Information

Robo has a minion!

Copper the Iron Terrier

Robo

The

Steamwork Anyu
Owner:

Possum

Age: 7 years, 9 months, 4 days

Born: July 22nd, 2016

Adopted: 7 years, 9 months, 4 days ago

Adopted: July 22nd, 2016

Statistics

Level: 4
Strength: 15
Defense: 10
Speed: 10
Health: 10
HP: 10/10
Intelligence: 115
Books Read: 109
Food Eaten: 0
Job: Refreshment Concierge

A body of steel and stone

"I live to serve."

Those were the first words he spoke upon being "activated". The dwarf family who commissioned his creation gave him a name - Viktor - and brought him home. A fine butler and bodyguard he would make, they thought: an imposing seven-foot-five, built like a veritable stone wall, and with iron supports throughout. He was more of a golem than a "warforged", but the family did not mind. He was theirs.
Viktor served the family for over a hundred years - serving their meals, watching the children grow and play, and helping around the grounds. He learned all of the dwarven customs. Weddings, funeral rites, proper etiquette. He was practically one of the family. His family. Although he had little concept of emotions, serving them made him what he imagined as 'happy'.

The war with the east came to a head one day - eventually, not even civilian homes were safe. A magic-based electromagnetic pulse disabled Viktor, and over a century would pass before he awakened once more.
"Why do we have to be so quiet? Nobody's lived here for a century. It's all good for the taking."
"Did you not see the... thing... in the room to the left when we came in? Surrounded by all those dusty books?"
"Well... yeah... but it's... not awake, right?"

Something stirred within Viktor's processors.
Awake.
Activate.
Protect the Family.

He stood once more, dusty books falling to the floor. He took note to clean up once this was all over. Viktor's current task was to hunt down the intruders. Burglars. Stealing from HIS family. Snapping their frail necks was easy - stony fingers reinforced with metallic joints found their purchase, crushing their windpipe without so much as a sound. Then the actual snap of bone.

As dawn broke across the horizon, Viktor stood alone in the room with the bodies of the intruders. He removed the Family's belongings from their packs - fine silver implements, mostly tools of war. He slowly ran his hands over each item, then gathered them up and placed them where they belonged. It was in the armory that he noticed the skeleton wearing The Master's cloak, an orc's skeleton nearby, a crossbow bolt still lodged in its skull. But... if The Master was dead, what did that mean for the rest of the Family?
He found his answer soon enough. The bodies of the two youngest were still in the playroom, the toys on the ground covered with a century's worth of dust.

He had failed in his purpose. Viktor hung his head in what could only be described as shame, then gathered up the dead. The burglars received what they deserved - their bodies were thrown on the refuse pile, long since rotted away. The remains of the family were carefully gathered and interred in the crypt on the grounds, and he performed the appropriate funeral rites. Viktor then spent the next several years repairing the home and restoring it to its former glory. Eventually, his work would be finished, and he found himself staring into the empty fireplace. "Supper would need preparing. But the cooks are long gone. There's no one to eat it, either way. I... don't need to eat." Viktor paused. "I suppose I have no purpose, now."

Viktor looked down at his butler's uniform. "I no longer have a need for any of this." He ceremoniously undressed, folding the majority of the clothes neatly. The only parts he left on were the specially-made wrist cuffs, with their silver-filigreed cufflinks embossed with the family crest. The last remaining vestments of his former life of servitude. He gently ran a stone finger across them. "I no longer need to be called Viktor, I suppose."
A quick perusal of the few legible books in the library gave him a new name: Robo.
~~~~
Robo was the first monk I had ever made for D&D, debuting him in what would become our group's "main" campaign. The concept I had in mind originated when we were still playing our homebrew setting in 3/3.5; a dwarven-made construct that was left behind when the dwarves "went extinct" (in truth, it was found that the dwarves went deeper underground). Our new 5e setting, however, made dwarves available again, and so Robo's story needed re-tooling. A war between goblins, orcs, and dwarves, resulting in Robo's civilian family being wiped out and Robo being put into a sort of "limbo". Robo would join the Fire Watch alongside Hunter Noggum - a tiefling barbarian, Alto the halfling rogue, and two halfling-created warforged, Balfour & Deirdre. He spoke with a Russian accent, and had a personality that was a cross of Fezzik from 'The Princess Bride' and Drax the Destroyer from the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of 'Guardians of the Galaxy'. Big, strong, proud of both of those attributes... average intelligence... but did not understand metaphors at all.
Unfortunately, Robo was less than optimal. I had mixed up the primary stats for a monk quick-build; instead of prioritizing Dexterity, I made Wisdom his highest ability score (though his Dex wasn't terrible). So Robo had amazing Perception and other Wisdom-based skills... but had some trouble with actually hitting his targets. It was pretty embarrassing. He also had the defenses of a wet paper bag - he'd go down fairly quickly in a fight, and thus eventually picked up a flaw that had him running as soon as a fight started going badly for him. One such incident involved a fight alongside Balfour, and Balfour died fighting darkmantles. Robo fled, leaving behind the other warforged. Again, it was embarrassing. Perhaps sensing my frustration with my own character, our DM put in an encounter involving a werewolf - the werewolf went after Robo, and Robo failed his Constitution save against a bite. I didn't know that the DM was doing this for me.
Francois, the paladin that had replaced Balfour by this point, attempted to remove the disease... only to find out that lycanthropy in 5e counts as a curse, something he wouldn't be able to remove for a few more levels. Robo, meanwhile, decided to "embrace the curse". Things went slightly differently for Robo after that - he was slightly stronger, but more importantly, more resilient. Only spells, magic weapons, or silvered weapons would be able to hurt him. Which, at our low level, didn't happen too often. Unfortunately... he was now subject to monthly transformations, where I would lose control of the character, effectively 'blacking out,' only to wake up the next morning. After the first such transformation, Robo came to the realization that he was now a danger to the party. He left, deciding to meet with a group of Shifters who had gained control of their bestial forms. He would not be seen again for some time.

credits:

profile template by

piers.
story & character by

Possum.

Pet Treasure