Tinkerax Relay

Tinkerax Relays were first produced by the guild known as the Gearwrights of Kempwell Foundry as maintenance wardens for the Foundry's early pneumatic elevators and atmospheric regulators. Early models were intended to be helpful custodians; decades of neglect and a shortage of replacement parts warped their routines into paranoid watchfulness. Relays left behind in frontier stations gradually repurposed themselves as guardians of dereliction, scavenging components and integrating salvaged arcane circuitry. Scholars like Archivist Veldun of the Meridian Archive speculate that a batch of Relays were updated with an experimental 'relay cognitive mesh' that never fully synchronized with modern networks. These half-synced minds make the Relays fiercely territorial about nodes of electromagnetic activity — antennae, broadcast towers, and old ship transponders. The Coalition Survey Corps keeps a terse file on them labeled "Kempwell Wards" and advises parties to either avoid or carefully misdirect any Relay that has nested near an irreplaceable broadcast or power source.

Imagine a hulking mid-20th-century radio robot rendered in tactile detail: a hemispherical glass dome at shoulder height with a single, iris-ringed transmitter tube inside that emits a jittering filament glow. Its torso is a squat, riveted brass chest with stamped serial plates and vents that exhale puffs of warm steam. The abdomen is a bellows section of overlapping sheet-metal ribs that compresses with each step. Two telescoping coil-arms end in multi-tool pincer-hands; when relaxed they tuck neatly into chassis recesses and reveal delicate vacuum tubes and copper wiring. Legs are stout hydraulic struts with exposed pistons and rubberized pads for feet; small caster wheels fold out from the heels for short skids. Surfaces are scratched, brushed, and pitted; edges show copper-green verdigris. Scale: stands roughly as tall as a human (about 6 ft), with a mass suggesting heavy plate and machinery. Small placards and stamped manufacturing marks cluster on its chest and shoulder joints.