Elaborate Gadget Ideas - Suggestions?

[Nelzie]

This next session of my ongoing campaign is going to see the introduction of a "normal" Mountain Dwarf 'Battle Craftsmen'. Anyway, here's the brief I have written up for Hakurian Mountain Dwarves for a little background....

Mountain Dwarves

These Dwarves haven't been seen in the world in almost 300 years, since the last of the battles against the great Orc armies where it is said that the Mountain Dwarves honor was betrayed by a human ruler looking to further his kingdom's stature in the world. All that is known about High Dwarves in these days is that the only ones that have been seen outside of their deep mountain kingdoms are considered outcasts and those that are outcast aren't speaking much.
General Appearance

The Mountain Dwarves manner of dress is often functional and drab in coloration. Beyond that, it appears very similar to the type of clothing one would expect to see worn by human miners, craftsmen, stonemasons and commoners. With some exceptions, these dwarves don't take to wearing extravagant outfits, the few that do are typically High Dwarven Lords or very wealthy dwarven businessmen and merchants.

The Mountain Dwarves typically wear their thick knotted hair in braids and often do the same with their beards that are thicker and more course then their cousins the Hill Dwarves.
Recent History


For the past 300 years, the Mountain Dwarves have shut themselves off from the rest of world and by doing so had seperated their clans because of the vast distances between many of their mountain homes. Rumors persist as to why the Mountain Dwarves, some say it was a plague, others say it was a betrayal and a few simply say, it was inevitable. Regardless of what the rumors are, the Mountain Dwarves were ready for their seclusion.

While they certainly were unable to directly visit one another, great Dwarven Artificers, Craftsmen, Engineers, Chemists and Designers had spent many years and even a handful of lives to make it possible for the clans to remain in contact. They built huge machines of steam, wire, cogs, springs and captured energy to create the Speaking Box. This grand machine islarge enough to contain more then 2 dozen Dwarves, who are needed inside to constantly tweak, calibrate and replace bits of gold, silver and electrum wiring that make the woundrous machine work. It's basically a very complicated, large, cumbersome and finicky primitive "radio". With it, the MountainDwarven Clans have been able to keep in contact with one another.

Even though the Mountain Dwarves have not had verifiable contact with any other kingdoms of man, rumors persist that the Empire of Dracar has somehow retained relations with the Mountain Dwarves. Of course, the Empire of Dracar is admitting nothing and the Mountain Dwarves certainly aren't telling anyone.
Social Structure

Mountain Dwarves have never been known to be very open or trusting of outsiders and for all their existence tended to keep primarily to themselves, living in their mountain fortresses in peace. They felt safer keeping their greatest craftsman and artisans away from the prying eyes and questioning tongues of the other races of man, who were always trying to weasel this or that out of the Mountain Dwarves so they could run off and make their own versions of the Dwarves finest crafts. Even their often silly cousins, the Hill Dwarves couldn't ever really be trusted in the eyes of a Mountain Dwarf.

It is because of this ingrown paranoia that Mountain Dwarven society is very regimented and bureaucratic in nature. Master Artisans and Craftsmen only become so by time and time again proving they can keep secrets just as well as they can craft.

On rare occasions, single Mountain Dwarves have been discovered outside of their clan homes. Regardless of where they are found and which clan they belonged to, these poor Dwarves are invariably found in some state of confusion, severe loss of memory or stark madness. It isn't entirely known what has been done to these Dwarves, speculation persists that these Dwarves have been punished and cast out from their clan for some transgression against their clan or guild.
Favored Classes

Mountain Dwarves favor the following classes: Fighter, Cleric, Battle Craftsman, Rogue, Paladin.
Special Rules:

The base rules in the Castles & Crusades Player's Handbook are in effect along with the following.

Other than Healing Potions and Cleric/Divine magical Devices, Mountain Dwarves are unable to use any "mundane" magical devices. If a Wizard crafts a +1 Magical Weapon, in the hands of a Mountain Dwarf it will act as a non-magical weapon. (Mountain Dwarves can use heroically imbued items, which are normal items that become associated with the exploits of a character and thus gain power through either the ambient magic of the world or the will of the gods imparting truth to the stories told about the hero's exploits.)

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I suppose the closest fantasy equivalent to them would be Krynn's Tinker Gnomes, except, unlike the Tinker Gnomes everything that the Mountain Dwarves actually set their minds to crafting will work, without blowing up and generally has significantly more safety measures built into them. Mountain Dwarves are serious, paranoid and imaginatively skilled engineers.

What I am looking for are a few ideas for small scale (yet elaborate) gadgets and elements that a somewhat skilled, mid-leveled Mountain Dwarf might carry on his person.

So far, he will have the following:

A Dwarven Harness - Kind of like an overeager backpack with levers that allow him to swing implements into an easily reachable position, also has a PECaL Support Bracket

PECaL - Projectile Explosively Compressed and Launched. (Basically a Dwarven Gun.) It's an elaborate looking weapon made for the large hands of a Mountain Dwarf. In the hands of any, other than a Mountain Dwarf, they will incur a -5 Penalty to hit and without a Harness with a PECaL Support Bracket, the EV is 5, with the Bracket, the EV is 2.

Retracting Grappling Hook - Built into the top of the backpack like harness, the Mountain Dwarf typically uses this tool to lift him/herself up into the machinery they build for repairs and general operation adjustments. It has a range of roughly 30' and can pull up almost twice the weight of a typical Mountain Dwarf. It is a pneumatically fired tool that requires at least 3 rounds of the Mountain Dwarf cranking a small pump to be able to fire.

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They won't be carrying anything "electronic" as Mountain Dwarves have really just started "playing" with Electricity and everything electrical that they build is on a massive scale. For example, they have "Talking Boxes", which are gigantic steam and electrical powered machines through which Mountain Dwarven strongholds can communicate with one another. They require at least 5 Mountain Dwarves to maintain dials, valves, pressure gages and other elements in order to send/recieve the signals, each one also takes up an area nearly 800 square feet in size.
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Earned the following:

50 Useless Trivia Points from Serleran