Explosive Bags

Explosive Bags

Explosive bags are a class of Nightmen munitions designed for aerial and ground-based bombardment. Stored in crates and transported in bulk, they were employed extensively across multiple campaigns against Rislandian and allied forces.

Description

Explosive bags burst on impact and explode, producing large blasts sufficient to fell trees, blow holes in ship decks, bring down mecha suits, collapse building sections, and cause dirt explosions. They were stored in crates within the Nightmen encampment and could be chained together with gunpowder trails to create perimeter explosions. Despite their destructive power, they proved difficult to aim accurately against small airborne targets.

Nightmen soldiers delivered explosive bags both from the air and from the ground. Aerial delivery was carried out by bat-flier pilots dropping bags from Nightmen bat gliders. Ground troops hurled the bags using slings, enabling bombardment from all sides of a target.

Rislandian scientists who encountered explosive bags on the Zenwey continent later reverse-engineered the technology, producing a clockwork grenade: an egg-shaped metal device with clockwork components that detonated on a timer. A pin was pulled from the top, the clockwork was twisted, and the device exploded when the gears wound down. This derivative weapon is described separately under the grenade entry on the Minor Gadgets & Equipment page.

Delivery Methods

Explosive bags were delivered by two primary means:

• Aerial: Dropped from Nightmen bat gliders by bat-flier pilots.
• Ground: Hurled by Nightmen soldiers using slings, allowing the bags to be directed at targets from multiple directions simultaneously.

Spoiler: The Crystal ConspiracyClick to reveal

Role in The Iron Wedding

Explosive bags were used during the Nightmen attack that interrupted the wedding of Zaira von Monocle and Ivan, the Iron Emperor at Carnait Cove. Bat-glider pilots pelted the wedding grounds with the bags. Zaira observed that "those bags were much more powerful than bullets, something Ivan hadn't accounted for in the design of these constructs," referring to the Wyranth automatons. Bags dropped on the mecha suits brought one of the units down, and another blew out the side of a building.

Two bags were detonated by gunfire before they could do their intended damage:

• Marina du Willet shot one in mid-air, and it exploded safely.
• When Nightmen forced their way into the fortified tower, one threw a bag into the stairwell. Zaira shot it, and the blast collapsed the stairwell, sealing the tower against the attackers.

Role in The Steam Knight

In The Steam Knight, explosive bags were not directly depicted in Nightmen use, but their legacy influenced Rislandian weapons development. Rislandian scientists had previously encountered explosive bags on the Zenwey continent and reverse-engineered the technology into a clockwork grenade. Ethan von Lantern carried one such grenade clipped to a strap inside his jacket and used it to ambush Wyranth soldiers in the forest. Upon detonation, the grenade knocked over a gas lamp and started a small fire.

In A History of Rislandia

According to A History of Rislandia, explosive bags are attributed to a specific inventor: they were created by Rhys, placing their origin within the broader history of Nightmen technology. The sourcebook describes them as thrown projectiles that detonate on impact — consistent with the novels — but adds a physical detail not mentioned in the fiction: explosive bags have feathered tails, which provided stability in flight.

The bible also records a use of explosive bags not covered elsewhere on this page: the Nightmen employed them during an attack on Seeva's village, establishing that their battlefield use predates or extends beyond the engagements at Carnait Cove documented in the novels.

The sourcebook further notes that explosive bags are capable of damaging airships and fortifications, which aligns with but is somewhat broader than the novel-derived list of effects (felling trees, blowing holes in ship decks, rocking mecha suits, collapsing building sections).