Mereger

The mereger (pronounced /ˈmɛrədʒɚ/) is a life form found on the world of B'gor, resembling a gigantic caterpillar made of a patchwork of flesh and rubber, combined with metal rivets and flanges. Its twenty limbs are fully metallic and apparently mechanical, constructions of beams, plates, and gearwork. Though the overall form is roughly constant, meregers differ widely in the details: the exact construction of the limbs, the pattern of flesh and rubber that makes up the body. Most of the mereger's metal parts are steel or copper, though small bits of silver, aluminum, and other materials may also exist, their distribution being apparently haphazard. The mereger's flesh differs widely in color, from pale green to ash grey to the peach of light human flesh.

Meregers need to consume both meat to heal and build their fleshy sections and oil and metal for their inorganic parts. The oil they get readily from the runoff of the Oleo; it is primarily in the immediate vicinity of the Rainbow Sea and the Metal Marsh that meregers are naturally found. The metal they get by invading mines or scavenging abandoned machinery, although since their metal parts are durable enough to seldom need much repair, an adult mereger requires very little metal intake. The flesh a mereger needs it gets through simple predation, and in fact meregers are one of the most feared predators of their areas.

Anatomy

The inside of a mereger is as much a combination of flesh and metal as its exterior. Although meregers contain a full organic digestive system, they also contain an oil-based hydraulic system that runs their limbs and certain other parts—though their main body moves by biological muscles. Their interior scaffolding is mainly of metal wire and hydrostatic tubes filled with inorganic fluids, with some fleshy tendons holding it all together.

Ingested food is first ground to a paste in a sort of a mill composed of spiral blades in the mereger's mouth. From there, it reaches the mereger's gullet, where what appears to be a modified epiglottis determines whether the food will go to its esophagus (for organic food), or into the pipes that lead to its processing organs (for metal and oil). The mereger has no trachea, as it doesn't breathe through its mouth; while the mereger does respire, the air is drawn in and expelled through vents on its sides, under which are fans to direct the airflow.

Behavior

The mereger is relatively unintelligent, and seems to spend most of its time either inert or hunting for food. It tends to choose a particular type of nutrient to look for at a time, and if the mereger is currently at rest or seeking oil or metal it will show no interest in any (nonthreatening) living thing it encounters, even if it would be easy prey. (This does not preclude the enormous mereger accidentally crushing a living being in passing, however.) When on the hunt for meat, however, it is voracious, and will pursue prey over long distances, not giving up until its appetite is sated. Because it's not fully made of organic materials, the mereger requires much less intake of flesh than other carnivores of comparable size, but it still needs enough to be frequently on the hunt.

The mereger's main weapon against its prey is its sheer bulk, crushing its victims into submission. If this fails, however, or if its quarry is too fleet for it to easily catch up with, it does have other options. It can slice enemies with its bladed limbs, or, in extremis, fire razor-sharp shards of metal at distant foes.

Lair

A mereger usually establishes a lair where it spends its quiescent time. Meregers' lairs are usually relatively out of the way and difficult to access, the better to ensure the mereger isn't bothered while it rests. Often meregers find derelict buildings and lair therein, arranging debris to shape the space to its liking and block extraneous exits. Failing that, they may dig a hole in a hillside, or simply collect enough rubble and junk to pile it into a suitable den. Whatever the case, meregers try to ensure that their lairs have only one exit, and that there is something heavy they can push into place to block the exit when they're inside.

Because meregers tend to collect materials to properly shape their lairs as they like them, a mereger's lair may contain some valuable treasures. This is especially true of precious metals, which meregers seem particularly likely to collect—perhaps because they may serve as a reserve for emergency repairs if the meregers can't find enough of the steel and copper they prefer. Still, entering a mereger's lair, however lucrative, is a risky proposition. If a mereger returns to its lair to find an interloper there, it will immediately attack... and of course if the mereger is already in its lair when the intruder arrives, things are no better; a mereger at rest is not unaware of its surroundings, and is quick to rouse to the assault.

Reproduction

Meregers don't procreate through normal means—in fact, meregers are genderless and completely antisocial beings, and if two meregers meet they either ignore each other or fight to the death. (Exactly what determines which course of action they take is unclear.) Rather, new meregers seem to form spontaneously from collections of mechanical parts and oil, such as a shipwreck in the Rainbow Sea. This doesn't mean that existing meregers play no part in their reproduction—it seems that larval meregers only appear where an adult mereger has passed within the last twenty days or so. The mechanism is assumed to involve some sort of lingering rhegus the mereger somehow leaves behind, but so far efforts to discern this enchantment have proven unsuccessful.

A newly formed larval mereger is made entirely of metal and other inorganic parts, little more than a ball of gears and blades. It quickly hunts for living prey so that it can devour it and grow flesh, and mature into its adult form. Until they've acquired sufficient organic material, larval metegers are particularly voracious; fortunately, they don't stay in this stage for long. Exactly how long a mereger stays in this larval stage depends on how much it feeds, but on average it takes perhaps a few weeks for a larval mereger to grow into its adult form.