AD&D Magic Item Spotlight: Apparatus of Kwalish
Some magic items in AD&D are elegant. A simple sword. A ring with a neat effect. Then there are the ones that feel like they were dreamed up at 3 a.m. after too much caffeine. The Apparatus of Kwalish is one of those.
On the outside it looks like a giant iron barrel. Nothing special. But hidden inside is a hatch, and when you crawl through, you find a cramped control chamber with ten levers. Those levers extend legs, move pincers, open portholes, even make the thing sink or rise in the water. Pull the wrong one and you may regret it.
Fully activated, the Apparatus moves like a giant lobster. It can go forward, backward, even snap its claws for serious damage. It holds two people and can run for hours underwater. It is one part submarine, one part war machine, and one part death trap.
From a DM’s perspective, this item is pure gold. You can make it a reward, a puzzle, or even a boss fight. Imagine the players squaring off against an enemy piloting one of these things. Or better yet, imagine them frantically pulling levers in combat trying to figure it out while water rushes in.
The Apparatus is not just a toy. It is a story waiting to happen. Put it in the game and watch your table light up.
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Excellent guide on this great item, I always wanted to see this, I like the idea of using it to fix a water leak or something.
A quick note about xp rewards, Basic edition did not award xp for magic items, they were assumed to just compliment character development to gain xp later, but the general idea behind D&D design was to try and de-abstract xp, rather than just award "points" make it part of the fantasy, hence the gp=xp formula, bigger obstacles to overcome get you more reward, so rather than rate the "usefulness" of magic items in terms of xp, consider that the xp is proportionate to the difficulty of obtaining the item, I'm not sure how a folding boat is harder to get as a mechanical crab, but perhaps that was the thinking behind it.