Necrocondenser (Weird Machine)

Obscure in its origins, which are muddled and confused by conflicting experts and competing opinions, the Necrocondenser is a Weird Machine few have ever heard of, and fewer still have ever seen.

Jadris, Korliz, Vaduphon...there are more than a few dead worlds known to sorcerers and scholars alike. But not all dead worlds were overthrown by hordes of zombies, nor enslaved by vampire tyrants, nor subjugated by armies of any of the other known forms of undead. No, not all dead worlds died through violence, plague or the usual forms of ruination and destruction. Some worlds, such as Thaldria rotted away like a titan succumbing to the ravages of Jotuniflukes, others collapsed under the increasingly unsupportable burdens imposed upon their fragile ecologies by the rampant technologies of the living, such as how Faldrume and Myrcidria both died. And badly at that.

What few people aside from the abdead necrolectuals of Ellonduz realize is that each of these worlds were hastened on to their apocalyptic demise by the workings of a Necrocondenser.

Most of the scrolls detailing the construction of the original thirteen Necrocondensers have been destroyed by Horla, consumed by Thysanurians or even stolen by certain Predatory Projections for what can only be assumed to be nefarious schemes. Of the original thirteen machines, only six are still intact or summonable.

There are fewer than four scrolls containing the complete, accurate ritual for summoning a Necrocondenser known to be in circulation currently, according to the Scribes of Jaondix and the Psychonauts of Undrozzille, if those sources can be trusted in such a matter.

What is known about these particular machines can be summed up as follows:

• This machine creates an artificial vortex of inverted ablight at its center and uses this central vortex to attract, accumulate and condense necromantic energies into a specialized capacitor-assembly where these energies are stored until processed or released.
• When activated, a Necrocondenser sets up an energetic field that extends in a 100 mile radius and increases in range by another 1d10 miles per 100 hit points of energy it drains from all forms of undead. All undead caught within this field of effect suffer a loss of 1d4 hit points for every hour they remain within the field. Any undead drained to zero hit points is destroyed.
• These machines do not affect the abdead, proving conclusively that there is in fact a distinct, demonstrable difference between undead and abdead.
• Once set in motion these machines run like preternatural clockwork and are all but unstoppable.
• In the event that a Nercrocondenser becomes damaged, it can siphon off its accumulated necromantic energies to repair itself. Doing so sets up a secondary field of interference that causes 1d4 damage per hour to all living things within a 10 mile radius. This effect intensifies by +1 additional point of damage per HD of damage so repaired.
• Holy Word will make this machine pause for 1d100 hours, but will require the caster to be within 1 mile of the machine.
• Once a Necrocondenser extends its field of effect to encompass an entire world it requires 1d100 days to recalibrate its internal systems. Once recalibrated, the machine will either release a massive world-girdling vortex of necromantic energies, begin to drain all life energy from the world, explode with such force as to reduce the world to a ring of blackened rubble orbiting its sun, or possibly some other effect based upon the parameters established at the time of its activation. In at least one instance the machine established a black corona of negative energy at a height of 10,000 miles that encircled the entire world of Aldrosia. Every living thing that died upon that world has had its energies stripped from it within seconds of dying. No one is sure just why, or what the Necrocondenser/Black Corona is doing with all this accumulated energy.

Mass Necrocondenser Details
Primary Reference: Obsidian Tablet of Horphoo
Prescribed Geometric Figure: n/a
Requirements: 1) A stable negative energy vortex consisting of no less than 1,000 hit points, 2) Necroliths and other heavily-infused necromantic objects and energy-sinks are rumored to be helpful adjuncts to the summoning process, but no details are provided in the primary sources.
Cost to Summon: see above.
Chance of Success: (1d8)% per 100 hit points used in preliminary negative energy vortex.
Failure/Backlash: Everything within a 1d100 mile radius is drained of all energy. The machine either goes dormant, or teleports away to the next world.

A Few Rumors
According to the Annals of Doomed Vylusha, a Necrocondenser was summoned to that world by the Vizier of Wollovia as part of a scheme to break the grip of an undead aristocracy that had dominated her country for over a thousand years. The machine did eliminate the undead nobles, but then it ended all life on that world as well. Whether this was due to tampering, sabotage, some revenge-contingency of the undead nobles, or something else entirely is unknown at this time.

The paladins of Xorlu have been searching for the means to summon a Necrocondenser to their world ever since an armada of undead invaded their world. They believe that they can use one of these machines to eliminate the undead invaders without destroying their world in the process. Perhaps they know something others do not, possibly they are just zealots willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to defeat their enemies.

A defunct or damaged Necrocondenser is alleged to be buried deep beneath the crust of Adalasha, somewhere on the 312th level of the Macrocthoneum. So far no one has been able to confirm this rumor.

Weird Machines