9.)

The modules and ideas included in Putay's manual are as follows:

Bayonet - 1 module slot - Grants the Hawkeye the ability to quickly stab as a triggered action, dealing 1d6 damage, but the attack uses Strength.

??????????? - ?? module slot - Been thinking of a way to make the Bayonet lighter and easier to use, but honestly, swords and daggers aren't really my expertise.

Magical Channeling Container - 1 module slot - A small compartment that holds a magical implement and suffuses the Hawkeye with its power, allowing the Hawkeye to be used as the magical implement instead.

???????????? - ?? module slots - This is a really inefficient design. Pretty sure I could integrate it directly with the Hawkeye base frame but I honestly never really bothered with it since I'm not great at spells to begin with, hah! Maybe you can figure something out here, girl.

Elemental Ammo Converter - 1 module slot - Grants the Hawkeye +1d3 damage of Fire, Cold or Lightning type. Each element also has a unique Critical Effect. Fire deals an additional 1d6 damage on a 20+, Cold causes an enemy to become Impaired on a 20+ and Lightning causes an enemy to become Immoblized on a 20+

Prototype Revolving Mechanism - 1 module slot - The Hawkeye only needs to be reloaded every 2 shots instead of every shot.

????????????????? - ?? module slots - I met a man once who had a truly incredible handgun which could hold 6 bullets in a revolving mechanism. I unfortunately was unable to convince him to part with the weapon, but just the idea of it allowed me to create the prototype above. It could very obviously do with improvement, but I'm at something of a loss as to how to do so without compromising the integrity of the rifle.

Quick-Action Breech Loader - 2 module slots - The Hawkeye can be reloaded with a trigger action.

Long Range Modifications - 2 module slots - The Hawkeye becomes capable of firing at Extreme range, gains 1d6 damage and fires with 1 boon at Long or Extreme ranges, but it becomes too unwieldy to use in closer range combat, conferring it a bane if used at Medium range and 3 banes at Short or below.

???????????????? - ?? module slots - While I managed to effectively increase the firing range of the Hawkeye it's still limited by each person's accuracy. Maybe if I could attach some sort of magnification device to it? It's also really hard to shoot it now...

Short Range Modifications - 2 module slots - The Hawkeye loses the ability to fire at Long range, being limited to only Medium and Short, but gains 1d6 damage, fires with 1 boon and knocks an enemy prone on a 20+.

?????????????? - ?? module slots - I think the barrel could be further tapered off, but at that point you're using a weapon that's practically melee range. Still, there could be some benefit to doing so...

????????????????? - ?? module slots - If we could somehow miniaturize the inner workings of the Blast Lance even further...?