The Flagaepult was designed by, and can come with, ‘Master Engineer’ Apperturous Cranios.
All Master Engineers leave a little to be desired, as if they leave something of their sense behind with every experiment – failed or otherwise. But none are so crackpot, or hole in the head-like, as Apperturous Cranios. His last experiment, or the last within the Empire Engineers Workshops, involved using steam power to automatically wind up and load a mortar bomb throwing catapult. Fuse lengths and reliability were always dodgy, to say the least, and apprentices are hard to find – their scattered remains to send to bereaved relatives even more so… But Apperturous thought he had it fixed. With a good head of steam it could send off 6 mortars in a minute; really ramping up the engine could even get all of them in the air at once! But what goes up must come down, and the range of fire was quite variable, not all of the mortars landed within the grounds… One reached the Imperial Zoo, turning a brown bear quite albino (though the polar bear gained a new mate…), one came down in the First Imperial Concubine’s bed chamber (making her think the Thunder Deity really had arrived…) and another made splinters of the Imperial Children’s Dolls House (quite a large target to be sure; makes the Imperial Palace seem like a dog house, or it used to…). However, the last really did it. Messing with Wizards isn’t sensible, for they are quick to hot anger and slow to cool afterwards. They do get bored, thankfully for Apperturous, so when the Shadow Wizard had quite finished scaring him witless with apparitions of ghosts, demons and the world’s end, becoming a flagellant was about the only option left.
Obviously the Imperial Engineering Workshops are now unavailable to him, as is access to steam power and black powder; but where artifice wills not, nature will find a way. Apperturous restarted his work on catapults, finding old cart wheels and turned wood from ruined water mills most useful; but what to use as projectiles? His new friends were quick to volunteer; anything to speed up their entry into the next world…
Apperturous can only be used as a character attached to a Flagaepult, replacing one of the crew in fact. He allows one of the scatter dice to be re-rolled, possibly averting a misfire or making an extra hit. Though he was a master engineer his statistics are now that of a warrior priest – he has beefed up some – and he comes equipped with a remarkable flail of his own devising; perpetual motion is almost achieved so it always strikes at +2 strength. Should the Flagaepult be destroyed by a misfire (roll 1 on the table above) he takes a wound but, if still alive, is thereafter treated as having permanent frenzy – this attribute being passed on to the flagellant unit he is with… Or what’s left of them. Otherwise he only fights when there aren’t enough other crew to man the machine. The “Look out sir” rule applies as normal. His cost is 100 points. He can’t take magic items but is affected by the flagellant “The End is Nigh” special rule. Whilst the Flagaepult is in operation he can ignore all challenges without penalty – he’s got better things to do, thank you…