Fabien's Mechanical Mule

Fabien’s Mechanical Mule
Wondrous item, legendary

This mechanical apparatus vaguely resembles a mule, and can be ridden by two Medium or smaller-sized creatures. A creature at the front of the saddle can control the mule like you would a mount by manipulating its reins.

The mechanical mule is a Large object with the following statistics:
Armor Class: 18
Hit Points: 100
Speed: 40 ft., swim 20 ft.
Damage Immunities: necrotic, poison, psychic
Damage Vulnerabilities: lightning
Condition Immunities: prone

As a bonus action within 60 feet of the mule, you can whistle to it, causing it to follow you autonomously. The mule will follow you until you click your tongue as a bonus action to cause it to stay. The mule will ignore other whistles while it is following you.

The mule weighs 500 pounds and has a carrying capacity of 1,000 pounds. At the rear of the mule is a hatch that can be opened or closed with an action. Inside the hatch is a storage space 2 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep. While the hatch is closed, the compartment is airtight and watertight. The mule automatically deploys a pair of flotation devices when submerged in water, allowing it to float along the surface.

The mule must consume 1 platinum piece daily in order to operate. You can feed the mule a piece of platinum as an action. If it has been more than 24 hours since its last piece of platinum, the mule will cease to function and become dormant until it is fed.

If the mending spell is cast on the mule, or if you spend 1 minute repairing it with tinker’s tools or smith’s tools and succeed on a DC 15 check, it regains 2d8 hit points. If it drops to 0 hit points, it ceases to function until it is repaired.

The mule emits a 10-foot-radius aura of thermal regulation. The atmosphere within this area is a comfortable temperature, regardless of the weather. Creatures within this area have resistance to fire and cold damage.

As an action you can hold an object up to the mule’s face and name a location, and it will direct you to the object’s source as per the find the path spell. The spell does not require any other material components and it does not require spell slots or concentration when cast in this way. The mule will immediately begin moving towards the desired location until it is directed to halt or follow, or it reaches the destination.

The inventor and arcanist, Fantabulous Fabien, fabricated this vehicle to bear him across the vast expanse of harsh desert, snow-blown tundra and muggy jungles without breaking a sweat or catching a chill. It always knows its way home and, as long as it has a steady diet of platinum to munch, it never tires!