To say that Furnace Beasts are strange creatures is an understatement. They inhabit a large tropical island but it's believed by some that they are ultimately from another world. One seen sometimes just after dusk and before dawn. A world near the sun which broils under it's radiance. An oven of a world where any creature of flesh would be burned to ash, but perfeclty suitable to a myriad strange beasts made of living magma and stone. Long ago some of these creatures were cast into the void, possibly by a celestial impact and flung through the void between worlds with the good luck to crash down in active volcanoes. For creatures such as these first arrivals, these smoldering calderas in the tropics were tiny island refuges in a vast frigid wasteland. Such creatures were likely small things like the small stone-worms, stovepipes and magma skimmers which inhabit the island's volcanoes. But eventually one strain managed to evolve a way of wandering beyond their volcanoes and even thrive in environments with amounted to being walking blast furnaces.





Standing between 4 to 5 meters tall and weighing in at 15-30 tonnes, these stoney creatures are hard to miss. They plod through the bamboo forests on three stumpy legs with it's three feeding arms constantly munching away at any sizable bit of vegetation, animal feces or carrion they can get along with stones and seashells. Their movement is announced by the constant rhythmic inhalation of three massive lungs in blisters on it's upper torso and the rumble and crackle of it's internal furnace organ. Inside which a fire is always kept kindled, fed with warmed air from their lungs and organic material as fuel with smoke and cinders billowing out from the Fumario on top. This organ gives them their name, is a key part of their digestive system and lets them live beyond volcanoes. An outer skin of hard stoney growths lined with an internal layer of mineral fur keeps their internal temperature high. Even so these creatures are hot to the touch, not that many that touch a live furnace beast live to tell of it. As they go, they leave trails of ashy excrement which many plants make use of as prime fertilizer.







Furnace beasts are not fast. At most they can reach up to maybe seven kilometers per hour over short bursts. They are however hideously strong and very durable. They are also rather territorial. Unless they are mating they'll actively avoid other furnace beasts. If meetings between Furnace Beasts which don't have mating on their minds happen the two creatures will fight, lashing at each other with stone crushing jaws while engaging in ramming attacks which make up for their lack of speed with tremendous kinetic energy. To keep these creature from threatening the villages and towns eating crops and homes, the native humans of the region dig moats around their settlements or build their dwellings on piles in swamps. Furnace beast are hesitant in the extreme to cross any body of water greater than a stream, for if their Furnace organ is flooded it can easily spell their doom. Their stony hides can easily turn aside arrows and only extremely high powered rifles have a hope of getting through. Even then their innards are fairly resiliant. But should enough of the shell be removed, the soft and often semi molten material of their flesh shall be exposed to open air and if not covered by an emergency patching fluid will spill, sputter, stink and solidify in the cool air. The results of which will leave the creature at best horribly scarred if not crippled or dead. Furnace Beasts are hunted as their bizarre biochemistry produces distinctive and useful substances found nowhere else, bud doing so is a risky business. Many a would be hunter ended up a pile of ash enriching the Bamboo forest floor.

