A creature capable of producing a radioactive stream of nuclear fire isn't something anyone wants to encounter. But in some Weird Science recursions, that's exactly what you'll find stalking across the battlefields or inhabiting the bowels of a ruined nuclear power plant.

Ignitherms are cyborg creatures created for war and destruction, and at that task, few things are better suited. However, an underlying defect at the gene level in many ignitherms led to an unanticipated condition where several shut down or abandoned their genetic programming rather than fight. These creatures were never decommissioned or safely disposed of in underground ordnance dumps, and they still wander.

Motive: Usually destruction and defeat of last known designated enemy

Environment (Weird Science): Almost anywhere, sometimes underground, sometimes in the vanguard of an army

Health: 21

Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (7 points)

Armor: 2

Movement: Short when walking or burrowing

Modifications: Speed defense as level 6 due to size; all tasks related to seeing through tricks or elaborate stratagems as level 4.

Combat: An ignitherm attacks with a radioactive bite. It can also breathe a narrow stream of nuclear fire at a target within long range.

Once every few hours, an ignitherm can summon enough nuclear fire to emit a wide stream of radioactive plasma at a target it can see up to a mile (2 km) away. The target and all creatures and objects within the designated area must succeed on a Might defense roll or suffer 14 points of damage from the miniscule nuclear detonation. Creatures and objects that succeed still take 7 points of damage.

Whenever a victim takes damage from an ignitherm, whether from a bite, nuclear breath, or detonation, he must succeed on a separate Might defense roll or he contracts radiation sickness. Each day, the character makes a Might defense roll; on a failure, he takes 8 points of ambient damage. If this happens three times before the character succeeds on a Might defense roll, he succumbs.

If an ignitherm can find a radioactive source to consume (such as radioactive waste or the uranium rods in a nuclear power plant), the creature regains full health after a few rounds of eating.

Interaction: Most of these creatures just roll over characters who try to talk or surrender, but a defective few might crave speaking with someone new.

Use: An ignitherm is smashing its way up through the bedrock under the city, even though (according to the recursion's context) it was deactivated and buried in an ordnance dump when the last war ended fifty years earlier. Someone needs to take care of the creature before it kills hundreds of thousands of people.

GM Intrusion: The residual radiation from the ignitherm's attack has an odd effect on the character's cyphers. One cypher chosen by the GM explodes, activates, or does something else unexpected and probably inconvenient.