3G: Go, Go, Gadget Bohemian Earspoon!

Technology has always been a part of D&D. Don Kaye, a friend of Gary Gygax’s in his original campaign, created the character of Murlynd, who wore a Stetson and sported twin six-shooters. Murlynd’s house was detailed in the module The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, featuring electrical lights, hot and cold running water (turned on only on the first floor), and a stove and refrigerator in the kitchen. Some iconic artifacts from 1<sup>st</sup> edition are also technological devices – Heward’s Mystical Organ, the Machine of Lum the Mad, the Mighty Servant of Leuk-O – as is the apparatus of Kwalish (interestingly enough, listed as a magic item in the original Dungeon Master’s Guide, instead of an artifact). Even the original Manual of the Planes provided guidelines for adjusting technology and magic in alternate Prime Material planes of existence.

The practice of mixing fantasy and science fiction, old and new, past and future, is a small but undeniable thread that has run throughout D&D’s history, perpetuated by many authors. The level and complexity of technology has varied from time to time, but its presence is undeniable. The DA series of modules for Blackmoor detailed strange and wondrous devices from the setting’s technological past, culminating in the exploration of a crashed starship in DA3 City of the Gods. (There was a fourth module in the series, but it didn’t draw from the original source material.) Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, also dealing with a downed spaceship, acted as a bridge between D&D and Metamorphosis Alpha back in the 1970’s. Metamorphosis Alpha became Gamma World, and 4E D&D’s Gamma World made sci fi weapons and fantasy characters compatible.

Of course, 3E also provided technology to D&D in the form of the d20 supplements. D20 Past, D20 Modern, and D20 Future all presented items compatible with D&D characters. 3<sup>rd</sup> party d20 supplements took the compatibility a step further, namely, Dragonstar by Fantasy Flight Games. The Dragonstar setting evolved pseudo-medieval fantasy to a future where magic and technology merged, creating a galaxy-spanning empire where spaceships and spells exist side by side. Wizards of the Coast also took the same track with the Eberron campaign setting, but not quite so far into the future. Eberron features airships, lightning rails, warforged, and creation forges that all combine technology and magic to varying degrees.

And this brings us to Farrendel Dlardrageth, the long-lost fey’ri son of Sarya Dlardrageth (from the Forgotten Realms Hellgate Keep module) hurled into the far future by powerful magic when his family was imprisoned thousands of years ago. Badly hurt by the imperfect spell that traversed time and space, he was “healed” through the use of nanotechnology and technological augmentation. Indoctrinated into the ways of a secret society known as the Keepers, he was sent back in time to help prevent the unfortunate outcome of the Planescape adventure Faction War, should the heroes not succeed at liberating the Sigil spell and the Labyrinthine Stone.

Aerosatar, Farrendel’s player in my online Planescape game, is very similar to myself in that he wants to use EVERYTHING available. As the campaign evolved in the beginning, he grew frustrated with his first character, Lucius Varrelialus, because he couldn’t reconcile the code and conduct of a paladin with the vast swatch of evil and corruption the party encountered once they started planehopping. Intellectually, he knew that for Lucius to lash out at every evil creature he encountered was suicide for both his character and the party as a whole, but couldn’t find a comfortable medium while trying to roleplay the character. I gave him an “out” when I had his wife kidnapped and maimed by one of the campaigns main bad guys, driving Lucius into a catatonic state, giving way for the introduction of Farrendel.

Farrendel has a lot of qualities adapted or borrowed from different sources, but I’m just going to focus on his technological ones at this time.When he was “rebuilt” in the future, his ears were enhanced with spellware, providing a +10 circumstance bonus to Listen checks. His right eye was replaced with a mechanical one linked to a nano-computer embedded in his brain; the eye has 50x magnification, provides image capture and enhancement, and can scan his surroundings in infrared, ultraviolet, and x-ray modes. He had several skill programs downloaded into his nano-computer, providing 5 ranks in Decipher Script, Knowledge (the planes), Speak Language, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device.

Like Wolverine from the X-Men, Farrendel has retractable adamantine claws embedded in his hands (+1 magical enhancement). In addition to his mundane and magical equipment obtained in this time-space continuum, he also carries an any-card (similar to Doctor Who’s psychic paper), several blaster pistols with extra minicells (since he has no hope of finding more, short of returning to the future), a masterwork demolitions kit, a nano-lockpick (pretty much useless, as there are no electronic locks – yet), 100 feet of synthetic rope, and a sniper rifle with antipersonnel rounds, armor-piercing rounds, explosive rounds, HEAP rounds, incendiary rounds, and powder rounds.

Farrendel’s been pretty good about keeping his “past” a secret, and Aerosatar has done the same. The other players don’t know Farrendel’s backstory (yet), and their characters have only seen Farrendel’s true form with his cyborg eye once or twice. They find his retractable claws unusual, but no more unusual than planar mancatchers or abyssal bloodiron widowmakers. He’s only used his technologically advanced weapons once or twice as well, and only in dire straits – in the heat of the moment, the other characters didn’t have time or the presence of mind to ask what they were.

It’s finally time to reveal Farrendel’s backstory to the group, as we’re wrapping up a major story arc with the assault on the Tacharim at their planar stronghold, the Flower Infernal. They’ve left Doctor Valran Stonefist alone for far too long, and he’s had visitors, plenty of time for new experiments, and some unexpected help from Graz’zt, who holds a grudge against our heroes (that’s a story for another time). If all goes according to plan, the heroes will use a device found in Valran’s laboratory to transport themselves to a secret base in the future, where a group of illithids work to oppose the plans of the Keepers by using a creation forge to clone key figures in planar history. Farrendel’s any-card and nano-lockpick may finally find some use, and his party members may start wondering why they decided to trust him…

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3G: Go, Go, Gadget Bohemian Earspoon!

Alzrius

The EN World kitten

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