OLIVE SLIME (CR 5)

Olive slime is a more dangerous relative of green slime that transforms living creatures into vegetable zombies.  This slime is a plantlike growth that clings to walls and ceilings of underground caverns, waiting for something to drop on and eat.  Olive slime blends in with other slime and moss on cave walls, and is difficult to see on a Spot check (DC 18).  The slime's tremorsense allows it to detect its favorite foods - that is, anything animal, vegetable, or metallic.  Contact with this slime causes a numbing poison to ooze out from it, while the slime spreads itself over the body of its victim and begins to feed on the victim's bodily fluids.  Affected creatures have a chance to notice the slime before it begins feeding:  they must make a Fortitude save (DC 16) in the first round of contact to avoid the effects of the poison, and brush the stuff off before its parasitic tendrils begin feeding.  Nearby creatures can notice the slime on a companion with a casual glance before it's too late on a successful Spot check (DC 12), and a thorough search reveals it without difficulty.

   Affected victims soon have their brains and bodies altered by the slimes they are serving host to.  Within 2d4 hours, the host creature's main concern will become finding ways to feed, protect, and sustain the olive slime's growth, which also includes keeping the slime secret if undetected.  After this initial transformation, the victim will attempt to escape if the character's companions become suspicious or try to destroy or remove the slime.  The host's daily food intake doubles for the next 3d4 days, at which point the host undergoes the sudden and painful metemorphosis into an olive slime creature.  The slime creature's skin and muscle tissue are slowly replaced with slimy green plant mass, and its brain forms a symbotic link with the olive slime.  This new slime creature has no interest in things of its former life, and now exists only as a plantlike lifeform.  When slain, this slime creature dissolves into a new patch of olive slime.  There is very little, short of a limited wish spell, that will restore a slime creature to normal.

   Olive slime has the usual immunities of all slimes, including mind-influencing effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, and polymorphing, nor are they subject to critical hits.  In addition, olive slime is only harmed by acid, cold, and fire attacks, or by a cure disease spell.  Spells which affect plants also work on olive slime for the most part, although some (such as entangle) have no practical effect.  Green slime and olive slime neutralize each others' effects, and are never found growing near one another.