Steelies - Robot Race/Class

Again I must credit the Long Sun series by Gene Wolfe as well as The Living Statue race/class presented on The Mule Abides.

STEELIE (Steel Soldier)
Armor: unable to wear any, but Steelies have a natural armor class of 2 before adjustments, if any, due to dexterity
Shield: any
Weapons: any and Steelies automatically know how to operate and maintain firearms, ranged energy weapons, artillery and explosive devices made by Humans or Human-like beings.
Starting Gold: 3d6x10 gold pieces
Weapon Proficiencies: 4, gains a new weapon proficiency every level, and are automatically proficient with firearms, ranged energy weapons, artillery and explosive devices made by Humans or Human-like beings.
Attack Matrix: Fighting-man
Ability Score Requirements: strength 15, constitution 13
Prime Requisite: none
Hit Dice: d8, 1st-level Steelies always have 8 hit points plus any bonus due to constitution
Movement Rate: 9"/90'(30')
Languages: Common and Computer as well as any bonus languages due to intelligence
Restrictions: Must be of Lawful alignment; can only advance to 8th level; unable to use potions; unable to swim and will rapidly sink in water.


Special abilities: Steelies are robots powered by internal fusion cores that provide 100 years of activity (Steelies can go into a shutdown state to conserve energy), as such they do not need to eat, drink, breath, rest or sleep. They are immune to sleep, paralyzation, poison, disease, blood drain and nausea. Steelies has infravision with a range of 3"/30'.

Level	Experience Points	Hit Dice	Rank Title	Saving Throws: Death	Petrify	Wand	Breath	Spell
1	0	8 hp	Trooper	8	10	9	13	12
2	4,000	1d8+8	Corporal	8	10	9	13	12
3	8,000	2d8+8	Sergeant	8	10	9	13	12
4	16,000	3d8+8	Lieutenant	6	8	7	10	10
5	32,000	4d8+8	Captain	6	8	7	10	10
6	64,000	5d8+8	Major	6	8	7	10	10
7	120,000	6d8+8	Colonel	4	6	5	7	8
8	250,000	7d8+8	Brigadier	4	6	5	7	8

Steelies are a variety of ancient Soldier Android presumably manufactured by the Militarists, occasionally both individual and units of them are unearthed from ruins and reactivated. Their bodies look like suits of advanced hardened and articulated bluish-steely plate armor, with the individual's rank glyph in green on both shoulders, and heads that resemble an articulated steel sculpture of a hairless, square jawed, strong-featured, and usually handsome, male Human. They stand 6'6" to 7' tall. Steelies are free-willed, but as their positronics have military programming, they always talk and act like Soldiers, engaging in behavior such as: saluting; adhering to a chain of command; using rank titles; marching; and the like. They are imbued with repair nanites that allow them to heal at the same rate as Humans, although they often need to snack on metals and replenish hydraulics when repairing.

Thursday Technologies - Marcab Enclaves

The Marcabs were a powerful galactic civilization of human-like beings that existed at the same time as the Ancients of Algol. An oppressive, totalitarian people, they established several outposts in the Beta Persai system before their Confederacy collapsed due to war.

Although the appearance of their dress, architecture and technology is eerily similar to that of 1950s Earth American, albeit much more severe, stark, cold and also monochromatic, they possessed a much higher level of scientific sophistication and mastered the manipulation of psychic energies.

Several of their outposts on Algol survived as extradimensional enclaves. Accessed via armored, bunker like vault doors, these enclaves are notable for the complete absence of any color within the extradimensional space, with everything appearing to be be composed of grays, black and white. Usually these Marcab Enclaves consist of a towering, almost inhuman skyscraper like structure, usually with several shorter wings, surrounded by an endless flat plain of thick, closely cropped turf. It is constantly mid-day in these enclaves, the sky cloudless.

The few remaining Marcabs are usually immensely powerful Mind Wizards with access to powerful technologies. Their servitors are usually robotic or synthetic, although some have been known to abduct outsiders and force them to take part of their "society." It is said that all Marcabs are insane, and that some of them have been warped by psychic energies, mutating into inhuman monstrosities over the aeons. Some insist that certain especially loathsome psychic abominations that lurk in the darkest pits of Algol are descended from such Marcabs.

War Chimps, The Tower of the Changer, Talislanta Monsters, Destiers and The Wasplingier Guild

New official Planet Algol monster War Chimps! courtesy of Green Skeleton Gaming Guild!

Planet Algol related dungeon The Tower of the Changer! of The Metal Earth! Can you guess where the gates to Carcosa and Athanor are?

So a bunch of free, legitimate PDFs are up on the Talislanta Site. Including the Monster Books, and although one could ad-lib the D&D stats from the Talislanta stats, you can also easily eyeball/convert D&D stats from the 3rd edition statblocks in this version!

So this means that there's a boat-load of great, free, weird D&D monsters from a classic weird fantasy setting available for all of our crazy weird science planet fantasy campaigns!

Destier

At first glance those that utilize a Destier could easily be mistaken for a centaur with the equine portion of their anatomy clad in advanced, heavy, articulated plate armor. Closer examination would reveal that the horse part of the body is actually robotic, which may lead one to the misapprehension that they are observing some variety of cyborg.

In actuality the quadrupedal robot section is a specialized mode of conveyance, consisting of a heavily armored mechanism in the form of a heavy war horse, but instead of there being a neck or head there is instead a cavity designed to accommodate the legs and below-waist body of a human-like being. The legs of the user operate as a set of waldoes that maneuver the legs of the Destier, allowing one to, with sufficient practice, "drive" the Destier about as if it were a mount.

Destiers have the capabilities of a heavy war mount, with the speed and agility of a light mount, and are powered by Radiation Crystals. They are a creation of the Ancients, and are quite rare, with all known examples being valued heirlooms of certain Armiger houses (especially those of the highest standings). Such Armigers use their Destiers in important battles, usually to devastating effect.

The Wasplingier Guild

A mercenary guild of extreme specialization, the Wasplingiers breed a cornucopia of especially venomous and aggressive wasps (with rare eccentrics instead utilizing bees!). From these wasps they extract and refine certain pheromones.

Wasplingiers are distinct by their unusual weapon, the Wasp Rifle. This gun has a long, thin barrel and the stock consists of a brass air chamber, with an attached pump, and there is also an under-barrel device that consists of a pointed, finned canister mounted on a heavy, compressed spring.

The air rifle is used to fire a small pellet, which is breech loaded, that contains concentrated wasp attack pheromones. The under-barrel aerodynamic canister is than launched, propelled by the heavy spring, and shatters upon impact with any moderately firm surface releasing it's tightly packed payload of especially venomous wasps, which have been conditioned to attack those bearing the attack pheromones.

Wasplingiers have also been known to utilize catapults to launch missiles containing pheromones, wasps, or both. There are rumors that their guild also the knowledge to manufacture a compound that will, if introduced into water or food, "mark" the consumer of such water or food with wasp attack pheromones.

Civilizations of the Ancients Pt.1

Although many imagine the Aeons of the Ancients to be a golden age of man-gods with great technological and sorcerous wisdom, in reality there were multiple Ancient civilizations over a span of hundreds of thousands to possibly millions of years.

During this time, the Aeon of the Ancients, many civilizations arose, gained knowledge surpassing that of contemporary Algol or Earth Men, and than collapsed due to catastrophic wars, sorcerous disasters, inhuman interference, natural disasters and so forth, afterwords descending into savagery and barbarism before beginning the long, slow ascent of civilization again. This is known as "The Great Cycles" by sages.

At some point tens of thousands of years there was a planet-wide conflict involving multiple Ancient societies and inhuman forces. Terrible weapons, both magical and technological, ravaged the world and in the ensuing holocaust the societies of the Ancients fell, either reduced to barbarity or losing their knowledge in a long, slow descent into stagnation and degeneration. Some sages claim that this holocaust "broke" the Great Cycle and that the Men of Algol are trapped in an endless state of ignorance and decline until the world is devoured by Iajuxxu.

Not much concrete information about these Ancients remain, and most stories about them are fanciful legends and folktales. However some scraps of their histories survived and some of these known Ancient societies are detailed below:

The Flesh-Weavers
The Flesh-Weavers were scientists and masters of genetic manupulation. They used their arts to warp and create a wide variety of biological organisms to serve as everything from servants to tools and war machines. Many of the more strange creatures of Algol are presumed to be their creations.

The Vat Guild seems to be descended from the Flesh-Weavers as they produce biological products and synthetic beings from their algae-, yeast- and protein-vats. They are a secretive order who are very protective of their secrets and are always garbed in robes, bandages and goggles. They are given much sanction by the societies of Algol Men an account of being important food producers for many communities as well as providing medical services and synthetic beings.

The Lords of the Crystal Spires
There are ruins on Algol composed of clusters of towering crystal spires and artifacts of entirely crystalline construction are found as well. These artifacts tend to be very potent and seem to operate on a sub-atomic level. Surviving records from the Aeon of the Ancients refer to an mysterious, isolationist, psychic race possessing great scientific knowledge, "The Lords of the Crystal Spires."

The Necroveults
A civilization of powerful necromancers that served a terrible deity known as "Zharrghu the Corpse Worm," the Necroveults were masters of the undead using them for labour, warfare and pleasure. Although powerful in sorcery their were not very technologically inclined, preferring to used undead servitors and magic instead.

Vampires claim to be descended from the Necroveults, which seems reasonable as surviving Necroveult inscriptions are in a language very similar to Vampirish. Some scholars claim that while some of the Necroveults became Vampires other degenerated into Ghouls and were the ancestors of the Ghoulic races. The more scholarly inclined among the Ghouls scoff at that hyposthesis stating that they predate the Necroveults and that much of their sorcery was taught to them by Ghouls.

Phasic Weapons

Credit given to Hank Riley and Jim Ireland/Encounter Critical for the original Phasic Weaponry.

Phasic Weapons are artifacts of the Ancients. They look like metal rods, or varying length and girth, with emitter apertures located at one end. When a stud on the rod is depressed and slid a flickering blue energy blade emits from the apertures, a phasic field. When the handle of a Phasic weapon is released the stud is automatically slid back and the energy blade disappears.

The Phasic field "phases" through parallel dimensions, which enables it to partially phase through armor and also strike extradimensional beings. Phasic weapons are treated as +3 magical weapons regarding their effectiveness against certain foes, however they do double the normal dice in damage and us the below table to determine the effective armor class of the target. Phasic daggers, swords, axes, spears and polearms exist, although there are no bastard or two-handed varieties of phasic swords. They are powered by an energy crystal which will power a Phasic dagger for 100 melee rounds; a short sword, hand axe or spear for 75 rounds; and battle axe, polearm, scimitar or other one-handed sword for 50 rounds.

Armor Class	Attack Modifier or	Adjusted Armor Class value
10	0	10
9	+1	10
8	+1	9
7	+2	9
6	+2	8
5	+3	8
4	+3	7
3	+4	7
2	+4	6
1	+5	6
0	+5	5
-1	+6	5
-2	+6	4
-3	+7	4
-4	+7	3
-5	+8	3
-6	+8	2
-7	+9	2
-8	+9	1
-9	+10	1
-10	+10	0

The Android Vaults

Manufactured by a lost race of the Ancients, there are said to be several Android Vaults buried in the crust of Planet Algol.

The Android Vaults are technological havens of shining glassteel, slick white plasticrete, tasteful ornamental fountains and foliage, smoothly gliding slidewalks and escalators, balconies, mezzanines, malls, galleries, arcades, crystal monoliths, abstract sculptures, light art, and attractive disembodied voices making proclamations from hidden speakers.

The inhabitants, the Vault Androids, look like slender, attractive, tanned yet fair-complexioned Earth Man caucasians of a distinctly "seventies" appearance with feathered hair and silver jumpsuits or vaguely athletic wear. They are manufactured, inorganic robots who appear to human unless injury reveals their metal innards.

The Android Vaults are sparsely populated by the Vault Androids, who engage in scientific research, artistic pursuits, reconnasince of the outside world, as well as frequent military training and patrols to protect the Android Vaults and to keep the vault's locations secret.

There is also a minority population of true humans, the Vault Men, who are identical in appearance to the Vault Androids. However as opposed to the Vault Androids, they live a life of pampered leisure, blunting the ennuni of their pointless existance with nonprocreative sex, synthetic intoxicants, all varieities of games, extravagent fashions, and artistic pursuits which seem clumsy and childish compared to the solemn majesty of the Vault Android art.

These Vault Men are the wards of the Vault Androids. When the civilization responsible for the Android Vaults fell some of the survivors fled to the vaults. In the high tech haven of the vaults the survivors were pampered by the facilities while the android wardens did all of the "heavy lifting," over the eons the Vault Men degenerated into the equivalent of an exhibit in a Earth museum or zoo.

Aeon of the Ancients, Earth Men and the Elder Races

AEON OF THE ANCIENTS

Although scholars dispute the exact dates, the consensus is that the Aeon of the Ancients ended tens of thousand years ago, and began some several million years past. The Ancients is used to refer to the numerous prehistoric civilizations that existed on Algol. Not much is know about them, but these facts are generally accepted as true:

• The Ancients were human or human-like.
• Their civilization did not arise naturally, as Elder Races interfered in their development and possibly their evolution. Many sages posit that the original human of Algol were brought here from Earth by some Elder Race or vice versa.
• They had much knowledge in both science and sorcery, more advanced than anything known to present day humanity of both Algol and Earth
• The Ancients had contact with prehistoric Earth civilizations (Atlantis, Lemuria, Hyperborea, Mu, etc.), possibly the Ancients came to Algol from Earth, or perhaps the Atlanteans, etc., came to Earth from Algol.
• Their civilizations came to an end in a planet-wide war involving terrible weapons of massive destruction and reality-tearing nature. Much of the surface of Algol is scarred, poisoned and tainted from this. Almost all of the knowledge and works of the Ancients was lost in this holocaust or the decline into barbarism, savagery, or decadent degeneration that followed.

EARTH MEN

Earth Men are technologically advanced humans from our world (commonly referred to as Terra on Algol). The Earth Men, also called Terrans, have been sending rockets to Algol for hundreds of years; but as they do not possess the technology to travel faster than light speed, and with Algol being 93 light-years from Earth, they have had to use such measures as:

• robot crews
• automated facilities to grow clones and implant memories
• generation ships
• cryogenics
• time dilation or stasis technology
• longevity treatments

There are a few Earth Man bases and settlements on Algol, as well as a couple of orbiting space stations. Many have “gone native”, assimilating into local cultures or beginning the process of establishing their own.
Although more technologically advanced than present day humanity, the science of the Ancients and the Elder Races far outstrips that of the Earth Men.
While the Algol term is “Earth Man” or Terran for the language they speak, it is actually Esperanto, which is taught to all Algol explorers in order to facilitate communication between different expeditions.

ELDER RACES

The Elder Races were various powerful, inhuman races that range from hundreds of millions to billions of years old; almost all of alien or extradimensional origin. Their civilizations sprawled across Algol in prehuman times. The reason for their decline in unknown. Nowadays there are only a few scattered populations of the Elder Races on Algol, hidden in remote or inhospitable regions.

The Elder Races may be responsible for many of the bizarre anomalies of Planet Algol, by virtue of their puissant sorcery and science they were capable of warping the planet to suit their inhuman whims.

Their abilities with technology and magic were far more powerful than anything achieved by man; although survivors of the Elder Races may seem to be gods compared to men, they are only the wretched, degenerate descendants of the true Elder Races who only possess scraps of their unthinkable knowledge and might.