XADOR'S FLUID
Medium-Size Ooze
Hit Dice: 6d10+10 (43 hp)
Initiative: -5 (Dex)
Speed: 15 ft
AC: 5 (-5 Dex)
Attacks: Slam +4 melee
Damage: Slam 0 and envelop
Face/Reach: 5 ft by 5 ft/10 ft (with psuedopod)
Special Attacks: Envelop, suffocation, harden, drain
Special Qualitites: Blindsight, heat sense, brittle (vulnerability), ooze
Saves: Fort +2, Ref -3, Will -3
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 1, Con 10, Int 1, Wis 1, Cha 1
Climate/Terrain: Any underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 7-12 HD (Medium-Size); 13-18 HD (Large)
Xador's fluid is a jelly creature that combines with living skin, to make it hard like rock. This clear, runny fluid looks like a common mold, and lives in rocky, damp areas. Xador's fluid covers anywhere from three quare feet up to eighteen square feet. The fluid absorbs the nutrients from living flesh, and can't eat anything other than flesh and muscle. It flows over and covers its victims to feed, becoming solid in the process. Several days after finishing a victim off, it flakes off, reliquifies, and splits into two new fluids.
Xador's fluid is a dangerous substance, but can be made useful by resourceful beings. Brave characters who capture some of it can use it as armor in an emergency. After applying small amounts it to naked flesh for five rounds, it grants an effective +7 natural armor adjustment. This "Xador's mail" feels like painfully tight padded mail. Since the quagmire is still alive, it drains 1 hit point per round from the wearer, and will reproduce in 5-8 days if it kills the wearer. Another use of this is as improvisational "brass knuckles". This takes one round to apply, and does damage as spiked gauntlets. Yet another use for the fluid is to immobilize prisoners for a few hours. Captive Xador's fluid must devour at least one Medium-Size victim every two weeks, or it will dry up and die.
This fluid is named for an evil noble named Lord Xador, who punished criminals by exposing them to this fluid. The hardened forms of these miscreants were displayed as statues to make an example of them.
COMBAT
Xador's fluid attacks anything that comes within 10 feet. It lurches forward with a sudden spring attack, attempting to flow over its victim.
Envelop (Ex): If Xador's fluid hits an opponent with its slam attack, it flows over the victim's body in one round, unless a successful Reflex (DC 16) save is made. If this save is failed, the victim is subject to all of the fluid's other attacks.
Suffocation (Ex): Any victim enveloped by Xador's fluid must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 12) or die of suffocation in 1d4 rounds. Four hit points of damage done to the fluid is enough to free the mouth and nose of a victim suffocating, if intent is declared.
Harden (Ex): Xador's fluid combines with the living skin of its victims, hardening to the consistency of solid rock. The victim becomes effectively solidified, covered by a thin layer of hard material. The victim can break free on a successful Strength check (DC 19).
Drain (Ex): Xador's fluid derives sustenance from its victim's fluids, and drains 1 hit point from the victim every ten rounds.
Heat Sense (Ex): Xador's fluid can sense sources of heat, including warm-blooded creatures, in a 10-foot radius.
Brittle (Ex): Hardened Xador's fluid is more easily destroyed than in its liquid form. A successful hit with a bludgeoning weapon, or use of a barkskin spell, shatters and destroys solid Xador's fluid. Every three hit points of damage done to the fluid inflicts 1 hit point of damage to the creature underneath. If the trapped character breaks free with a Strength check, or if the fluid loses all of its hit points, the creature is destroyed and flakes off.
Xador's fluid first appeared in Dragon Magazine #127 (Dragon's Bestiary, 1987, Thomas M. Kane).