Machine of Lum the Mad
The Machine of Lum the Mad is a powerful artifact in many campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Publication history
Dungeons & Dragons (1974-1976)
The Machine of Lum the Mad first appeared in the fourth supplement to the original D&D rules, Eldritch Wizardry (1976).[1]
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)
The Machine of Lum the Mad was also mentioned in the original 1979 Dungeon Master's Guide.[2]
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)
The Machine of Lum the Mad was further developed in 1993's Book of Artifacts.[3] The Planescape accessory The Inner Planes also claims Lum the Mad might be the creator of the otherworldly craft known as the Avenger.[4]
The Machine (and Lum itself) was the central focus of the multi-part module The Vortex of Madness.
Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)
A 4th-edition adventure in Dungeon #162 featured Lum's Engine, another artifact said to have been created by Lum. This artifact channels energy from the Far Realm, among other properties.[5]
In-game history
Baron Lum the Mad, while exploring a castle his armies had conquered, came across the Machine that would bear his name, a horseshoe-shaped nightmare of black metal, festooned with levers, dials, sockets, wires, and plugs. Through trial and error, he learned to manipulate it, learning more about its functioning than even the wisest sages have since then. If he was mad before, the blasphemous technology of the device drove him over the edge, but it also brought him great power. With his disciplined troops and his new powers, he carved out a mighty fiefdom. It is said that, with the machine, he brought no fewer than 50 new species of monsters into the world.
Lum's reign approached its twilight when his formerly loyal subordinate, General Leuk-O, discovered the Mighty Servant artifact in the Belching Vortex that would become known by his name. Some believe the Mighty Servant and the Infernal Machine were created by the same otherworldly artificer, and the appearance of them both so close together was no coincidence. With the power of the Mighty Servant, Leuk-O gathered a host that matched Lum's own. The two armies clashed many times before their final battle, when Lum disappeared. A mysterious mist appeared, and Lum plunged through a dimensional rift to the plane of Limbo, where he waited for centuries, his connection to the machine leaving him unable to die.
The machine itself was housed in the fortress Rifter, near Rauxes, until the latter city was destroyed in 586 CY, quite likely due to the machine's wild influence.
Other media
Lum and his Infernal Machine have been featured in the computer games Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, as being imprisoned in Watcher's Keep, and briefly at the end of Planescape: Torment when the final boss refers to a time when the Nameless One "danced sorceries with Lum the Mad."
References
- ↑ Gygax, Gary; Blume, Brian (1976), D&D Supplement IV: Eldritch Wizardry, Lake Geneva WI: TSR, pp. 43–44
- ↑ Gygax, Gary (1979), Dungeon Masters Guide, Lake Geneva WI: TSR
- ↑ Cook, David. Book of Artifacts. (TSR, 1993)
- ↑ Cook, Monte, with William W. Connors. The Inner Planes. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1998. Page 58
- ↑ Radney-MacFarland, Stephen. "Winter of the Witch." Dungeon #162. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2009