Layna's Engineering

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There's a rather clunky, red book tied together in the front. The pages are a faded yellow, and both the cover and everything inside is written in gnomish along with many possible schematics. Another part of the book is filled with quick blurbs regarding engineering.

00: Mechanical Eyes

A draenei mage had asked if I could build a set of eyes that could hold arcane magic. While I was not sure what he had intended I had managed to replicate the shape of an eyeball by studying a medical journal. The eyes act as a fuel cell that specifically hold arcane magic. The draenei told me that the eyes were just what he needed. What a strange person...

01: Tinkering on a live subject

((Note, this affects the character Derrick))

Had sedated a human male from Stranglethorn. He seems to be both strong in body and spirit. He seems to be a man of the light. Rather loud and cheeky, but willing to accept his fate.

“The Doctor” and I brought him down to the lower levels of the Catacombs where we experimented upon him. A rather large incision was made to the arm. Subject was not sedate. Machinery was integrated along the tendons and such (at this point there is a rough sketch on the human arm, marking the exact places where a copper rod and rings were placed in). The machinery has been attached to another device that is wrapped around the wrist.

Once everything had been stitched back up the device had been hooked together. The intended result was for the device to be triggered by a certain muscle movement. The device is only built to be triggered, which would be indicated by a light and beep.

Result: A night elf had broken his finger. The pain caused such a strong reaction the machinery was set off. The simple mechanism was indeed triggered by something he had done, but whether it was purely caused by muscle reaction is uncertain.

02: A mechanical limb

((Note, this affects the character Hieronymous))

The draenei mage had asked me if I could make a mechanical arm. It turned out a human male in the Catacombs had been suffering from broken bones and internal bleeding. I had brought him to a basement in Stormwind to operate.

Subject had been sedated and I severed his entire fore-arm. I wrapped bandages along his shoulder and nub to reduce the bleeding. I had then cut up remaining portion of his arm to embed certain copper devices which are finally screwed into the bone(once more there is a section devoted entirely to a sketch showing the changes made). Finally I put a copper band around the nub and a brace along his arm. At this point I had bandaged up the arm entirely to let it heal.

I had built a rough copy of what an arm should be like by measuring his other arm. The end of it is meant to connect to the brace that ends at his nub. However he still needs time to heal. I brought the subject back to the Catacombs where he can rest and later attach his new arm.

Results have yet to be observed since I had to do business elsewhere.

03: A wormhole generator

I had come across a schematic that explained a non-magical way to teleport over to Northrend. This was proposed as a way for emergency escape in our Plaguelands base. The machine was not too hard to assemble though obtaining the right components had cost a sum of money on the goblin market. The schematic warns that the wormhole is rather unstable.

Result: The wormhole had been used as a way to escape the House of Autumn's base in the mage tower. The Heretics and one of our spies had made it through to the Howling Fjord of Northrend. All users were scattered about but we managed to reunite back together with the exception of the draenei mage. The generator works rather well but should be used as a last resort if in large groups. Don't forget your radio.

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04: Minor Repairs to an Undead

((this affects the character Thaddeus))

Today I had managed to get my hands upon a man who was undead. While I wasn't certain if he had survive the forceful transfer over to the operating table he had managed to move and gargle. First I had noticed the lack of a lower jaw and a tongue hanging from it. I had also noticed his face had bindings covering the eyes.

I had screwed some copper plates to hinge from the cheekbone that remained. Replicating the structure of a lower jaw was not too difficult. With my hand under the chin I could push it up and down, though the undead himself didn't seem very comfortable using it. I then removed the binding from his face and found two empty sockets. Repeating the invention from engineering 00, I made two replica eyes that acted as fuel cells. However, instead of arcane, I filled his new eyes with shadow.

Before I unstrapped him I bolted a type of mechanism onto one of his bones. If need be I can press a button and he'll be shocked with lightning if he is to act up.

Result: He couldn't communicate with me beyond mouthing words, but somehow conveyed that his vision was very poor. Salvaging some lenses from my spyglass, I had done my best to improvise a pair of magnification goggles. This seemed to do the trick as he had nodded to me when I asked him if he could see. I told him he could come in the future for more procedures, but I was satisfied to know that I can “fix” blindness. I noticed he staggered as he left. I believe he may need some further tinkering to walk normally once more.

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05: Springs!

((This affects the character Nthanda))

While in the jungles of Stranglethorn Vale I had used my fire on one of the trees to attract attention. Just as I thought someone had come to investigate; a night elf. He was easily distracted trying to save the tree or whatever, so he was easily knocked out.

While under the sedative I had brought him to one of the tents in Stranglethorn Vale. I planned to tinker on him but he would need to heal before I could see the results. Therefore I took apart one of my radio transmitters and embedded it along his skull. After I had lopped off both his feet and ankles, making a brace along the nub, and assembling a springing mechanism on each that ended in a boot. Perhaps he'll be jumping better than ever once he recovers!

The guy seemed pretty upset, then again he's one of those nature types. They really can't appreciate mechanism, can they? Either way to ensure his survival I transported him back to Booty Bay. I'll track him down later to see how he's doing.

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06: Practice!

((This affects the character Allister))

I remember while raiding to rescue my dear friend, Sagi, the draenei mage had a malfunction with the dynamite I had gave him. Because of that, half his hand was destroyed by an explosion, and later he had been lost in Northrend.

Summoning did nothing to retrieve him, but I do feel like he helped a lot. He was the one who got me into the idea of tinkering on live subjects. If he is in fact, alive, I want to be the one to fix his hand. However, that will be difficult, so I need to practice first.

In Stranglethorn Vale I found a human male which I transported to this mage tower to work on. Instead of using sedatives I had tried this new drug on the market that comes in the form of an apple. During the procedure he had expressed both pain and laughter. Who knows what he was thinking during that time?

I removed half his hand and tried to reconstruct the fingers with hinges and stuff, using a copper wire. Hopefully if his muscles can pull on the wire, the fingers with curl. I am not sure, however, it'll probably not work, but I'll take a look when it's healed. Until then I have attached a transmitter onto him. I dropped him off in this place called “Azshara Crater” where he'll be safe, and will return to him in a few days.

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07: Night Elves come in pairs.

((This effects Val and Baydok))

While my last experiment was a flop(which I prefer not to elaborate on), I managed to have better luck today in securing two female night elves.

The first I tried to repeat the hand experiment on. I chopped off half her hand, and tried to rebuild it with metal. As opposed to the human, I decided to make a certain button/trigger, much like what I did with my first subject, the human paladin. If the trigger is set off, her fingers should curl, and if its set off again they should uncurl. I believe this will be a more workable solution than the other that I did before.

The other night elf had a different experiment where I tried to replace both her legs. Much like the first night elf, I decided to use a springing mechanism. However, the cut was made at the knee, instead of the ankle. To secure her new legs, I had made a harness and metal bands attached, one at each leg, and one to her hips.

Both night elves were dropped off at Booty Bay.

Note to self: I should either hire some muscle to help transport the larger races, or I should build myself a wagon that can handle stairs.

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08: Behavioral Device

((This effects Bojan))

So I heard that trolls had a very good recovery rate, and would you know, I got my hands on one today. I wasn't going to do anything too fancy, but I figured I could embed something beneath the skin, and well, he'd recover from it.

Was I right! I wired and plated him five ways down his back, and he still found the strength to sit up. I had a remote handy, and though he said he'd eat me, when he tried to grab me he was in for a surprise! When I used the remote he was quickly shocked, and it caught him off guard I was able to escape on my chopper. Perhaps this sort of device could be used as an effective way to influence a troll's behavior.

I'll have to see later...

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09: Self-repairs

One may call it karma that I was recently maimed. I would call it coincidence, however. The orc, blood elf, and troll were all complete strangers, and I believe they felt they had something to gain in their attack on me. It was only by circumstance that this attack ended badly with me being javelined to the chest and having my leg severed below the knee.

However, with my wormhole generator I was able to escape, and recuperate, and now here I am with a newly built leg. I used the same method as I had on the night elf, but sized the model down to fit more to my own height. I will harness it soon and I hope to be walking again shortly.

One might ask, did I deserve this for operating on others? Perhaps I did, but if I had never operated, then how would I know how to handle a situation like this? My operations gave me experience and practice, and when the time came that I had to fix, I knew what to do. If I had never done this work, would I have been prepared?

I believe some day my work will get even better, especially with the gnomish body. I had heard something called the curse of the flesh. Gnomes coming from the Borean Tundra have reported of this phenomenon, and how when the "curse" was removed from a gnome, even the ones who were not born mecha-gnomes, they reverted back to the state of being a machine. Does that mean we are machines by nature? Perhaps this tinkering can help put me back to the gnomish roots of things.

Who knows?

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10: Results of Self-Repairs

((These images are just a sort of aid. I don't think she'd honestly sketch herself))




I'm really proud of the new legs, I really am. They aren't too sophisticated, at least, I think they aren't, but they get the job done.

It's mostly one or two mechanisms that are coated in a metal casing. It's kind of heavy, but they aren't too too hard to work with. There's a simple spring inside to help stabilize it, because as a device it's going to take a lot of impact if I constantly walk on it. Other than that, the one mechanical device is a leveler.

There's a tiny, rectangular chamber that has a small bit of fluid inside. The leveler tries to rotate the leg so that the rectangle is always filled to a certain amount, and not tipped sideways or diagonal. In short, it "knows" when its not level, and bend accordingly. By the time the mechanism bends, I could lift my leg forward, then plant it back on the ground, and then work it to be level again. Also, when I set, the legs would bend down to be level.

I must admit this was quite difficult overall. I wanted a bit of symmetry so I went through the painful process of losing the other leg, though this time it was by my own blade. I must say though that I like this new setup. If only I could make all of myself a machine, and not just the legs.

Another thing:



I realized that it was wicked cold to have my stub rest on metal all the time. It was another difficult process but I managed to work a circuit under my skin that attaches to a gnomish lightning generator. It's all insulated of course, so I won't shock myself. Either way, the wiring permeates heat so my legs are nice and toasty.

Don't ask how I managed to do this. First off it was painful, and second the blood lose sort of made me half-conscious through all this. Needless to say it wasn't an easy thing to do, and healing took awhile.