Fantastic Machine

This spell creates an illusory, many-armed, noisy mechanical construct of impressively massive appearance that floats about as the caster wills at MV Fl 4 (C) and attempts one of the following tasks, as determined by the caster: It pushes, pulls, lifts, digs, throws, or thrashes and flails with a tool or weapon.

* Push: It can push on a boulder, on a building to make it fall over, on a wall to collapse it or break through it, on a door to force it open, or simply push heavy furniture or carcasses. The movement rate it moves at while pulling is 80 feet per round over solid rock or stone construction, 60 feet per round over earth and loose rock, such as rubble or an avalanche, and 40 feet per round over loose earth or mud. Walls receive a saving throw of 12 or greater to be unaffected or to stand fast on any given round against its push. * Pull: It can pull massive weights up an incline or cliff to a weight limit of 50 times the caster's own body weight. The fantastic machine's contact is by a shadowy, magical grip on the item, not any grip that could mar or break it. Its movement rates are as under pushing. * Lift: A fantastic machine can lift with the same limitations as pulling. * Dig: A fantastic machine digs a 10-foot-diameter hole 80 feet deep per round through loose earth, such as a mudslide. It digs the same diameter of hole 60 feet deep per round through earth and loose rock, such as an avalanche, or 20 feet deep per round through solid rock or stone construction. It digs a 20-foot-diameter hole at half these stated movement rates. It may dig a 10-foot-diameter hole horizontally (a tunnel) at the same rates as it digs a 20-foot-diameter hole vertically. * Throw: It throws ropes, rocks, or even rocks with ropes attached to them (to cross a chasm with a line, etc.). Its accuracy is determined by the caster's own THAC0; misses land where determined by the Scatter Diagram in the Grenade-Like Missiles subsection of the Missile Weapons section of the Combat chapter of the DUNGEON MASTER Guide. It can hurl items up to 1d20x100 feet. Hurled items deal damage according to their nature. A fantastic machine can hurl items no heavier than its pulling weight limit; a boulder that heavy would do 12d12 points of damage with a direct hit. * Thrash and Flail: A fantastic machine can thrash and flail rapidly with a tool or weapon to crush thickets and brambles to pulp, thresh grain, or smite all creatures within a 30-foot-wide, 20-foot-deep area selected by the caster with 2d4+2 melee weapon attacks per round. The damage of these attacks is determined by the melee weapon used (decided on by the priest at the spell's casting and limited to one-handed weapons only). Mobile targets are allowed a saving throw vs. spell each round. If the saving throw is successful, these targets suffer only half damage from any successful attacks.

A fantastic machine has no tangible existence and can attempt only a single task, fading away when the spell expires even if the task is unfinished (in other words, a partially lifted item would be dropped). Despite the illusory nature of the bulky construct, the magic applies very real force to its surroundings. It has made Gondar priests—who preserve the spell as one of their most holy secrets, rarely writing down all of its symbols in one place or tome—most respected in some circles.

The material components of a fantastic machine are a drop of water, a fragment of adamantite or adamant (the ore adamantite is derived from), a cog or toothed wheel fashioned of any metal, and a strand of spiderweb.

Notes: Granted by the god Gond, Lord of All Smiths, of the Forgotten Realms setting.