The great central locations of Mechanus are well known - Regulus of the Modrons, the Guvnors Fortress of Disciplined Enlightenment, Delon-Estin Oti the symmetrical town. But the Plane of Gears is infinite and there are a great deal of other sites out there. Attached are a few cooked up for the Mechanus cog-crawl part of the great planar scavenger hunt I ran recently.
These attempt to capture typical Mechanus sites encountered in the depths of that infinite plane - not any of the core realms.
1. Modron Invasive Fauna Collation Post 45-B-2 - crewed by a bunch of low level modrons tasked with sweeping the local cogs with a gear-rider and collecting samples of non-native fauna. They will also happily count anything that turns up in their catchment area such as a party of adventurers. Any creatures will be tagged with paint on their largest visible flat surface, provided with 1/100th of their weight in concentrated nutrient supplement, beige flavour and the same amount of distilled water that tastes very flat. In other bays of the compound are a resigned looking pair of humans (Guvnor couriers), a furious hobgoblin in Acheronian armour and a meditating hound archon.
2. The Slide-Rule Inn (Gnomes of Erathis) - shaped in geometric swoops and laid out inside like an amphitheater centered on the bar. The inn-keeper is an enthusiastic and hospitable gnome who regards their establishment as a beacon to the weary, a place for the tired to rest before venturing out into the wonders of Mechanus again. They will be surprised at anyone who thinks any less of the great gears than they do. The inside is decorated throughout with symbolism of Erathis and wall decorations in a 'glory of industry' theme.
3. Turnwise Dustlands and Sage tower - mounted on a trio of gears that are wedged into a corner between three swift turning cogs, this little tower shudders as it is held in place by the equal pressures. An old aasimar sits within charting the movements of the local gears. They are deeply annoyed to be disturbed and very cranky to deal with. They will refuse to answer questions but cannot stop themselves from correcting a statement that they know to be wrong. They write on wax tablets with a quill cut from their own golden-feathered wings. When they think you have stopped talking they will pluck another feather and sharpen a new nib. Beyond the tower on the many-tracked cog, local histories can be read in the undisturbed dust.
4. Mathematicians observatory - an active facility with extensive outworks and cultivated gardens that support a group of Guvnors making a long term study of the gears from this particularly fine vantage point. Very well connected and knowledgeable about the gossip in Sigil and the news of the local region. Crewed by enthusiastic but aged Guvnors and a staff of surly servants. Anyone physically fit enough to carry some instruments and inclined to venture outside the compound will be eagerly offered the chance to earn coin by taking measurements. They have an extensive library and a comprehensive workshop supporting the elaborate 1:10000 scale model of the local gears.
5. The Long Watch - a settlement of warforged from lost worlds, nations and peoples. Here there are warforged of many forms and long-gone species - saur, trilobites, nautiloids. The entry ways are deep archways with racks of weapons, deposited by the warforged. The inner parts are carved with memorials to wars long forgotten elsewhere. The huge, realistic friezes provide fascinating insight into battlefield tactics and equipment of these peoples. The optical illusion in the carvings makes them appear deeper than they are. The warforged themselves engage in a perpetual cycle of maintenance of their weapons and themselves and between times either expand the memorial carvings or patrol the walls.
6. Modron signalling tower - with great mirrors reflecting light on semaphore style arms this is crewed by a group of medium level modrons. They are tasked to interact with non-modrons where necessary to stop them interfering with modrons on more important (any other) tasks. Within this stronghold, modrons are tracking activities, monitoring gears and dispatching repair teams. Busy, possess comprehensive local plans.
7. Humming Spires - Abeil Hive. These 7' tall bee-folk inhabit a hive at the centre of orderly forests planted on a grid that gives long sight-lines. They are very interested in locations of wax, forest or jungle cogs, and will monitor but not interfere with passers-by.
8. Jittercog - a rattling cog, footing is treacherous. A clockwork carcass of a brass auroch is being salvaged by modrons.
9. Tilting Jungle - a raucous jungle with birds, petitioners living off the cycles of fruit. A Gem Dragon is camped here annoyed that the Inevitables have driven it away from its lair among a crystal outcrop, asks riddles.
10. Modron Lensworks - crystal harvesters - self cleaning mechanisms - manufactories with no safeties act as giant traps to anyone attempting to traverse the interior of the cog.
11. Guvnor Local Branch Library with Orrery. A cog of idyllic, manicured nature and orderly farms laid our over rolling hills. Anyone arriving onto the cog will be intercepted by patrols and given passes documenting their reasons for being present. It is not acceptable to deviate from your stated reasons for being present. The library is a fortified monastery near the cog edge with Inevitable guardians, bustling with Guvnors and travellers come to speak with them. Tiled paths are laid within it that lead from any room to any other room where Guvnors sort through their knowledge and answer questions. In the rear yards the guvnors are cooperating with mathematicians to build a gravity clipper.
12. Inevitable Test Facility - inevitables doing a training obstacle course around their Assembly Grounds with panel casting & proving with incredible heat, flowing metal hazards, choking dust, splinters and crystal fragments from crystal harvesting.
13. Algae Flats - Myconids - a riotous fungal forest with a community of myconids dwelling within. There is a sage tower on its own gears that crawls around the edge of the cog, with a Sage who watches the Myconids.
14. Hedge Maze - an incredibly neat, dense maze. Skirting it along the edge of the cog is tricky. Towers can be seen rising within the maze. The maze itself is entirely passive buy fiendishly difficult with subtly changing levels, forced perspective optical illusions and other misdirecting elements.
15. Park w/ groundskeeping crew - a beautifully manicured park, a-bloom with flowers that change every day, with petitioner rangers that keep the charismatic wild-life in good order. There are specifically designated trails and schedules for visitors and the rangers and wild-life will react poorly to anything disturbing the routine.
16. Formian expeditionary force - tilting forests, Formians struggling with vegetation here. Large spiders are making a meal of them.
17. The Standing Lake and Modron Aquatic Testing - a water-covered cog where Modrons are testing submersibles and clockwork aquatic creatures. Due to the weird gravity effects of cogs, this lake stands above the cog surface and laps against the other cogs that intermesh with it. From the right angle nearby you can look sideways into this ~ 90m deep body of water.
18. Triassic Cog - the creation of a clock work biosphere for a world that was damaged accidentally during a Great Modron March. Primus has decreed it be restored and while some Modrons seek similar giant lizards to restore the population, this group is building and testing clockwork versions to maintain the biosphere until then. This is the testing grounds where the ones they have not yet gotten quite right are. Jittery raptors and overly aggressive clockwork stegosaurs are to be found here.
19. Formian colony - (roll d6 terrain - 1. The Rainbow Forest where Formians are managing multi-layered plants for harvest, spreading mulch and manure and chasing away anything not contributing to the bounty of the forest, 2. The Moving Wilds jungle with Formians busy hunting and gathering, catching and picking everything they can, 3. Plain of Silence - a barren cog, with just the detritus of passers-by remaining, hive buildings remain the centre of bustling activity as food is packed in from elsewhere, 4. Widdershins Waste - rocky, with miners delving into the ores of the cog 5. The Steams - swampy with swirling water and mists and hive buildings raised on stilts 6. Silent Hive - Formians in an old, worn out cog, long stripped of all resources.
20. Modron vehicle yard - lines of vehicles of all types are stacked on this cog, to some system only the modrons know. The lower-modrons running the yard will attempt to file away any vehicle that a party is travelling with. They can also offer repairs and transit on their own transportation if you can somehow convince them it is within their protocols.
Powers with Realms here include Ptah, Janus, Erathis, Lendor.
Other sites can be found on Mimir.net - tending towards the stranger and also realms of Varuna, Geifesil, Anasgard, Ptah, Ma'at, Anubis, Sonolex and the Giant Sphere.
For more on running these inhabitants of Mechanus and making them feel different from one another, see the previous 'attitudes of the denizens of Mechanus' post.
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