Critical Role Wiki

This wiki contains spoilers for the entirety of Critical Role and The Legend of Vox Machina. Proceed at your own risk!

READ MORE

Critical Role Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Critical Role Wiki

The Gear Warden was a unique half-magical/half-clockwork construct built by Cleff Tinkertop based on the Gearkeeper Constructs first developed during the Age of Arcanum. Created by Cleff Tinkertop for use by the wardens of the Gearhole Prison, it was designed to quell any violent prison riots or mass breakouts.

Description[]

Appearance[]

The Gear Warden was an automaton similar to a golem, but instead of being constructed from stone or clay, it was made up of metal and clockwork gears. It was animated both by magic and clockwork technology: the power source was fueled by magic, and the actual locomotion of the gear-keeper was powered by clockwork gears.[2] It was a large spherical cluster of overlapping metal plates and blades and measured about eight feet in diameter.[3] As Rissa and Nott described it, "it just rolls and cuts".[4]

It had a retractable lens, covered by a plate for protection. To move, it stuck out six retractable spider-like plates and rolled itself forward.[5]

After over two years of attacking the prison walls and cells, the Gear Warden has seriously damaged itself, with elements of it having become scraped and dented.[6]

Personality[]

For unknown reasons, the Gear Warden "went crazy" on its first day at the Gearhole Prison. It then began to destroy anyone or anything it detected.[7][8]

Biography[]

Background[]

Cleff Tinktertop by Michael Jäger

Fan art of Cleff Tinkertop, the inventor of the Gear Warden, by Michael Jäger.[art 2]

Cleff Tinkertop had taken a job from the wardens of the Gearhole Prison, located in the Iron Lot below the Tinkertop store and the Idlework Shelf. At their request and the request of the Hupperdook's Starosta, Cleff came up with a "clockwork warden": something that could help keep watch over some of the more dangerous and difficult inmates of the Gearhole Prison.[9]

If the Gear Warden had been successful, its model would have been mass-produced as a defensive sentinel for the city of Hupperdook. According to Rissa, just five or six gear-keepers patrolling the city outskirts would be enough to discourage invasion or lawless acts within the city limits.[10]

On its first day at work, the Gear Warden had some unforeseen "faults" (as Cleff calls them) and it couldn't be controlled. The Gear Warden then proceeded to destroy anyone or anything that was in its way. The Gear Warden killed several people before the Gearhole wardens managed to seal it away in an isolated section of the prison.[11]

Cleff was heavily fined for the damage and loss of life that the Gear Warden caused (fines that he was still trying to pay off two years later). In addition, every now and then, the wardens of the Gearhole Prison and city authorities like the Starosta like to come by the Tinkertop residence and remind Cleff of his failure.[12]

The Gearhole Prison eventually planned to destroy the Gear Warden, but the task was re-prioritized when other matters diverted their attention. Finally, by the time the war with Xhorhas was declared, the wardens simply gave up on the idea altogether.[13]

"The Hour of Honor" (2x24)[]

Cleff offered to give the Tinkertop Bolt Blaster 1000 to the Mighty Nein in exchange for the party destroying the Gear Warden.

"Divergent Paths" (2x25)[]

Cleff gave the party his design notes for the Gear Warden and explained its considerable defenses and weapons. Since it saw through lenses, they decided to blind it by obscuring those lenses with tar stolen on the way to the prison. Once there, they found that the Warden had spent the past two years grinding around either looking for a means of escape or continuing its programmed patrol...over and over again. The doors and walls were scraped and gashed with hundreds of blade marks. During the ensuing battle, Nott was able to smear the tar on the creature's lens but it utilized a wiper to clean it away. The Gear Warden inflicted serious damage on the party, knocking Beau unconscious, but was eventually defeated.

Relationships[]

Cleff Tinkertop[]

Cleff constructed the Gear Warden, and he was very proud of his invention, though he felt genuinely sorry for the incident at Gearhole Prison and was puzzled that he didn't foresee the problems with the construct. While the Gear Warden remained in the prison, it would remain a black spot on the Tinkertop name.

Character Information[]

Abilities[]

The automaton had twelve "arms" that could extend from the body. These arms could be used as blades to inflict slashing damage, or they could be shot as projectiles to inflict piercing damage.

An elven-made optic lens was used to provide the warden with a type of magical vision. The lens could be obscured to blind the warden, but the warden could use an action to clean the lens with a small, protruding scraper.

The warden rolled along the ground using a giant sphere as a base which could knock nearby enemies prone.

A magical core served as the warden's power source. Upon breaking the core, the machine lost power. The core could provide power to the machine for at least several hundred years.

Appearances and mentions[]

Trivia[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 290.
  2. See "Divergent Paths" (2x25) at 21:46.
  3. See "Divergent Paths" (2x25) at 1:40:11.
  4. See "Divergent Paths" (2x25) at 21:35.
  5. See "Divergent Paths" (2x25) at 1:41:00.
  6. See "Divergent Paths" (2x25) at 1:40:35.
  7. See "The Hour of Honor" (2x24) from 2:43:19 through 2:45:19.
  8. See "Divergent Paths" (2x25) at 22:31.
  9. See "The Hour of Honor" (2x24) from 2:43:19 through 2:45:19.
  10. See "Divergent Paths" (2x25) at 22:38.
  11. See "The Hour of Honor" (2x24) from 2:43:31 through 2:47:26.
  12. See "The Hour of Honor" (2x24) at 2:44:55.
  13. See "The Hour of Honor" (2x24) at 2:44:55.

Art:

  1. Fan art of Gear Warden, by Janibitz (source). Used with permission.
  2. Fan art of Cleff Tinkertop, the inventor of the Gear Warden, by Michael Jäger (source). Used with permission.
Advertisement