Skip to Primary Menu Skip to About OSR+ Menu Skip to OSR+ Support Menu Skip to Main Content

When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.

Return Home

Artificer

Jump to Subpage in A Quest of Queens Table of Contents

The Artificer’s work was not meant to last; it was meant to evolve. In every gear and glyph, there is a hint of his intent: to challenge the gods themselves.
— Archmagus Ceryth, On Wonders & the Weird

The Artificer is a figure shrouded in legend, credited with blending magic and technology to forge creations that defy the natural order. He is revered as the creator of the Clockwerk, a race of mechanical beings imbued with life, and as the founder of Arcanum, the “Gentle City.” Known in Arcanese lore as the “Gentle Friar,” the Artificer’s legacy is woven into the fabric of Midworld’s technological and magical advancements, though his true origins and motivations remain subjects of debate among scholars.

Accounts of the Artificer differ depending on the source. Mordainers believe he was a human Midworlder, one of the last great sorcerers of his age, whose experiments sought to fuse humanity’s technological ingenuity with the raw power of magic. Many of his creations—Clockwerk devices and artifacts—are rumored to be scattered across the swamplands of Mordaine, remnants of his early work.

Sages in Ambion, however, argue that the Artificer hailed from Arcadia or Arcanum. They suggest his innovations were not born of isolation, but of collaboration with the polymaths of the prelapsarian world. This theory is supported by the Clockwerk researchers of the Gilder’s Polytechnic in Arcanum, who continue to search for fragments of his foundational tablets, known as The Pattern. These tablets are believed to contain the original blueprints for the Clockwerk race, encoded with the principles of their sentience and purpose.

The Clockwerk, while thriving in Arcanum and beyond, grapple with their own place in the world in the Artificer's absence. For them, the search for The Pattern represents not just the pursuit of history, but an existential crisis. Was the Artificer their benevolent creator or reckless visionary? The Clockwerk fear equally the possibility that they may be an accident as much as a means to an end.

Adventure Hook

The Artificer is a blank page upon which you can write the origin of the Clockwerk. It’s best to involve your players in that imagining by fishing for ideas in session zero, especially if any PCs play Clockwerk or Clockwerk figure prominently in the campaign.

The party is hired by the Gilder’s Polytechnic to retrieve a fragment of The Pattern hidden in the swamps of Mordaine. However, the fragment is guarded by rogue Clockwerk who believe it contains the secret to their freedom from human control. The party must navigate the tensions between the Clockwerk and their human creators while uncovering the fragment’s secrets.

What truths about the Artificer’s intentions might the fragment reveal?
How will the party address the Clockwerk’s demand for autonomy without alienating their human employers?
Could the fragment contain a flaw or danger that changes the party’s perspective on the Artificer’s legacy?

Tags: NPCs

Entering: Unleash Your Inner Hero. Skip section?

Get Started

Unleash Your Inner Hero

Access the Core Rules and every World of OSR+ in one place: the Character Creator lets you generate a hero in minutes. With over 4000 possible combinations of origins, classes, and kits, you can create almost any character concept you can imagine. Register now to create a free account!

Create a Hero Core Rules

Artificer

Lady Elspeth

T'kahn Urro Tepesh

The Gilder's Polytechnic

Unleash Your Inner Hero