Clockwork Analyst (Basic Lore)

Clockwork Analyst (CR 8)
True Lawful - Medium - Construct (Alchemical)
Clockwork Analysts are 4-foot long iron constructs, which look like bulky metal spiders. Most of the time, these constructs follow a pre-determined set of analog instructions, hard-coded into their gearworks and alchemical organs. These instructions can be nested and crosslinked and given so many variables and contingencies that they appear to have free will and even modest personalities, though this is not the case. Like clockwork agents, clockwork analysts also have a limited form of telepathy, allowing them to communicate with other Clockwork constructs. Some alchemists have even managed to astrally project their consciousness into a clockwork analyst to direct it remotely. It can be nigh-impossible to determine when this is happening, due to the sophistication of their instruction sets. Clockwork analysts are capable fighters, but their primary purpose is troubleshooting 'problems'. This can be nearly anything an ambitious mad scientist might find too bothersome to tend to themselves, from digging out and propping up new tunnels, buildings or other structures, to emergency repairs, to crafting customized tools or alloys for their master's lab. Clockwork analysts have the ability to extract trace minerals and metals rapidly out of nearly any raw material, even rendering down alloys to their component parts. They can extrude these components into shapes like gears or other one-piece shapes, but nothing with moving, hinged or multiple parts. For example, given a steel breastplate, a clockwork analyst could consume it and spit out several iron ingots, several lumps of coal, some flux and a bunch of heat. They are also not as efficient at creating alloys out of these same components, requiring considerably more raw materials and time to do so than a blacksmith would require.