Ooze Sprite

Nothing about this mound of goo is sprightly, yet it stands apart from every other creature native to the Ooze plane. An anonymous sage of the great planar city warns that ooze sprites rarely show themselves, quietly master everything around them, may secretly run the whole plane and beyond, and should be watched. It sounds like lunatic raving, but travelers should heed it: sprites are smart, organized, hard to fight and skilled at controlling minds. Voiceless, they converse in a sign language of pseudopod gestures and body shapes capable of complex ideas.

A sprite can take nearly any shape, seeping through narrow gaps and molding harmlessly to whatever confines it; it cannot be crushed, cut, pierced or grabbed. Weapon blows cannot hurt it, except that a magical weapon deals damage equal to its bonus (1 for +1, 2 for +2, and so on). Amid ooze or slime it hides 95% of the time and imposes -2 on foes' surprise.

Its weapon is an innate suggestion passed by touch. A special secretion smeared on skin carries commands straight to the brain. It needs a hit to make contact, and the target may resist with a save vs. spell. Anything with Intelligence 1 or more is vulnerable, but the effect fades after an hour, so orders are short and simple, like 'come here so I can eat you' or 'go away.'

Sprites form small nomadic tribes whose chieftains are chosen by a blend of rotation and election, so most eventually lead. About every six years of planar city time, the chieftains meet and elect a king, and every sprite donates a potent chemical from its body to him. Swollen to 10 Hit Dice, the king roams the plane hunting and culling the weak of his own kind, keeping the population small but strong. To breed, every tribe member gives some of its mass and mind to a single offspring, which the tribe raises jointly and which matures very fast, inheriting knowledge directly from its many parents.

They see nothing evil in mind control; other creatures are tools or food, so using them cannot be wrong. Ooze mephits are common puppets, carrying signed messages between tribes or serving as quick transport. Because sprites never imagine others might match or exceed their intellect, they never command anything requiring thought or initiative, and never make a victim speak, unaware that speech exists.

Tales say one sprite was carried to the great planar city, where people taught it about other races and planes and gave it a charm allowing slow, guttural speech. First called Glurrimoth, it climbed through the city's underworld by controlling minds, took the form of a short, fat, bald man with oily skin, and as Master Murk now reportedly runs a huge criminal ring. Its deeper aims, if any, are unknown.

Their origin baffles sages, who rarely think of evolution on the Inner Planes. Arising unaided from muck seems unlikely, as does deliberate creation, unless the creator also overlooked the intelligence around it. Most blame a magical accident, though scholars admit that is their answer whenever they have no clue. Sprites eat tiny native life, from microscopic organisms to grubs and worms of the mire.