The Haunted Harvester

The Memoria themselves alone know the inner workings of the Harvester. Theoretically it is a series of gears and arms that move the threshing arms back and forth, gathering the wheat into an inner chamber that tumbles the wheat until all the grains have tumbled off into their hopper. The leftover stalks are left behind, for the birds to pick through and carry the stalks away to make nesting material.   When the unnamed Wizard found it for his own use hundreds of years later, he added large, sloppy runes to either side of the Harvester's hopper, allowing him to command and control it like a guard dog. How exactly these runes control the old harvester has not yet been discovered, as no one has been able to approach long enough to get a good look.

The Memoria used it as a harvester. Nothing special or grandiose, just a simple cutter to gather the wheat and shuck it as it went, leaving the dry stalks on the ground. It didn't need the fancy brain of the more popular robots in the city, or even a humanoid form. Just its blades and a place to store the grain. Even as the Memoria died off one by one, and the need for grain dwindled, the Harvester kept about its business, busy during the harvest season and stored away in its underground shed when not.   When the command came from Atmo to shut down, it did so gracefully and without complaint. And so it slept under the ground for hundreds of years, long after the fields above had fallowed and returned to wild fields.   And then it was awoken. Not by brave explorers or cunning craftsman, but a Wizard who had found an interesting metal door in the ground and wanted to know what lay underneath. He fell in love almost instantly with the old harvester, which over the centuries had lost much of its luster and most of the synthetic casing fell away at a touch, exposing the dangerous metals underneath. He dragged it out of its underground bunker and back to his tower which stood at the center of the old field, and using magic runes commanded it to keep all people but him away from his tower.   And it did. Almost too well, really. The Field became a no-man's land to any travelers or local villagers, as folk started disappearing if they dared approach the tower. Although the Harvester was not innately built with weaponry, it's sharp threshing blades did the job more than well enough for those not fast enough to escape. Soon rumors came that it was haunted by the souls it had claimed, giving it the power to continue guarding the Wizard's tower.   Then one day, the Wizard died. No one knows the cause, although explosions were reportedly heard. But no one dared approach to inspect or collect the body. The Harvester remained operational and continued to guard the site long after the wizard's death.   No one is sure if the Tower or the Harvester are still there; the surrounding fields were abandoned long ago as the villagers moved towards the coasts in search of safer ground, fearful of the beast whose master was no longer around to tame it.

While the harvester would have been some mild interest to farmers due to its ability to easily gather crops come rain or shine, it's true significance now is to the Mages. Sworn to collect and destroy any Wizard Artifacts they come across, even the boldest mages have been stymied by this monster of an Artifact. Even after its re-discovery, it remains in its field as no mage has been able to get close to it long enough to figure out how to shut it off.