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CLASS: BIOCONSTRUCT
BIOLOGY: Designed to combat the spread of microbiological weaponry, the Streptile's finely adapted sensory array can accurately gauge the health of even relatively unknown organisms, analyzing odors, hormone production, neurological activity and countless other factors to determine the variety and severity of microbial contamination. Life forms identified as "ill" are the monster's primary food source, numbed by the secretions of its adhesive lips and devoured alive. Lacking even beneficial flora of its own, the Streptile's body is harshly inhospitable to all foreign microbiota, guaranteeing a dead end for any pathogens ingested with its prey. Male Streptile usually exist only as a lineage of parasitic tissues present in a small portion of females, allowing the fertilization of another female's gelatinous, frog-like eggs. The pair will each carry half of their eggs within their own sterile gastric system, eventually regurgitating their young into a carefully excavated "brood bath" of antiseptic secretions. True, independent males have been cloned with limited success, but tend to reach slightly smaller sizes than females, and find them highly intimidating. The chemical stench of a Streptile is similar to hot chlorine, and contact with its body tends to irritate the tissues of most other bioforms. BEHAVIOR: Taking great pride in their "purity," Streptile have an inclination to criticize the "filthiness" of other creatures and insist they would be better off "cleansed" whether or not they survive the harsh process. Salivating heavily at the smell of sickness, they emit an increasingly thick, gurgling wheeze and thrill at the opportunity to "cleanse" a patient too weak to protest. APPLIANCE: While devouring the unwell is efficient enough on a small scale, the Streptile's ultimate weapon against disease is the sickly-sweet vapor it can vent from its maw, a cloud of airborne phagocytes capable of neutralizing even the vicious poxes of the Plaguemen, or shriveling a Fectoid - its favorite prey - into a leathery husk. Unfortunately, the importance of bacterial symbiotes in most living organisms makes exposure to the Streptile's "medicine breath" just as debilitating as any bout with creeping dysentery, and it is strongly recommended that trainers wear appropriate hazard gear for the protection of their own bacterial ecology. NUMBING INGESTION: creatures caught in the Streptile's slimy, sucker-lined maw are quickly paralyzed and swallowed whole. ANTISEPTIC BODY: the Streptile is impervious to microbial weapons and parasitic infestation. MEDICINE BREATH: the monster can vent a noxious cloud of its own poisonous immune cells, weakening other creatures and eliminating localized organic biohazards.   Contents copyright Jonathan Wojcik
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