Cost: 10,000 gp + 25% the cost of the device or mech it is installed into.
Assistants: 1 Size: Small (10) Weight: 6 lb.
This incredibly complicated device links a crystal circuit brain to any other device. The brain can operate that device, but it can only do what the device is capable of. A chattersword that can turn itself on and vary the chain speed might seem impressive, but without the ability to get up, it is quite useless.
The cost includes 25% of the device or mech.
This includes 25% of the cost of every steam power, weapon, and other device the crystal circuit brain controls. This price must be paid for new components that are to be controlled as well. It is possible for a device or mech to have steam powers or other components that the crystal circuit brain does not control, although it may be impractical.
The most common use is to allow a crystal circuit brain in a steamborg to control a mech.
The interface provides a +4 circumstance bonus to pilot checks.
Each crystal circuit brain is compatible with only one crystal circuit brain.
Special: Steamborgs and assimilated do not require a crystal circuit interface to install a crys-tal circuit brain as one of their steam powers.
halflings, and uniquely attuned to the gear forests they call home. These homes are not truly theirs, however, for almost all coglings are stowaways. They skulk about the vast engine rooms of mighty city-mechs, doing everything they can to avoid detection. Only by keeping outsiders away from the gear for-ests can they ensure their homes will never be found, so coglings have developed an entire society predicated on the twin princi-ples of keeping the “great engine” function-ing while never befunction-ing found within it.
Personality: Coglings live in a constant state of fear. They are always on guard against the persistent threat of detection in their gear forest dwellings. Even their
“homes” are not truly safe, for they live on the property of others; therefore, no cogling ever has a chance to truly relax. This state of fear pervades every aspect of the cogling personality, and is one of the key personality differences between them and root-stock halflings. Most coglings do not possess the halflings’ innate resistance to fear, and in
than the most fearful human. Their only tools for survival in their hostile homes are stealth and nondetection, so when confronted with threats they respond with those behaviors, not combat.
Coglings are no less curious than normal halflings, but they reserve this curiosity for engines. More than any other race, coglings have an innate talent for working with steam engines. But unlike other races that view steam engines as simple objects built for a purpose, coglings live in steam engines of a scale far larger than they could ever hope to build. They are part of an engine-based ecol-ogy; they plant fungus farms, raise grease liz-ards, and hunt the vermin that threaten the gear forest. Alone among the intelligent rac-es, coglings view the steam engine as a living, interconnected environment, and their curi-osity about these aspects of the steam engine has led many down the path of the clockwork ranger. Clockwork rangers are common among cogling tribes, and it is through their ecological talents that the coglings survive in their strange environment.
Physical Description: Coglings, like halflings, stand about 3 feet tall and usu-ally weight between 30 and 35 pounds.
From there, though, the resemblance stops.
Unlike halflings, coglings have pale, almost albino skin. Entire generations can pass where no cogling sees the sun, much less any light source stronger than a torch. They keep their hair trimmed short and avoid facial hair. (There are so many moving parts in a gear forest that a long beard can be danger-ous!) They wear armor made of discarded scraps of the gear forest, which makes them resemble blacksmiths or modern welders:
Metal greaves and breastplates, gearmail armor, and iron masks are common. They have no source of cloth, so what few pieces of true clothing they possess are either scav-enged or built from non-cloth sources, like the hides of monstrous beetles and spiders they have slain, or worked from the leather of their domesticated grease lizard herds.
Coglings are perpetually coated in thick lay-ers of sludge and grease, a byproduct of their life in an engine.
attempt to minimize relations with all other races. The less likely that they are detected, the less likely they will be evicted from their gear forest homes. Thus, coglings effectively have no relations with other intelligent races.
On an individual basis, they may have rela-tions with wise or powerful denizens of their gear forest homes. The golem Old Iron Arms on Nedderpik is a one such example (see The Shardsfall Quest). Most gear forests include at least one non-cogling clockwork ranger, usually a resident of the city-mech who has retreated to the gear forest for soli-tude, and these rangers or mechanical creatures, stowaways have no particular respect for the gear forest. Many are criminals or spies to begin with. Coglings judge these stowaways guilty until proven innocent. After all, they are a threat not only to the coglings’ secrecy, but to the gear forest itself; the only way outsid-ers can survive in the gear forest environment is to
disable it before it hurts them. Defenseless stowaways are sometimes adopted (such as the human child Chriso Xanthas; see The Mech Manual). Others are given a warning and brutally slaughtered if they don’t heed it – though usually the killing takes place through traps set in the gear forest, so no cogling need ever show his face.
When it comes to creatures that don’t reside in the gear forest, coglings attempt to avoid any contact whatsoever. They make no distinction between orc, dwarf, human, or elf, much less class, religion, or other affilia-tion. Coglings have no particular affinity for
years of divergent lifestyles, the halflings are just as foreign to them as humans or elves.
One side effect of the cogling isolation is that they have very little use for valuables.
They effectively have no commercial rela-tionships. They value precious metals for their beauty, and most coglings remember gold’s economic value from the old times.
But these days, a typical cogling would much rather have a masterwork ball hammer than that platinum nugget he found hidden in an air duct.
Alignment: Coglings tend toward neu-trality, with no strong preference toward
good or evil. Lawful coglings are extremely rare; chaotic coglings are somewhat more common. Cogling survival depends on their flouting the laws of the city-mechs to gain passage, while understanding great machines on an intuitive level and maintain-ing codes of secrecy. They do not seek out conflict, but neither will they hesitate to defend themselves. Their policy of secrecy requires that they destroy enemies before they are seen and leave no survivors to tell the tale, so their combats are often brutal and bloody.
Cogling Lands: Coglings have no lands.
mechs owned by other factions. All five of the Stenian Confederacy’s city-mechs have cogling populations. Many smaller mechs of substantial size also have small cogling popu-lations, including mechs of the Irontooth coglings’ needs. Master coglayers reside among every cogling tribe, and they work to disassemble and rebuild the gear forest to make room for coglings.
In this way, they clear areas for occupation, build traps and defensible corridors, and even create areas for worshipping their “talking gods.” They do all of this without interfering with the functioning of the gear forest, and in many cases actually improve the engine efficiency. After all, most city-mechs were built decades ago, and steam technology has improved in the years since the coglings took occupancy.
A clockwork ranger, or a person with the Gearstride feat or otherwise keenly familiar with the gear for-est, can spot cogling-con-trolled areas within a gear forest with a DC 12 Survival check. Craft (mechcraft) or Knowl-edge (steam engines) can be substituted for Survival, although characters unfamiliar with the gear forest must make a DC 20 Craft (mechcraft) or Knowledge (steam engines) check to recognize alteration to the engines of the gear forest.
Religion: The old religions of the hal-flings were abandoned when they had to resort to great metal men to protect them.
Different tribes of coglings subsequently developed different practices as they were scattered to the city-mechs. There has been
separate tribes in the generations since.
Surprisingly, their different paths all led to similar religious practices. Coglings almost universally practice a belief that there are spirits controlling the gear forest, or the
“great engine” as they call it. This form of animism offers prayers and supplications not to a specific deity, but to the general soul of the great engine itself.
Cogling animism is not the same as a belief in Dotrak. Dotrak’s followers do not worship any spirit, nor do they believe in the intelligence of obviously unintelligent items. No worshipper of Dotrak will tell you that a great spirit resides in the gear forest of Nedderpik. Instead, adherents of Dotrak say the gear forest is a microcosm of the great engine that controls the universe itself, with each gear part of a vast system of cause and effect as large as all reality and as enduring as time.
The coglings, on the other hand, truly believe that spirits dwell in the great engine.
Just as many primitive tribes worship animal spirits or spirits of the land – including the shintaji of the Irontooth Clans (see Second Age of Walkers) – the coglings worship
spir-These spirits are real, for they grant spells to their worshippers. Cogling clerics are few and far between, but they are powerful in a way not often seen among engine-worship-pers. Unique among the religions that have developed in the wake of the lunar rains, they are able to build their gods, for they create mechanical sculptures and imbue them with intelligence via the awaken construct spell.
Language: Coglings speak Common, as well as a dialect of the old Halfling lan-guage. They have also developed two unique languages of their own. The first is a simple sign language, called Cogling Signing. In the noisy gear forests, sound is not always the easiest way to transmit meaning. The second is a form of mechanical sculpture that is simi-lar to the old runic languages of the dwarves.
Certain arrangements of gears, pistons, and other mechanical parts have simple mean-ings, ranging from warnings to territorial claims to religious offerings. This language is called Cogling Engine Talk.
Names: Coglings abandoned family names when they retreated to the gear forests. Their tribes are so small that family names are not really necessary. They still retain given names and, usually, a nickname. Nicknames are centered around talents, abilities, or strange traits, often with a gear forest theme, like Pistonhopper, Lizardwrestler, or Slipperys-tepper.
Male Names: Groyot, Brueg, Dakad, Gruttik, Nergen, Fobbot.
Female Names: Charfis, Ferbeh, Quarel, Sidika, Lenom, Kerol.
Adventurers: Coglings live their entire lives in a small, dangerous environment cir-cumscribed by factors outside their control.
Not everyone can stand such a life. Some coglings inherit the halfling root-stock resis-tance to fear and decide to learn about the outside world, rather than hide from it. These adventurers are warned by their families never to speak of their true origins, so cogling adventurers invent false backgrounds while on their journeys. When they finally settle down, they do so on the city-mech of their origin, where they act as secret protectors and patrons of their cogling tribe.
• +2 Dexterity, –2 Strength: Coglings are very quick and agile, but small and not very strong.
• Small: As a Small creature, a cogling gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weap-ons than a Medium character, and his lift-ing and carrylift-ing limits are three-quarters those of a Medium character.
• Cogling base land speed is 20 feet.
• +2 racial bonus on Climb, Jump, and Move Silently checks. The native athleticism of the halfling is one of the only reasons coglings are able to survive in the gear for-est as they do.
• Additional +2 bonus to Hide checks in gear forests, due to familiarity with using grease and sludge as camouflage.
• +1 racial bonus on Fort and Will saving throws, and +2 racial bonus on Ref sav-ing throws. Life in a gear forest makes coglings particularly sensitive to danger, especially anything requiring fast reflexes to escape.
• +1 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown weapons and slings.
• Gearstride feat: Coglings automatically receive the Gearstride feat at 1st level.
They grow up among the dangers of the gear forest and learn to avoid them.
• Low-light Vision: Coglings are raised in the poor light of the gear forest. They can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moon-light, torchmoon-light, gear forests, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Halfling, and Cogling Signing. Bonus Languages:
Dwarven, Gnome, and Cogling Engine Talk. Coglings have little exposure to creatures other than the gearwrights who occasionally come to inspect the gear for-ests they dwell in.
• Favored Class: Clockwork ranger. In addi-tion to the standard combat styles of archery and two-weapon combat, cogling clockwork rangers may choose among two new combat styles: hazard master or lizard
ard master combat style can take the Haz-ard Master feat at 2nd level, HazHaz-ard Lord at 6th level, and Hazard Killer at 11th level.
A character who chooses the lizard master combat style can take Lizard Fighter at 2nd level, Lizard Warrior at 6th level, and Lizard Lord at 11th level.