CLOCKROACH

Chewing on the ground is a whirring, scuttling metal bug about

the size of a large dog. Glass eyes dotting its body look in all directions as it sinks sharp pincers into the ground and spews a stream
of acid onto a bit of debris.

CLOCKROACH

Clockroach

CR 1

Always N Small construct

Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision,
tremorsense 60 ft.; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 11
(+1 size, +3 Dex)
hp 15 (1 HD)
Immune construct immunities
Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +0
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares), burrow 15 ft., climb 30 ft.
Melee 2 pincers +1 each (1d4)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +0; Grp 4
Special Actions breath weapon
Abilities Str 11, Dex 17, Con , Int , Wis 11, Cha 10
SQ construct traits
Feats
Skills Climb +8, Hide +7, Listen +0, Spot +0
Advancement 23 HD (Small)
Breath Weapon (Su) 30-foot line, once every 5 rounds,
damage 3d4 acid, Reflex DC 14 half. The save DC includes
a +4 racial bonus.
Skills A clockroach has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks
and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even
if rushed or threatened.

Clockroaches are automatons designed to clean up messes

in dungeons, workshops, and the like. A clockroach is controlled by a command amulet, through which the owner can
give it simple instructions.

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CLOCKROACH LORE
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can learn more
about clockroaches. When a character makes a successful skill
check, the following lore is revealed, including the information
from lower DCs.

Knowledge (Arcana)
DC
11
16
21
26

Result
This creature is a clockroach, a mindless construct
incapable of independent thought. This result
reveals all construct traits.
Clockroaches are tough, buglike automatons
equipped with magically replenishing reservoirs of
powerful acid, which they can spray up to 30 feet.
Clockroaches can burrow into stone and earth, and
they can climb at the same speed they walk.
A clockroachs carapace contains an indention to
hold a command amulet. When the amulet is in
place, the clockroach can be programmed.

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STRATEGIES AND TACTICS

As mindless constructs, clockroaches exercise limited,
preprogrammed tactics. A clockroach attacks only when
defending itself or if a creature is in an area its been
instructed to clear. In either case, it uses its breath weapon
as often as possible, using its pincers while recharging its
reserve of acid. A clockroach also uses its acid to bore through
obstacles between it and its objective.

So far, all my efforts to control the silly thing have failed.

Clearly theres some secret to this I have yet to unravel. As
long as its doing nothing but clearing the dungeons of
refuse, Im not concerned. But if it should decide my
familiar is trashor I am . . .
Clearly, further research is called for.

Final journal entry of

Ingalla Asterian, articer

SAMPLE ENCOUNTERS
Clockroaches are most often found in subterranean compounds, usually in cleaning crews of up to six individuals.
Hordes of clockroaches descend on the battleelds of the
planes, posing hazards to the unwary traveler.
Guardian (EL 1): A single clockroach can be programmed
to attack anything that it sees or any creature that doesnt give
an approved signal or password.
EL 1: Guarding the entrance to a brigands cave is one clockroach. It never moves more than 30 feet from the entrance,
and it doesnt enter the cave or attack anything within it. It
ignores any creature that either gives the password Cinnamon or waves with just two ngers raised. It otherwise
attacks anything that moves.
Clean Sweep (EL 26): On extraplanar battlegrounds,
clockroaches scour the refuse of old combats clean, leaving
the eld fresh for new battles.
EL 6: On one of the endless battleelds of Acheron lie the
remains of thousands of orcs and goblins, killed over and
over in ceaseless warfare. The war has long since moved on,
but the stinking piles of bodies linger. Six clockroaches move
slowly through the area, spraying acid on everything until
they reduce the corpses, broken weapons, and other refuse
down to clean earth. They see everything as trash in need
of disposal and attack any creature that comes into range.
An opponent that survives more than 1 round becomes the
focus of all six clockroaches, who all direct their acid against
the troublesome garbage.

ECOLOGY
Clockroaches are mindless constructs. They do not eat, sleep,
or breathe. They exist as tools, working only to the purposes
they have been set. They follow their programming from the
moment they are built to the day they fall apart.
Each clockroach is constructed with a command amulet.
This small round disk of metal ts into an indention in

FOR PLAYER CHARACTERS

Clockroach

Clockroaches do not carry or store treasure of any kind.

However, a clockroach with its command amulet is worth
2,150 gp.

CLOCKROACH

TYPICAL TREASURE

CLOCKROACHES IN EBERRON

Illus. by A. Stokes

the clockroachs carapace. When tted with its amulet, a

clockroach can be given a simple program. Programmed
instructions must depend only on sight and hearing and
allow no cognitive function; they can be no longer than
twenty-ve words.
Environment: Though clockroaches can be found anywhere, they were originally built by extraplanar generals to
clean up battlegrounds taken from eternal foes.
Typical Physical Characteristics: A clockroach is 4 feet
long and 1-1/2 feet wide. Eight spindly metal legs carry it
about 1 foot off the ground. Its feet are lined with tiny hooks,
allowing it to burrow into the ground or walk up a wall. Glass
eyes are randomly located on its body. It constantly produces
a slight whirring noise, like a wheel spinning very fast. Most
clockroaches are made of brass or bronze, but a few steel or
iron specimens have been encountered.
The carapace of a clockroach has a round indention in it,
which is ridged and inscribed with many small runes.
Alignment: As mindless automatons, clockroaches are
always neutral.

A clockroach is crafted from metal plates

that protect nely wrought gears and other
mechanical elements, with a total cost of
75 gp. Constructing the body requires
a DC 14 Craft (metalworking)
check.
A clockroach with more
than 1 Hit Die can be created, but each additional
Hit Die adds 2,000 gp
to the cost.
The creation cost
also includes the
materials for the
command amulet
attuned to that
clockroach. The
amulet is part of
the clockroach,
not a mechanical key. It is not
possible to recreate a
destroyed amulet, nor
to somehow bypass the
amulets function and program the clockroach without it.
CL 4th; Craft Construct, arcane eye, Melfs acid arrow, message; Price 2,150 gp; Cost 1,075 gp + 80 XP.

Clockroaches are believed to have been developed at the

same time as warforged, possibly to serve as their assistants.
Many still exist in the Mournland, and some warforged keep
clockroaches as pets.
Some articers also create clockroaches as homunculi
(Magic of Eberron 151). A homunculus clockroach requires as
an additional ingredient a pint of the creators blood. It has
an Intelligence score of 10, the Weapon Finesse feat (raising
its melee attack bonus to +4), and a +4 bonus on Spot checks.
It does not have a command amulet.

CLOCKROACHES IN FAERN
Clockroaches rst appeared in Lantan, products of Gonds
wondermakers. Word of their usefulness spread rapidly,
and they can now be found up and down the Sword Coast.
Most are purchased by wealthy merchants, but a few inadvertently migrated to the mainland in the holds of passing
vessels. Tales tell of explorers who released a massive horde
of clockroaches into the jungles of Chult, hoping to blaze a
roadway to a newly discovered ruin. The experiment failed,
and now the creatures rove the landscape devouring old trash
and priceless historical artifacts with equal zeal.

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