Von Breech's Jetpack
Inventor: Dr. von Breech Fuel: Aether fuel First pilot: James Gentry Appears in: City Duty: A James Gentry Short
Design
The jetpack consists of two small metal cylinders with an open exhaust at the bottom, worn on leather shoulder straps with a buckle around the waist. Two long coiled metal tubes run from the pack past the waist and under the arms. They are used to steer ("You use these to turn"), and each ends in a pressure-sensitive trigger for flame control. The pack has padding so the heat does not burn the wearer. It is heavier than an infantry pack. Gears turn inside it when it starts. Flames shoot from the bottom, with smoke and steam.
Operation
Pressing both triggers starts the pack. Thrust depends on how hard the triggers are pressed. Releasing them cuts the flame, and the wearer drops. James found it took trial and error to hover. The jetpack "eats up aether fuel quickly", and a session lasts only a few minutes. It can sputter, possibly from a fuel problem. Von Breech said that in a worst case "you could use the flames emitted from the bottom as a weapon".
First flight
Von Breech brought the jetpack to Rislandia City in a large briefcase. Cid recommended James as the test subject, and James was the first person ever to try it. In the knights' courtyard at night, James shot up uncontrollably, fell, then learned to hover. He flew over the palace roofline to surprise Queen Reina. When the pack sputtered, he landed on the roof, where he met a Nightman assassin. The Nightman's dagger cut one of the straps. James used a burst of thrust to ram the assassin, then aimed the exhaust at him and set him on fire. The Nightman fell from the roof.
Other mentions
The jetpack is listed among von Breech's inventions on his character page, alongside the aether-fueled auto-electrocuter and the flashlight.
In A History of Rislandia
According to A History of Rislandia, the jetpack is classified as experimental technology available to Rislandia. The sourcebook frames it within a broader survey of cutting-edge Rislandian military and scientific development, implying it represents the frontier of what the kingdom's inventors have achieved rather than a fielded or mass-produced device.
The bible's physical description — two metal cylinders with exhaust, leather straps, and pressure-sensitive triggers, with flames shooting from the bottom for propulsion — is consistent with the novels. It additionally characterises the device as extremely hot, a detail not foregrounded in the novel-based account on this page's account of the first flight, though the novels do note that padding prevents the wearer from being burned.
The sourcebook notes that the jetpack is difficult to control and has a short flight time, corroborating the novels' account of James Gentry's trial-and-error hovering and the pack's rapid fuel consumption. It records that James used the device both to stop a Nightmen assassin and as a flamethrower, consistent with the first-flight account on this page.