Magic & Mechs Snippet

Rollout

“Xiaoli, you’re up,” Wyll called out to the odd woman sitting on a rock, fiddling with some device. And didn’t that say something? In a group with a shady cleric, a Tiefling nearly constantly on fire, a Githyanki zealot (but Wyll repeats himself), a wizard that slurped down magical items, and a man that was almost certainly a vampire, she was the oddest one of their group.

The Southern-looking woman glanced up from the device she was working on with the most bloodthirsty grin he had seen on anyone’s face; and as the ‘Blade of Frontiers,’ one could almost call him a connoisseur of bloodthirsty grins.

She stood up, shaking out her limbs and pocketing the flat metal and glass device in her thick pants. Around her waist was a belt equipped with a few other ‘crafting tools’, which looked nothing like the hammers and tongs Wyll had seen in his father’s forge, but he was convinced they could do what she said they did; the ‘firearm’ at her side shot bright bolts as fast and as deadly as the Eldritch Blasts he could.

She had on a thin white shirt made of an unfamiliar fabrice, which would have shown off the impressive muscles she had, but only hinted at them with the thick ‘flak’ jacket Xiaoli wore overtop of it with the letters ‘MSMC’ stenciled on the collar. Stretching out, she stood as tall as Wyll himself, or slightly taller if one did not count the newly sprouted horns sticking out from his skull. Her own black hair was short and slightly messy.

“It’s about time. Been waiting to show you what my baby can really do.” Both of her eyes gleamed with anticipation. If it was for the fact that she had popped one of them out to show him the metal wires and parts, he never would have believed that one of them was fake, it was so lifelike. Her face was marred by a singular scar, cutting diagonally above and below the fake eye (and likely had done far worse before she ‘got it fixed’). 

That wouldn’t be too crazy, what with Karlach and her Infernal Engine, but according to Xiaoli, at least a third of her body was metal beneath the outwardly normal appearance. And she had replaced those parts mostly voluntarily!

“Maybe you wouldn’t have to wait if you’d come with us,” a new voice said, the pale skinned, pale-haired Astarion slipping out from the shadow of a nearby tree. He tossed her the small black rectangular device he had given to the roguish man on the scouting team, which she easily caught.

“Not too keen on catching another blade between my ribs if your ‘let’s walk through the front door’ plan failed. Again.” Xiong Xiaoli snorted, as if the ambush at the Ruined Village had been barely worse than a stubbed toe. 

“Now now; it was Gale’s plan to approach them peacefully, and Shadowheart’s idea to leave your golem behind.” Astarion pointed out. “And Shadowheart patched you up after.”

Xiaoli would be pegged as an Artificer in an instant in Wyll’s eyes if it wasn’t due to how little she knew of magic. When healed by Shadowheart during the ambush, the woman shook it off, muttering something about ‘weird Aunic bullshit.’

“Hmph, they got me off-guard there, outside of my suit. That’s not happening this time. Besides, it’s why I had you scout out the place.” She said, holding up the rectangular box. Then, for some reason she pulled out the thin metal tablet she was using, pressing a button on it and causing the glass screen to light up and display images.

“That was what we saw in the camp! I see; the ‘camera’ is like a scrying eye and a sending stone to that tablet, letting you see everything that was there,” Wyll deduced.

“Uhuh, sure. The Comp/Con will turn it into a workable map for the overlay in the mech.” The woman led the way to the edge of the camp where the rest of the party was gathered around said mech.

“I’m curious to see what that thing can do; I’ve never seen a machine that looked like any of yours before.” Gale commented as he saw them, furiously sketching the large machine in his notebook. Peering over his shoulder (as well as clearing a chicken feather sticking out of his robes), Wyll saw that the wizard had quite the artistic eye, capturing it well.

With only black ink a quill, Gale couldn’t get the almost rusted red color of the hatch at the top that looked vaguely like a head, nor the orange tubes that ran along spots on the arms, but he got the details correct. Even a few faint lines to show the scratches along the metal, how battleworn, yet still deadly ready the humanoid machine appeared. The scale of it, with an earlier sketch of Xiong placed beside it with the machine more than twice as tall as her, helped convey that impression as well.

As she approached, the mech moved, shifting with a creak to lower down to a knee and offer her its massive left hand to stand on. The right arm ended not in any hand but simply a shaft and then an oversized (even for the large golem’s frame) strange hammerhead. On the back of the mech was a large shaft, looking like an oversized copy of the barrel her ‘firearm’ had, though it must have served a different purpose, as the mech would have to bend over a ridiculous degree to hit anything human sized.

It carried Xiaoli up to the top, the flat hatch open up to let her clamber inside, closing it after her. “Let’s get this show on the road,” her voice came out from the mech, slightly altered, but loud and clear.

“Don’t know how much of a chance you’ll get before ‘Tenacity,’ gets to them,” Karlach pointed out. “Think I’ll sit this one out; you don’t need any more muscle for this mission.”

Xiaoli dipped the torso of the mech, as if to make it nod. “Keep an eye on the camp, especially the Printer.” She said, waving to the giant, bulky cube like thing. It was as big as a house, and the mercenary woman was insistent it was necessary to keep her mech working, though there were other problems with it right now which Wyll didn’t understand.

“I can’t heal a machine, and I need some time for prayer and rest before I can cast any more spells, so I’ll stick this out as well.” Shadowheart said. The mysterious cleric had her secrets, but it felt like most people in the camp did; even Wyll hadn’t been entirely upfront about what his deal was, until Mizora came and forced the issue.

“Your loss,” Astarion said. “I’m looking forward to this massacre.” He was met by a giant mechanical hand, having suddenly come to a halt in front of him. 

“Don’t say that,” her voice was clearly meant to be low, but however it was amplified from her mech let it carry out far.

The warlock raised an eyebrow at that. Not that Astarion was looking forward to it - the pale man was eager for blood of any type while Wyll was only happy about this being the shedding of goblin blood. More that Xiong seemed upset by it. “Have we been unclear in explaining our mission?” Wyll asked.

“No, I know what we’re doing, you just can’t call it a ‘massacre.’” The mech made air quotes with it’s one free hand. “Legal will get on my case about it if we use ‘emotionally charged terms.’ Instead it’s uhh…” She paused for a moment, as if searching for something she was once told and almost immediately forgot. “We’re ‘subduing hostile indigenous elements.’ Yeah, that’s it.”

There was an awkward pause until Astarion drawled, “But it still involves killing all of them, correct?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.” He brightened up at her words.

“Well then, let’s get on with some subduing then!”

“Enough waiting, I crave blood,” Lae’zel declared, striding forward.

With that settled, the five of them marched off to the goblin camp. Personally, Wyll felt Astarion was unlikely to be that much use either, his talents more on skulking around than a direct assault (and had bemoaned forgoing any sabotage at the goblin’s camp since it would tip the leaders off), but having an extra person on hand wouldn’t hurt for this mission, even if they’d just tended to split off in groups of four or less so far. 

Wyll hadn’t seen the mech ‘in action’ yet, but he had seen the aftermath and heard tales of how Xiong and the others had decimated a raiding party that would have threatened the grove. If it was any indication of how powerful it was, then it should at least be helpful against the goblin camp, though having to charge in headlong against that many goblins made even ‘the Blade of Frontiers’ a little worried. At least they had managed to rescue that eccentric bard, Volo, before they left, an action that likely wouldn’t raise any alarm.

“That machine can move on its own, correct?” Astarion questioned as they marched.

“That’s right, Xiaoli appears to be able to give it simple commands.” Gale answered in her place, the woman in question ignoring the very-likely vampiric man.

“Then why fight within it? Seems like the waste of a sword arm, or whatever weapons she uses.” The words were breezy, but clearly designed to provoke her. Wyll just shook his head at the byplay - Astarion was aiming at the wrong target, and to the wrong crowd too.

“Ah, but look at how smoothly it moves with her controlling it!” Gale pointed out. It was true - when helmed by her, Tencity’s movements had become smooth and fluid, like the giant machine had all the grace of a panther. “Clearly by entering it she can grant it a greater degree of efficiency in combat. One of the greatest weaknesses of golems is their lack of adaptive thinking. For all their power they can’t deal with unusual situations without difficulty or delay. Combined with the protection granted for one inside, I wonder why no wizard has ever tried to make something like it before? Oh, though there was Bigby’s Grand Golem. And the less said about Szaz Tam’s Bone Golem plus Brain in a Jar fusion the better…”

As Gale rambled on, Wyll absently wondered if the new ‘Steel Watchers’ from Baldur’s Gate looked anything like this. He hadn’t been back within the city for many so he only heard rumors, but he doubted it. None of the Steel Watchers were supposed to have a humanoid fit within the machine like Xiaoli was doing now. Plus, as much as Gortash’s machines were highly praised, he didn’t think they were anywhere near as unique or as complex as Xiaoli’s machine.

There wasn’t more time to ponder it as we reached the goblin camp. Our first favorable visit had the standing guards confused, wary at the presence of the large machine but trusting in us enough to not immediately raise the alarm. 

That was their last mistake, as the confusion gave Xiaoli time to carefully navigate the wooden bridge connecting them across the ravine before rushing towards the gateway the moment she hit solid ground. The mech suddenly moved incredibly fast, more than just ‘for its size,’ it easily outpaced the party, looming over the nearest goblins milling around the gate. The first words of alarm died on their lips as she punched down with the mech’s free hand, the metal covered in an odd sheen as it did so.

Said goblin was crushed to a pulp, his liquified remains exploding out to spray the trio of goblins behind the first with his molten remains. Xiaoli didn’t pause at the carnage, swinging the fist back into another guard. Her hammer arm lashed out, splattering a Warg just as easily as the fist had crushed a goblin. From the back, her mech fired a projectile that arced up into the air, landing down on one of the watchtowers, exploding with the force of a Fireball when it hit. The goblin standing there was blown to smithereens in an instant.

“See what she can do within that contraption? Now hurry, before she gets all the glory for herself,” Lae’zel said to Astarion before dashing ahead, attempting to keep up with the brutal mech that was rampaging through. Her flaming greatsword looked dinky in comparison to the machine, but the Githyanki warrior attempted to close the gap with sheer enthusiasm, swiftly slicing down a Warg that nipped at the heels of Tenacity.

Past the front gate, Wyll was sure that the rest of the camp had heard their dramatic entrance and had dropped their festivities, readying themselves for an attack. He couldn't be certain over the sounds of carnage his companions were causing, however.

“You heard the lady, let’s go!” Wyll cried out, rushing ahead with an Eldritch Blast leaping from his fingertips to blast a guard on the other, unexploded, side of the gate, knocking the goblin off and to their doom below. Behind, Gale and Astarion ran in as well, readying spells and blades to assist Xiaoli. Despite the dozens, possibly hundreds of goblins arrayed against them, and the ever present worry of the brain bugs and the greater powers pressuring them, Wyll felt a spark of hope knowing Xiaoli was at their side.

A/N: To start us off, thought we'd have a little story idea I cooked up. This is a cross over of Baldur’s Gate 3 with a character from the Lancer RPG (really cool game about mechs in the far flung future) with Xiaoli replacing Tav. 

Xiong Xiaoli is one of the eponymous Lancers, an ace mech pilot who almost certainly died taking out a large group of pirates with her. She did so after the rest of her crew had been taken out, and to let her fight the pirates in the weeks long battle it took, she altered her damaged mech so much so that it became the basis for a new type of frame, the Zheng.

It’s not called that here because it was only given that name after the records were recovered by her mercenary company after they found the destroyed pirate ship. At least, that’s how it happened in the original timeline; for this story, when the Nautiloid was busy jumping around, it ended up interrupting the final battle and took Xiaoli, her mech, and some other tech aboard the pirate ship before jumping back.

BG3 characters get pretty strong, but having a mech is still pretty overpowered, at least in the early game. But given the stakes and kinds of forces you have to face, as well as some of the difficulties in using a mech in a pre-industrial world, I think it would have enough challenges to not be a complete cakewalk. What do you think?

And as a bonus for any Lancer fans, here’s what mech frames I think each of the companion characters would use if they were in Lancer’s setting:

Tav: Everest - It’s the starting mech in Lancer, it’s pretty basic, and it’s also the overall strongest mech. Perfect fit for your customizable PC.

Durge: Chomolungma - Very similar to Everest, but slight hacking focus on this frame, with a powerful burn option. Since the first role Durge is set with is as a Dragonblooded Sorcerer, I think it fits.

Karlach: Tokugawa - Easiest pick, that one. Relatively exposed melee focused mech that burns whatever it hits, and hits really hard? Definitely Karlach.

Gale: Lich - He was always going to have some sort of techy based mech with good control, but Lich just fits perfectly for him. Super frail, but tons of options to mess with the battlefield and even help allies. Admittedly he can’t use it’s Soul Vessel, but you could somewhat duplicate that with defensive spells like Mirror Image, and he’s the only one with a contingency plan to bring himself back from the dead if he dies with a scroll of True Resurrection.

Wyll: Iskander - This was a tougher one, and it might be a weird choice, but I think it works well. Iskander has good forced movement and hazard placement, generally decent stats all around, and can pump out a lot of damage… so long as it’s limited systems are around, which I feel fits with how a warlock can run out of juice during a long adventuring day.

Lae’zel: Vlad - This was a tough one. Most of the good melee frames have good armor and damage, so any of them could fit her decently enough, but I like the Vlad for it’s playstyle of locking someone down and tearing them to shreds, which I feel fits with how Lae’zel is generally used as a Fighter.

Astarion: Atlas - Perhaps not the most obvious pick, but I think it works well for him. It gets bonus damage if the target is prone (closest thing Lancer has to a Sneak Attack bonus) and is pretty fragile, but very dodgy and maneuverable, and the Core Power lets you hide super well too.

Shadowheart: Swallowtail - Maybe. Shad is really difficult to do in Lancer. The only real ‘healer’ mech is the Lancaster, but she does a lot more than heal (and other divine casters can heal too). She’s got her illusion stuff, which Swallowtail has with it’s invisibility. The frame itself is decent with good support powers, which seems kinda up Shad’s alley.

Halsin: Balor - Druid transformation and self healing/extra hitpoints, with a playstyle revolving around being a giant melee monster matches the Balor playstyle pretty well.

Jaheira: Lycan - Her and Halsin being druids I can see an argument for either of them being this one, but I feel this frame fits Jaheira more because of how Lycan, as an alternate frame for the Manticore, has a bunch of powerful control systems like the extra spells she gets as her default Circle of the Land Druid. It also has a transformation option to forgo the traits that let it use those powerful systems and instead rip apart enemies with giant claws.

Minsc: Blackbeard - Admittedly, this one is more based on the vibes Minsc gives than his actual class (though Blackbeard does have some close range area attacks, which sorta fits with Hunter Ranger), but it’s a big melee machine, which is good enough for me.

Minthara: Nelson - She’s clearly got some Horus stuff in there to cover some of the reactions she has in charming or disrupting enemy spells, but overall, Vengeance Paladins move around a fair bit and get up close in melee to hit an enemy hard, which Nelson does quite well.