Gigantes de Trabalho

Os Músculos Mekânicos dos Reinos de Ferro

The armies of Western Immoren are built around mighty warjacks, powerful mechanikal constructs capable of bearing arms beyond the strength of their builders to wield, and driven by the combined industries of the nations they fight for. The work required to keep those gears of industry turning is shouldered by the laborjacks. Steamjacks, with their hearts of steam and guts of fire, have become the symbol of the modern age and the Iron Kingdoms themselves.

All warjacks are nominally steamjacks, but not all steamjacks are warjacks. Any steamjack not purposed for warfare is properly called a steamjack, but the term “laborjack” may be used to specifically mean such a ’jack. The word has been in common use within the military-industrial complexes of the various Iron Kingdoms for generations. For those outside the military, the word is traditionally thought to be an unnecessary militarism. A steamjack is a steamjack, after all, unless it carries blade or cannon. In more recent years, however, with war occupying more and more of the thoughts and labor of the populace, use of the term has grown more widespread. Even the most cantankerous Union steamo who would have once swallowed his cigar butt before calling a Mucker a laborjack will now let the word slip as breath-saving shorthand while he works an extra shift to meet his shop’s quota.

Steamjacks are employed where their great strength can enable work on a grander scale than humans and simple machines can manage. They are seen dead-lifting enormous crates and casks in dockyards and train yards from Ghord to Mercir, loading and unloading cargoes in half the time of crews with ropes and pulleys. They toil in mines under the earth, driving drills swinging massive picks into the rock with inhuman force. Their strength lets them place and displace earth, stone, and wood in new construction, and the same in demolition. They work in the great factories and armories of the Iron Kingdoms, shaping metal with the equivalent strength of a dozen strong-arm smiths.

The widespread usefulness of steamjacks in industry and commerce impresses, but there are things that laborjacks are simply not suited for. They can’t work unsupervised, outside of specifically delineated tasks that their handler has walked them through before. They can’t work in cramped conditions, on account of their great size and relative ungainliness, though notable exceptions are granted for the smaller Rhulic models. And finally, laborjacks can’t fight in the manner of warjacks. With the right supervision, they can be made to defend themselves clumsily and strike with brute force, but their graces are better suited to the supply train than the battlefield.

STEAMJACKS AND LABOR

The simplest labor a steamjack may be set is picking up and putting down. Every year sees more work for the steamjacks employed in dockyards and train yards, thanks to the rapid expansion of the rail networks across Western Immoren and the continuing growth of waterborne shipping on increasingly larger and faster steam-powered vessels. The ability to quickly load and unload boats and boxcars is an important factor in keeping the wheels of commerce turning.

Even light steamjacks can handle crates and containers that would sprain the back of the strongest ogrun. Steamjacks can work nearly indefinitely compared to flesh-and-blood dockworkers, requiring only occasional stops to refuel or change out an exhausted handler for a rested one. A single cadre of steamjacks and their handlers can thus unload the cargo from a massive schooner in a single long shift lasting a few hours, and if the next cargo is already waiting, they can fill the ship up again at the same tireless pace.

CARGO HAULING

Steamjacks capable of, and intended for, cargo loading and unloading are the type encountered most frequently by the average Iron Kingdoms citizen. Almost all the centers of steamjack production are a port, a rail stop, or both. The Bartley Mechanika Foundry & ’Jack Works in Fharin is the most famous producer of this type of steamjack, with its Mucker light steamjack and Hurly heavy steamjack designs seen on piers and platforms all across Cygnar and Ord. While more expensive and specialized for dock or ship work, Engines
West in Ceryl has earned fame for its Freebooter and Mariner chassis. These ’jacks are prized not only for their steady gait on rolling decks, but also for
their ease of conversion to warjacks at the hands of privateers and coastal mercenaries. Rohannor Steamworks in Berck has had similar luck with its cheap light Seafarers and the improved Buccaneer model.

In Khador, the venerable and ubiquitous Laika chassis predates the Berserker, and, much like the Berserker, has set the trend for Khadoran ’jack design. No new Laikas have been manufactured for just over a hundred years, but thanks to their singularly exceptional design, they can be repaired with parts from nearly any contemporary model of Khadoran ’jack, such as the more recently designed but allegedly less durable Kolstots. Like their canine namesakes, the Laika line is dependable and hard working, and their generations of service to the Motherland have left them loyal and stubbornly suited to whichever tasks they’ve been assigned to for several of their handlers’ lifetimes. Even as several more modern laborjacks have been pushed by enthusiastic kayazy in Korsk, some Khadoran ’jack handlers swear by the Laikas and refuse to work with anything else.

As these tasks are generally simple and repetitive a single skilled ’jack handler will sometimes oversee multiple laborjacks, thus reducing the salary overhead for these businesses.

CONSTRUCTION

Massive structures such as Stasikov Palace and the walls of Caspia were constructed by men in an age before steamjacks and stand as reminders that humans don’t need steel spines and steam-powered arms to make architectural achievements still unmatched in the modern age. But today, any foreman tasked with raising a structure larger than a windmill will swear he has no idea how his predecessors managed to get by without a steamjack or two. And though the original stones of Caspia’s walls were laid by human hands, upkeep and periodic repairs are handled today by metal ones. Besides toting construction materials to and fro, laborjacks can wrestle beams and building blocks into position and can hold materials in place as a temporary frame while a crew secures them. They can speedily set foundations, either by hammering beams into the earth with their own strength or by doing the work of a full crew in hoisting a pile driver.

Because successful construction relies on precision, laborjacks used for building purposes are closely supervised by their handlers. A one-to-one ratio of steamjacks to handlers is typical on construction sites where the ’jacks are being used for construction and not just movement of materials. Steamjacks used this way are equipped with at least a ferrum-grade cortex. A few experienced steamjack-equipped construction companies, such as Broulben Brothers Masonry based out of Steelwater Flats, field two laborjacks (each with an aurum-grade cortex) per handler, but their efficiency and expertise demand top coin. Construction work requires little in the way of more specialized equipment than a ’jack’s two strong hands, but in Highgate the workshop of Jorge Calwick is producing and exporting a modification of the Seafarer ’jack with a built-in, rear-mounted crane and winch called the Gudgeon. Inspired by the massive cranes that lift ships out of reach of pirates, the light steamjack is uniquely suited to bringing parts up to exactly where they’re needed in an ascending structure.

LOGGING

Logging was one of the first roles for which steamjacks were developed. The earliest logging ’jacks were simply purposed, with oversized wood axes to fit in their hands and ample rings and bars for chaining and dragging logs. As technologies evolved, the traditional riverside mill’s circular saw was adapted to the steamjack as the buzz-cutter. When equipped with one of these steam-driven spinning blades, a logging ’jack can fell even a stout Petrok fir, as wide as a Khard is tall, in just a few minutes. Buzz-cutters can be carried as two-handed implements by versatile ’jacks, but one mark of a truly successful logging company is the presence of dedicated logging ’jacks. These have a buzz-cutter mounted permanently on the end of one arm, leaving the other arm free to timber the tree in a safe direction.

Most steamjack work done in logging can be accomplished by general-purpose heavy laborjacks, mainly Hurlys and Laikas. Both frames are well suited to chopping and hauling trees and are easily adapted to carrying buzz-cutters. Because of this, generally only the larger timber consortiums use ’jacks assembled exclusively for logging. One favored model is the Corvis-built Cygnaran Forster, which also goes by the tongue-in-cheek nickname of “the lumber-’jack.” This heavy laborjack possesses both a high-performance buzz-cutter and an oversized power plant for hauling large amounts of timber — but a new Forster costs quite a bit more than just converting an old Hurly.

Logging ’jacks are typically fitted with ferrum- or aurum-grade cortexes. This is not just because of the dangerous nature of their work, though it is important that a ’jack not let a thick pine fall in the direction of its crew.

Logging expeditions often run afoul of local denizens, be they wild beasts like trolls or sentient inhabitants such as trollkin or druids intent on punishing encroachers. Laborjacks accompanying loggers must always be ready to turn their sap-stained fists and blades on flesh and stone. The Forster has proven itself an able combatant in a number of such encounters, although superstitious woodcutters claim the ’jacks are never the same once they have “tasted blood.”

MINING

Though steamjacks are a powerful tool in mining operations, they aren’t always a perfect fit. Most steamjacks are tall and broad-shouldered, designed to be sure of foot but not so concerned with where they swing their shoulders and elbows. They’re always thirsty for coal and water, fill their tunnels with noxious smoke, and can’t be allowed near coal veins because of the sparks they throw from their fireboxes. For several generations, the advantages of using steamjacks in mining barely outweighed their flaws, and they were reserved primarily to the largest and best-ventilated mining shafts. They might have been left aboveground entirely if it hadn’t been for the fact that they could survive cave-ins more or less intact and simply wait to be excavated. Of course, most of those cave-ins were their own fault, but no matter. It took the ingenuity of the Rhulfolk to lead laborjacks into the darkness of the mines more regularly.

The dwarves scoffed at human steamjacks underground the same way they scoffed at the humans themselves: tall, awkward beings, squeezing and hunching their way through the mines. Their own steamjacks they built more like themselves: squat, compact, solid, and efficiently functional.
While both the designs of human mining ’jacks and the techniques for their use have improved over time, they still remain a supplemental force, coming in to apply brute force to difficult surfaces, help clear heavy debris, and haul ore. (See “Pendrake Encounters” in No Quarter #20.) In Rhul, mining
’jacks are the main output of the steamjack industry. The most famous mining ’jacks are also the most famous Rhulic warjacks overall: the Ghordson Driller and the Wroughthammer Rockram. Both of these ’jacks have earned their creators additional coin by being exported at some expense to serve large mining concerns in Khador and Cygnar.

There has been talk of funding a new Ghordson labor ’jack foundry in the dwarven conclaves of Orven or Ironhead Station. Such industry would make it easier and more affordable to sell Rhulic ’jacks for use in the Wyrmwall Mountains in particular.

FACTORY AND FOUNDRY LABOR

Finally, laborjacks work in the place most appropriate to them: the Iron Kingdoms’ great factories and foundries, tending the very fires of industry that birthed them. On the factory floor is where laborjacks do their most careful work — and the work most pivotal to the military industries. The finest grade of laborjacks assist master mechaniks in the painstaking work of fabricating and assembling the components of warjacks.

Their strength is useful in large-scale tasks such as shaping hull plating and assisting in the assembly of larger components. In factories and foundries alike, they can safely handle dangerous loads of molten metal, red-hot ingots, or metal plates with ragged or sharp edges, saving their handlers from these perilous tasks.

There are few specific ’jack models developed expressly for factory work. Most steamjacks employed on the factory floor are general labor models that have been outfitted with higher-grade cortexes and given thorough training. One notable ’jack design, the Blatner, is spoken of with envy and reverence on factory floors across Western Immoren. Only half a dozen of the light laborjacks were produced from 503–504 AR, each with an arcanum-grade cortex, a high-efficiency power plant, and finely tuned manual dexterity. As responsive and skilled as a laborjack can possibly be, the Blatners were deemed too expensive to continue production. Three of the Blatners are employed at the Cygnaran Armory in Caspia, where they assist night and day in warjack mechanika fabrication. Another toils at Engines East in Corvis. The whereabouts of the last two are currently unknown.

One disappeared from its shipment en route to Clocker’s Cove, likely the victim of banditry, and has yet to resurface. The other was working in Thunderhead Fortress but disappeared during the Khadoran invasion, either destroyed or spirited away by Llaelese loyalists.

Muscle versus Steam

As pervasive as steamjacks have become, most citizens of western Immoren have become accustomed to their presence. Despite this, groups of heavy laborers sometimes organize to express their dissatisfaction with losing employment opportunities. This has been particularly true among groups of trollkin and ogrun laborers in cities with sizable populations of these species. Such workers rely on the reputations for strength and hardiness that make them preferred laborers, factors ’jacks easily replicate. Such conflicts sometimes erupt into actual violence against the ‘jacks or their operators. This has happened most frequently when a prospering company has just reached sufficient size and wealth to purchase a ’jack for the express purpose of replacing employees. While this is usually a wise long-term investment for the business, such arguments do not assuage those who have lost their livelihoods.

Some merchants in Mercir fear a large-scale uprising of this nature might be inevitable. Several leaders within the large local trollkin population have been voicing angry rhetoric against several mercantile organizations, including the Mercarian League. Their extensive use of ’jack labor and the generally poor treatment of trollkin laborers could soon prompt bloody consequences. Already, dockyard lifting ’jacks have been subject to increasingly expensive vandalism.

LABORJACK PRODUCTION BY NATION

Every nation employs laborjacks in some capacity, although the frequency and manner of their use varies considerably. The resources and technical knowledge required to manufacture new steamjacks (laborjacks and warjacks alike) in any quantity mean that only the wealthiest individuals or nations make extensive use of these expensive but useful constructs in the newest and most pristine condition.

The second-hand market for steamjacks, including those with many decades of use, is strong. Older ’jacks are steadily maintained or periodically rebuilt. Often, they can be kept running with a minimal investment by those who know the proper tricks and who have access to tools and replacement parts. In the long life of a steamjack, it may pass through dozens of owners, depreciating in value at each stage. This allows well-worn machines to trickle down to even the poorest of associations and communities, where the little labor they have left to offer can still make a great difference. It is not altogether unheard of to see ancient laborjacks with cobbled-together parts rooting out stumps in the field of a poor Ordic farmer or gathering nets for an otherwise meager fishing concern.

CYGNAR

As befitting the birthplace of steamjacks, Cygnar leads the continent in laborjack use and production. Its unmatched volume of cortex production allows for a greater proportion of lesser-grade cortexes not claimed by the military. Beyond simple volume, Cygnar also produces the greatest variety
of specialized laborjack models. There exists in Cygnar an element of friendly rivalry and competition between shops producing labor ’jacks and those contracted for military grade hardware. For the most part these two breeds of steamjacks do not emerge from the same foundries, but there are exceptions such as Engines East in Corvis, which has a long history with the Cygnaran Army. The bulk of Cygnar’s warjacks are produced in Caspia at the massive Cygnaran Armory, but the demands of war have opened opportunities in other large cities, particularly Ceryl and Corvis.

Laborjack shops are fiercely proud of their reputations. Entire fortunes can be made inventing a new ’jack chassis which finds widespread use. Most smaller shops, however, do not aspire to design. They accept regular work producing parts for proven ’jacks or simply maintaining ’jacks in service. Of those shops that become large enough and prove their track record for exacting specifications, a few occasionally find themselves courted by the Cygnaran Army to create specific components or even entire ’jacks for military use. Those lucrative contracts tend to be the exception rather than the rule, though. Many mid-sized shops compete to win these jobs, but most will continue to work in relative obscurity, producing a few ’jacks a year to sell to hard-won clients in the commercial sector.

KHADOR

Compared to Cygnar, Khador produces and employs far fewer laborjacks. Those in use are concentrated in a few specific industries in the largest industrialized cities. The main limiting factor in production is the availability of cortexes. Khador does not approach Cygnar’s level of cortex production, particularly the higher-level cortexes used in frontline warjacks, as it
has limited access to the rare trace minerals they require. Fortunately there are sufficient resources to produce the lower grades, which has given rise to a small but respectable laborjack market. Many of the cortexes turned out by the Greylord’s Covenant are cupernum-grade; being the lowest quality, these are entirely unsuitable for use in warjacks. These cortexes end up in heavy laborjacks, the only kind the Motherland produces.

The Laika model created so long ago by the Horvosko Brothers in Korsk blazed the trail for all Khadoran laborjacks to follow: big, strong, and reliable. With a few exceptions, Khadoran laborjacks do not follow the trend toward specialization seen in countries to the south. Many of the Motherland’s mechaniks are loathe to replace a steamjack’s versatile hands with specialized tools such as a buzz-cutter or a rock drill when the ’jack could just grasp a ’jack-sized axe or pick in the morning and put both hands to hauling in the afternoon. While they resemble their battle-ready kin in size and strength, Khadoran laborjacks don’t possess the same degree of heavy armor and consequently do not demand steam engines as massive.

The largest manufacturer of laborjacks in Khador today is the massive Zerutsk Foundry in Korsk, which produces the Kolstot heavy laborjack. There has been considerable resistance in adopting this chassis over the Laika, but as that ’jack is no longer produced its numbers are waning. Some kayazy see an opportunity for some ingenious ’jack designer to develop a more durable and efficient improvement, but thus far no one has risen to the challenge. Rumors suggest the Zerutsk Foundry may have a hand in ensuring that competing designs and designers quietly disappear.

CRYX

There is no established laborjack industry in the Nightmare Empire. Scharde raiders sometimes make use of the shipboard ’jacks they capture, but those are scrapped for parts and trophies instead of being repaired when they begin to deteriorate. Cryx’s interest in steamjacks lies solely in warfare, and while they occasionally use bonejacks and helljacks to haul or to hoist in loading raiding vessels or raising large structures, the sorts of dangerous and difficult tasks that steamjacks are relied on for on the mainland are instead given to thralls. The undead don’t require food or rest, and their reanimated bodies can be strengthened by dark magics and necrotechnology beyond the limits of living flesh, enough to bolster industry and commerce in the same manner as the mainland’s hard-driving and tireless steamjacks. The heaviest lifting is performed by massive brute thralls, their hissing limbs and loping gait resembling a ghoulish mimicry of actual laborjack work to those familiar with the sight. While Slayers and similar helljacks have articulated hands theoretically capable of other work, these are killing machines first and foremost and are employed as such.

RHUL

There is a narrower distinction between laborjack and warjack in Rhul. For instance, a weapon mount is the only substantial difference between the Grundback Runner, a light steamjack designed to carry messages through dark and potentially dangerous tunnels, and its combat varieties the Gunner and the Blaster.

As in the human kingdoms, ’jacks expected to see regular battle are equipped with the more advanced cortexes. Nonetheless, the dwarven ethos maintains that every ’jack should serve a practical function and assist in construction, commerce, or the harvesting of raw materials. Similarly, the dwarves believe every laborjack must be able to fight and defend its operators. Not only are the fringes of Rhul subject to various natural and monstrous hazards, every dwarven clan stands ready to engage in lawful feuds with competing clans over construction and territorial rights. Steamjacks frequently play a role in these battles as well as the labors at their conclusion.

The dwarves are a hardy, practical people, and they carry those traits into their ’jack designs. Every Rhulic steamjack is a tough, high-performance machine, designed to be capable of operating under any conditions. Rhul is self-sufficient in steamjack production, requiring no imports of rare trace minerals, iron, or coal.

ORD

Ord is a much smaller nation than its neighbors to the north or south, but it possesses a healthy laborjack industry relative to its size. It produces considerably more laborjacks than warjacks and supplements this industry by importing many components from Cygnar. Turning laborjacks into warjacks by means of attached weaponry and enhanced cortex conditioning is not exclusive to Ord. Nonetheless, such retrofitted ’jacks are found in larger quantities in the Ordic Army and Navy than in armed forces of other kingdoms. This has served as a significant secondary source of income for laborjack foundries, who both in sell these chassis to the government and charge to handle the retrofitting work. The Mariner, Freebooter, and Buccaneer are all examples of chassis which have been embraced not only by mercenaries and privateers but also by the Ordic military.

As exemplified by the seaworthy ’jacks seen up and down the Broken Coast, Tordorans are no strangers to specialized laborjacks. A notable example is the stilt-legged Fenwalker light steamjack, capable of telescoping its legs when moving from moors to bog. Another is the recently designed Harpooner, which shares lineage with the Mariner now serving on whaling vessels. Secured to its ship bow by several strong chains, the Harpooner waits until the ideal moment to fire its harpoon cannon. It then expertly tightens and slackens its line to keep a speared whale driving to exhaustion. If it determines the speared animal is too large to claim safely, it releases the line via an explosive charge. Even if a Harpooner is hauled off the deck by its catch, it can continue the hunt for as long as its chains and air tanks hold out.

OCCUPIED LLAEL

Before the Khadoran invasion, Llael had a modest steamjack industry focused mostly on quality components for export. Its most popular domestic design, a versatile light steamjack called the Scullion, is a common sight on the docks in Merywyn and Leryn. The Scullion is no longer produced; its factory is now dedicated to producing Juggernaut and Marauder warjack parts. The occupiers assimilated the rest of the Llaelese steamjack industry similarly to support the Khadoran war machine. Though the city of Leryn has been “liberated” from the Khadorans, the presence of the Protectorate’s Northern Crusade in this city makes it unlikely any of the facilities once held by the Order of the Golden Crucible will resume production of Llaelese designs.

PROTECTORATE OF MENOTH

The call for warjack production in the Protectorate of Menoth is loud and strong, but the call for laborjacks is hardly a whisper. Every available cortex or other steamjack component is claimed for warjacks. The Protectorate produces no distinct lines of laborjacks, but mongrels cobbled together from
parts rejected or discarded by the military do exist. The best-maintained laborjacks are those that work in the foundries with the Vassals of Menoth; some of these were captured in the same operations that kidnapped those magi. The ramshackle laborjacks that work the docks, mines, and fields are currently left to a cadre of recently immigrated Old Faith mechaniks. Their self-appointed leader, Olga Petrynski, pushes her crew of four Khadoran expatriots on a constant circuit of the Protectorate in an effort to maintain the laborjacks most useful to the state’s infrastructure as well as possible with no substantial support from the Temple.

LABORJACKS, THE MARKET, AND THE ECONOMY

Steamjacks are a serious investment and a powerful resource, and as such they typically change hands many times over their useful lifetimes. A steamjack will stay in the market for decades or even centuries. New laborjacks are usually financed by powerful conglomerates and are used until their owners consider them outdated or too expensive to maintain and sell them. Most laborjacks in wide use have been handed down this way and are eventually scrapped for parts or kept in the service of a dedicated bodger or mechanik who can attend to them daily.

Though older ’jacks require continual maintenance, they are often very good at their jobs. Cortexes learn and imprint behaviors over their lifetimes, so ’jacks long engaged in specific behaviors become more competent at them. This is particularly useful in fields such as mining and factory work. Unfortunately, the better adapted a ’jack is to one set of tasks, the less capable it is at others. The saying “you can’t teach an old ’jack new tricks” holds true. Even wiping a ’jack’s cortex does not always completely erase deeply ingrained behaviors. This means the most antiquated laborjacks may be suitable for only the simplest tasks, such as hauling. Fortunately for prospective buyers, they are priced accordingly.

Example Laborjack Costs

RHOVERO’S STEAMJACK CONSIGNMENT AND WHOLESALE, BERCK

Steamjacks are relatively expensive to keep running. There is the cost of coal to consider, and they require regular maintenance. Even if the party employing the steamjack has a mechanik on staff, tools and parts alone can prove prohibitive, and sometimes a part will wear or break that requires the services of a specialist. It’s possible to keep a steamjack running for a long time on a general stock of spare parts, but sometimes a specialized component like an optical sensor or reflex trigger will break. Steamjacks operating in the wilderness, such as those in mining or logging, need to be brought to a city from time to time for this kind of specialized maintenance.

Because of these factors, steamjacks are not always employed where they might be considered useful. The largest and most prosperous farms, for instance, may employ a light laborjack or two, but generally it’s more economical for agricultural work to be accomplished by hand and draft animals. Likewise, a mechanik in a large town might rent his steamjack’s services out to the community to offset its maintenance cost, which is usually more than the help it offers in his shop is worth.

’Jack Depreciation

The prices of new ’jacks can be daunting to an intrepid ’jack handler or novice adventuring bodger. These prices can be reduced substantially for ancient rusted hulks, however, allowing those machines to find broader use and accessibility. A used ’jack always drops in price when resold, and each decade its value drops again. A 10% reduction in value per change of hands or decade in service is a good rule of thumb, allowing for variance due to the severity of use or the quality of regular maintenance. A particularly old and battered ’jack might be found for as low as 10% of its listed cost.

Discounted machines have problems and drawbacks equivalent to the bargain cost. A ’jack might requires twice the coal of a new model or run dry twice as quickly due to leaks, for example. One of the most important factors in a ’jack’s depreciation is the integrity of its cortex, the most expensive component and one that cannot be replaced. No Quarter #24 will feature an article on ’jack quirks, the most severe of which can be applied to these ancient wrecks. These can include such drawbacks as being nearly deaf to commands (incurring a ’jack handling DC penalty) to being prone to behavior that might injure the handler or others, such as with a machine that is unaware of any people in its way when walking around. Similarly, a ’jack’s hit dice, hit points, BAB, and other attributes should be reduced in amounts commensurate with its reduced value.

An alternative approach would be to allow the ’jack to operate
at normal functionality if a bodger or mechanik spends a set amount of time (such as one hour a day) working on it and makes a successful Craft (Mechanika) check. The DC for this check can range from 12–30 depending on the condition of the ’jack, with a failure of 5 or more resulting in immediate shutdown and requiring an entire day to repair and a nominal GP cost for replacement parts (d20x10 gp).

The cost and time required to maintain decrepit ’jacks should eventually motivate any mechanik to upgrade to something better. Bodgers should be afforded greater leeway in keeping such machines running because of the nature of that class.

Occupying the lowest spot in the steamjack economy are the folk called junkers. Mechanically inclined vagabonds and roustabouts, junkers are freewheeling spirits dedicated to making their own way with technology’s help and without settling down. Junkers are considered poor and disreputable by most and move about alone or in caravans to collect and exploit the mechanical and mechanikal detritus cast off by others. They are the last hands that steamjacks end up in after the scrap heap. Experts at salvage, they refurbish busted, rusted, and otherwise trashed components for use and resale and sometimes even reassemble and maintain entire steamjacks. One group of junkers, a wandering tribe led by “Vog” Vogarageranuman (male gobber Bgr12) that plies a circuit across Cygnar and Ord, hires out a “post-market” steamjack they’ve assembled from scrap to do odd jobs for those who can’t afford a full-time laborjack and handler.

Fonte: No Quarter 23