G.L.U.

General Labor Unit. Dorian-Oric’s masterwork Steel Defender, built from scavenged metal, custom-forged joints, reinforced plating, and an unreasonable amount of trial and error. Officially a labor and protection unit. Unofficially, G.L.U. occasionally behaves in ways that suggest something harder to categorize: pausing at odd moments, tracking things never designated as targets, standing too still when observing strangers. Whether this is the Soul Core’s influence bleeding through or emerging awareness is a question Dorian cannot yet answer.

Physical Details

• No voice box. Dorian built him without one because he is “afraid of it still.”
• No legs. Moves on treads, like a tank or treadmill. Doesn’t get stuck on terrain. Cannot climb or descend ladders, and Jump spells do not work on him. When the party descended a 50 ft ladder to the pasture above Weber Hollows, G.L.U. waited at the top with the cart.
• Loud. The treads make noise when he moves. Dorian couldn’t bring G.L.U. on his old sneaking trips to Thorndeep.
• 30 ft movement speed. Faster than K’roaa’ka (25 ft).
• 500 lb pull limit. Carries/pulls the cart with the party’s supplies.
• 100% immune to poison. No flesh, no organic material to affect.
• Acts like a forklift. Can pick up barrels and heavy objects with mechanical arms.
• Mirrors other creatures. When G.L.U. saw Echo, he sat like a dog and began copying her movements, head turning in sync. The moment Dorian gave him a command, the behavior stopped instantly and he went back to normal.
• Follows last order until given a new one. During the grung ambush, Dorian told G.L.U. to go get equipment from the cave. G.L.U. continued forward through the entire combat, ignoring everything else, because that was his last instruction.
• Rolled a 5 for initiative in the Session 1 combat.

Mentioned in

• Dorian-Oric — Dorian’s companion and creation
• dm-hooks — G.L.U.’s unexplained behavior as a hook; comparison with Echo