Awakening the (Clockwork) Horror

[VoidAdept]

Hey folks, I'm thinking of starting an adventure arc in my campaign, and I'd like to run it past a few hundred sets of eyes before unleashing it on my players. I've got a plot hole or two that I think needs filling, anyway.

Centuries ago, the most largest and most advanced civilization on the campaign world, the Anyari Imperium, was destroyed by an invasion of clockwork horrors that had come through a gate to Acheron (IMC, clockwork horrors are from Acheron, not wildspace). The gate was eventually sealed, but the empire was reduced to a barren wasteland by the horrors in the process. The surviving horrors never expanded beyond the borders of the wasteland. Even today the wasteland has a reputation of being extremely dangerous despite the fact that no one has seen an intact horror in centuries. Indeed, very few even know what a horror looks like; legends usually portray them as colossal, rampaging mechanical killing machines, much like metallic tarrasques - after all, what else could have brought down the Anyari at the height of their glory?

The PCs are hired by a merchant who needs them to escort him to a nearby city. He doesn't say why, only that he has something of great importance.

The merchant believes that the item he is carrying in his wagon is a valuable Anyari relic, and he wants to get it to someone he knows in the city to have it appraised. What he has, in reality, is a dormant electrum clockwork horror.

The merchant's caravan is attacked at one point by an agent from a group that want to keep the secrets of the Anyari hidden lest history repeats itself and the forces that destroyed them are not unleashed again. In essense, they're similar to the Cultilsts of the Shattered Peak from Lost Empires of Faerun. During the battle the horror awakens, probably attacks the PCs or the agent, depenting on how the fight goes, and scampers away.

Now the merchant may want his "relic" back, or the agent or the merchant's contact in the city - both of whom know exactly what the horror is - urge the PCs to retrieve it. Either way, the horror must be tracked down and either captured or (most likely) destroyed before it can get back to the wastelands -- because once it makes it there, the rest of the collective will awaken and march upon the rest of the world... just as soon as they finish the permanent portal to Acheron that they have been building in the ruins of the heart of the Anyari capital.

So, here are the questions that I think need to be creatively answered:

- What awakens the merchant's dormant horror?
- Why did the horrors stop with the Anyari? What stopped the horrors from taking over the world in the first place?
- If they've been working on a portal all these years, why haven't they finished it, and why have some of the horrors gone dormant? I'm talking about "worker" units like electrum ones here; any gold or platinum horrors would probably be very much awake.
- Would it affect things much crunch-wise if I give the horrors the Outsider trait, similar to Inevitables, due to the fact that they come from Acheron?

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Maybe a strong, "magical EMP blast" sent them all to sleep back in the past. The strongest ones were able to overcome this with time, but unable to get the workers back up. The dormant "relic" could be activated by a magically created lightning or something similar, and as soon as it returns to the Wastelands, the stronger horrors can analyze the condition and recreate it, thus awakening the rest of the workers. And maybe the portal IS finished, and is just waiting for the right constellation..and the right amount of human sacrifices...to be opened?

 

[Quartz]

I'd suggest having all the other Horrors asleep. The EMP blast is a good idea and you might want to write it up so the PCs can recreate it later. When the electrum horror wakes, its first task will be to get home and wake the other horrors. Having tasted freedom, it might not want to wake higher-ranking horrors, but when the PCs eventually defeat it, one of the lower-ranking horrors escapes and wakes one of them up. Repeat the cycle as needed, perhaps culminating in something like an Anaxim or an Umbral Blot.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Since Clockwork horrors require lightning, there's always that approach. A total fluke lightning strike during a storm. A stray shot during a bandit attack. Maybe a doomsday cult purposely shocking it back to life?

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Since Clockwork horrors require lightning, there's always that approach. A total fluke lightning strike during a storm. A stray shot during a bandit attack. Maybe a doomsday cult purposely shocking it back to life?

And taking this further - the reason the dormant clockwork horrors are where they are is because there are almost never lightning storms (at least natural ones) there. This makes sense, as the wasteland is likely to be very devoid of rain in any case. It might be nice to have the wasteland have some other property that would allow for setting them all to sleep again, too, though I can't think what that might be - perhaps in the past the horrors were lured there in some way to trap them because of that.

 

[VoidAdept]

Since Clockwork horrors require lightning, there's always that approach. A total fluke lightning strike during a storm. A stray shot during a bandit attack. Maybe a doomsday cult purposely shocking it back to life?

Using the Defibrulators of Doom?

I like the EMP idea. One of the nice side effects of it is that it would render anything found in the Wastelands practically useless, reducing the chances of someone reverse-engineering any relics.

Speaking of neat ideas, I'm starting to come up some for a small nation of halflings near the edge of the Wastelands.

Out of panic or desperation, and fearful that the horrors may soon come after them next, the ancestors of these halflings began to domesticate rust monsters in the hopes that they would be effective against the horrors if the Anyari lost the Machine War. Although the reason for keeping these creatures has disappeared, old traditions remain. Nowadays, some of these halflings occasionally go into the Wastelands in search of relics to trade to outsiders, using the rust monsters to search for items much the same way as prople use pigs to root for truffles. The halflings also use them as mounts--rust monsters are pony-sized after all, and a charge of rust monster cavalry would probably scare the living daylights out of any conventional army...

 

[Quartz]

Out of panic or desperation, and fearful that the horrors may soon come after them next, the ancestors of these halflings began to domesticate rust monsters in the hopes that they would be effective against the horrors if the Anyari lost the Machine War. Although the reason for keeping these creatures has disappeared, old traditions remain. Nowadays, some of these halflings occasionally go into the Wastelands in search of relics to trade to outsiders, using the rust monsters to search for items much the same way as prople use pigs to root for truffles. The halflings also use them as mounts--rust monsters are pony-sized after all, and a charge of rust monster cavalry would probably scare the living daylights out of any conventional army...

Very cool and with a decent rationalisation too!

 

[paradox42]

Point of order: the "magical EMP blast" is named "Disjunction" in core-rules D&D.

Make one big enough and it'll knock those Horrors out right quick.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

Point of order: the "magical EMP blast" is named "Disjunction" in core-rules D&D.

yes make it and artfact something powerful buried in the ruins of there nest prehaps. as for why they did not finish the gate they may need there leader to activat it its the powersoures . also mayhap the artifact cancles out or redirects lighting within a 100 mile range of itself that could keep the rest alseep. but over time its been buried and must be recoved to stop the new horde that will follow.