Mechanik’s Union

Many odd and inexplicable technological artifacts have been dug from the crimson sands of the Bloodstone desert since the publication of Professor Pendrake’s journals revealed the many buried cities which scatter this deadly expanse of land at the continents heart. One particular expedition to the buried city of Osslarys recovered a number of artifacts whose purpose was apparently mechanikal but lacked any of the thumping pistons and sparking convergence engines of western technology. Many of the original members of the expedition are tight-lipped about the exact details, but tales of great subterranean caverns filled with ‘living’ machines still redolent with arcane power has inspired many a future venture out into the draining wastes. What was recovered was dubbed Arcanika for want of a better term, and no doubt due to the unmistakable elven designs on many of the objects. Most of them returned to Corvis for examination but a few have surfaced on the open market, likely due to the light fingered Red Shield mercenaries employed as guards.

Torn from some of the strange living devices deep within Osslarys haunted tunnels, these artifacts appear remarkably similar to the arcane induction cables used in modern mechanika. A few tests on this regard proved that they can indeed transmit an arcane current along their length. However one remarkable difference in these silvery lengths of cable is that save for the connections at either end, they are remarkably resilient to damage. Indeed there where attempts to cut up some of the larger cables for ease of transport, which failed utterly. Only the few serricsteel cutters the expedition had brought along could slice them apart. However the truly amazing property of these lengths of metal was only discovered after one had finally been parted. Each severed section had been left within the baking desert sunlight along with the rest of the baggage train. Within a matter of minutes each severed cable end had reattached to its fellow, extending hundreds of thin filaments and slowly twisting their sheared fibers back into a solid and functional whole.

Despite the scientific wonder these items represented the use to which they were eventually put to on the journey back to Corvis was far more prosaic. One of the more gungho members of the mercenary team, having lost his armor to the acidic secretions of a device in Osslarys decided to wrap several lengths of the cable around himself as makeshift protection from the Bloodstone’s hazards. Over the course of several weeks travel the cables slowly grew and bonded around the luckless mercenary until they became impossible to remove. While this was unnerving it was certainly effective, saving the man from certain death when he stumbled into range of a aggressive manticora plant. Unfortunately one night close to the outskirts of Ternon Crag the man was discovered in his tent suffocated by his own impromptu armor. It was only when the Fraternal Order wizards back in Corvis examined some of the overgrown cables, that they discovered that running an arcane charge along there length returned the artifacts to their original state.

Light Armor, Lyoss Cable:-

• AC: +1 (see special)
• Max Dex: +4
• Armor Check: -1 (see special)
• DR: -3/serricsteel
• Hardness: 20
• HP: 15
• Weight: 12lb.
• Cost: rare archaeological find
  
• Special: As long as the cable is exposed to 8 hours of sunlight per day it can regenerate its HP at a rate of 1hp per round unless completely destroyed. Its AC, Weight and Armor Check Penalty also increases by 1 point per day of exposure (max +10/-10/22lb.). After the armor reaches AC +8 it cannot be removed save by reducing it to half HP (a process which is certainly hazardous to the wearer). If the check penalty ever equals or exceeds the wearers strength score they become immobile and begin to suffocate 1d10 minutes later as the armor crushes them. If an arcane current is passed along the cable it reduces its AC, Weight and Check Penalty by 1 point per spell level.

Mechanikal Componant, Lyoss Cable:-

• Use: can be used as an Arcano-coduction Coil
• Hardness: 20
• HP: 15
• Weight: 2lb.
• Cost: rare archaeological find
• Special: As long as the cable is exposed to 8 hours of sunlight per day it can regenerate its HP at a rate of 1hp per round unless completely destroyed. This allows it to automatically reconnect a convergence engine separated from its emission device without any intervention. Should the two pieces of a severed cable be removed more than 30ft from each other, each cable end will replicate the missing length rather than attempt to reconnect. A length of cable can only perform this ‘cloning’ effect once per week without dangerously compromising its structure.
  

[note: lyoss cables do not regenerate, grow or conduct arcane charges if cut off from ambient magic, such as within an 'anti-magic' field or suppressed by 'dispel magic'.]