Apparatus of Dreadful Construction (Magic Apparatus)

Reports have surfaced from those who visit other worlds of the appearance of a bizarre device that disrupts the tranquility of civilized life. Sages who collect and study such reports say that a large wheeled mechanism, reputed to be made of adamantite-alloyed iron, has briefly appeared on certain worlds at random to leave a trail of chaos in its wake. The purpose and origins of the device are a mystery, but a few facts are known about it.
The apparatus of dreadful construction, as it has come to be known, resembles a huge, iron, fully enclosed, two-wheeled chariot lacking the front bar to which horses would be harnessed. It stands about 15 feet high, 20 feet wide, and 25 feet long. Its weight is guessed to be 15 to 30 tons. Three great metal chimneys rear from its stern, spewing sparks and flames up to 30 feet into the air. (The fires cause any flammable material within 30 feet of the device to save vs. normal fire or burn.) Two monstrous studded wheels enable the apparatus to cross any terrain at a constant speed (MV 24, or 8.182 miles per hour), night or day. Most fearsome, however, are the eight human-sized metal teeth at its front, each driven by a great piston, which chew through every kind of stone, metal, or other substance. If the apparatus runs into a cliff or mountainside, it digs its way through at a reduced but still rapid speed (MV 18), leaving a permanent tunnel behind it. Any being run over by this device, whether crushed by a wheel or "bitten" by a metal tooth, takes 10dl2 points of crushing damage and 6d6 points of heat damage (no saving throw), and must pass a system shock roll or die at once.
As the apparatus travels across the landscape, it destroys everything before it in a path 20 feet wide, moving in a perfectly straight (if not entirely level) line. Nothing, not even a wish spell, can turn it aside or direct its movements. Witnesses report that the apparatus is able to survive falls from considerable heights without damage, observing that it continued on its journey as if nothing happened. The single mindedness of the apparatus's movements and feats leads most observers to believe that it has escaped its original owner or creator and is now running without any intelligent control.
As it moves, part of the mechanism takes the rocky material it destroys, draws the debris into the vehicle, and leaves it behind in the form of a black paved road measuring 12 feet wide, with churned earth and ground rock littering either side. The created road is exceptionally durable, making all saving throws as metal +4. Immediately after the passage of the apparatus, however, the roadway is extremely hot, doing 6d6 points of damage to anyone who touches it; it cools by one die of damage for every hour that passes after it begins to cool. Furthermore, the road contains poisonous substances that kill all plant life within 50 yards for a full year. This road, though of high quality, of course leads nowhere in particular except by random chance. Any city unlucky enough to be in the path of the device must be abandoned until it has departed, leaving road and ruin behind it.
The apparatus travels from world to world as a result of a random plane shift power, 1-20 rounds after it is fully submerged in water—ocean, lake, or river. After its plane shift, it reappears out of the deep waters of another world, in another crystal sphere, to drive across the landscape until it reaches water again. A few wizards and priests discovered this aspect of its nature and exploited it by having lakes dug and filled in its path to protect cities, causing the device to leave their world for another.
Though the device has caused destruction in its passage across inhabited lands, the ruin is very limited in scope and the damage is eventually reversed (though the roadway it creates remains). In some cases, its passage has even been beneficial, as it opens tunnels through the most impassable mountains and builds roads across the worst terrain. It is more an annoyance than a real threat. The device radiates enormous, powerful magic, and its invulnerability to all forms of magical and physical attack certainly indicate that it is an artifact. Because the upper part of the apparatus has the appearance of a beast's head, complete with fiery nostrils and smokestack "horns," it is sometimes called the Iron Bull, as well as Ground- Eater, Road-Maker, the Starving Juggernaut, and a few less pleasant epithets (particularly thrown by those who have lost farms and forests to its flames).
Certain elements of its appearance have led to speculations that it was built with the assistance of Krynnish tinker gnomes (Minoi), though there is neither record nor proof of this. (Indeed, some tinker gnomes actively pursue the device in order to learn more about it.) Another theory is that it is a reactivated relic from the ancient empire of Blackmoor—of Mystara, not of Oerth. The truth cannot be known at this time. As its first appearance in the Known Spheres dates back to only 130 years, the assumption of scholarly sages is that the device is either of recent construction or lay dormant until accidentally activated by a curious (and no doubt now deceased) discoverer.
Category:Encyclopedia Magica Magic Items
Category:Magic Items
Category:Magic Apparatus