The wrong homonym

[Inquisitive Raven]

One not-quite-homonym, but similar, that I've sneered about mentally for decades, now:  in one of the early Dragonlance books, there's a scene of the heroes trying to go into a local government building where they're not entirely welcome, and the guards thrust "hauberks" forward to bar their way.  It's not said whether they were wearing the hauberks or not.  I larfs, I does.

Okay, now I'm trying to figure what weapon that armor was supposed to be. The closest thing I can think of is an arquebus (especially considering some of the alternate spellings in the Wiki article), but that's not something I'd expect to find in Dragonlance.