The Old Capital was the ruling power in the Barony before the Barony was a thing - its collapse was what birthed the Barony into political existence around 200 years ago. It was destroyed in a string of disasters, some geological, some military, some magical. The great system of aqueducts that linked the Old Capital to the provinces famously ran with blood for three days, and then dried up.
The ruins are still there, great black stone towers and apartments and boulevards, wrought iron ornaments, beautiful stained glass and mosaics. The Old Capital was the sister city of the White City, and they shared a culture (although culture in the White City has progressed quite a bit in the last 200 years), as well as trade and military alliances. The White City declined to send military aid at the last, and the Old Capital was burned and razed in less than a week.
The facts are hazy. What is known for sure is that large sections of city fell into the earth, and some kind of army poured up out of the ground to massacre the inhabitants. The army of the Old Capital fought until they were eventually overcome, despite their great powers of killing and destroying. The conflict released roiling waves of heat and pressure, clouds of disease and putrefaction, and employed thousands of bizarre and now-lost engines of war.
Treasure-hunters have been picking through the ruins of the Old Capital for two centuries, but it is dangerous work. At best, the ruins are infested by hostile Cuckoos, and there are much, much weirder things that hunt in the broken buildings. Expeditions have reported a gigantic sinkhole in the old city centre that drops directly down into darkness.
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I'll write more about the Old Capital at some point - it's dangerous, it's cursed, it's probably radioactive and diseased, it's haunted by things from the centre of the planet. People don't go there without heavy, heavy protection. The Baroness really doesn't like people going there at all, because she's worried about moron adventurers poking/waking up whatever destroyed the city in a week. Normal endgame region stuff.
This post is about the Old Kingdom military relics that appear in legend, to wit: Warbodies and Exterminator Orbs.
WARBODIES
Warbodies are essentially biological suits of armour that interface with the wearer and provide enhanced strength, endurance, speed, and protection. The most common look like 9 to 10 foot tall humans with weird, placid faces and barbie anatomy. They are very strong and very tough, and when they went to war they were usually armed with weapons befitting their stature.
No one knows this, but Warbodies were the first version of what would eventually become the Chemical Courtesans.
A Warbody is not conscious, but it is a biological thing - it needs feeding (you keep them in pools of nutrient soup), and you need protections before you get into one, to stop its nervous system and other tissue from growing into yours. A pilot (as the old knightly caste were called) would cover their bodies in poisonous oils to stop the two fleshes from growing together. Piloting a Warbody is still dangerous for your psyche, and most pilots burn out in a couple of years. In days of prosperity the Old Capital would pension them of on generous estates. Towards the end, the staring, maddened veterans were often quietly disposed of by the agents of the city, to avoid morale loss among the population.
Pilots had their own Warbodies, and would go into battle wearing an upscaled and personalised harness of decorative chains made from lead, tin, and cut glass (again, you can see the continuation of this practice with the Courtesans). Their veterency, service history, notable kills, and feats of arms could be read from these chains by those with the learning to do so.
There are many rumours of Warbodies of much, much greater size, and with bizarre and non-human physical appearances.
Warbody
You are not a Pilot, and do not have a personal relationship with this Warbody.
Donning it is easy and intuitive, and must be done naked. A Warbody is either fed or unfed.
While you wear it, a fed Warbody increases your STR and CON to 22, your speed to that of a horse, causes you to gain 30 hp, and sets your armour as chain. Your unarmed strikes hit for d6. You can see and hear, but you cannot speak.
An unfed Warbody increases your STR and CON to 18, does not increase your speed, causes you to gain 20 hp, and sets your armour as chain. Your unarmed strikes hit for d4. You can see and hear, but you cannot speak.
A Warbody will always be unfed if you find it outside of its nutrient pools, of if these have dried up.
If you enter an unfed Warbody without applying barrier oils, you take d6 damage as it feeds on your blood to revive itself, and you will lose one max HP for every hour you wear it as it digests you. From then on the Warbody will count as fed, until one hour after you take it off.
Since this Warbody doesn't know you, you must also save CHAR to try to remove it - if you fail, then the ganglia have penetrated too deeply into your spine, and you cannot be removed without it killing you. Applying barrier oils before you enter will let you automatically succeed on this check.
Terrible Armaments of the Old Capital
Warbodies are buried in huge stone crypts with the skeletons of their pilots, and honoured with grave goods like soldiers. Rarely, an honoured Body will be entombed with its weapons of war.
Spear: Huge pale metal spear that hits for 2d8, and also shoots invisible harming beams (2d8, range as rifle, d4-1 shots remaining). The method of refuelling or reloading this weapon has been lost to time.
Khopesh: Terrible limb-lopping weapon of old, with a weighted sickle blade. Considered brutal, fit for dull and unimaginative Pilots. 2d10, crit range, 18 - 20, -4 on the death and dismemberment table if this is the weapon that brought you below 0.
Maul: The weapon of the Magistrates, who by law fought in battle with the Pilots. 2d10, knocks anyone hit prone, crits structures and prone enemies automatically.
Talons: Worn by the Pilot-Nobles of the City and considered the most honoured of the Armaments. The ripping hand-shapes signify the supremacy of humanity over brute existence. 2d8 + 2d8, and allow melee attacks to be made at a distance of 20ft (this looks like telekinesis).
Honourifics
A Warbody will have d6-2 honourifics attached to it.
Lead Harness: The Warbody can never be surprised in combat, and will always act on any enemy surprise round.
Glass Harness: The Warbody can run twice as fast as normal, and can leap 20 feat into the air, or 40 feet horizontally with a run up.
Aluminium Harness: The Warbody cause Angels, Demons, and Beings of Chaos to test morale every time it attacks them.
Brass Harness: The Warbody always counts as unfed, but attacks three times each turn.
Ceramic Harness: The Warbody gives off enormous amounts of heat, visible in clouds of steam and waves of distortion. Being within 5 ft of the Body inflicts 1 fire damage per turn, and being grappled by it inflicts d6 fire damage.
Tin Harness: This Warbody can SCREAM once per combat. When it does so, all enemies test morale at disadvantage.
EXTERMINATOR ORBS
Exterminator Orbs are a myth, but there are enough historical reports of their existence that the academics do not doubt that they were real once. In some ways they were simple weapons. A perfectly white sphere of an arbitrary size is generated, and then sent in an arbitrary direction at an arbitrary speed.
Anything living thing that comes within a distance of the orb equal the orb's diameter, dies. There are no exceptions. Exterminator Orbs were generated and projected by unknown means, and they terrified their users in their own time. There were, apparently, no inherent limits on size, speed, or direction. Terrible weapons, thankfully now forgotten to history.
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