Golem [Savage Coast]

Along the frontier coast, golem-making has taken new shapes and new materials, and the classic designs are gradually being replaced. Four of these newer constructs are described below: two lesser golems and two greater ones.

The winged elves of the high peaks make these glassteel guardians to protect their sacred mountain burial grounds. Only their priests can build them, and always two at a time. An aelder may take any of a dozen shapes, including centaur, gargoyle, serpent and spider, but a tall, thin spider is the favorite. Its eight jointed legs climb 10 feet high, then angle 3 feet down to hold up a faceted body with two spinnerets at the back. The two front legs end in sharp, saw-edged tips.

Amid the icy heights of the burial grounds an aelder is almost invisible. No ranged attack can target it beyond 20 feet, and even at close quarters every attack other than melee suffers -2. It stabs with its front leg tips, which pierce like spears and reach 10 feet. Spells and effects based on light or on a gaze cannot touch it. Its spell-like powers, each usable three times daily, are hypnotic pattern, color spray and dancing lights.

The spider form can also spin glassteel webbing, laid on thick as camouflage or drawn so thin and fragile that it is practically invisible. Anyone walking into the fine web breaks it and warns the golem. Aelder talk with their makers in shrieks and screeches that only priests can interpret. Tiny mountain brownies may shelter from predators in aelder webs, provided they go no deeper into the tombs.

The same winged elves' wizards built this golem hoping for a smarter guardian, and they succeeded too well: greater Intelligence brought independence and a strong urge to survive. It has three forms. The first, its namesake, is a flat crystal pane of 50 to 100 square feet and 1 to 6 inches thick, lying dormant over a doorway or window until it is needed or an intruder appears.

The second is a crude humanoid figure about 15 feet tall, made of a glittering, jewel-like substance. Light flashing off its facets dazzles everyone within 10 feet, and each of them suffers -2 on attacks unless a save vs. spell succeeds. Besides a crushing punch, this form can use crystalbrittle, continual light, and a sunburst like that of a wand of illumination. Light-based and electrical spell effects cannot hurt this shape.

The third form is a spinning cloud of sparkling sand that moves at speed 36 but never rises more than 5 feet above a surface. The cloud fills 100 cubic feet; engulfing a creature takes a hit roll, and the victim suffers 2d8 damage plus 2d4 turns of blindness unless it saves vs. spell. Wind spells have no effect on this form.

A glassine horror serves loyally but will never fight to the death, fleeing once its hit points drop under a tenth of their starting total. It expects payment in gems, which it absorbs to heal, regaining 1 hit point for each 50 gp they are worth; resting heals it too. Under the wizard who made them they appear in groups of 1d6, but most are met alone, far from the elves' lands. When its master dies it becomes free and usually wanders off. They like guard work and will serve faithfully for a handful of gems, accepting a new master on the old terms: no suicidal orders, and proper rewards.

These look like iron golems but are made wholly of crimson steel, making them tougher while weighing half as much, about 2,500 pounds. They understand spoken orders and can tell foes apart, attacking the most dangerous one first. A crimson steel golem strikes with two heavy punches, both of which must target the same enemy while it stays on its feet.

It radiates a 10-foot aura that drains a curse-warding red metal at one ounce per round, although the aura does not trigger the curse's wasting period. Nonmagical weapons and those below +2 cannot hurt it, and weapons below +4 deal half damage. Magical electricity merely slows it (1d3 rounds); magical fire heals it 1 point per Hit Die of would-be damage. All other spells fail.

Its makers also gave it the ability to taunt, as the wizard spell, which it uses to jeer at anyone whose mundane weapon or useless spell fails against it. On its master's command it can shapechange, altering its size and general look to pass as a human or a demi-ogre wrapped in a heavy cloak.

A neighboring nation's quest for the perfect war engine produced this construct, and only that nation's wizards know how it is animated. It is a massive stone building on a platform riding enormous iron-banded wheels, usually around 40 feet in length and height and 30 across. Most have battlements and arrow slits so soldiers can ride and fight from within, and many mount a battering ram.

It fights by rolling over whatever is in front of it, flattening even small stone buildings, and uses the ram on anything too big to crush. Its broad wheelbase lets it attack several targets at once. Anyone in its path must save vs. breath weapon to dive aside or be crushed, and troops aboard can still shoot at those who get clear. It can halt, turn or reverse within a single round, so no side of it is safe for long.

Fire, magical or not, cannot harm it, nor can charm, hold, sleep or nonmagical weapons, and all its saving throws succeed on a 4 or better. Many hold loot, since few places are safer for war spoils, but only its master can order it to open; otherwise it must be destroyed to get inside.

Its weakness is total dependence on its master. It follows simple spoken orders such as 'hold this ground' or 'crush that army', but answers to its maker alone. If the master dies it may keep carrying out its last order forever, trapping anyone inside, and might even turn against its own army. Away from its homeland, juggernauts usually sit among ruins, waiting for more people and things to crush.