Clockwork horrors were metal constructs in the rough shape of a spider. They spent their time seeking out and stripping whole worlds for metal to create more of their kind, apathetic or even antipathetic to any organic life that crossed their path.[2][3][5][7]
Description[]
All clockwork horrors look something like mechanical spiders with only four legs; the body was only some 2 ft (0.61 m) in diameter, but including the legs they were some 4 ft (1.2 m) in diameter. On the front of the "head" was a crystal that allowed the horror to see; and two depressions on either side of this crystal acted as "ears". There were two small limbs below the "ears" that served differing uses for the different types of horrors.[5]
The body of each clockwork horror was cast as a single piece of metal. The surface of the body was always polished and covered in pulsing, mystical runes.[5]
Personality[]
Clockwork horrors did not have individual identities and operated in an extremely rigid society. Their goal was the survival of their kind, and they saw all living things as threats to that goal.[5]
Types of Clockwork Horror[]
The different types of clockwork horrors had different abilites and jobs.[5]
- Copper Horror
- The most common form of horror, copper horrors lacked built-in weaponry, instead acting as menial laborers.[5]
- Silver Horror
- Only somewhat less common than copper horrors but far more dangerous, silver horrors were the common warriors, acting as guards of clockwork horror construction sites or patrolling the regions they conquered. They were equipped with both a razor saw and a projectile weapon.[5]
- Electrum Horror
- Electrum horrors acted as the commanding officers of silver horrors, and they were rather more dangerous themselves.[5]
- Gold Horror
- Gold horrors were highly intelligent and rare, for each gold horror had command of a single planet and was in charge of all horror operations on that planet.[5]
- Platinum Horror
- Gold horrors ruled planets; but the even rarer platinum horrors ruled entire crystal spheres. They were exceptionally intelligent and dangerous.[5]
- Adamantite Horror
- The adamantite horror was, of all the horrors, not just rare but unique. It was the "father" of the clockwork horror race, a cold and calculating individual who was fond of intricate and devious plans. When it itself joined combat, it used both the razor saw characteristic of clockwork horrors (though its was far deadlier than those of lesser horrors), and the nightmare stick that was built into it, a potent weapon that acted as the disintegrate spell.[5]
History[]
There was once an ancient humanoid species that the wisest sages called "the Lost Ones." Their origins are long forgotten, but their demise remains as a grisly tale. The Lost Ones liked mechanisms, and the subtler and cleverer the device, the more they liked it. Then one of their most brilliant made an device of adamantite, with workings so advanced that only he could understand it, and wove into it powerful spells that granted it both intelligence and magic power. This device, the adamantite horror, killed him.[5]
The adamantite horror spent the next few decades building an army of lesser followers in its own image; and as the horrors took control of their crystal sphere they killed all life within it, then tore the worlds apart to use as material to build yet more horrors. Thus passed centuries with the horrors contained within their own sphere; and there they might have remained had a fleet of neogi deathspiders come seeking slaves. The neogi found, instead, death; their ships were taken from them one by one and the neogi and their slaves found themselves forced into the lifejammers.[5]
With the newfound ability to journey between crystal spheres, the clockwork horrors spread like a virus. Each sphere they came to, they left violated, lifeless, and plundered of all resources; those within such doomed spheres found no escape.[5]
Trobriand created replicas of both a silver and a copper clockwork horror, and sages with knowledge of spelljamming theorized that the scaladar of Trobriand's design were based off of the clockwork horrors.[8][9]
Appendix[]
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Appearances[]
Novels & Short Stories
Cormyr: A Novel
External Links[]
Clockwork horror article at the Spelljammer Wiki, a wiki for the Spelljammer campaign setting.
References[]
- ↑ Christopher Perkins, Jeremy Crawford (April 2022). Monstrous Compendium Volume One: Spelljammer Creatures. Edited by Judy Bauer, Janica Carter. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 4.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mike Mearls, Brian R. James, Steve Townshend (July 2010). Demonomicon. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 109. ISBN 978-0786954926.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ed Bonny, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Skip Williams, and Steve Winter (September 2002). Monster Manual II 3rd edition. (TSR, Inc), pp. 47–49. ISBN 07-8692-873-5.
- ↑ Eric Cagle (December 2006). “The Ecology of the Clockwork Horror”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #350 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 62.
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 Jeff Grubb (1990). Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix 1. Edited by Mike Breault. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 13–14. ISBN 0-88038-871-4.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 (1998). Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Four. (TSR, Inc), pp. 17–18. ISBN 0-7869-1212-X.
- ↑ Eric Cagle (December 2006). “The Ecology of the Clockwork Horror”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #350 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), pp. 58–62.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (1991). “Monstrous Compendium sheets”. In Steven E. Schend ed. The Ruins of Undermountain (TSR, Inc.), p. 10. ISBN 1-5607-6061-3.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (1991). “Undermountain Adventures”. In Steven E. Schend ed. The Ruins of Undermountain (TSR, Inc.), pp. 22–23. ISBN 1-5607-6061-3.