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BOILGOIL  CONCEPT BY NATHAN ADAMS
BIOLOGY: At rest, the Boilgoil is in an almost immovable and indestructible state of torpor, its spongy flesh cooling into a rocklike state as its internal structure settles into a diamond-hard consistency. Constantly metabolizing solar radiation, its waste product is a compound similar to battery acid, and capable of generating intense heat when channeled into specialized metallic energy cells. When the Boilgoil desires to locomote, it must soften its articulation points with directed heat, moving an appendage at a time by a process of heating, softening, cooling, hardening, and repeating the process until it is satisfied with its positioning or it has expended its energy supply. It can achieve more flexibility and speed by expending more energy, softening itself to a fully mobile and surprisingly athletic state for several hours, but will consequently require a more extensive charging period or a significant intake of protein. When more meaneuverability or offensive capability is desired, the Boilgoil can completely expend its energy stores to soften its entire siliceous skeleton and nervous system, molting from its skin in an amorphous state that maintains a temperature over 700 degrees celcius for up to an hour before it must choose a new resting place. Ravenously hungry in this state, it may wrap itself around living prey to kill by both constriction and rapid carbonization, absorbing the resulting ashes into its semiliquid matrix. Though most of its energy is photosynthetic, the Boilgoil occasionally consumes bones and silicate minerals to help maintain its skin and skeleton, which it engulfs into a temporary molten vacuole in its surface. Boilgoils reproduce asexually, forming a boil and filling it with molten skeletal matter as it grows away from the body and drops off. Embryonic development occurs only in a molten state, and Boilgoil troupes must take turns heating eggs as a community. BEHAVIOR: The Boilgoil is a social creature that prefers the silent, passive company of its own kind, troupes often disguising themselves as natural stone formations, architectural decorum or fields of one too many garden gnomes. Its fully motile, semiliquid state is reserved largely for self defense, such as when Biomecha, Ghoulem or other mineral-eating monsters deduce that the otherwise unappetizing monoliths are housing delicious silicon innards and juicy acids. APPLIANCE: A Boilgoil is naturally adept at long-term guard duty, but it is well suited to strategic offensive maneuvers as well, switching from a slow but nearly impervious form to a brief but wickedly agile state that can reduce flesh to ash with just a touch. It is generally recommended to compensate this energy expenditure with a Boilgoil's most desired "treats," such as bones, glass bottles and large quantities of sand. ELASTICATED: loose, elastic skin and an amorphous skeleton make the Boilgoil able to catapult itself at great speed, crush objects with sheer gripping strength, and climb sheer surfaces by pressing its entire body against them. THERMOSTATIC: the heat that rises off a Boilgoil's bones when it moves can be used both defensively and offensively. FUNNY BONES: the Boilgoil's skeleton is also its decentralised nervous system, and it can be completely shattered or liquified and still reform intact and healthy. Boilgoils can also survive without their outer skins, albeit with increased risk of freezing or melting. STATUESQUE: the monster can compress itself into a small, lightweight and immobile but extremely durable "statue" by holding still, allowing it to be easily transported or hidden. Contents copyright Jonathan Wojcik
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