Editing v0.34:Iron man

{{quality|Exceptional|03:12, 20 October 2010 (UTC)}}
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|item=☼[[iron]] [[statue]]☼ (worth 3000☼)
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[[File:Iron_golem.png|thumb|left|Admired for its stern appearance.]]
'''Iron men''' have the same average size as an adult human and can [[building destroyer|destroy buildings]]. Upon 'death' iron men become a random masterwork iron [[statue]]. Parts like thumbs and noses removed from the statue during combat may be [[melt item|melted]] at a [[smelter]] in order to produce a small amount of [[iron]].

Iron men are not as tough as you could expect, most likely because iron men are 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. Being made of iron and being more than seven times heavier than a human, they are vulnerable to falling damage, four Z-levels being enough to cripple or kill most iron men. Iron men are unharmed by fire and magma, but can be damaged by [[dragonfire]] just like regular iron items.

Much like iron golems in other games, iron men breathe a poisonous gas. When inhaled, this poison gas causes a [[syndrome]] called "iron man cough", consisting of coughing up blood. Dwarves with standard disease resistance will experience a peak in coughing shortly after (100 [[time|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, [[thought|being sick]] is the straw that breaks the camel's back of your dwarf's [[insanity|sanity]].

===Creature behavior and origin===
{{D for Dwarf}}

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Surprisingly, the Iron Man does not deplete your fortress' [[alcohol|booze]] supplies, nor does it woo nearly all of your female dwarves.

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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. The scholars are now running around naked, on account of losing a bet.

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.

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{{Category|Humanoids}}