2 construct companion construct companion

BHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHHB
Fabricator
This category of Automata covers all types of “industrial”
machines including automatic looms, cotton gins,
steam-powered forges and furnaces, lathes, printing
presses, sawmills, “windmills”, and machines to make
rope, draw wire, lift objects, drill holes, and so forth.
Each Fabricator can only perform one specific task. Most
of these will be steam-powered for maximum efficiency,
requiring Enchant Machine II to replace their fuel needs.
Steam-powered Fabricators require at least one sack of
coal per hour of operation.
Cost: 25-50gp. Time: 2 to 4 weeks.
Giant and Advanced Weapons
This category covers improved designs for siege and
support weapons. Four da Vinci designs are representative
of this class: the compact catapult, the giant crossbow,
the rapid firing crossbow, and the steam cannon.
The compact catapult has a ladder at the side front for
reloading the cup, which is mounted on a tapered flexible
arm. The arm is held under tension by a rope to a
hand-operated windlass, which is used to adjust the
range (by increasing or decreasing the tension).
The giant crossbow has a length of 75 feet plus and a
bow of 80 feet from tip to tip, and is mounted on 3 pairs
of wheels. Its hinged tailpiece can be driven into the
ground to absorb the recoil. Although this design has
been built, trials were unable to achieve any significant
range – Enchant Machine I will be required to achieve the
range of a standard heavy crossbow (multiplying damage
by 10 for any unfortunate individual struck by a
missile from the giant crossbow).
The rapid-firing crossbow is actually a treadmill with four
crossbows (one per spoke) and an archer suspended inside it.
The treadmill is turned by a number of men walking its outer
rim (and shielded by a wooden mantlet); this motion also
draws the crossbows. Up to four bolts may be fired per round.
Magic can be used to replace the human power.
The steam-powered cannon is made from copper and
propels an iron cannonball using steam instead of gunpowder.
The cannon’s breech is built into a brazier
containing burning coals, which heat the conductive
copper to a high temperature. To fire the cannon, a small
amount of water is released via a valve into a chamber
behind the ball. The heat converts the water into steam,
which drives the ball out. It is possible that Leonardo da
Vinci had one of these constructed; certainly steam
cannon saw action in the American Civil War. This
weapon requires one sack of coal for each hour of
operation.
Cost: catapult 50gp, crossbows 200gp, and steam
cannon 250gp.
Time: catapult 1 week, crossbows 3 weeks, steam
cannon 2 weeks.
Mechanical “Life”
This category includes all the decorative “automata”
in human, animal, and landscape forms (as described in
Chapter 2). Unlike genuine Constructs and Golems,
these Automata are limited to a few prescribed movements
or actions. Even mechanical songbirds and scribes
(such as Jaquet-Droz’s Writer) are limited in what they
can sing or write – changing their performances requires
changing some of their mechanisms. These devices can
all be made with clockwork mechanisms; magic may be
employed to power them or expand their capabilities.
Cost: 100gp – 1000gp (or more) – depends on size,
complexity, and ornateness.
Time: 1 month to 1 year according to quality and
complexity.
Traps
Villains with a taste for fiendish death traps occasionally
employ artificers to construct traps as Machine
Automata. These range in size and deadliness from
touch-activated spring-loaded needles through pressureactivated
dart or spear throwers to “crushing” rooms
where the doors automatically lock while the ceiling
descends (or the walls move) to crush the occupants to
a bloody pulp. Automata traps can be designed to reset
under specific circumstances and can benefit from a
variety of Empowerments.
In addition to the normal Engineering, Gimmickry,
and Mechanition maneuvers, constructing a Trap Automaton
requires a Trap Building maneuver to build the
basic trap component of the Automaton. The difficulty
level for this maneuver is equal to the corresponding
desired difficulty level of the Disarm Traps maneuver.
Such Trap Automata can be made more difficult by
adding redundant mechanisms (to obfuscate disarm
attempts) and backup contraptions (to compensate for
successful bypasses of the obvious sensors and machinery).
Redundant mechanisms modify the Automaton
Gimmickry and Mechanition maneuvers as well as Disarm
Trap attempts by -5 each. Each backup system
modifies the Automaton Gimmickry and Mechanition
maneuvers by -10, but requires a separate Disarm Trap
maneuver to neutralize. Successfully concealing the trap
requires a Setting Traps maneuver (difficulty level as per
the necessary Detect Traps maneuver to find it).
A variation of the Fine Manipulation Empowerment can
be used to make Trap Automata harder to detect and disarm.
The bonus (10, 20 or 30) becomes a penalty to the Detect Trap
and Disarm Trap maneuvers. This Empowerment can be
applied to each trap component of this Automaton type.
Cost: 20-100gp base cost (dependent on size) plus a
variable cost for each trap component.
40 CONSTRUCT COMPANION