The Whole Block are Seize the GM Stat blocks built to fit snuggly into certain genres. Instead of providing a single idea in the form of a person, place, or thing, they’ll provide a series of related items to help add the block into an existing campaign.
The Golem Maker
High Fantasy, Superhero, and Dark Fantasy
Magic has often been used to supplement a lacking in strength, and the crafting of the golem has been a way of converting the mystical arts into raw physical power. The golem maker knows this, and as she strives to perfect the art she uses it to protect her social standing and keep those who would threaten her at a massive arm’s length.
Lady Ferian
Person
A noble of House Wrest, with elven blood if the rumors are to be believed, Lady Ferian Wrest has worked her way into becoming the master of the college of travelers. She looks young for her age, but has a steel about her underlining the decades she’s survived and fought for her position. Untrusting, believing others scheme as much as her, she plots and plans from within the Wrest Manor within the ground of the college campus.
Lady Ferian is a master of the art of golemancy. Be it fire, bone, earth, or steel, she can make it move, give it strength, have it fight and protect her interests. The plate guard she creates protect the college’s grounds, and she has convinced other noble houses to purchase them on as their loyal protectors. Yet the golem maker is plotting something big. She does what she can to squash the rumors but too many now know she fancies some of the artifacts of the other houses, and there are whispers that the golems she sells may still keep their loyalty first and foremost to their maker. The guards once employed by these houses have all moved on to other more profitable cities. Only her steel monstrosities remain.
Fitting Lady Ferian In
Lady Ferian Wrest can be placed in any civic center with enough of an existing ruling class and studies to have such a cunning golemancer or scientist within their midst. Be it magic or the power of electricity, she can make these creatures move. Her golems can be traditional fantasy creatures or be robots, but all hold their true loyalty to their maker. She can be an antagonist, sending her creations out into the world to gather and protect her interests, or she can be an ally using her knowledge to empower a party of adventurers or bolstering their ranks. She can also serve as a mentor for party members who are constructs or use body replacement parts.
The College of Travelers
Place
The college is a bastion of learned scholars who consider themselves masters of applicable arts. Be they masters of crafting magical goods or engineers making super-science themed gadgets, the college holds them all. They are known for creating legendary artifacts, or mysterious creatures of power and danger. Their offerings to the world have varied from dangerous to outright destructive, and they persist in their works, even if the college itself is forced to move.
The college of travelers is a large campus built on a metal platform. Its size varies as the needs of it’s students varies, but in general the college holds at least six buildings: dormitories for students, dormitories for staff, a main lecture hall, a lab, a large library and an administration building. Additional buildings can be constructed as the dean of the college programs it, and they can be packed up and returned to the foundation once their need ends. The college itself can pack itself up into a large travelling format, although this can vary from period to period as the college’s membership changes in tone and feel. It’s had legs, a drill, wings, rockets, and a few times a dimensional hoping field when other modes of travel would not have saved the structure.
Currently the college is under the control of Lady Ferina Wrest. She has advised the college to produce a factory for her golem crafting needs. These golems are currently patrolling the grounds, and are also performing odd maintenance on the college’s movable parts. It is almost as if Lady Ferina thinks of the college itself as one of her golem creations.
Fitting The College of Travelers In
The college is a mysterious place and in either magical or technological settings should represent a level of sophistication beyond what the players are used to. Magic works differently, physics goes haywire, and the rules of what should be are often ignored. The college can be a way of admitting powerful artifacts into a game, or a way for them to be safely removed and studied. It can also be a place magical or creative characters can use to find mentors, to study, or improve their crafts. Accessing obscure knowledge and finding answering to hard problems all lie within the college’s library. It makes for a good starting point for a character to originate from, and an even better place for a villain’s lair. Particularly creative villains will make heavy use of the modular nature of the college, and use it’s mobi
Wand of Three Souls
Thing
It comes in three parts, each a long fat wedge shape with a single side being curved. The material seems looks metal but feels like wood in both weight and texture. Only the triangles on the edges of the wedge-shaped wands has a metallic feel to them, but they look like bone or some porous rock. Alone, these pieces seem useless, but together the wand serves as a powerful focus for arcane energies, especially those focused on the manipulation of matter.
The Wand of Three Souls acts as a focus for controlling large constructs. Be it magical the wand is able to become attuned to a thing after being within its presence for a full lunar cycle. Be it technological, the wand can surmise the nature of a machine within minutes, so long as the machine has a means of communication that is not solely analogue. In this manner the wand can be attuned to up to three different items, although to do so it must be broken down into it’s three base shapes and placed near the individual constructions. While it is attuning in this manner, it cannot control other things, and it will lose its previous attunement once it has become acquainted with a new machine.
Currently the rode is in the hands of Lady Ferina Wrest. She has attuned it to the college of travelers, and is using it to keep the construct under control. She is currently debating breaking the rod to link it to a powerful artifact she plans to steal from another house, but is wary of the danger of doing so.
Fitting the Wand of Three Souls In
The wand represents a cheat code for any campaign. It allows someone to control a magical or high-tech device without having to first learn its requirements, so long as they have a month to attune the wand to the device. As such it is very dangerous in the hands of players and should be delicately handled once they surmise it’s potential. Giving it to a villain to use to control a powerful weapon, a base, or magical construct will risk it falling into the players’ hands, and so if it is used in a campaign consider having the players risk losing a third of its form. Even having them quest for the three pieces can serve as a good foundation for the game, especially if they don’t know what artifacts the wand is currently bound to.
Using the Golem Maker
The Whole Block
The trio of entries serve as a foundation to a dangerous enemy or powerful ally in a campaign. Lady Ferian’s plotting can cause the player harm if they stand in her way. She might send them on quests to receive a missing part of the wand, or to locate the college itself. She may already be in possession of the three wand pieces but needs the players to place the binding wedges in several key locations for her. The players may seek her out to take advantage of the college’s mobility. Stealing the wand from her should be hard but may be necessary to control a literal plot device the players need.
Guard-a-manger
Iona Stone
J Samuel Diehl
Zendead