As a combat empath making my way up the construct/undead ladder, there have been some major weak spots in progression and a more than a little envy that I often times only have a single option stuck clear out in Hib where non-empaths have more like 5 at any given moment in various provinces. I know very well that empath combat has not always been a thing so I realize why the options are limited but no reason we can’t work on that!

We also very desperately need HLC zones as there are times moths/cabs/drakes are stacked 3 or 4 people in every single room and more folks still wandering around trying to find a place. This will only get worse as more and more characters reach these ranges and that is happening every day. Just myself, I have three characters about to wade into the fray. We did recently get the Pith and Jeol but neither of those are viable for a huge chunk of folks just yet and the folks that can hunt there aren’t very interested because they’re so unforgiving. Unforgiving mechanics is a whole other conversation.

With both of those factors in mind I tried to find a realistic solution with some flavor to make hunting a little less tedious. I realize a zone large enough to house 3 or 4 tiers of creatures is no small undertaking but in all honesty, I would happily forego two or three MTs to see something like this rolled out. It could even make sense to make half the rooms premie and half not to help recoup time/cost of the project. I would turn my other two accounts premie in a flash to stop tripping over people when all I want to do is train in peace and watch my numbers grow.

Now the good stuff!!

Basic Concept: Wacky inventor mysteriously vanishes and his experiments into animation magic have gone astray! His home and workshop are now dangerously overrun. Located somewhere in mainland Therengia (Theren/Haven) - this province is close to Crossing but useless after around 600 ranks to most people and mostly empty whenever I’ve been there so let’s give them a good reason to wander back. Better yet we should finally replace that blasted rope bridge with a real bridge and put this up by Lang.

Three tiers of constructs. (Maybe four if the universe is feeling generous?)

- Tier one: The front yard is out of control. Metalwork plants all over the place trying to attack any intruders. Five random varieties, each vaguely modeled after a craft so that they can be dismantled instead of skinned for a smidge of crafting skill and small consumable like silk orchids (outfitting), nightshade (alchemy), gearhead marigolds (engineering), blade flowers (forging), brazier bulbs (enchanting).
Skill range: 600-900
# of rooms: 6

- Tier two: The house is destroyed. Clockwork pets everywhere! Some random color/adjective cats, dogs, pigs, rats, etc. (maybe even a unicorn! since these are constructs!) A super amazing easter egg would be a complicated way to tame one of these things for a pet. Make it tedious enough that not everyone is willing to deal with it.
Skill range: 900-1200
# of rooms: 8

- Tier three: Weapon Flares mixed with animation magic in the workshop and bad things happened. Weapon flares turned into furies (angry little elementals fashioned after humanoids). Random creatures each modeled after a current weapon flare: fire, cold, electric, radiant, glitter, etc.
Skill range: 1200-1500
# of rooms: 10

- Tier four: The cave behind the workshop has been heavily barricaded because.... CLOCKWORK DRAGONS! (Barricade should be a stiff athletics check) Okay I know this is unlikely but hear me out. We play a game called DRAGONrealms. We really want dragons. We can’t have “real” ones for reasons but we could totally have clockwork dragons! Maybe that’s how the inventor disappeared?! Should be skinnable for clockwork/metal scales that can be sold as gems.
Skill range: 1500-1800
# of rooms: 10

If you made it all the way to the bottom... Thanks for reading. :D