Hodmedod

Hodmedods are fabric constructs that were common in Avalir during the Age of Arcanum. They are created by Nydas Okiro, and he produces them in mass quantities through the Golden Scythe. Hodmedods are non-sentient and are not capable of carrying out complex tasks, but they can speak a number of pre-recorded messages and perform simple functions.

Description
Hodmedods are made of fabric and stuffing with burlap sacks for heads and look somewhat like scarecrows. Those who buy them from the Golden Scythe can customize them in their chosen colors and to display elements like house crests. The hodmedods accompanying Nydas Okiro to a party at the Palazzo Por'co are brightly colored, and an individual selling items in Excelsior Plaza is wearing bright red and blue and had a blue head.

Hodmedods can speak a limited range of pre-recorded messages but are not sentient beings. They are not capable of carrying out complex tasks, but they can perform functions such as carrying objects between locations, selling wares, and performing as waitstaff. They typically present as chipper and bright in personality.

They are constructed so that the magical energy animating them is centralized at engines kept at the Golden Scythe and fed out to the hodmedods remotely. Tampering with them requires being at the Golden Scythe's guild hall.

History
Nydas Okiro, whose guild produces the hodmedods, arrived at the pre-Replenishment party at the Palazzo Por'co with 700 hodmedods. Bolo spoke to one hodmedod and was unimpressed with it, calling it a "bag", and asked Cerrit Agrupnin to destroy it.

Another hodmedod began acting strangely. Patia Por'co cast Detect Thoughts and detected the words "Ghor Dranas" coming from it, even though hodmedods are not thinking creatures. The hodmedod then de-animated, becoming an inert pile of clothing. It was later determined that this creature had not been a true hodmedod, but rather the unidentified cleric of a Betrayer God in disguise.

Trivia

 * "Hodmedod" is a term in Berkshire, England for "scarecrow".
 * When large sentry automatons of old design were seen at the Tishtan excavation site, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, and Travis Willingham wondered if they might be hodmedods.