Every new episode of Critical Role (or one of its offshoots) brings new creatures, characters, and magic. Exandria Unlimited: Calamity is no exception, and with the story unfolding in front of us we have been treated to numerous new automotons in the floating city of Avalir. One of the most prevalent automatons in the flying city is the hodmedod. This scarecrow-like construct performs simple tasks around the city. The wealthy elite keep a large number of these constructs around them, with hundreds appearing in the first episode of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity.
Important Hodmedods in Exandria Unlimited: Calamity
When the concept of hodmedods were first introduced in episode one of Calamity, these automatons seemed destined to be little more than filler. Sure, they gave us a fun look into a world of excess full of magical robots, but they also seemed unlikely to factor strongly into the story. Or so I thought. Right away, two hodmedods played interesting roles in episode one.
The first interesting encounter with hodmedod seemed to foretell what is coming. For reasons unclear to the characters, a hodmedod began to malfunction at a large gala. Before collapsing into a pile of cloth, it whispered the words “Ghor Dranas.” Safe to say we’ll hear more about that later. When the hodmedod collapsed, it left little more than what looked like a bag of cloth.
an even larger part of the story came from the hodmedod that was anything but a simple construct. At the end of episode one there was a deadly encounter with an invisible cultist. We learned in episode two that the cultist managed to enter the party disguised as a hodmedod. After slipping away, the cultist entered a room where he dropped the disguise and turned himself invisible. It was there that he met his end at the hand of Cerrit Agrupnin, the featherfolk character of Travis Willingham.
See our Vespin Chloras Guide
Using Hodmedods in 5E
At this point, there is no official stat block for hodmedods available through either Wizards of the Coast or the Critial Role crew. That should not prevent you from making your own, however! There are countless stat blocks that could be used for this purpose given that they are not intended for combat. For that reason, I would recommend using the scarecrow stat block from the Monster Manual but stripping it of False Appearance as well as all of its actions. These automatons are designed to carry things and to help with menial tasks, so there is no need to get fancy. if the Scarecrow stat block seems too robust, relying on the common stat block would also work.
Concluding our Hodmedod Critical Role Guide
That wraps up our guide to the hodmedod in Exandria Unlimited and Critical Role. it is always fun when one of these minor plot points suddenly becomes something more. I look forward to seeing how these constructs continue to factor into the story of the Calamity.
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