Amazingly enough, my ACKS party figured out the code word to activate and deactivate an iron cobra that was guarding...
Amazingly enough, my ACKS party figured out the code word to activate and deactivate an iron cobra that was guarding some spellbooks. They took it, of course. If you turn it on, it attacks whoever has the books.
What might they do to reprogram this vicious construct? I want to be prepared if they don't just try to sell it.
How difficult/onerous do you want it to be for them to reprogram it? That's the only guiding question that matters. Can anyone do it? Do they have to have special knowledge? Take the cobra to a special place? Reboot the thing using sorcerous components?
ReplyDeleteIf the cobra attacks whoever has "the books" it might not have to be reprogrammed. Simply get a sentence or phrase or rune from the book in question onto the desired target and the cobra may think the target "has the books" and attack.
ReplyDeleteStuart Robertson , you forgot step 5, Repeat!
ReplyDeleteI think i know where that illo comes from, even.
have the reprogramming be part of the spell book?
Being the sort of person I am, I'd want to reprogram it as an assassination tool. Program it to hunt the bearer of a token I could connive into the possession of the target and return to me. Let the cobra loose, inexplicable death of target with no suspects. Perfect "locked room mystery" tool!
ReplyDeleteStuart Robertson lol! That might happen if they can get it away from the Lawful cleric that has it right now.
ReplyDeleteErik Jensen a sorcerous reboot might be doable with help from a sage or something. They aren't high enough level to build one, but spending some coin to give it new conditions might be.
Zak Smith that's a great idea. Maybe it's not the books they are tracking, but the seal of the now long deceased former owner. Arrows inscribed with that seal and shot into targets for the cobra to track might work. Or pages ripped from them. One of the books was a spellbook the elf wants to keep I'm sure. But the other was a manual of familiar summoning and familiars suck, so tear it up and wrap the pages around an arrow, somehow shielding the other pages from the cobra's arcane sight.
reprogram? wouldn't it be funnier to give the books as "gifts" to victims and then activate the thing?
ReplyDeleteHorrible screaming death by murderous construct. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me of a bug in the old (old, old) Lord of the Rings adventure games. The Black Riders were programmed to attack whoever had the ring. So the moment the riders show up at your location, you simply type:
ReplyDeleteGIVE RING TO BLACK RIDER
The Black Riders then attack the one with the ring, killing him, and the ring drops to the ground. The next rider picks it up, and the rest attack him and kill him. The final rider picks up the ring and attacks himself, then drops the ring when he dies.
Mission Complete.