Before the Fading, Marta was a mine rescuer in the deep shafts under the Furnace. Her shift went down into collapses and hauled out whoever was pinned there. When the Haze came, it filled the mines first: dead light is heavier than air and flows down into the shafts and drifts. Whole shifts went grey down there and forgot where they were going

Marta went down after them again and again, and every descent cost her something. First the Haze ate her right hand, and a mine winch with a chain and a hook took its place. Then her legs, replaced with steam pistons. Then almost everything else, and now Marta sits whole inside a riveted boiler and hides her face under a closed helmet, like all the Rusted. Her heart she guards above all and jokes that it is her last factory part. In all she pulled out a hundred and twelve people. She calls every one of them and all their children her grandkids

Among the Rusted the old ones wind themselves up, and nobody but Marta turns the key in her back. “I'll wind myself” she says more often than hello. The last time she went down for the hundred and thirteenth, a boy from an old working, and the winch brought only him up. The Lanternkeeper Selma happened to be passing through the Furnace and stood at that very shaft, so Marta's light went into the Lantern. The boy grew up and, they say, goes down as a rescuer himself now

She is loud: the machines left her half deaf, so she shouts. She grumbles, swears without malice, calls everyone grandkids and laughs in a fight. Stubborn and generous, she will give away her last but never her key. She calls the Etalons teapots, yet she respects Unarion: “our teapot, patched up too”. Whenever they meet she asks him: “Well, teapot, boiled yet?”

Abilities by rank

Trait

Spring

Every attack winds her spring. The fifth one becomes a piston blow: 200% of her attack to the target, the attack itself included, and Armor Break of 3 for 4 s, then the spring resets

Awakening at level 100: the piston strikes on every fourth attack, and the blow goes right through, also hitting the enemy just behind the target

Ability 1 · mana 70, starts with 20

Winch

Marta throws her hook at the farthest enemy within 4 cells. The hooked enemy takes physical damage and is Stunned for 1 s, and the winch drags it across the ground right up to her

Rank	From level	Damage, % of attack
I	1	150
II	20	195
III	40	240
IV	60	270
V	80	300

Ability 2 · when her health first drops below 50%, opens at level 30

Steam

The boiler vents steam from every seam. Enemies on the neighboring cells take magic damage and are Blinded by 25% for 2 s. Once per battle

Rank	From level	Magic damage
I	30	100
II	55	165
III	80	340

Stars make her stronger on top of the ranks: attributes ×1.4 at ★2 and ×1.9 at ★3, the damage of Steam ×1.25 and ×1.6

Look

bulky: a small old woman inside a big riveted boiler, round and squat and half again as tall as Marta herself, with no face to be seen

a round riveted helmet over the whole head with two round lenses glowing warm yellow, two grey braids falling from under it down her back and a copper whistle at her neck

a boiler of rusty sheets on big rivets, patched all over in different colors, with a firebox behind a grate in the belly where red heat glows

a short chimney on the back that always puffs white steam, and a big brass wind-up key in her back, the sign of her people

a heavy three-fingered iron claw for a left hand and a mine winch drum for a right one, with a chain and a big rescue hook hanging from it

two steam pistons for legs, with wide feet that hiss at every step

How to play

Put her in the front line next to your heavy hitters: the winch yanks the farthest enemy, usually an archer or a mage, right under her claw and into your squad's blows. The spring counts her attacks, and on the fifth the piston cracks the target's armor, so it goes down faster

Silence before her first cast, anchored enemies that cannot be moved and attack slows that wind her spring slower all work well against her. She also struggles against thick targets that reflect damage

Marta