A
s any student of the necromantic arts is aware, death is a powerful tool, possessing energies that can be harnessed by those who are wise to it. Some have applied this path of thought to the creation of steamwork devices, cre-ating engines that derive their power from death and decay. Necromantic engines usually reflect the tastes of their creators, tending towards goth-ic design and horrifgoth-ic appearance, whether that is a skeletal, bone-like frame or vicious spikes and blades adorned with the remnants of enemies.Necromantic steamwork constructs often possess a malicious aura to them, eyes glowing with witchfire; those with furnace engines tend to have slender, sinister smokestacks and vents that puff out foul fumes.
Creating a necromantic engine requires the Necromek feat.
Sacrifices: In the creation of any necro-mantic engine, the creation costs can be decreased by 10% by ritually sacrificing sentient creatures. The blood and death of a single sentient creature for every increasing size category of the
a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks
Kobolds
Kobolds have a tal-ent for integrating have a love of fossil
fuel-burning engines and oil in general, and their edge of science in
this field.
steamwork device to be powered is integrated into dark rituals that allow the necromancer to spend less of his own energy in the process. Both gold and experience costs are reduced through the use of sacrifices.
Using sacrifices to empower a steamwork device in this way is an unambiguously evil act.
Soulburner: This type of dark engine has a firebox that seems full of ethereal black flames. These flames act in the same way as real fire except that they inflict cold damage on anyone foolish enough to stick a limb in the fire-box; like real fire, this coldfire can also set them alight. In addition, the flames also burn on the Ethereal plane and will inflict damage on any ethereal creature that passes through them. A soulburner uses souls as its fuel but can only burn them if they have been captured in gems, for instance through the use of the soul harvest spell (See Spells). Once the engine has consumed a soul, the holding gem crumbles to dust in the coldfire, and an individual whose soul is eaten by a soulburner can only be returned to life through a wish or miracle spell. Soulburners give off a thin, unpleasant smoke from their firebox.
The creation of a soulburner has an additional cost, in the form of one soul trapped in a gem for each increasing size category of the steamwork device to be powered. The souls are bound perma-nently into the machine until the engine is destroyed, when they are freed.
Coldfire burns merrily even when underwater or in airless environments, and so soulburners are immune to the Smouldering Embers result on the Malfunction table.
In the case of a Catastrophic Breakdown, the firebox explodes in a flare of blue-white coldfire accompanied by the sound of screaming spirits.
For every size category larger than Small of the device, the radius of the explosion expands by 5ft.
For Small or smaller devices the explosion only affects someone handling it. Anyone in the area is hit for 2d6 cold damage unless they make a Reflex save (DC 15). Note that on a successful save, someone handling the device only succeeds in taking half damage rather than avoid-ing it entirely. If a soulburner is
reduced to 0 hit points by magic damage of any sort then it explodes in the same manner as a Catastrophic Breakdown.
Corpseburner: This form of necromantic engine needs a large furnace, as it burns corpses to provide heat for the boiler. Unlike a conventional furnace, it doesn't just derive energy from the burning flesh, but also from the pain and fear of death that still resides in the corpses.
Although the burning corpses give off a foul stench and thick smog, it does mean that for war machines, the battlefield
becomes a source of fuel after the fighting is over. It is not unusual to see the dark-spined, hulking minions of some necromancer prowling a killing field with a trail of thick smoke as they hunt for fresh fuel. Some particularly nasty constructs are fitted so that they can scoop up living opponents and place them directly into their furnaces, dealing 2d6 fire damage to the unfortunate each round they remain there.
A Medium-size corpseburn-er device consumes a single corpse to fuel it for one day.
Corpseburners have the advan-tage of their fuel being effec-tively free, but like other more conventional furnace engines, they are vulnerable to their firebox going out or being doused. Although it does not seem viable for small steam-work devices to use corpse-burner engines, it is quite pos-sible for a necromancer to feed
small body parts such as fingers into the furnace of a construct such as a spider sentinel.
In the case of a Catastrophic Malfunction, a corpseburner breaks down in a billowing cloud of foul smog, but with no further special effects.
Steam &
Steam & Steel Steel
Orcs
While the orc tribal structure is not very suited to the inven-tion and dissemina-tion of steam tech-nology, and in gen-eral they are too warlike and
uncere-bral a race to have talent in that field,
there is the occa-sional incidence of
tribal wisemen passing down the knowledge of creat-ing a few crude sys-tems. Orcs do like big and noisy steam engines though, and
eagerly acquire them off other
soci-eties by barter or plunder. Powerful allies might give an orc tribe steamwork
devices to keep them loyal.
Dragonsblood: These vile necromantic engines exploit the highly magical nature of dragons, using necromantic sciences to extract energy from their sorcerous blood.
Dragonsblood engines may appear similar to alchemical steamworks, featuring a nest of glass tubes and alchemical devices buried amongst the machinery that distils and filters the blood to extract the magical energy from it. Moving drag-onsblood constructs are accompanied by the ghastly sight and sound of the crimson liquid swirling around the glass pipes.
Even worse, the blood actu-ally seems to enhance such steamworks with fiendish energy and power drawn from the blood. Steamwork con-structs powered by dragons-blood engines gain an inherent +2 bonus to all ability scores, as well as the ability to cast one single level 1 arcane spell 3 times per day (the spell is decided on creation of the engine). Dragonsblood engines are also unaffected by the Smouldering Embers result on the Malfunction table.
Needless to say, dragons-blood engines are hated by all dragonkind. It is not unknown for evil dragons to create drag-onsblood engines fuelled by their own blood and that of dragons they have slain, but such monsters are shunned and reviled even by other evil dragons. A dragon will go out of its way to destroy a dragonsblood steamwork and kill its creator.
Creating a dragonsblood engine has an addi-tional cost. Half a pint of dragon's blood per increasing size category is used up in the crafting process. For fuel, a pint of dragon's blood will keep a Medium-sized dragonsblood engine run-ning for 1 day. There is no standard cost associat-ed with a pint of dragon's blood, and it usually
needs to be acquired directly - which is normally a very dangerous task. Some particularly unpleas-ant necromancers may keep imprisoned and crip-pled dragons that they can siphon the blood from.
In the case of a Catastrophic Breakdown, a dragonsblood engine explodes in a detonation that rips it apart, sending pieces of glass scything through the air around it like shrapnel. For every size category larger than Small of the device, the radius of the explosion expands by 5ft. For Small or smaller devices the explosion only affects someone handling it. Anyone in the area is hit for 1d8 damage unless they make a Reflex save (DC 15). Note that on a successful save, someone han-dling the device only succeeds in taking half dam-age rather than avoiding it entirely.
At the DM's discretion the blood of other high-ly magical creatures, for instance fey or medusae, could be used to power a necromantic construct as
well.
Blood Drinker: Blood drinker engines are only ever used to power a device of destruction such as a weapon or construct, due to the way they acquire their fuel. A blood drinker relies on the blood of its victims. Unlike the carefully refined alchemical and necromantic process of a dragonsblood engine, a blood drinker feeds off both the crude blood and the pain of the injuries it inflicts.
A blood drinker device normally features vicious blades and hooks designed for ripping and tearing, etched blood channels in the weapons causing drawn blood to flow back towards the machine where it is collected and siphoned into the furnace. They possess a normal firebox aug-mented with necromantic energies, the flames a deep crimson in hue. Despite the magic bound into the furnace, blood drinkers can still be affect-ed by the Smouldering Embers malfunction and can be doused.
Blood drinkers create a thin, acrid smoke as a result of the burning. A Medium-sized blood drinker device must inflict 25 points of damage to living beings that have blood in order to extract the fuel to keep it running for one day.
In the case of a Catastrophic
a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks a Guide to Fantasy Steamworks
Lizardfolk
Like gnolls, lizard-folk rarely have anything to do with
steam technology.
They have a certain affinity to nature, at least to its aspects of survival and
bru-tality, and their druids and priests find the havoc that
can be wreaked on the environment by
steamwork device belching fumes and
waste to be quite horrific. Although groups that do
pos-sess steamworks.
Breakdown, a blood drinker blasts out an invisible surge of pain and agony as it breaks down and the magical processes within go haywire. The blast has a radius of 5 feet for every increasing size cat-egory the steamwork device is, and anyone with-in the area must make a Will save (DC 15) or suf-fer 3d6 subdual damage.
Soul Drinker: Like blood drinkers, soul drinker engines are only ever used to power destructive steamworks. An attack by a soul drinker uses necromantic magic to snare pieces of the life force of anyone injured, bestowing a single negative level on them (the DC to remove it after 24 hours is 10). By draining life energy a soul drinker is able to power the dark processes going on within it, and from the joints and valves in the machinery small, ethereal wisps of souls can be seen seeping out.
Anyone killed outright by a soul drinker engine's level drain can only be returned to life through a wish or miracle. Anyone slain by more conventional injuries inflicted by such a machine suffers no such restrictions. Since the process is entirely necromantic and a soul drinker does not have a firebox, a soul drinker is unaffected by the Smouldering Embers malfunction. However, due to the bulkiness of the arcane apparatus that a soul drinker engine employs, they cannot be used to power steamwork devices of smaller than Medium-sized. 2 levels of energy drain are needed to sustain a soul drinker device of Medium size for one day.
In the case of a Catastrophic Breakdown, a soul drinker explodes in a pulsating gleam of sickly grey light, energy washing out of it that saps the strength of those caught nearby. For every size category over Small, the radius of the explosion is increased by 5ft (thus having a minimum radius of 5ft. at Medium size due to the minimum size restriction of the engine). Anyone in the area suf-fers 2d6 temporary Strength damage if they fail a Will save (DC 18).