Gear Warden

The Gear Warden was a unique half-magical/half-clockwork construct called a "gear-keeper". Created by Cleff Tinkertop for use by the wardens of the Gearhole Prison, it was designed to create a threatening warden to quell any violent prison riots or mass breakouts.

Appearance
The Gear Warden was an automaton similar to a golem, but instead of being constructed from stone or clay, it was made up of metal and clockwork gears. It was animated both by magic and clockwork technology: the power source was fueled by magic, and the actual locomotion of the gear-keeper was powered by clockwork gears. It was a large spherical cluster of overlapping metal plates and blades and measured about eight feet in diameter. As Rissa and Nott described it, "it just rolls and cuts".

It had a retractable lens, covered by a plate for protection. To move, it stuck out six retractable spider-like plates and rolled itself forward.

After over two years of attacking the prison walls and cells, the Gear Warden has seriously damaged itself, with elements of it having become scraped and dented.

Personality
For unknown reasons, the Gear Warden "went crazy" on its first day at the Gearhole Prison. It then began to destroy anyone or anything it detected.

Background
Cleff Tinkertop had taken a job from the wardens of the Gearhole Prison, located in the Iron Lot below the Tinkertop store and the Idlework Shelf. At their request and the request of the Hupperdook's Starosta, Cleff came up with a "clockwork warden": something that could help keep watch over some of the more dangerous and difficult inmates of the Gearhole Prison.

If the Gear Warden had been successful, its model would have been mass-produced as a defensive sentinel for the city of Hupperdook. According to Rissa, just five or six gear-keepers patrolling the city outskirts would be enough to discourage invasion or lawless acts within the city limits.

On its first day at work, the Gear Warden had some unforeseen "faults" (as Cleff calls them) and it couldn't be controlled. The Gear Warden then proceeded to destroy anyone or anything that was in its way. The Gear Warden managed to kill some people before the Gearhole wardens managed to seal it away in an isolated section of the prison.

Cleff was heavily fined for the damage and loss of life that the Gear Warden caused (fines that he was still trying to pay off two years later). In addition, every now and then, the wardens of the Gearhole Prison and city authorities like the Starosta like to come by the Tinkertop residence and remind Cleff of his failure.

The Gearhole Prison eventually planned to destroy the Gear Warden, but the task was re-prioritized when other matters diverted their attention. Finally, by the time the war with Xhorhas was declared, the wardens simply gave up on the idea altogether.

Cleff Tinkertop
Cleff constructed the Gear Warden, and he was very proud of his invention, though he felt genuinely sorry for the incident at Gearhole Prison and was puzzled that he didn't foresee the problems with the construct. While the Gear Warden remained in the prison, it would remain a black spot on the Tinkertop name.

Abilities
The automaton had twelve "arms" that could extend from the body. These arms could be used as blades to inflict slashing damage, or they could be shot as projectiles to inflict piercing damage.

An elven-made optic lens was used to provide the warden with a type of magical vision. The lens could be obscured to blind the warden, but the warden could use an action to clean the lens with a small, protruding scraper.

The warden rolled along the ground using a giant sphere as a base which could knock nearby enemies prone.

A magical core served as the warden's power source. Upon breaking the core, the machine lost power. The core could provide power to the machine for at least several hundred years.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign Two

Trivia

 * The gearkeeper is a home-brewed construct, created by Matthew Mercer. "Gear Warden" refers to the prototype gear-keeper that Cleff constructed for the Gearhole Prison, and it is how this specific construct is referred to on Geek & Sundry and Project Alpha.