I envisage that such golems might power gnomish machines on Serraine, or Alphatian farm machines in the plains of Bellisatria. Perhaps they pump air into the mines of Esterhold, then pounding the ores to a powder for refining. Or they could row warships across the Sea of Dread. Ultimately a swiss-army knife golem, something with direct rotational force rather than the rather cliched idea of actual many shaped golems created to do roles where rotation would be far more useful.
A cunning DM can no doubt think of dozens of uses for contrivances.
Contrivance
by Cab Davidson
| Stat | Contrivance* |
| AC: | 2 |
| HD: | 10* |
| Move: | Variable |
| Attacks: | Nil (or special) |
| Damage: | Nil (or variable) |
| No. Appearing: | 1 (1) |
| Save As: | F10 |
| Morale: | 12 |
| Treasure Type: | Nil |
| Intelligence: | 10 |
| Alignment: | Neutral |
| XP Value: | Variable, typically nil |
Being a designed and constructed largely as catch all working golems, contrivances (known in some areas as contraptions or gubbinses) resemble 4’x4’ cubes with a single small wheel on each of two opposite sides. The wheels can be turned individually or together, and are typically attached to cogs, belts, wheels or pulleys as part of either simple or complex mechanisms. Their role is to drag ploughs from a static location, pull carts with cogs and wheels attached to their central motor, beat clay into workable form, turn millstones, power bellows, or perform any of a multitude of other tasks in a techno-magical society. The capacity of contrivances to power machines, vehicles or war engines is limited by the engineering skills of their operators.
They are more intelligent than other golems, and have a limited capacity to speak (in a stunted, mechanical, almost robotic way). This can be used to command other golems that they are left in control of, using them to change their fixtures and fittings according to their own instructed tasks. Golems being tireless automata never need repair, but they do need healing on occasion. A wise owner of a contrivance will regularly employ clerics to cast healing spells to keep them going.
A contrivance without any fittings is of course useless in a fight, but depending on what they are being used for they may be dangerous guards. With wheels and blades attached they can tear through bodies of troops, or when used to power siege engines they may make loading and loosing projectiles faster than is normally possible. Imaginative owners have put them to many such uses. But in themselves contrivances are not aggressive and will not in themselves look for trouble (not that they re capable of such).