Feral Automotons are primitive autonomous constructs that apparantly wander the city, often automotons whose masters are no longer around, they tend to wander about attempting to do whatever tasks they were built for until they eventually break down. Not to be mitaken for many of the independant automoton in the steamlands, ferals have a limited intellect generally, and will often go through the motions of loading, cutting, or whatever their tasks once were before, some of the more dangerous ones are those who'se purpose causes them to interact badly with people (a dress making automoton going after someone to make a dress out of them, for example) Ferals can range from modern steam powered constructs, to antique clockwork dolls. A feral could have once been a simple factory worker with a specific task, or a fully independant, advanced automoton, with a malfunctioning cognigator. Rare in Babbage, here they are usually very old antiques dating back to the old city, often powered by clockworks, occasionally found deactivated with no apparent power source.
The pengi that make up m crew are an example of feral automotons, I had found their clan wandering palisades stealing coal out of homes and ships, or mugging citizens, I was able to retrain them (thanks to reintroducing them to fish, the other part of their diet, that they ha no idea where the sea was to obtain on their own), and now utilize them as the crew to my airship, security, and general labourers. They are an example of a more modern feral, as they can be dated,by the brass plate on their backs, as having been built in the last decade, and run obviously, on steam. They are actually what I call 'Independant Autmotons" as they can think for themselves and utilize a baic form of cognigator, wich ile allowing them to make their own choices, does not grant them much intelligence. I'm not entirely sure why they still have a violent streak to them however.
the specimen brought into me had been reduced to a torso, no head, one arm terminated at the elbow, but suprisingly the brass it was made from was virtually untarnished despite it's apparant age. the remaining joints were ball joints, allowing the construct a free range of movement, wether it had legs, or wheels is unknown at this time. The torso s cylindrical, with exposed gears in the chest. I couldn't find any apparant power source, the Pengi tell me it but it is entirely possible it could have been removed, as many ferals have shown the habit of preying on each other's power sources (possibly why it attacked the pengi). The arm, head, and torso terminated somewhat roughly, the pengi tell me they used rocks, but as the damage doesn't quite match, I believe they had been more heavily armed then they will admit, again.
The specimen's remaining arm terminates in a claw, wich would lead me to believe it was meant for heavy labor, rather than more sensitive work, except the arms are very narrow and light, and the construction itself isn't very strong, usually most modern automotons meant for heavy work are built much more heavy, this looks like it was designed to be very light and slim however.
the lack of a head is very annoying, as I could look at it's cogigator (if it has one), and determine what it was supposed to do, perhaps even find a punchcard that possibly would have commanded it's movements, seeing how it was a much older machine. I should see about a trip to the Vernian to attempt to find it, but the tides could have carried it out by now, and sadly, despite their design, the pengi are very poor swimmers.
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