Ooze/Slime/Jelly II

These shapeless underworld horrors menace all life, dissolving flesh, armor and weapons.

A giant amoeba, it seeps along dark tunnels, through cracks and under doors seeking flesh or plant matter, and can cross walls and ceilings to drop on prey. It engulfs victims, its secretions dissolving 1d10+2 damage of flesh each round of contact. Cold and fire hurt it normally, but lightning splits off one or more lesser jellies, each dealing half damage. Asexual and solitary, sometimes accompanied by offspring it split from itself, eating and multiplying are its only purposes. It devours carrion and garbage, so some underground communities tolerate it as a cleaner, a hard arrangement that residents rarely enjoy given the danger.

Resembling wet stone or layered rock, a gray ooze is seldom over six to eight inches thick but may reach 12 feet long. It cannot climb, so it slides along cave floors, and it strikes like a snake. It corrodes metal frighteningly fast: one round for chain mail, two for plate, and for magical armor one round per plus. Fire, cold and spells do nothing; weapons and lightning deal full damage, though weapons that strike it may corrode and break.

After a big meal it buds a small leathery pod that hatches in two or three days, the youngster absorbing its shell and setting off to feed. Groups form only by chance, since oozes have no minds. Rumor holds that some master metalworkers keep tiny oozes in stone jars for etching and scoring their work, a risky and delicate trade.

This aquatic gray ooze is 75% invisible underwater, glassy and clear with milky swirls. It strikes like a snake, then flows over its prey to release paralytic poison; a failed save vs. poison leaves the victim helpless to be consumed, totally devoured at -20 hit points. Rather than metal, its poisons attack cloth, wood and flesh. Acid, cold, heat and fire cannot harm it; magic missile and electricity deal full damage; weapon hits deal just 1 point each, and wooden weapons must save vs. acid or dissolve.

It lives in any dark or dim water and survives hours out of it. Its pods hatch after seven to 10 days, and adults eat their young, though in large, food-rich waters several may coexist. Metal and stone objects left behind mean incidental treasure often lies in and around its lair.

Nearly transparent, these cubes glide down corridors absorbing trash and carrion and leaving slime trails. They cannot climb or cling to ceilings, though big ones grow tall enough to graze ceiling moss. A touch of anesthetic slime forces a save vs. paralyzation; failure means 5d4 rounds of helplessness while the cube engulfs and digests the victim with acids, the source of all its damage. Foes suffer -3 on surprise. Electricity, fear, hold, paralysis, polymorph and sleep do nothing; weapons and fire work normally. A cube failing a save against cold is slowed 50% and deals only 1d4.

Mindless eaters, they favor busy dungeons with steady scraps. They bud clear rubbery young in dark corners or on garbage heaps, ignoring and sometimes reabsorbing them. Swept-up metals, gems and jewelry ride inside until expelled, including the occasional dagger or potion and treasure types J through N and Q. Residents sometimes keep a cube as a scavenger, since its square shape cannot slip under doors.

Sticky, wet and vivid green, this growth coats walls, floors and ceilings of dark underground places. It cannot attack, but sensing vibration it often drops onto passersby. On living flesh it converts the creature to green slime in 1d4 rounds, beyond any resurrection. It eats an inch of wood per hour but devours metal fast, piercing plate armor in three rounds. It can be quickly scraped or cut off, frozen or burned, and cure disease kills it; other spells and weapons have no effect.

Hating light, it eats animal, vegetable and metal matter in dark caves and, immobile, grows only when food arrives; sunlight dries and kills it. Giant slimes and colonies of dozens are reported. All creatures shun it and miners burn it out, yet dormant spores can sprout years later, so it often returns after burning or freezing.