Alkynylated Heterocycles

Barbaric and not very bright, ogres are unlikely

candidates for scientists and engineers, although they are often chosen by evil wizards and

arcanome-chanics to be powerfully augmented guards and

ser-vants. Ogre magi on the other hand are much more

likely to see the possible advantages of science, and will eagerly go after

steam-work items to learn more of this new technology. An

ogre magi with an under-standing of steamworks is

a dangerous foe indeed, even if their common kin can barely use such devices

without breaking them.

with any caster level bonus they may already have from a domain. These amplifiers are usually situated in the towers of cathedrals or the bowels of mighty temples, and their use depends on the god in question. Some bolster domains of evil or war to help oppress and control, while others bol-ster healing or protection domains to aid and defend their worshippers.

Caster LLevel: 9th Creation: Craft Wondrous Item, divine favour, caster must have the appropri-ate domain, Craft (Steamworks) 12 ranks

Dockyard Crane [Steamwork]

Steamwork devices can be put to good use in dockyards, where engine-powered cranes make the task of moving cargo from ship to shore a great deal easier. With a structure usually formed of metal struts to support the ropes, gears and chains, this type of crane is capable of hauling up to 1 ton of weight into the air. The engine is con-tained in the base of the structure, hidden by metal cladding, and the mechanisms there can rotate the upper portion of the crane to face the needed direction.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 10 ranks Factory [Steamwork]

The advent of steam technology tends to be accompanied by the springing up of industries and factories; their production methods revolu-tionised by steamwork devices. The steamwork hammer described above in the Equipment sec-tion represents a smaller automated machine used in such factories, and can be turned to all sorts of purposes; hammering, shaping and cutting metal items. More complex machinery is also needed in some capacities, from metal rolling mills to larg-er-scale hammers, huge forges and furnaces and mechanised systems of cauldrons containing molten metal. Inside such a factory is thus a hot and busy place to be, mechanics and workers scur-rying around and the growl of heavy machinery all around. Once the machinery in a factory has been modified to suit a particular production pur-pose, be that metal swords or armour, alchemical liquids or construct parts, the crafting time need-ed to create such an object is quarterneed-ed, as well as being automated. Production lines can pour off a

constant flow of weapons, armour and equipment to gear up armies and governments.

The statistics given here represent any large and heavy engine used in a factory. A process may well require more than one such device.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 9 ranks Homing Beacon [Steamwork]

A homing beacon is designed to work in con-cert with a set of homing compasses (see Beasts of Steel), providing them with a reference point from which to extrapolate position and direction. A homing beacon is a large machine that uses either arcane and mystical circuitry or obscure sciences and magnetic stone to which appropriately attuned homing compasses will always point.

Homing beacons are usually housed in fortified buildings, towers or observatories, generally the property of governments and used to provide advanced navigational capabilities for their fleets of ships and dirigibles.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 15 ranks Library [Steamworks]

Steamwork technology can even be imple-mented within libraries and archives to great effect. The body of texts and archived objects are stored in a space of large volume, usually a big warehouse or in the case of valuable contents in a fortified underground excavation. A system of gears and pulleys is rigged throughout the storage space, and attached to a large computational steamwork machine. When a character wishing to remove a text or object from the archive inputs his request into the machine, it sets the system into action, pulleys whirling and cogs turning to send a small container off into the storage area, retrieving the requested item from the shelves (sometimes by a small construct that sits in the container) and bringing it back again. Fast and organised, this system also means that security measures can be put into place on particularly important or dangerous items like magical or prophetic tomes, requiring specific authorisation to retrieve. It also allows librarians to gener-ally monitor what items in the catalogue are being accessed, when, and by whom.

a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks

a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks

Characters utilising the steamwork retrieval system to find an item do not need to make a Maintenance check, only the librarians who start it up and keep it running.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 9 ranks Lifts & Elevators [Steamwork]

These are widely used in all sorts of applica-tions – though due to the unreliability of machin-ery there is always a ladder or stairs too. From the metal cage used to lower workers down a mine shaft, to simple two-floor lifts for moving goods around the levels of a warehouse, they make mov-ing people and objects up and down distances a much easier task. In either case, some people are unwilling to use elevators, finding the idea that they depend on a clanking, hissing piece of metal to keep them from crashing to the ground just too nerve-wracking a concept.

These lifts generally come in two kinds; those used in mines and suchlike depending on a system of gears, ropes and pulleys that the steam engine drives, and more heavily mechanised elevators usually found in buildings. Mineshaft lifts tend to be slower but are simpler to make, especially con-sidering the vertical distance that it may need to travel. Both kinds are normally built to hold 4-8 people though may be larger or smaller as design needs warrant.

The entry in the table above is for a mecha-nised lift; a mineshaft lift costs 500gp and has a Maintenance DC of 9.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 10 ranks Mine Borer [Steamwork]

Mines have always been dangerous work for miners and so the added problems of working around heavy machinery are more than counter-balanced by the incredible increase in production that steamwork devices provide. Hand-held steamwork drills like the entry in the Equipment section chew through rock at a far faster rate than the slow chip of a pickaxe, while even larger ver-sions can rip through worthless stone to seek out the seams of wealth that the miners are really hunting. Even down in the depths of dwar-ven mines the ringing of pickaxes on stone is quickly replaced by the

snarling of machinery once they discover just how much effort is saved by setting machines to do the task for them.

A mine borer is a large drilling machine, usual-ly mounted on tracks or wheels and capable of self-locomotion. Modifications on the basic design of these devices results in the creation of vehicles capable of tunnelling through the earth and stone with a pilot at the helm (see Beasts of Steel).

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 8 ranks Necromek Crypt Factory [Steamwork]

Crypt factories are the sinister result of exper-imentation into melding the might of the undead with the strength of machinery, and are usually forbidding and ominous in appearance, sprouting twisted vents and spikes. A character capable of casting spells that create any form of undead can make use of a crypt factory while doing so, and the automated necromantic processes of the facto-ry mean that any undead created in this way auto-matically gains the mechanised template. In regions where necromancers hold both consider-able power and the knowledge of blending steam science with magic, these factories are common sights, adding ‘enhanced’ minions to the rotting ranks of the wizards armies.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 15 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 14 ranks

Observatory [Steamwork]

This structure is usually in the form of a roughly hemispherical building of metal and stone, capable of rotating to follow the movement of the heavens and with retracting plates that open out to allow the telescopic devices within to peer up to the skies. Steamwork engines power the machinery that moves the observatory and the telescopes. A character conducting astrologi-cal study gains a +2 circumstance bonus to Knowledge (Astrology) checks if they make use of an observatory.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 15 ranks

Steam &

Steam & Steel Steel

Oilrig

The oilrig is, to most fantasy settings, an entirely innovative structure. Cranes, gate-open-ing mechanisms and constructs can all be built with magic and simple technology even if it is often not as efficient or powerful as steamwork science, but an oilrig is simply not a structure needed unless there is a demand for oil.

Oil can come from many sources, whether it is pools hidden beneath the ocean floor or great welling pits formed in a volcanic valley where a mighty wyrmlord died. Oilrigs are large metal structures designed to get at that oil. The struc-ture is based around one or several great siphons that plunge down to the source of the fuel they are trying to extract, which in the case of sea oilrigs can be a considerable distance indeed, and using drills and pumps they bring oil up to the surface.

A tower spouting flame is a sign of an oilrig in the distance, a controlled burning of natural gas to keep it from exploding and wrecking the struc-ture.

Building an oilrig is an expensive and difficult venture, and it is usually governments that have the power and wealth, as well as the need, to cre-ate them. Building one at sea is especially difficult due to unpredictable weather and unpredictable reactions of sea denizens. More than one expedi-tion of engineers has been wiped out by a tribe of sea elves or sahuagin that took offence at metal shafts slamming down through their territory, and even more dangerous beasts such as kraken also take a dim view of oil rigs.

This is to say nothing of the threat posed by other nations and power groups. An oil rig is a great source of power and wealth because it ensures a relatively constant flow of fuel. Since even inland oilrigs tend to be in outlandish or iso-lated places due to the strange nature of condi-tions creating the fuel in locacondi-tions other than the sea bed, most are crewed with a military or mer-cenary presence, including spellcasters if possible.

The pay is good for any crew of an oilrig since the conditions are usually dangerous as well as having the prospect of being isolated at sea for months – and the wages of any spellcaster who can control the weather or waves, or communicate with sea creatures, is even higher.

As well as governments, particularly science-focused faiths, especially in situations where it is scientist-priests who are responsible for the cre-ation of steamwork devices, may maintain an oil-rig. In these cases the towering metal structures are as much cathedrals as industrial buildings, fonts of the fuel which drives their divinely inspired machines.

Most oilrigs include at least one steamwork crane for loading and unloading containers of oil and supplies. If aerial vehicles have been devel-oped or the culture has any develdevel-oped links with aerial creatures, a landing platform for visitors from the air will also be supplied. Most sea-born oilrigs are also outfitted with several steamwork suits of armour, fitted with enhanced sealed envi-ronments to allow mechanics to venture under-water.

Cost: 350,000 gp

Printing Press [Steamworks]

While a single steamwork press is a huge step onwards from the slow and laborious process of hand-copying books, a burgeoning printing com-pany can put the monetary gains it reaps to good use in expanding and improving its capacities. A large-scale printing press can reduce the time made to create a single print run of a book or tract even further, or possibly print more than one thing at a time. Developing societies tend to quickly acquire a hunger for literature of any kind, so those in the printing business can become very rich very quickly.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 11 ranks Solar Array [Steamwork]

A solar array consists of a mass of solar panels and light absorbers, usually mounted all over the side of a tower or building. The panels are mounted on small steamwork pistons and adjusters, and during the day, with the occasional hiss of steam and whirr of gears, they move to follow the sun

a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks

a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks

in order to best pick up its rays. Used in conjunc-tion with a solar trap engine, they absorb far more efficiently and generate more energy than the normal set-up of panels. A device powered by a solar array gains 1 ½ hours of fuel from every hour of sunlight absorbed. The array needs a Maintenance check to start it up or keep it run-ning but its own energy consumption is negligible and it doesn’t need a separate engine to drive it.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 12 ranks Spellcraft Engine [Arcana, Steamwork]

A spellcraft engine is mounted as an addition-al device on an arcanist’s tower, a nest of pipes and bubbling glass containers interlaced with cop-per wire and jagged chunks of crystal. Such an engine is finely attuned to the status of magic within 1 mile, able to sense the disturbance of an arcane spell like the ripples of water across a pond when a stone is dropped in. Whenever a character casts an arcane spell within the detection radius of the spellcraft engine, it emits a warning sound and with a steamwork compass indicates the direction of the incident from the tower. A series of different glass beakers are lined up next to the compass, each one indicating one of the schools of magic, and when an incident is detected the beaker that corresponds to the school of magic of the spell casts fills with swirling steam. Spellcraft engines are often tailored to respond only to spe-cific schools of magic, since in some places certain of the schools are illegal, usually those of Enchantment and Necromancy.

A character that is aware of the presence of a spellcraft engine nearby can try and avoid detec-tion by making a Concentradetec-tion check (DC 25+spell level) while spellcasting. A success means he masks the spell from the engine by damping down its magical signal.

While a single spellcraft engine can only indi-cate the direction of the location in which the spellcasting occurred, two or three spellcraft engines in different locations can be used to trian-gulate the exact co-ordinates of the location. If combined with teleportation spells this can make a rapid response to unsanctioned

spellcasting a viable possibility.

Caster LLevel: 9th Creation:

Create Wondrous Item, detect magic, Craft (Steamworks) 12 ranks

Steamwork Bridge [Steamwork]

With the power of steam technology, a new and revolutionary type of bridge can be construct-ed. Rather than suffering the limitations of more static stone, metal or wooden structures, a bridge can be built to span busy stretches of river, not just because of the improved construction tech-niques of an industrialising society but because it can be engineered to move for passing river traf-fic. The exact manner in which the bridge oper-ates varies; a central section might lift directly up on steel ropes, cogs and pulleys, or the bridge might be split in the middle as the two sides are pulled up to form a triangular shape when they are at their apex. Either way, larger water craft are thus able to pass under the bridge, where before the static structure of a bridge would have limited only smaller craft to be able to pass further up or down.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 15 ranks Steamwork Gate [Steamwork]

Many large structures such as castles, temples and suchlike feature large and heavy gates.

Although these can be opened and closed by hand this tends to be slow because of their sheer size and weight, and of course also demands a fair bit of effort on the part of the gatekeeper. Steamwork engines rigged up to open the gates are both a boon to the tired gatekeeper and a significant sta-tus symbol on the part of the owner, displaying his wealth and might. Like steamwork locks, steamwork gates incorporate a full locking mech-anism easily up to the standards of fortified posi-tions. The nature of the gates is obviously dis-played on the hinges and frame of the structure, which are covered in the metal cladding that con-ceals the mechanisms beneath. The main body of the engine and controls are situated on the inside of the walls and well out of harms way. When the operator opens the gates, the huge weight of the gates swings open slowly enough to allow anyone to get out of the way, accompanied by the hiss of steam and the grinding noise of cogs. They are particularly popular amongst those wishing to

Steam &

Steam & Steel Steel

a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks

impress and intimidate their guests.

Creation: Craft (Steamworks) 8 ranks

Steamwork Pump System [Steamwork]

A steamwork pump is a large and noisy piece of engineering attached to a network of pipes and valves. These pumps can serve a variety of differ-ent purposes. Most obvious is to pump water around, which despite its simplicity in concept is a very useful capability. Industries demand large amounts of water in their processes and a steam-work pump can provide a factory with all the water it needs by running pipes down to a river or seafront. Pumps are also used on steam-powered ships to pump water out, as well as being employed in marshy and coastal areas for drain-ing land free of water. Were a pump system to be extended throughout a city, with regular pump stations keeping the pressure up, it could provide the amazing amenity of fresh running water to the ordinary citizens, pushing back the limits of city growth by leaps and bounds with such a mar-vel. Harness the great amount of heat generated by the factories and plants of a dozen industries working day and night in a city and even hot water becomes available. Pump systems can also be employed as rudimentary sewage systems, tak-ing the waste from alchemical and arcane labora-tories and industrial faclabora-tories – and usually just dumping it in a river or the sea. It is advisable to be wary of venturing into the water near the efflu-ent pipes of an alchemechanic’s or wizard’s work-place.

As well as urban uses, steamwork pumps have their applications in agriculture. Here, water is even more useful, and such a pump in place on a well or by a river can have a farmer’s irrigation

As well as urban uses, steamwork pumps have their applications in agriculture. Here, water is even more useful, and such a pump in place on a well or by a river can have a farmer’s irrigation