Howard Lumley

Howard Lumley of Mordent was a gifted mechanical engineer who created a dread golem that he named the Automatic Man. Lumley's death in 672 BC at the hands of his sentient machine coincided with its ruin by the frightened local populace. Lumley House was left to rot and fell into the possession of the machine which reconstituted itself within the building's technologically advanced infrastructure.

Lumley House itself may have been the fruit of a brilliant mind. Whereas the sentient Automatic Man was born of dark desire. Howard Lumley was unable to sufficiently miniaturize the power plant for the semblance of autonomous life that he was obsessed with building. It was brought to his attention that a text by Creighton Arkwright titled Notes on Animation might contain the answer. Taking the bait, he commissioned its theft from Lamordia by the Vistani. The Dark Powers waved the spellcasting requirements of a proper Golem Manual in exchange for the tacit acceptance of both their minute scrutiny and the "boon" of the dread golem template.

Within months Lumley was dead. The Automatic Man "malfunctioned" in public, taking several lives. The machine then misread Lumley's intention in the face of the gathering mob. The thing felt that Lumley was afraid of it and meant to turn it over to the mob, whereas Lumley was actually afraid for it and intended to protect it from the assembled rabble. Enraged by this "betrayal," the machine killed its maker.

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Children of the Night: The Created
		Children of the Night: The Created - pp20-21