Fantasy Chainsaws

 Bit of a weird project, but if you ever want to include some form of chainsaw in your fantasy games, at least one of these should fit the tone. Maybe that's just me! If you're doing full gonzo, go ahead and roll that wonderful d20.

1. Lotus Petal Saw

Softly shining, pink petals spin along an ornamented bar, conjured by a Blades of the Endless Wheel mantra.

Exactly this, by me

2. Thornwheel Blade

A great enchanted rose bush, grown by fairies to have a rotary thorned stem.

3. Jaguar Claw Macuahuitl

Empowered by a jaguar spirit, its many obsidian blades command incredible cutting power even when swung like a normal sword.

4. Necrospinner

A spinning weapon of animated bone, using fangs and teeth along the whirling edge.

5. Meatcutter

So named for cutting meat as well as itself being meat. The blade is comprised of sharp, hardened claws, and it spews its own blood when spinning.

6. Crystal Prismus

Enchanted weapon of polished stone and gems. Each tooth is a different kind of gem, and they can create a glinting rainbow of slicing power.

7. Brimstone Spinblade

Spewing hellfire when it spins, the heat of its flames can burn through steel as well as any warhammer punches through.

8. Starlight Spinner

An elven weapon of silver, hammered as fine as eggshells, with a radiant blade that captures the light of the stars.

9. Slimesaw

Somehow when spinning, the goopy edge of this blade cuts much faster than the slime can normally corrode.

10. Classical Sparksaw

Ancient spinning blade crafted of olive wood and bronze, spits blue sparks as it spins. Made by a brilliant inventor centuries ago.

Ancient Bladesaw, from Zelda

 

11. Trimerian Sawbeetle

The curious horns of this giant beetle can spin to cut through wood or, presumably other Trimerian creatures. They are carefully bound to be used as tools.

12. Winding Sharp-Frost

 Unnaturally hardened frost, spinning and cutting with a fractal edge.

13. Whipsaw

A bladed whip that can be activated to coil in an elongated shape, spinning to cut more effectively, in exchange for shorter reach.

14. Terracotta Blade

A living clay weapon that spins with razor sharp clay shards along a lengthened edge.

15. Runic Stormblade

Constructed of tin and pewter, by wizards. The runes etched into its surface conjure the vortex of a storm into its crackling, whirling edge of deep indigo lightning.

16. Gilded Relic Blade

Built of marble set with gold and finely cut gems, this spinning blade contains a warrior-saint's fighting hand bones, and radiates with divine cutting light.

17. Trimerian Wasps

Angry insects that have been specially bred and trained to fly in a long, rounded formation and devour anything they touch. This was the only formation in which they wouldn't turn back and attack whoever holds their hive.

Lasersaw, by Andrea Sibilla

18. Jade Dragon's Fang

Gifted by a divine being from an unearthly realm, it is surprisingly easy to carry.

19. Spectre's Wrath

 As ghostly mist whirls and spins, the hatred of the dead calls out in a hollow wail.

20. Splitting Organistrum

The powerful tune of this slow instrument projects a small aura of cutting sound near its neck when played properly.

Many of these were inspired with help from Gal Paladin on Discord!

The colors of flame

Red- bloodfire

A rare and cursed flame which burns only living creatures, curdling their flesh before it eats away the skin. It leaves nothing but bone and fur or hair, and none have yet tested if it can spread along freshly spilled blood. The skincity Viren is perhaps the only place where such fire can be found.

Orange- of hearth and torch

Natural flames said to originate from the plane of fire, wherever that may be. It has long been tamed by mortals as a fine tool for light, cooking, and fending against beasts, though careless use may reveal its own feral nature and show it for the danger it is. 

VFX: Simple fire by Artem Grechko

Yellow- flames for gold

Sometimes used by money-changers or alchemists to sift gold from other metals or stone, as this jagged flame burns only precious metals and gems. Most metals it corrodes and ruins, while gems burst or explode. Its use comes in the way it melts gold, as that immortal treasure cannot be rusted or degrade into patina.

Green- demon's breath

Cursed flames known to come about after unnatural magics and dark pacts, remembered by most from a conflagration that burned away the undead armies of the Dead Lords, when they were finally slain. They manifest as they will, consume what they have come for, and disappear without trace or ash. Truly none can say if this fire is a demon itself, merely a tool of dark forces, or perhaps a consequence of twisted wizardry.

Fire-Green by Gabriel Ramos dos Santos

Blue- spirits of the dead

Smoke like mist and a pale glow marks these flames as the product of necromancy. Most often seen in the empty sockets of skeletons still fighting, it is also found at the heart of bone lanterns, whispering the memories of a soul long since dead.

Violet- the memory of dreams

When the pulp of a dream birch is lit, the flames burn with a beautiful light. The long tongues of its pyre will plunge any who touch it into a deep sleep. Curiously, when an unwanted memory is written or drawn clearly enough and put in the flame, it will burn away from the creator's mind. It is thought that these are impossible to recover, but an alchemist in Renzez claims to have crafted a restoring poultice using the ashes of burned memories.

Magic Fire by Evgeny Starostin

White- gentle cleansing flame

A wizard's trick, fire that burns away dirt, dust, and stains and leaving only the shining surface of what lies beneath. The potion that ignites it is quite laborious and time-consuming to brew, so it is perhaps best relegated as a parlour trick for the nobility.

Articorpus Suprultima: magical mecha and more

The temple of a conquering god, built up and shaped into a titanic body for its divine spirit to inhabit through the hands of the faithful crew. A coven of witches weaving life into their shared home, granting it gargantuan legs and sharp fangs. The necromancer lords of old burst from their crypts, crafting a bone behemoth of the ancient dead to scour the lands. An insect god from another world approaches the party and requests their assistance, neural pathways open and inviting, in protecting this world that it might at last live in peace.



Each magical mecha has at least three available positions: pilot, gunner, and engineer. On their turn, the pilot can either move the mecha or turn it up to 180 degrees, or activate special movement abilities like wings or drills, the gunner can either fire or reload one of the weapons, and the engineer can repair one system or recover the hull by one. Weapons can only fire at targets in a semicircle in front of the mech, unless they hit all adjacent. Movement system with speed higher than 1 can only move in a straight line, and cannot move less than their full speed. Multiple crew can work at each station, but there's no benefit beyond two pilots or two gunners to a weapon. Crew can move to other stations, but it takes one round if they were piloting or gunning.

Attacks hit automatically, dealing one hull damage and disabling one system as determined by 1d6. When Hull reaches 0, the mech is damaged beyond use. Each movement system and weapon has an equal chance of being hit (a mech with more than six systems would be excessively powerful). Whenever a mech is hit, the crew add their mech's instability to the impact of the attack, and try to roll that number or higher on 1d6. If they fail, their mech is turned by the attack to face, away from the attacker.

These craft are massive, similar in size to an upright castle. Any attack from one will completely obliterate a human-scale target, up to creatures like dragons or kraken which can manage survive one hit and deal some damage back. Any attack less than a dragon's fire or a siege weapon will deal no damage to any mecha, but invaders can attack the crew.

Baba Yaga Hut by AlcoholicHamster

1. WALKING TEMPLE
Exiled priests of Roaz built a new home and named it Virth, thus giving life to a new conquering god and granting it full form in a humanoid shell of gilded marble.
Hull: 6
Instability: 2
Storm Ballista: 10 range, 1 impact
Angelswarm Wings: 2 speed flight, +4 clumsiness
Inverted steeples: 1 speed walk

2. COVEN BEAST
Some say the oldest magics are the greatest, and the glimmering teeth and claws bursting from a home built by hand incuse a testament of such claims into the ground with every step.
Hull: 4
Instability: 1
Claws of the Moon: 2 range, 3 impact
Fangs of the Stars: 1 range, 0 impact, always targets movement system
Great Beast's Legs: 1 speed crawl, if not used, -1 clumsiness for one round

3. WAR THESIS OF WIZARDRY
As the kingdom of Waylet found itself more and more deeply embroiled in war the monarch put equal pressure on the wizards to develop more powerful magics.
Hull: 8
Instability: 3
Ultrastaff: 5 range, 2 impact, roll two systems and choose which takes damage
Wheels of Progress: 1 speed roll

4. GRAZIAX FROM ZHELL
Wayward god-prince of a distant, unimaginable divine realm fleeing from a devourer of worlds. It seeks the aid of intrepid pilots to enter its body in a symbiosis that is apparently common in its home realm.
Hull: 6
Instability: 2
Acidic Outpour: 3 range, 1 impact, can hit two adjacent targets
Grand Pincers: 1 range, -6 impact, no system damage but can latch on and move with target (can let go at any time)
Catapult Legs: 4 speed leap, takes two turns to leap

5. BONEGRAVE MAUSOLEUM
Lich lords from the ancient days, long thought defeated and slain, have merely been building their strength in quiet crypts. Now they unleash power and death gathered through the ages, meaning to take back the lands of the living.
Hull: 5
Instability: 3
Necrotic Megascythe: 3 range, 2 impact, any human-scale creatures in range are killed and raised as undead
Countless Femurs: 1 speed crawl

6. DREAM LORD
Slumbering deep in the sea since perhaps before the first human flesh imagined its own existence, it has been awakened by wild cultists whom it consumes and takes counsel from in their eternal sleep.
Hull: 10
Instability: 5
Awakening Star: 6 range, 0 impact, target's crew make Will saves or become incapacitated by nightmares for a turn
Voidwind Wings: 1 speed flight, even in space
Slithering City: 1 speed swim
Eats mortals, who make a Will save to become trapped in its dreams and then die. If successful, they become a new crew member.

7. FORGEMASTER'S MOUNT
Built by ancient dwarves with tonnes of the finest steel, over generations of master craftswork. The explosive powders are a wonder to alchemists, who insist that the wizards have it all wrong with their 'mountain magic' theories.
Hull: 7
Instability: 4
Ancestor's Hammer: 1 range, 2 impact
Mountainfire Sling: 6 range, 3 impact, 2 hull damage, five shots per battle
Short legs: 1 speed walk
Inverted Volcano: 5 speed leap, one use per battle

8. KRASCHKUL THE THUNDER
An ancient hero of the giants, perhaps the oldest still living and the only one to ever have a full suit of plate mail forged for him, as well as a blade that could be called a broadsword. Those legends have left out how dull of mind he is, having been secretly guided to most of his heroism by hidden human passengers.
Hull: 5
Instability: 2
Sword of Kraschkul: 1 range, 3 impact
Giant's Roar: 1 system damage to all adjacent mecha
Charging Storm: 3 speed run, takes 2 rounds to charge, 1 hull damage to one target in path

The Boat by Salvador Dali

9. THE YELLOW STAR
Something of a moving palace made to be as comfortable as possible, ultimately with many concessions in terms of combat ability. Commissioned from golemancers of the Yellow City by its wealthiest slugmen, it is a polished stone giant with huge decorative topaz eyes.
Hull: 13
Instability: 2
Major Mass Flare: lights fuses at the start of the turn, looking like a weapon charging up. At the start of the next turn, shoots a huge array of fireworks up into the air in a stupendous but harmless display
Avalanche Slam: 1 range, 3 impact
Ponderous Steps: 1 speed walk
Contains an opium lounge full of silk pillows, and a delightfully stocked tea cabinet. Crew get +1 against mecha abilities that affect them.

10. GYS SILVER MANTIS
An oddly-shaped craft ridden by pirates from across worlds, its shoulders sport metallic sails and crystalline cannons protrude around the waist.
Hull: 5
Instability: 3
Aether Cannons: 4 range, 2 impact
Boarding Hooks: 1 range, -6 impact, allows the Astral Mallard's crew to board the enemy
Luminary Sails: 2 speed flight in astral currents
Port and Starboard: 2 speed sail

11. BIRIGX THE PUNISHED
The whipping post of all hell, a great hulking demon whose skull has been wrenched open and whose innards have been carved out. There are greater demons of equal magnitude, but they do not answer to summons and Birigx is not given a choice.
Hull: 4
Instability: 1
Mass Trident: 5 range, 2 impact
Cataclysmic Dismissal: hits all adjacent, 3 impact, 2 hull damage, kills Birigx crew and sends him back to hell.
Tattered Wings: 1 speed flight
Cloven Hooves: 2 speed run

12. CHARIOT COLOSSUS
Once in an empire long past, the land's greatest engineer determined to make a more powerful chariot. They succeeded, and kept on succeeding until they had created this gleaming tower of a warrior with lumber and bronze.
Hull: 7
Instability: 2
Rain of Bronze: 3 range, 1 impact
Greatest Pike: 2 range, 3 impact
Wheeled Basis: 2 speed roll

Done as part of the GLOG mech/robot rules challenge. Other participants:
https://slugsandsilver.blogspot.com/2019/10/yoon-suin-glog-clockwork-golem-player.html
https://nuclearharuspex.blogspot.com/2019/10/mech-rules_5.html
https://octarinetinted.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/mantle/
https://oblidisideryptch.blogspot.com/2019/10/ezcocotli.html
https://crateredland.blogspot.com/2019/10/having-mechs-on-first-date.html

Undead stats and attributes

The most common undead are skeletons, as well as wights, zombies, ghouls, and liches. Undead need no food, rest, water, or even air, but cannot heal wounds or regain vigor, and gain no experience points or levels as they feel neither passion nor joy. Much like the cursed, undead are vulnerable to silver items and weapons.

Skeleton

HD: 1

Found: 1d6-1 with a necromancer or in long-neglected crypts and ruins

Appearance: human bones, marked as a product of necromancy by the ghostly blue flames burning from within the eye sockets.

Voice: clattering and crackling of bones against one another, muffled only by long-decayed garments

Wants: to obey the most recent command or protect the dead from desecration

Morality: pure obedience

Tactics: decently varied

Attack: +2

Defense: +2

Speed: +1

Attacks

1. Old, rusted weapon from life.
2. Unarmed attack at +1 damage.

Collapses when it takes a wound.

Elven skeleton

HD: 4

Found: solitary with powerful, well-travelled necromancers

Appearance: unnaturally slender bones, glowing with a darkness that consumes nearby light. The fires in its eyes are the only light that exists around it.

Voice: echoing, empty, and faint

Wants: to obey last command or destroy beauty

Tactics: complex and considered

Attack: +4

Defense: +1

Speed: +5

Attacks

1. Umbral claw: heavy damage
2. Gravelight: flare of darkness, dealing 2d6 damage to living enemies nearby. Paralyzes nearby undead for one round, including elven skeletons.
3. Elven blade: roll for magic weapon

Giant skeleton

HD: 7

Found: solitary, at the tops of the oldest mountains and hiding within the most powerful clouds

Appearance: massive stone skeleton, broad and heavy of frame

Voice: clashing of stone, roaring of storms, oddly contemplative

Wants: to obey the last command or crush the works of humans, and learn

Morality: obedience and curiosity

Tactics: carefully considered

Attack: +6

Defense: +6

Speed: -4

Attacks

1. Crush: heavy damage
2. Giant weaponry: 2d6 damage

Insanely heavy, will crush anything it stands on other than solid stone or similarly sturdy ground.

Wight

Known to anyone who recognizes necromancy as the servants of its practitioners, by the shriveled skin, burning blue eyes, and dry rasping voice. They have no personality of their own and barely remember their previous life, now fully devoted to the necromancer who raised them. Physical attributes and skills are identical to the person in life, including speech, languages, and class techniques, but has no magical abilities of any kind without a soul. Becomes incapable of meaningful action after three wounds.

Zombie

HD: 2

Found: at the site of a horrible curse

Appearance: decayed and cursed, but not usually extremely old. Sometimes still wearing their clothes from life, and may carry tools or weapons that they no longer remember how to use.

Voice: dull groaning without intent

Wants: to bite or infect the living, dig up corpses

Morality: hunger

Tactics: dull

Attack: +1

Defense: 0

Speed: -2

Attacks

1. Bite: light damage, +1 for each additional zombie in melee

Anyone bitten by a zombie will turn into one, either quickly, gradually, or after natural death, depending on the curse.

Ghoul

HD: 2

Found: in old graveyards and on recent battlefields

Appearance: deformed as if starved, but beyond all natural capacity. Sunken eyes and distended teeth, cracked and sharpened against the bones of the dead.

Voice: shrill and cackling, frequent coughing

Wants: to eat the recently dead

Morality: selfish

Tactics: tricky

Attack: +2

Defense: +1

Speed: +2

Attacks

1. Claw: light damage + save vs stun
2. Bite: light damage, targets vulnerable foes

Lich

When a master necromancer obtains a Soul Talisman, they can use their dark magics in a ritual suicide to trap their own soul within. They can also do this to another, but this is rare as the lich to be must be killed, and can later kill the necromancer to secure their own immortality. As long as the Soul Talisman remains intact, the lich cannot die, their slain body simply regenerating or being remade. If the Talisman is kept far from the lich, their body will become lifeless and immobile until reunited. While the lich is trapped within their Talisman in this way, they can reform a new body, causing the old to be engulfed in cursed green flames and creating a new form over the course of a week.

Dark Magic

Dark magic is a destructive force that draws power from the oldest and greatest of emotions; fear. A dark mage cats their spells from a mirror, which holds the fear and turns it into dark power. The simplest spell is to release all the power within the mirror at once, in a burst of destruction. It is similar to an explosion, but for the lack of concussive force or fire; the black burst simply obliterates anything it touches. With practice, the mage usually learns precision and control, enabling them to mete out energy and utilize it more efficiently, perhaps focusing the release into a narrow beam with longer range or multiple projectiles.

To gather their power, a mage must gaze into their mirror and focus on what frightens them. This perverse form of meditation will never seek to overcome or learn to live with these fears, for if they do so then power will be lost. Instead, mages simply fixate upon their fears and paranoia, warping their minds and twisting their souls over time.

There is no upper limit to how much fear a mirror can hold, but the more it is given, the harder it will be to control. Like filling a wineskin, it can stretch but will start to leak, and when you pierce it the contents may come gushing out when a more controlled stream might have been preferred. Mirrors will also leak when left idle for too long with power inside, becoming tarnished and shadowed. It is for this reason that most dedicated mages will keep a polishing kit along with them, as it takes much more focus to use every iota of darkness each day than it does to simply clean the mirror regularly. Some say that when a mirror is completely consumed by this darkness, it changes into a new metal, a black silver that has special properties. There isn't much evidence behind this however, and the mages themselves are unwilling to confirm or deny these rumors.

Most dark mages either come from or were trained at the white palace. Built of polished sandstone, it lies near the edge of the northern desert. The entire building is white, so that no dark magic can be hidden there; despite their many powers, no dark mage can create light. They are paranoid, distrustful, and violent people overall, and there are plenty of stories involving an unlucky traveler or villager being slaughtered for any small slight or even nothing at all.

The order of Light’s Shadow comprises the largest organized group of mages, though organized seems a stretch. They control the white palace, using it as a meeting center as well as a place for training new mage apprentices. They currently work with the kingdom of Orisria, centered in the jungles to the south of the desert. This is how they have access to the fine silver used to make their arcane tools, though the specific power structure of the order is quite hard to pin down due to frequent backstabbing and mysterious deaths.

Seppam the gnoll is a dark mage from the deeper deserts, near the famous volcano of the sands, who uses a mirror of obsidian. Some say her mirror can hold more power than others and never tarnish, but she is not part of the order, and refuses to share her secrets.

Sir Markim is a knight errant who is rumored to be a dark mage, though he does not carry any mirror openly, or keep a polishing kit. He’s even known for using a spell that creates a sword of darkness, but mages look down on personal combat as brutish and needlessly hazardous, while most warriors see mages as weak and paranoid, so it’s unlikely that someone would put the two together.