Scamille

Scamilles are shape-shifting amoeboid creatures of the underground, kin to ochre jellies but far brighter and capable of disguise. Their natural form is a huge amoeba: a black nucleus inside a mass of rock-gray protoplasm, with six pseudopods reaching out. They give off a faintly sour, acidic smell, though they do not attack with acid. To talk, a scamille shapes itself a mouth. It speaks Common, its favorite language, and has no tongue of its own.

Scamilles are not aggressive by nature. They prefer to watch a party first and decide whether it is a threat, and if the visitors prove interesting, perhaps witty or well-spoken, they may keep watching for some time.

At rest, a scamille becomes an inanimate object such as a rock, wall, door, table, chair or chest. It cannot copy a living creature, and each individual can manage only one object form. The change happens naturally, as the body pulls itself together when weary, rather than by deliberate effort. It can shift its color a little, but a careful look reveals that the 'object' is wrong. Disguised, it imposes -1 on opponents' surprise rolls.

In a fight it strikes with six pseudopods for 3d6 damage each. It can make one of them sticky at a time; a creature hit by that limb is stuck fast. Someone stuck fast may fight only with whatever weapon was already drawn, at -4, cannot cast spells with material components, and is hit automatically by the other five (non-sticky) pseudopods. Escaping takes two successful bend bars rolls, one attempt per round in place of attacking. Otherwise the victim is freed only if the scamille lets go, if oil of slipperiness is applied, or if the creature dies.

When a victim dies, the scamille pulls the body inside and dissolves it, along with everything it carried, in 1d4 rounds of potent acid.

Light is its weakness. A light spell cast on it prevents it from forming pseudopods for a round, and cast on a disguised scamille, forces it back into its amoeba shape.

They live in caves and fissures and seldom come to the surface, even after dark. Several may share an area, but there is no group mind; each does as it likes. They reproduce by dividing about every five years, once they have collected enough material to split, and they usually live about 120 years.

Scamilles adore secrets, and their disguise makes them perfect eavesdroppers on other underground dwellers. In a good mood one may trade information for food, but their tempers swing wildly.

They tidy cavern floors, especially by absorbing the remains of intruders. Besides animal and plant matter they eat small amounts of stone and minerals, and even draw some nourishment from a dead victim's gear. Scraps of human or demihuman food are a special delicacy to them.