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.