Metal Life Club
## VignetteSome people have clearly listened to way too many Eirish stories about fae as kids. Stories about dwarves, to be specific.I have the utmost respect for scholars and inventors, and might even dare to include myself in their ranks. But there are, broadly speaking, two types of inventors: pragmatics and dreamers. The former come up with all sorts of devices to make one's life easier; the latter tend to be quite insane. The Metal Life Club (nicknamed the Mental Life Club) are, without doubt, the insane kind. Their ultimate goal is that you can make artificial life out of metal, a creature capable of moving on its own and capable of taking on all sorts of menial tasks. And so a bunch of scholars gather together several times a week and tinker away, occasionally blowing up parts of their own laboratories.
Structure
It is more of a club for rich kids fascinated with science, or at least it started that way. The original Club members have gotten fairly old and influential since its creation, and many remain active to this day. Their kids often join the Club or bring their friends in, and so it is more of an Eirish science-minded nobility thing than a traditional laboratory. Anyone is accepted as long as someone vouches for you, be it out of personal friendship or for finding one's inventions fascinating.
Naturally, the Club members tend to pour significant resources into their activities. It would appear to have dozens if not hundreds of craftsmen and artisans in the employ, working every day to make the Club's dreams a reality. As long as they get paid, of course.
Technological Level
Sadly, the Club does not have that many inventions to speak of and are thus often made fun of. They made some really cool metal statues, and I heard rumours that one of the imperial generals had a metal hand made in place of the one he lost in battle. Fully capable of moving its fingers via a series of springs and coils, can you believe that? Alas, it seems that either the story is fake or the artifical limb is too complicated to ever become commonplace.
Where the talent of Metal Life Club could truly shine is war. They created some experimental jackets to be worn on one's body in order to make it stronger, and Club members are clearly quite capable of blowing things up - albeit usually by accident. Those steam engines also look promising. However, the Club always replies that they are explicitly focused on the science's peaceful applications, and rejects any requests for cooperation by military researchers.
Please, make it stop! Your music is giving the whole castle a headache!So far the greatest and most dangerous of the Club's inventions appears to be a particular type of music. Very loud and often incomprehensible, it is made ever more so by use of custom-made music instruments and careful positioning within the room which creates a strong echo. For some artists, listening to the Club's music would qualify as a form of elaborate torture.
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