2010-10-02

Corpse Jelly

No, it's not a condiment, it's a monster.  Although if there's a market for corpse jelly, let me know, because I've got to do something with all these bodies.

I've switched to Labyrinth Lord style stat blocks for my monster posts.  The only substantive change is the "hoard class", which uses a roman numeral, as opposed to the "treasure type".

Corpse Jelly
No. Enc: 1d4
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 10' (3')
  On Skeleton:  90' (30')
Armor Class: 9 (or as armor)
Hit Dice:1+2
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6 + see below
Save: F 1
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: VI
XP: 21

This clear jelly, in its natural state, will attack as other jellies and oozes, by flowing along the ground and attempting to engulf victims.  Once it has engulfed a victim and digested its flesh, it uses the victim's skeletal structure to move around more quickly.  Being able to hold a skeleton together and cause it to walk is the creature's strength and its weakness, as the corpse jelly cannot absorb blows as well as more traditional jellies and oozes (thus its low hit dice).

A corpse jelly will attempt to kill all creatures it meets.  It will not stop to feed on a corpse until all creatures around are dead.  Once it begins feeding, it will abandon the old skeleton and engulf the new corpse.

When the corpse jelly strikes, it leaves a smear of itself on the victim.  If the victim dies within the next 24 hours (and isn't consumed by the parent corpse jelly), this smear will itself consume the body and become a new corpse jelly.  A corpse jelly that kills multiple victims will only consume one, leaving the rest to its spawn.  It takes 48 hours for a new corpse jelly to grow and consume its host.  The corpse jelly smears cause no damage to living hosts, and will die off within a day.

The corpse jelly replaces its victim's flesh as it consumes it.  The jelly will thus be wearing any armor the victim had when he died.  The jelly will remove gloves so its hands are free to strike.  Its touch is both acidic and paralyzing.  If a victim fails to save, he will be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds.

When reduced to 1 or 2 hit points, the jelly's skeleton will be damaged beyond use, and it will flow off the skeleton to attack as a normal jelly (with reduced movement rate).  A skeleton-less jelly that encounters an undamaged skeleton will spend 1 round to engulf the skeleton, healing itself 1d4 hit points in the process, if damaged.

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