The Light Gundam was a rogue
Gundam created by the brothers
Ban,
Haz, and
Sunny. It was built using a unique
Gundam Core designed to power the unit by absorbing ambient magic, rather than relying on the innate magic only 1/10,000 of their countrymen are born with. But this
Gundam Core was also made with an intelligence that could help pilot its host machine and had mindless loyalty to its primary function of protecting the
Miniature Giant Space Hamster Empire by eliminating its enemies. It went horribly right when the Light Gundam locked
Haz in the cockpit the moment its co-creator stepped inside for the first test flight, and now the Light Gundam is loose on Nexus where it is building a force of automated drones, the
Light Army, presumably for the purpose of genocide.
The Light Gundam caused much destruction there, allying itself with a duergar cult called the
███████████████████████████ in exchange for the iron it needed to build its army and aiding them in building an airship used to attack the
Deep Spire. But it ultimately miscalculated when it lured
Ban and his adventurer allies to its lair to eliminate them, only for them to defeat it in combat. As
Elycia Mirais struck a fatal blow,
Haz's cockpit was ejected alongside the
Gundam Core, which failed to escape when
K skewered.
Haz was safe and the Light Gundam was destroyed as its campaign of terror finally ended.
Table of Contents
Pre-Campaign
In the
Miniature Giant Space Hamster Empire,
Gundams are their military's primary defense. The issue there being that these constructs require pilots born with a certain magical talent, which only 1/10,000
miniature giant space hamsters possess. In an effort to remedy this, the brothers
Ban,
Haz, and
Sunny sought to create a
Gundam that could work with any
miniature giant space hamster in the cockpit regardless of magical talent. To compensate, they created an intelligent, magically powered
Gundam Core that could act as a power source and help pilot the unit. But something went wrong when
Haz climbed in for the first test run. The cockpit closed around him and he found himself locked out of the controls. The Light Gundam stated that with him inside and itself now operational, it would carry out its task of "eliminating the Empire's enemies". The now rogue
Gundam blasted its way out of the hanger and traveled to the world of Nexus to begin its plans of genocide,
Sunny and
Ban in hot pursuit to stop the monster they'd created and save their brother.
Journey Into the Underdark Arc
First Clues
Sunny arrived on Nexus and managed to figure out the Light Gundam had gone down into the local
Underdark. He joined the Thaig Expedition so that he could get down there, and his search for the rogue
Gundam began (
Sunny claiming he was looking for his brother,
Haz, to maintain his cover as a hamster).
Sunny asked virtually every
Underdark denizen he bumped into about 'Haz', hoping to track his brother down. The first who said they'd met him was
Gobo, who commented, "What a dick!" and said he'd seen 'Haz' around the
Deep Spire. When the group arrived at the
Deep Spire, several locals were able to confirm that 'Haz' had indeed been there. The blacksmith
Kardik Silverhoard told
Sunny that 'Haz' had been interested in purchasing large amounts of raw ore, though he didn't know for what reason.
Not long after that,
Sunny was attacked by a drone disguised as an insect that managed to infiltrate his systems. Though he managed to destroy it before it did too much damage, the drone was able to transmit some of the data regarding
Sunny's tech specs, as well as his current location, to 'Haz'.
Sunny was able determine 'Haz's' drones were using concentrated laser pulse signals, bouncing off each other, to break through the
Underdark's faerzress interference and back-trace the signal to its destination.
Magical Lifeform Biology
The signal trace led
Sunny and his companions to
Clogwyn Prison, an ancient dwarven structure long since flooded by the
Black Loch's rising waters. They fought their way past protodrones of the
Light Army as they made their way to the structure's deepest depths, where
Sunny spied a hunter-killer
drone that was preparing to dissect the last member of a
sea hag coven while she was still alive.
Sunny and his companions attacked and managed to destroy the hunter-killer, though two of the support drones backing it up managed to escape. These returned to the surface and beamed a signal to the
unique drone Squawk with recordings from the battle.
Squawk then transmitted this information to the Light Gundam, which quickly sent orders back. After taking a moment to damage
Sunny's boat and prevent immediate pursuit,
Squawk retreated back to the Light Gundam.
Dwarven Partnership
The
Light Army was next seen in
the Ruins of Gyan'dis in the company of a band of
duergar. After destroying two groups of drones, the adventurers captured a
duergar with them (Mr. Doubtfire) and learned the Light Gundam was supplying its drones to
Brazenthrone in exchange for large quantities of iron. Which much of this iron was likely being used to create the drones, it appeared some was used to construct an airship that was used to attack the
Deep Spire.
Ysri Vaerixas encountered the Light Gundam aboard the ship, though she and her warriors were unable to breach the barrier protecting it and the purple
faerzress crystal powering the vessel. The ship fled after the drow heavily damaged its outside, the Light Gundam still aboard with the surviving members of its duergar crew.
First Appearance
Not long after the attack against the
Deep Spire, the adventurers of the Thaig Expedition were tasked with delivering a letter to
Cinderfolk Foundry on behalf of
Matron Mother Ysri Vaerixas and
Lord Varl, to be forwarded to
Deepking Oghren Orzammar III in hopes of beginning peace talks and forming an alliance to deal with the rogue
duergar cultists (seemingly allied with the Light Gundam) running amok. While they awaited the reply on their ship,
the Grinning Widow, anchored nearby,
Jake F. Statefarm spotted a trio of
kobold vipers sneaking into the
foundry while its workers were all either sleeping or on break.
They moved to intercede;
Ban found and destroyed what looked to be the intruders boat while the others headed for the foundry. An explosion grabbed
Ban's attention and sent him flying back to the
foundry when he noticed a shimmer in the air. A shimmer that revealed itself to be the Light Gundam's cloaking system when it disabled that function to shoot
Ban with its energy rifle. It greeted him and flew off at high speed,
Ban taking off in hot pursuit while his comrades handled things back at the
foundry.
The Light Gundam engaged in a brief firefight with
Ban (with help from it's drone,
Squawk) before flying off faster than
Ban could keep up with.
Ban nonetheless managed to track the Light Gundam to the Nail, an isle to the southwest of
Skatha's Rest. He and his adventuring comrades soon entered the tunnels, immediately tripping an infrared alarm and being spotted by a concealed security camera. After the adventurers dispatched the first of the
drones the Light Gundam set against them, it greeted them on a loudspeaker and bade them to venture further inside and continue its "test".
Last Stand in the Lair
The adventurers fought their way past squads of
Light Army drones, each battle weakening them further as they approached the Light Gundam's location. Shortly after triggering one of the lair's many traps, the Light Gundam appeared and rushed the party just as
faerzress interference somehow popped
K out of the Ethereal Realm as
Leh'ct was sent there in his place.
It relied primarily on a metal rod made of
adamantine as its primary weapon, though it also unfolded metal wings that shot "feather" as sharp as daggers. The Light Gundam was quick to take down the already damaged
Ban before moving towards
Jake, though it was surprised by the resiliency that energized
Threads of Fate provided when
Elycia managed to get
Ban back into the fight. Seeking not to make this mistake again, the Light Gundam continued assaulting
Jake until it cracked his skull with its weapon and detected no life signs.
But despite the Light Gundam's ferocity, it proved to have underestimated the opponents that outnumbered it (particularly
K, who it admitted it had limited data on due to his frequently disappearances into the Ethereal Realm). The adventurers gradually wore out its defenses until
Elycia was able to pierce its chassis and strike something critical, disabling the
Light Gundam. It's cockpit ejected (
Ban quickly recovering it to rescue
Haz) alongside the
Gundam Core, the AI that had been controlling the Light Gundam.
Ban yelled at
K to stop it and the bugbear assassin quickly skewered it with his rapier, ending the Light Gundam's threat.
Legacy
Once the Light Gundam was deactivated,
Ban and
Haz were able to recover much of its research. The duo hoped that bringing that useful data back home would result in their creation's rampage being overlooked by their superiors.
Later, the
Delvers of Secrets discovered the madwoman
Santaura had recovered pieces of the Light Gundam and several of its creations. She used a mysterious, red crystal to transform the wreckage into a
Void Knight, gaining the knowledge on how to create these corrupted constructs more quickly in the process.
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