Ooze/Slime/Jelly I

Twisted wizards seeking to create life or breed better dungeon cleaners keep producing new oozes, slimes and jellies. What unites them is a corrosive touch that eats armor, weapons and flesh.

Kin to green slime but deadlier, this monstrous plant clings to ceilings in damp underground places and eats animal, vegetable and metal matter alike. Vibrations from below make it drop. Armor does not count against its hit roll, and Dexterity bonuses apply only if the target knows of it and is avoiding it. It exudes a numbing poison, spreads over the victim and roots parasitic tendrils, usually along a humanoid's spine, to feed on body fluids. A victim who fails a save vs. poison does not notice it landed; companions have a 50% chance to see it at a glance (modified only by magical items), and a wary search finds it easily.

Within 2d4 hours the host lives to feed, protect and hide the slime, fleeing at the first chance if friends grow suspicious or talk of destroying it. The host must eat double or waste away, losing 10% of its hit points daily (round up) without natural healing. After 1d6+6 days it painfully transforms into a plant being as slime replaces skin and muscle and bonds to its brain. The new creature ignores its former life, feeds by photosynthesis, paralysis or (most likely) both, and dies into a new slime patch. After that change, almost nothing below a limited wish can save the victim.

Only acid, fire, intense cold or cure disease harm olive slime. Plant spells work, though entangle accomplishes nothing. Green and olive slime cancel each other on contact.

The so-called slime zombies stay bonded to their parent patch out to 200 miles (not across planes), which can call them to its defense for instant, mindless obedience. Differing only by size, they share a 200-yard telepathic link, cluster to feed or defend, and only close inspection reveals who they were. They haunt populated underground areas, damp woods, fens and swamps, at ease on land or in warm shallows, and assault any man-sized creature they see in search of new hosts; each hit has a 10% chance to infect, after which they switch targets or flee to spare the new host.

Acid, fire, intense cold, magic missile and plant spells harm them (entangle barely); weapons, lightning and mind magic cannot kill them, but once physical damage equals their hit points the skeleton collapses into a puddle of olive slime. Green slime neutralizes them, dealing 2d4 per round until only an inert skeleton remains. Animal-smart, they learn from experience, set simple traps and wait in ambush at the foot of concealed pits.

This jelly exists because a young wizard's spell to turn herself into an ochre jelly went awry, which has since spread widely and become a grave threat. Deadlier than its model, it is translucent and nearly invisible, betrayed only by a faint smell of mustard blossoms, and turns yellow-brown when it strikes with an acidic pseudopod. A 10-foot-radius vapor surrounds it; each round those nearby save vs. poison or grow sluggish, moving at half speed for two rounds, with effects accumulating.

At will it splits into two quicker halves (movement 18), each attacking with half the hit points; it might divide to flank, then rejoin as a ring around a pillar its quarry climbed. It cannot squeeze through tiny gaps or move along ceilings or walls, so it reaches only 4 or 5 feet up, though it eats through wooden doors. Intelligent, it values treasure only as bait, though loot may outlast its victims. Electricity and normal weapons cannot harm it (it devours wooden ones), magic missile adds hit points equal to the damage rolled, cold deals half, and other attacks work normally.

Shaped by a forgotten mage to mimic a section of stone wall, this gelatinous cube relative is about 10 feet square and 2.5 to 5 feet thick. A bright light shines through it, continual light reveals any treasure within, and it moves silently but smells faintly of vinegar. Passersby may be struck by an anesthetic pseudopod: a successful save vs. paralyzation means no effect, failure means 5d4 rounds of paralysis while it engulfs and digests the victim. It is immune to paralysis, polymorph, electricity and mind-affecting spells but, unlike the cube, takes normal cold damage.

It splits by fission with a horrible tearing sound heard far around. It may carry undigested metal for days, including potions, daggers and similar items and treasure of types J through N and Q. Dungeon keepers like stunjellies as traps and sweepers because, unlike other oozes, they cannot slip through doors into unwanted places.