The Meltdown was an experiment created by Five Pebbles as a potential way to slow down the rot, but it didn't work....
The Meltdown was deemed too inefficient for it's purpose due to needing a large amount of food to use it's abilities.

Now it wanders the land, hungering for a freshly cooked meal.



~Appearance~

The Meltdown is a lizard with a snout full of sharp teeth and spikes along it's back and tail. The tail is slightly longer and thinner than a slugcat tail. It's hands, feet, and head are a dull grey color until it attacks, that's when those parts rapidly light up red, yellow, and orange, flickering rapidly like a flame. The body and tail are just a solid black.




~Abilities & Upsides~

Hold the throw button to shoot searing flames up to 2 and a half magenta lizard lengths away, dealing damage and afterburn.
You're able to breathe fire while moving backwards, you can also aim it upwards and downwards.
Flames and the damage they do ramps up on a target the longer they're being burned. As the flame grows in intensity, so does the hunger drain. A creature's size determines how fast the flames and afterburn kills them.

Creatures cook faster if they're small and slower if they're large. Once they look sufficiently cooked, give them a nibble and see if it's done. Overcooking can lead to charred meat, which isn't as filling as cooked meat.

When grabbed by a creature, spam the jump button for a small chance to bite your aggressor in the face, doing some damage and inflicting afterburn while stunning it for one second.
You only have 5 seconds to do this before you're probably dead...

With at least 10 food pips, hold down and pickup to charge your meltdown move. Every creature within a large radius panics and begins to burn horribly, causing them to attempt escape. The ability lasts for 10 seconds and takes 10 hunger pips, making all of your movement slightly slower for the rest of the cycle.
You can only do this ONCE per cycle.

Any projectiles that enter the radius are quickly incinerated.

You move every so slightly faster than a slugcat when crawling and can climb poles slightly faster.

You can slowly burn away rot and kill the long legs, but don't eat them......

Spears and rubbish bounces off your head, but your body is squishy.




~Downsides~

You have a total of 15 food pips and a sleep requirement of 9.

You cannot stand or walk on two legs.

Non-meat foods and raw meat make you faceplant because you were make to eat cooked meat.

Scavengers fear and hate you since you're basically a dragon.




~Campaign~

Uhhh much rot very stanky.

More aggressive wildlife.