Titan Slimes

[Shadekeep]

Been working on these ideas for a while, and now that Steve has posted a huge slime of his own today, I figure I should share these as well. One of them, the Dune Scourge, I have further plans for in the near future.

Slimes, like many other creatures, are prone to extremes of size given their habitat. Indeed, many can grow quite huge, as they don't have the internal support structures that can constrain the size of other lifeforms. Here are five of the Titan Slimes that may be found on Cidri.

Corpse Butter - This pallid yellow slime favours crevices in cavern walls, and may also dwell within the walls of disused wells and mine shafts. It generally subsides on the life that swarms those stony surfaces, but if larger prey passes within its sensory range then it will strike. It sends out a spray of its own flesh in thick ropy tendrils, attempting to snare its prey. Then it will inexorably pull itself back into its crevice, attempting to take the prey along with it. Usually compression kills the prey in short order, but the cracking of bones can be heard long afterwards as the slow inward pull continues. It reproduces via sexual spores and grows at whatever rate its food supply will allow. Small examples may subsist off of cave insects and bats, but there are ones so large that they have no trouble with a person or even a bear. Again, apart from the availability of food and the size of habitable crevices, there is not much else which constrains their final size.

Pwdre Ser - There are no reliable witness accounts of the whole creatures, but they are believed to be large slimes that dwell high up in the atmosphere and which are drawn to storm clouds. They are a colonial organism, with hundreds of slimes aggregating as a single vast mass, forming an air-filled bladder that keeps the colony aloft. Sometimes a violent storm will tear segments of the colony apart, raining down in chunks of what is called "pwdre ser" (Welsh for "rot of the stars"). Some falls of this matter report it as inoffensive, while others describe it as having a sickening acrid odor or caustic properties. The chunks may be clear, or transparently coloured, or contain strands of coloured fibres. Regardless of any other attributes, it is notoriously difficult to collect, as it will evaporate within hours and leave only a thin film behind. (Thanks to William Corliss, who documented such falls of "star-rot" on our own planet.)

Living Lake - This is one of the few slime which can endure daylight, as it has the same refractory index as water and thus light largely passes through it. Further, it dwells in large bodies of water, where it can be difficult to distinguish. What generally gives it away is the debris and fish/animal skeletons suspended inside it, which appear to be stubbornly hovering in place within water until you discern the slime itself. Very large specimens of this slime may occupy much of a lake bed, and the oceanic version is often studded with the rotting timbers and scattered treasure of ships lost at sea. (I realise this shares some attributes with the new Water Slime, but I devised this one before that was posted and figured it differed enough to possibly be useful still.)

Dune Scourge - This spherical desert-dwelling slime protects itself from sunlight with a constantly-renewed coating of sand, which it picks up as it rolls through the desert seeking organic matter. The slime beneath the shell is a pearlescent nacreous green, with adhesive white fibres on the surface that help collect and hold the sand. They reproduce by mitosis, budding off hundreds of small new scourges, only a few of which typically survive to reach full size (20 feet in diameter is considered mature, though ones much greater than that have been reported at times). They are solitary creatures, in part because the opportunistic scourges are also cannibals. (Inspired in part by the Julian May short story "Dune Roller".)

Pastepot - This tropical slime is white, perpetually streaked with dark smears of dirt and organic effluvia. It resembles in colour and texture the paste used by bookbinding scribes. This hideous and rapacious omnivorous horror is fully immune to sunlight. It will steadily devour a swathe through the jungle, consuming anything that cannot evade or resist it. Stone-based life, such as gargoyles and stone beetles, are immune to its digestive enzymes, and a few creatures like basilisks will actually eat the flesh of a Pastepot. Otherwise it is best destroyed or avoided. (Inspired by the "doughpot" from the Stanley G. Weinbaum stories "Parasite Planet" and "The Lotus Eaters".)

EDIT: I can provide game stats for these if there is interest, though in most cases the ST stats are going to be astronomical. These titans would take a large-scale effort to eradicate in most cases, except for small specimens of Corpse Butter or Dune Scourge. In general they act more as an environmental hazard than an enemy encounter.

[larsdangly]

Fantastic! Do you have stats and/or special guidance for attacks, etc. with these?

[Anomylous]

These are great!

Thoughts:

Water Slimes are clearly just juvenile Living Lakes - no conflict here!

Forest fires must kill off Pastepots pretty effectively. Something has to, otherwise they'd take over.

[Shadekeep]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

Fantastic! Do you have stats and/or special guidance for attacks, etc. with these?

I am working those up now. I very much appreciate any feedback on these, as it's been a while since I played TFT and these values may need to be tweaked to make the creatures more playable.

Originally Posted by Anomylous

Forest fires must kill off Pastepots pretty effectively. Something has to, otherwise they'd take over.

Excellent point, and yes, they are very vulnerable to fires. They also have an extremely high metabolism and will auto-cannibalise when food is scarce. I will add further threats to them in their stat breakout, as they need to be part of a larger ecosystem so that they don't destroy the world. ^_^

Thank you both for the comments! Stats to follow.

[Shadekeep]

Corpse Butter

This pallid yellow slime favours crevices in cavern walls, and may also dwell within the walls of disused wells and mine shafts. It generally subsides on the life that swarms those stony surfaces, but if larger prey passes within its sensory range then it will strike. It sends out a spray of its own flesh in thick ropy tendrils, attempting to snare its prey. Then it will inexorably pull itself back into its crevice, attempting to take the prey along with it. Usually compression kills the prey in short order, but the cracking of bones can be heard long afterwards as the slow inward pull continues. It reproduces via sexual spores and grows at whatever rate its food supply will allow. Small examples may subsist off of cave insects and bats, but there are ones so large that they have no trouble with a person or even a bear. Again, apart from the availability of food and the size of habitable crevices, there is not much else which constrains their final size.

TFT Stats:

Minor - The smallest form generally encountered, mostly feeds off cave beetles, bats, and other nuisance-level prey. The slime can throw tendrils up to two hexes from the crevice it inhabits. Players caught in the tendrils of one suffer a -4 DX penalty while snared, plus a single point of constriction damage to to snared body point on the first round. They can free themselves by killing the slime or making a 3D6 save against ST. It can simultaneously attack up to two targets in range.
ST: 10+1D6
DX: 11 (for tendril hits)
IQ: 1
MA: 0

Standard - The most commonly encountered form, capable of snaring players and 1-hex animals with ease. The tendrils of this slime act essentially as a ROPE spell, with the added danger that when the prey's DX is effectively 0, they are then pulled into the crevice, suffering 1D6+1 points of damage per turn. This is compression damage and armor protection is only counted on the first turn of damage (after that, the armor is crushing the victim as much as the stone walls). The tendrils have a reach of five hexes from the crevice, and it can simultaneously attack up to three targets in range (counted by hex-size, so 1 three-hex beast, or 3 1-hex players, or whatever other combination).
ST: 20+3D6
DX: 11 (for tendril hits)
IQ: 1
MA: 0

Major - The largest form most often reported (even larger ones exist, but few people survive the encounter to describe them). It can snare 4-hex animals, and impede even larger ones. Dragons are known to scour their lairs for these huge examples and exterminate them when possible, as they are a threat even to their young. Their tendrils can reach eight hexes from the crevice and should be treated as a GIANT ROPE spell. As with the Standard version, any prey falling to 0 DX is pulled into the crevice, where they will suffer 2D6+1 damage per turn (again, armor only protects on the first turn here). This monster can snare up to five targets per turn (also counted by hex-size, as with the Standard version).
ST: 50+5D6
DX: 11 (for tendril hits)
IQ: 1
MA: 0

Strengths/Weaknesses:
None of note, though it does share the typical slime aversion to light. If one is using a weapon enchanted with light or fire, the illumination will do an extra +2 damage to the slime per hit.

[Shadekeep]

Pwdre Ser

There are no reliable witness accounts of the whole creatures, but they are believed to be large slimes that dwell high up in the atmosphere and which are drawn to storm clouds. They are a colonial organism, with hundreds of slimes aggregating as a single vast mass, forming an air-filled bladder that keeps the colony aloft. Sometimes a violent storm will tear segments of the colony apart, raining down in chunks of what is called "pwdre ser" (Welsh for "rot of the stars"). Some falls of this matter report it as inoffensive, while others describe it as having a sickening acrid odor or caustic properties. The chunks may be clear, or transparently coloured, or contain strands of coloured fibres. Regardless of any other attributes, it is notoriously difficult to collect, as it will evaporate within hours and leave only a thin film behind. (Thanks to William Corliss, who documented such falls of "star-rot" on our own planet.)

TFT Stats:

There are no meaningful stats for the fallen chunks of Pwdre Ser, since they do not provide any kind of opposition. Certain fragments may cause acid damage if touched, or have a chance of inducing nausea from the smell. The living colonial form of the creatures would be rarely encountered, unless the players are somehow flying high above the cloud layer. Should that be the case, here are some general stats:

ST: 100 x 2D6
DX: 1
IQ: 1
MA: variable

The MA is variable because the colony floats and thus moves in general where the wind bears it, though it does exert some small influence on direction to the effect of MA 3 in the direction it desires to travel. Most times it desires to travel towards storm clouds and away from anything that causes it pain.

The size of the colony is 1 hex per 5 ST points, so they can be quite large indeed. Every 5 points of damage reduces the colony size by one hex, and any damage done beyond half the colony's ST has a 50% chance of destroying the integrity of the colony's air sac, sending the damaged portion crashing to the ground and the intact slimes breaking away from the colony and scattering into the wind.

Strengths/Weaknesses: Pwdre Ser is completely immune to electrical damage, and indeed is believed to feed in part off of static electricity. The aspect of storms that usually damage the colony are hailstones and other airborne abrasives. The slime is not especially vulnerable to light, either. Projectile weapons that do piercing damage do double damage to the colony, however.

[Tolenkar]

These are very creative, Shadekeep. Nice work!

[Shadekeep]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

These are really good! I encourage you to put together a little pdf of them for distribution!

Originally Posted by Tolenkar

These are very creative, Shadekeep. Nice work!

Thank you both! And I would like to get these out there in some form like a PDF. With the new licensing agreement for TFT coming, I'm having ideas in that direction. More info as it comes together!