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Abandoned Armory

This aggregation of weapons, armor, and other tools of war looms like a slow avalanche of twisted iron and eldritch sparks.

Abandoned Armory CR 13

Source Pathfinder #142: Gardens of Gallowspire pg. 82
XP 25,600
NE Huge construct
Init +1; Senses blindsense 120 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +0

Defense

AC 29, touch 8, flat-footed 28 (+20 armor, +1 Dex, –2 size)
hp 139 (18d10+40)
Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +6
Defensive Abilities leaden weariness, reflect spell; DR 10/—; Immune construct traits; SR 24

Offense

Speed 20 ft.
Melee 2 slams +28 (2d10+18/19–20)
Ranged ballista +17/+12/+7/+2 (3d8/19–20)
Space 15 ft., Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks perimeter defense, powerful blows

Statistics

Str 34, Dex 13, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 1
Base Atk +18; CMB +32; CMD 43
SQ tide of metal

Ecology

Environment any plain or battlefield
Organization solitary
Treasure double

Special Abilities

Leaden Weariness (Su) Any creature that strikes an abandoned armory with a melee weapon or natural attack must succeed at a DC 19 Will save or be affected by slow for 1d4 rounds. Whether or not it succeeds at the saving throw, a creature cannot be affected again by this ability for 1 minute. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Perimeter Defense (Su) Once per minute as a standard action, an abandoned armory can fire a barrage of energy in a 60-foot cone. The barrage deals 14d6 points of damage, half of which is fire damage and half of which is electricity damage. A successful DC 20 Reflex save halves this damage. The save DC is Dexterity-based.

Powerful Blows (Ex) An abandoned armory applies 1–1/2 its Strength modifier and threatens a critical hit on a roll of 19–20 with its slam attacks.

Reflect Spell (Su) Once per day as an immediate action, an abandoned armory can turn back a spell targeting it as spell turning. An abandoned armory can turn up to seven spell levels with this ability. If an abandoned armory attempts to reflect an ineligible spell, this ability fails and is wasted.

Tide of Metal (Su) An abandoned armory can switch between its ebb-tide and rip-tide battle modes as a swift action. An abandoned armory begins combat in ebb-tide mode (reflected in the above statistics). In rip-tide mode, an abandoned armory undergoes several changes, as noted below.
  • The abandoned armory’s AC decreases from 29 to 24.
  • The abandoned armory’s speed increases from 20 to 50 feet.
  • The abandoned armory applies twice its Strength modifier to its slam attacks and threatens a critical hit on a roll of 18–20.
  • The abandoned armory’s reach increases from 15 to 25 feet.
  • The abandoned armory gains the trip ability with its slam attacks.
  • The abandoned armory loses its leaden weariness, perimeter defense, and reflect spells abilities.

Description

An abandoned armory is an animated mass of weapons and armor, both magic and mundane, as well as spell-imbued items of offensive utility. Moving with uncanny locomotion, these constructs scour battlefields seeking objects of war that once held special significance to previous owners who were slain in combat. Due to the faint psychic imprints of the slain combatants from which they collect these artifacts, abandoned armories make it their mission to reunite the items with their past owners or find new owners worthy of wielding their finds. This process proves to be fatal, however, as the constant psychic echoes cause an abandoned armory to believe everyone is unworthy and slay them in hopes of finding a new suitable owner for that individual’s equipment. This behavior has led abandoned armories to become something to be feared on the battlefield as they tear through an area, slaying every combatant they encounter.

An abandoned armory is roughly 15 feet wide, cresting up to 20 feet tall, and weighs about 15 tons.

Ecology

Abandoned armories are rare, as their creation requires an unlikely confluence of environmental conditions and historical circumstances, along with a fair bit of luck. Across Golarion, only a handful of battlefields and other sites of mass death and suffering contain sufficient psychic echoes of terror and pain, as well as buried or hidden implements of war—magic weapons, armor, and other trinkets—to give rise to an abandoned armory. In addition to the psychic imprints that serve as the foundation for the constructs, the genesis of abandoned armories hinges on the application of additional, formidable arcane or divine power, often as an unintended consequence of unrelated events. A leaking seal on a long-forgotten eldritch prison, a thinning of the veil between planes, or a potent ritual to summon a demon may provide the energy needed for an abandoned armory to lurch into animation. When the psychic imprints and magical energy mix at a perfect balance, it can form a small abandoned armory. Once animated, the abandoned armory is quick to grow into the massive terror that is the bane of all battlefields.

The magic binding that binds armories together does eventually fade away, causing the constructs’ various collected items to become open for the taking. These mounds of equipment, typically overgrown with vegetation and hidden by the passage of years, contain treasure troves of items that are prized by fortune hunters. The process for an abandoned armory’s collapse usually happens in one of two ways. The more common method is through the destruction of the construct. This usually damages many of the constituent items and makes the process of salvaging this equipment tedious at best. On the other hand, abandoned armories naturally collapse and dissipate when the magic that fuels them is exhausted. This usually happens to “longer-lived” abandoned armories that consume the innate magical energies after countless battles. The energy required to activate an abandoned armory’s various abilities slowly saps these magical energies until the abandoned armory lacks enough energy to maintain its form.

Habitat and Society

The abandoned armory is solitary, lacking the intelligence or empathy required to create bonds with other entities. No one claims to know what would happen if two or more abandoned armories happened to meet on some devastated ancient battlefield. Perhaps the constructs would sense an alignment of purpose, and fuse together to create a larger, even more formidable tide of metal destruction. Alternatively, the abandoned armories might simply clash mindlessly against one another until their constituent metal melted to slag and their magic power was spent.

Certain creatures have taken an interest in abandoned armories, almost to the extent of representing a symbiotic relationship. Scavenging tribes of goblins who forage at the edges of legendary battlefields have developed a near-religious awe of the constructs, and they regard the appearance of an abandoned armory both as a good omen and a prime opportunity to comb the destruction left by its passage for interesting new tools and trinkets. To attract an abandoned armory, the goblins erect crude fetishes at the edges of their territory, making offerings of assorted “magic” items in the hope of drawing the attention of the construct. The rare occasions when an abandoned armory does indeed appear are just as likely to result in the hopeful goblins being destroyed by a tide of unstoppable metal and magic as they are to fulfill the goblins’ greed for treasure.