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Iron man

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Revision as of 22:21, 6 December 2022 by 67.8.252.137 (talk) (Made a Black Sabbath reference.)
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xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼
Iron man
M
Urist likes iron men for their stern appearance.
Portrait

No portrait

Biome

  • Underground Depth: 3
Attributes

Building destroyer: Level 2

· Genderless · No Stun · No Pain · No Exert · Syndrome · Humanoid

Cannot be tamed 
Size
Max: 70,000 cm3

Age
Adult at: Birth
Max age: Immortal
Becomes after death

☼iron statue☼ (worth 3000☼)

v50.14 · v0.47.05
This article is about the current version of DF.
Note that some content may still need to be updated.
A man-shaped creature made of iron.

Iron men are dangerous and exceptionally rare inorganic construct creatures made out of iron, who inhabit the third layer of the caverns. Like other inorganic construct creatures, they are non-sentient, feel no pain, fear or exertion, cannot be stunned and don't need to breathe. They are as large as humans and are level 2 building destroyers. Iron men are immortal and only die to violence.

Iron men are not as tough as you'd expect, the reason being the fact they are actually hollow: they have an iron exterior layer and an interior gas layer, making them far more fragile than a fully metallic creature such as the bronze colossus, and even dwarf nails can damage the iron. Iron men are unharmed by fire and magma, but can be damaged by dragonfire just like regular iron items. Additionally, iron men are able to breathe a poisonous gas which causes a syndrome called "iron man cough", consisting of coughing up blood. Dwarves with standard disease resistance will experience a peak in coughing shortly (100 time units) after infection, and will recover in less than a game day (1000 time units out of a full day's 1200 time units). These periods will vary according to the disease resistance of the infected dwarf, but the disease is not life-threatening. (Unless, of course, being sick is the straw that breaks the camel's back of your dwarf's sanity.)

Upon death, iron men become a random masterwork iron statue. Parts like thumbs and noses removed from the creature during combat may be melted at a smelter in order to produce a small amount of iron.

Some dwarves like iron men for their stern appearance.


Admired for its stern appearance.

Creature behavior and origin

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Surprisingly, the Iron Man does not deplete your fortress' booze supplies, nor does it woo nearly all of your female dwarves. On rare occasions humans who exhibit strange moods may sometimes turn into one of these. However, dwarves have been unable to duplicate this process, even given the finest workshops and crafting materials, leading most dwarven scholars to declare it impossible for a human to do so in a cave, with a box of scraps. !!EDIT!! The scholars are now running around naked, on account of losing a bet.

It's unknown if the creature's metallic nature is a result of travelling through a magnetic field, or if it is capable of time travel. It will, however, still seek to fill your dwarves full of dread.

Another amazing capability of the iron man is that just like the bronze colossus, the iron man will nearly always polymorph into the form of another standard, non-randomly generated creature upon death, the post-death statue is almost never a statue of a man. Maybe the energy released upon death somehow shapes the iron into another creature's shape. An alternative theory postulates that upon the metal tissue becoming nonliving, it transforms in such a way that it begins to chemically react with the gas inside the iron man, posthumously mutating the iron cells into a different creature.

It is believed that an iron man can turn into steel when exposed to a great magnetic field. Further testing required.

"Iron man" in other Languages Books-aj.svg aj ashton 01.svg
Dwarven: datan udos
Elven: icori onino
Goblin: dusna ngorûg
Human: uzin abo
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