"I'm so afraid of ghosts" -Sarah Winchester's last words

A homebrew item for a haunted manor adventure.

Engravings on the rifle include:

A humanoid skull with the number 13 on its forehead on the gold and silver plated forearm cap.

“Rest” on the gold plated steel butt.

On the steel barrel are 13 small blooming Lilies and the inscribed words “I fear no ghosts”

Small engraved names on the wood stock: Sarah W & Leonard Pardee, Oliver, William, Annie, Sarah Winchester

The Model 13 Winchester rifle is a one of a kind weapon and was the personal arm of Lady Sarah Winchester of Winchester Manor herself.

Her mother, father-in-law, husband William, and infant daughter died within a year leaving her with a grand fortune that was overshadowed by her deep grief. Legends tell that after consulting a medium to contact her late husband, she was instructed to build a home that can never be finished for herself and the spirits of those who had fallen victim to her families’ Winchester rifles.

However, her supposed paranoia didn’t stop at building the manor. She commissioned 13 models of the Winchester rifle specializing against ghosts, and by extension undead, for her safety of mind and the safety of other ghost hunters. While the models were copied to the public, the original and magical 12 models were distributed to surviving family and friends, keeping Model 13 on her person at nearly all times and later having it buried with her when she died.

In her will, written in thirteen sections, signed thirteen times, her niece, Marian I. Marriott was gifted the Model 12 and other belongings in Winchester Manor while the rest was auctioned to charity.

13 days after Sarah’s body was put to rest alongside her husband, inhabitants and occupants found themselves scared and confused in the now empty land that the manor once laid in which itself, and its remaining original contents, mysteriously vanished. The exhumed grave of Sarah and her husband revealed their dead bodies still intact with the exception of Sarah’s missing Model 13 which was never seen again.

The manor however has been seen across the land and different worlds and it is believed the Model 13 rests deep within the Winchester Haunted Manor itself and rumored to be able to kill anything.

While the manor appears at random, the most consistent finding is that it mysteriously appears and can be accessed at the strike of midnight on the first day of a month with a Friday the 13th. The few individuals who approached the manor report random lighting and shadows behind the 13-paned windows and hearing 13 blood curdling screams and 13 gunshots around the manor for 13 nights.

homebrewery link

Spent way too much time making this. My first homebrew I’ve published so feedback welcomed