Just a Knight about to fight a Dragon. Nothing unusual there.
Not to be confused for the 1984 Armor, and shares no connection, beyond the name.
Armor is a 2022 fantasy novel written by C.B. Titus, focusing upon the titular suit of Armor, who now must figure out its purpose.
Designed to be the ultimate trap, an Armor Monster devours anyone foolish enough to wear it. However, after its latest meal, it goes against the usual script of "betraying" the party, and kills its master. Deciding to become an Adventurer, it travels with the party, helping people in need. However, it soon finds trouble, the least of which is trying to not expose itself for what it is to its party members.
Armor provides examples of:
- 24-Hour Armor: For obvious reasons, the Armor Monster is always wearing their armor. The real trick is explaining why. Thankfully, they come up with a very good reason — they're under an Oath.
- Alien Blood: The Armor Monster "bleeds" a type of black ichor, if seriously damaged.
- Animated Armor: The Armor Monster is a suit of armor that can move on its own free will. However, it's more than just merely enchanted armor.
- Backup Bluff: At one point, when alone, the Armor Monster senses that there's some people about to ambush them. To avoid trouble, they use the voices of their past meals to make itself sound like a decently powerful group that can handle business. The troublemakers run away.
- Bag of Holding: The Armor Monster can store many items within itself, including weapons, food, poison, trinkets that it likes, useful metal, and much more. Actual bags of holding are mentioned as items that are no longer around, due to the magic being used to maked them being lost. As it turns out, one of them was used in the Armor Monster's creation.
- Dem Bones: Among some of the creatures that the party has to deal with, skeletons are encountered.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: Despite being an Armor Monster, who can't be seriously physically damaged, they can feel emotional pain and suffering.
- Due to the Dead: Showing respect to the dead keeps them from becoming undead. Later on, Stone, the party's rogue, places a gold coin on the body of a friend-turned-foe, claiming that they owed him something, for what their former friend had done for them.
- Easily Forgiven: The party figures out that the Armor Monster isn't Sevald, but understand that, at the time, they didn't fully know what they were doing was wrong. The Armor Monster has also attempted to make amends for what they've done, like returning a prior victim's keepsake to their father. Their own "meals" even forgive them in the end.
- Eat Brain for Memories: The Armor Monster gains the memories of those it eats, learning all that they know - language, skills, and personality to some degree. That being said, intact bodies, or heads, tend to be the best sources of knowledge.
- Fights Like a Normal: When surrounded by those who don't know that they aren't human, and doesn't want them to find out the truth, the Armor Monster fights as if they were human.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Kyren, the party's healer, is a quarter wood elf. There are also others with mixed ancestry.
- Heel–Face Turn: Originally just a trap, the Armor Monster made a decision, and eventually became a hero.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: The Armor Monster can store weapons within itself.
- I Gave My Word: To explain why they are always wearing armor, they, in the guise of Sevald, swears an oath to not remove their armor, until said armor weighs less than the sin of thinking about killing their teammates.
- Interspecies Romance: Hrig, the party's barbarian, develops a crush on the Armor Monster. The feeling becomes mutual.
- Knightly Sword and Shield: Using a longsword and a shield is the Armor Monster's usual method of fighting, until they need to use other methods.
- Miss Kitty: One of Stone's daughters runs a "temple" that's more of a brothel.
- Multi-Melee Master: Despite primarily using a sword and shield, the Armor Monster is good with any weapon it can grab.
- No Name Given: The Armor Monster never gets an actual name, and instead tends to go by the name of its fourth meal — Sevald.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Anytime the Armor Monster is hit by anything not affected by divine-based energy, they simply just repair their armor.
- Really Gets Around:
- Stone, the group's rogue, has a number of daughters, much to his mild dismay, as he only has daughters.
- Aurum, the Big Bad wasn't too picky about whom he slept with. His sexual partners included humans, elves, goblins, orcs — and those are just the ancestors of his known descendants.
- Revive Kills Zombie: Whenever Kyren, the party's healer, attempts to heal the Armor Monster's injuries, it actually hurts them. It's a clue that divine energy could potentially destroy him.
- Sapient Eat Sapient: The Armor Monster has eaten people in the past. Then there are races that eat other people, like the nagas and lizardfolk.
- Spoiler Cover: The cover gives away the fact that the Armor Monster gets into a fight with a golden dragon.
- Square Race, Round Class: Stone, a dwarf, is the party's rogue.
- Standard Fantasy Races: There's humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, and a few others. Some even intermarry.
- You Are Who You Eat: The Armor Monster ate four people who were reasonably good. As a result, they've become good.
