Earlier on I introduced Rogues and hinted at something else. Rogues whose designs do not originate from mechanist foundries.
These new designs borrow elements of already existing automatons but combine them into new forms. They originate from within the hives, with the lack of creativity in them hinting at the Rogue Queens as the creators. The thought of machines creating machines makes the elimination of the rogue hives a priority for both human empires on the worldship.
Rogue spider ballista
Rogue spider ballista incorporate ballista of similar design to the Clockwork Auto-stabilizing Light Ballista. They are then mounted upon three to six legs for mobility. The legs themselves are simplistic legs similar to the bugman scavenger Praetor automaton.
Spider Balista exhibit scavenger behaviours. They swarm en-mass upon settlements and expeditions. Laying down heavy fire they work together to carry away as much construction material or automaton parts as possible.
Rogue Spider Ballista (medium construct)
As constructs spider ballista are immune to the effects of disease and poison in addition to charm, sleep, and hold spells.
There is a chance that a rogue can infect another automaton. For any rogue, there is a 1 in 6 chance it has the ability to infect when first encountered, though this can be adjusted by the judge. If this is the case it will initiate a non-damaging melee attack on the target automaton as its highest priority. If it succeeds the target must save vs death or become a rogue in 1d4 rounds. During this time the automaton acts normally, thought is aware of and fights the subversion, and will convert even if shut down. Once this attempt is made the rogue cannot infect another automaton for several days as it builds a new worm (3+1d6 days).
Rogue Spider Ballista: Unlike most rogue automatons the spider ballista is not of human origin. While drawing on common leg components and the upper ballista mount common to many designs the actual combination of these elements seems to originate from deep within the rogue hives. In combat they favour staying at range and shooting volleys of ballista bolts at their foes. With ample carrying capacity they are well suited to resource gathering and collection. When encountered they may not have their full capacity of bolts, the judge may roll 3d10 to determine their payload, using less dice if they are far from resupply.
When destroyed the chassis itself can be used as a sample to build a spider ballista automaton as presented below. Alternatively there are five units of mechanical materials that can be extracted for use in building other automatons (see the previous blog).
New automaton - Spider Ballista
The spider ballista is a ranged support automaton capable of laying down heavy ballista fire. It’s design is simplistic in nature with four articulated legs and a swivel mount ballista launcher on top. They are best supported with a fire director who can guide them to attacking the desired target due to their simplistic clockwork brains. While they can perform a basic kick attack in melee combat it does minimal damage, equivalent to a punch attack. Its large carrying capacity of 45 stone gives it ample room for its ammunition.
It can be built by a 2nd level machinist at a +2 build penalty taking 18 day with a base construction cost of 11,000gp.
Spider Ballista
Hit dice: 3 (12 HP, save F2)
Armor class: 2
Move: 90’ (30’)
Weight: 90 st.
Carry: 45st. (no passengers, 30 ballista bolts taking up 5 stone)
Attacks: 1 light ballista bolt (1d10 damage, +2 to hit, ROF 1/2, range 120’, effective damage 6); Kick 1d3 damage.
Positive abilities (total): Automaton immunities *, Increased move (+30’) ##, Ranged attack (10’ multiplier) ##, (* ####)
Negative abilities (total): Requires ammunition (light ballista bolts, 1lb/1gp count as an item) ####. (####)
Cost (net abilities): 11,000 (*)
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