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CLASS: BIOCONSTRUCT
BIOLOGY: This small, colorful monster easily blends with tropical plant life and exotic fungi, but it is strictly animal-based, its four "petals" actually thick sacs of gelatinous flesh surrounding its delicate, boneless arms. Coating these sacs are hundreds of colorful, cup-like peduncles with flexible, razor-sharp edges, each capable of digging into the flesh of an attacker and injecting a chemical that immediately triggers a localized and temporary but debilitating surge of pain. Penduncles remain viable for weeks after detachment from the monster's body, and it is capable of "programming" each individually, setting some to inflict pain immediately while others may cling unnoticed to an opponent for up to several hours before "firing off" their chemical load. If left intact, each peduncle will continue manufacturing its compounds and repeating the attack on the same timer until finally removed. Under extreme stress, an Suctionettle can swell and rupture its arm sacs, scattering peduncles like a cloud of flower petals. A Suctionettle feeds mostly on vegetable and fungal matter collected with its extremely sticky fingers, ingested by a small toothless mouth that opens between its eyes. It can locomote bipedally on any two of its arms, but achieves faster travel by "somersaulting" end over end. At rest, it folds its arms together and contracts its stalk, taking on a globular shape protected by peduncles in every direction. Though they appear delicate, the monster's boneless fingers are extremely strong and adhesive. BEHAVIOR: The Suctionettle desires to be left alone, enjoying a slow-paced lifestyle among high densities of plant matter, of which it may grow protective. It adores flowering plants, especially those closest to its own shape or coloration, and will often weed a small personal territory of biota that it feels "clash" with its appearance. Individuals vary enough in color that large populations of Suctionettle are easily identified by their "patchwork quilt" of adjacent flower beds. By extension, Suctionettle are fond of bees and wasps, and encourage stinging species to share their territories. APPLIANCE: An Suctionettle's hundreds of peduncles are useful biological weapons with or without the monster's physical presence, but it alone can control the attack behavior of the appendages, and when forced into combat, it exhibits respectable strength and durability for its small size. STICKY HANDS: the Suctionettle's jelly-like tubular fingers adhere tightly to surfaces and are surprisingly difficult to break. PEDUNCLES: the Suctionettle is covered in detachable, sucker-like growths that can cling to other creatures and repeatedly inject a powerful pain-inducing compound.   Contents copyright Jonathan Wojcik
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