A little question to wake up a too quiet forum.
It is said that the iron eater is not interrested in consumming flesh or vegetation but only metals and minerals. As we are what we eat, I guess the chemical composition of the iron eater is made of silicon, iron, copper... I guess it explain it's greyish skin color but you don't tell a lot of things about its resistance (one time again, I guess it should be quiet hard if composed of array of metallic fiber) or its regeneration rate...
And what is approximately its size? "terrible beast to behold" means 2.5 meters or more?
Sorrow for the long delay in this response. Been out of the state and such. Anyway...
Ok, so how about we make the Iron Eater next month's spotlight? yeah, yeah, I know, I haven't been keeping up on the spotlights lately, but next month will be different. I promise! :)
And just to get the ball rolling, let me answer your immediate questions. Yes, "we are what we eat" applies to the iron eater. It's got a very high percentage of metal in its composition. It's hide would be very metallic and strong. It's still an organic creature, but it has a remarkable digestive tract and a number of exotic biological functions that allow it to metabolize metals and incorporate them in its own physiology.
I think there's a lot with this beast that we could discuss and certainly enough to justify a spotlight. So, you want to know the truth about this beast? Here's the scoop... a long time ago, in a galaxy far away, back in the good old days of D&D when we were all playing 2nd edition, there was a creature called the xorn. Now, I don't know if the xorn has been updated for 3rd or 4th edition. It might have been. Anyway, back in the old days, I submitted an article to Dragon Magazine. The magazine had advertised a need for material and had pointed out that they had a particular need for "The Ecology Of..." articles. I was familiar with those and wrote one up for the xorn framed in the trappings of a short fiction story. I thought it had some good material in there, but it was rejected. C'est la vie.
Years later, when running my gaming group through the Jaidor Talisman campaign, I created a variation on the xorn... the iron eater, which uses magnetic fields in combat, for senses and as part of its biology. The creature proved to be a very fun encounter for the group.
So, really the iron eater was based on the original xorn. Since the original article was never published, I can "mine" it for good material and incorporate that into the iron eater. :)
Ooooh! I've found reference to the "xorn" in "The quarry" short fiction. As it looked like the iron eater I guessed it was just an ancient name... I understant!
Very well if it doesn't take you too long and too much work, ok for a spotlight. I would be glad to know more about this beast. :)
YAY!!! An easy one to get back into the swing of things! :)
Just a quick update... Mark and I are getting ready for the big Europe trip. We are leaving in about 7 hours! We'll be exploring the south coast of France - mostly ruins and castles and medieval villages. That kind of thing. I'm going to take an insane number of photos for Khoras.
It's been crazy busy the last 2 weeks, prepping for this trip, to say the least.
The Iron Eater update is still on my radar. Have got some notes and such and will post as soon as I can. I'm going to see if I'm able to make edits to the site during the trip. Not entirely sure about that. If it turns out to be too difficult, I'll just use the trip for inspiration and photos and come back and upload a ton of stuff all at once - ironeater page, photos, etc. We'll see.
More later...
Have a good trip, Dave! :D