Explosive Alchemicals

Early firearms used smoky black gunpowder as propellant for its ammunition, but alchemical advances produced ruby-red firedust. This powdered variant of alchemist’s fire produces no smoke when used in firearms, has a lower risk of fouling or corroding the weapon’s internals, and is hydrophobic, allowing it to burn even after immersion in water. 

Many other firearm accelerants exist, including magmite (a granular black substance rendered in alchemical furnaces) and phlogistite (transluscent red vapor slime that floats in globules if exposed to open air), but firedust is by far the most widely used. Steam engines use a variant, firegems, which burn slower but longer

While it is the source of a firearm’s deadly power, firedust is relatively harmless as a weapon in its own right, since it burns too fast to cause serious wounds like traditional alchemist fire. If someone ignites a cask full of firedust, though, the resulting explosion could seriously hurt those nearby. National militaries field grenadiers who use hand-held explosives, particularly in Drakr, but city-dwellers – even criminals – find little use for such indiscriminate destruction.

Example Explosion

A twenty pound cask of firedust, roughly a foot across, explodes in a 10-ft. radius, dealing 7d6 damage (Dexterity save DC 12 for half damage). A one-ton pallet that explodes deals 7d6 damage in a 30-ft. radius, while those within 10 ft. instead take 15d6 damage (Dexterity save DC 12 for half damage). Any attack that dealt at least 5 fire damage to a space containing the cask or pallet would be sufficient to cause an explosion; simply shooting firedust with a bullet won’t cause it to explode.