| Category | Ranged Weapons |
| Type | cannon |
| Forge | Tahaldril Vats |
| Smith | Drethrar, demon engineer |
| Enchanter | Abyssal Soul Well |
| Location | Tara-Har |
The first Squealer of the Abyss was invented by the demon engineer Drethrar. He served the demon lord Orcus and built dozens of these field cannons.
While adventuring in an abyssal realm, Black Banner recovered one of these cannons. It was put to use by the Black Tide in both the Black Tide War (1465 - 1504) and the Athenian Crusade (1539 - 1551). It was always the first cannon to fire against an enemy and was never lost in battle. During the Occupation of Milithian, it fired against another legendary cannon named Ole' Faithful. In the final days of the Black Tide on Brucrumus, rather than seeing it lost to goodly forces, it was pushed into Tara-Har.
A Squealer of the Abyss is a magical cannon built atop chassis of bronze. It has massive wheels of mithril with huge grisly spikes jutting out from them. The beaten bronze chassis has a trap door near the rear. It drops down a bronze ladder into a 20' long x 10' wide x 12' high chamber. A stove is at the back of the chamber. This stove is used to power the device. Images of demons carrying out torture and death are carved into this machine of war. The end of the cannon is shaped like a demoniac skull. Closed apertures are in the chamber, which allow occupants to look out the front and sides of the chassis. A large wheel made of polished ebony and carved with evil visages is at the front of the chamber. A driver's seat, built for the mass of an ogre, is behind the wheel. It is a crude looking chair with no padding and large spikes used to anchor it to the floor. Behind this chair is another chair sized for a human. It holds the firing panel. On the panel are small bronze heads of various demons which function as levers to activate various powers:
| Name | Power |
|---|---|
| Vrock Lever | movement |
| Babau Lever | spikes emerge from the chassis and begin to shoot forward and retract rapidly, anyone within 20' of the device must make a Reflex DC17 or take 2-12hps of damage |
| Baphomet Lever | fires the cannon |
Sentience
Th Squealer of the Abyss is powered by soul energy. This gives the device a bit of sentience which comes across as a hunger for devouring flesh - either dead or living. It sometimes speaks telepathically and promises great destruction to one's enemies if fueled with corpses and living creatures.
Powering the device
The device is powered by dumping either living or dead bodies into a 6' diameter mouth at the rear of the device. Moving the "fuel" near the opening causes it to come alive with massive salivating jaws. A creature thrown into this mouth suffers 10-100hps of damage per round. Each 1HD of creatures fed into the mouth provide 2 charges of power.
Charges
Each charge provides movement of 3" for 1 hour. Charges can also be used to fire a blast of poisonous blood, chips of bone, and negative energy. The damage is 1-8hps cumulative per charge. The maximum charges that can be expended are 10. The rate of fire for the weapons is only limited by the charges it has - which makes this weapon extremely deadly on the battlefield. The weapon has a range and other non-damage factors equivalent to a hull cracker cannon.
