Protein Polymorph

Left alone, a protein polymorph is a big, shapeless blob or column of glistening gray protoplasm, an intelligent colony of cells. It has no language and does not converse or deal with other species, which it mostly views as food.

Depending on its size (6 HD, 7 HD or 8 HD), it can copy any object or creature whose Hit Dice do not exceed its own. Its cells can specialize or revert at will, changing texture and color completely in one round. It may form several bodies at once, linked by a barely visible thread or film of protoplasm (10% chance to notice). In any guise its THAC0, hit points and Hit Dice stay its own, while it borrows the copied creature's AC, its attack routine and the damage of each attack. It gains a copied creature's normal strengths but none of its special abilities: a giant bird shape cannot fly, and a giant spider shape neither spins webs nor injects venom.

Its repertoire runs from a heap of coins to a small room, from a group of six humans to a dozen kobolds, always choosing a form likely to attract meals. It may blend in real objects, building a corridor that is part stone and part polymorph, and its fake people may wear real clothes and carry real weapons taken from past victims. In its natural form it clubs prey, then wraps around and crushes it for 6-36 points per round; in armed forms it deals damage by weapon type.

Its control has limits. It cannot reproduce facial expressions or produce believable speech, which may give away a false person. Disguised as an object, it has a 10% base chance of being spotted from 10 feet, and touching it reveals the living cells at once.

These solitary, asexual creatures reproduce by splitting into two young that each inherit half of the parent's hit points and Hit Dice and that grow 1 HD per month until they reach the parent's size. Each claims a stretch of wilderness and wipes out rival predators there. When two polymorphs meet they usually part ways, one moving on, though occasionally they share the ground and split the spoils evenly. They always know their own kind under any disguise and never fight each other.

They are gluttonous hunters and must eat regularly; one that finds no food within 24 hours moves elsewhere. They prey on humans and animals of any size. Their ichor makes potions of polymorph self lasting twice the usual time (8+2d4 turns).