pawsplay said:
I don't see any reason why you couldn't pummel an ooze with nonlethal damage. I imagine oozes don't like being punched. They can feel pain, after all.
I'm not so sure about that. Then again, I tend to view oozes as a vast collection of amoebas or other single cellular organisms.
Hmm, as for frozen oozes, that's an excellent idea! Several ideas occur, although I must admit to curiosity about the drink bit. I think you'd have to actually swallow the ooze to take damage, but most people I know would spit out a liquid that was burning their tongue that bad - especially if it was unexpected.
I think I like the idea of a group in a sub-polar setting during the spring. They set up camp only to realise halfway through the night that the pool next to where they set camp had a thawing ooze in it when it comes out of the water to eat for the first time in months.
It reminds me somewhat of those toads that can go comatose in arid areas for months until the ground is again wet enough for them - except this example uses oozes and warmth rather than toads and moisture.
Hmm, I wonder if we could have a dried out ooze that only 'awakens' after the rains - only to rebury itself in the on-again, off-again pool / stream and return to its comatose state as aridity returns over the next few days. It could be a regional legend - a monster that only comes out during those rare instances when it rains in the semi-desert region. Adventurers passing through the area during such a time might find a small adventure waiting for them - especially if some pressing need suddenly requires the village to seek out the water of the pool. (Perhaps a rare medical herb briefly flourishes for a few days after the rain, but the ooze presents such a danger - perhaps an unknown danger, in the sense that noone knows what is killing the people that go missing - that few gather it. Now a disease has infected some family and is starting to spread to other families, and the community is sending volunteers to get the herb. The last few villagers that attempted it have not returned . . . .
Hmm, another idea. Perhaps an ooze exists that requires injestion as a part of its lifecycle. Just as some creatures (wasps come to mind) parasitize a creature, consuming it from within only to emerge later, perhaps the sub-polar ooze occationally 'buds' some small seed- or nut-like bits from its body - hardened pieces of its 'flesh' that are unknowingly taken and used as seasoning or parts of some rare delicacy in some local area. Most of the seeds/nuts are not fertile and like nearly all eggs from the grocery store have no effect, but some are fertile, and every few years a few people in the locality die of some unexplained illness involving fever, severe internal pain, wasting away of the muscles, etc. Days after their death the grounds of their graves seem disturbed, and local legends say those that die of this disease become undead. As such, it is common for those that die of such to be staked, buried upside down, beheaded, etc (although due to the scarsity of wood in this semi-arid landscape burning is traditionally not considered considered as an option).
In truth the grounds look distrubed because a few days after death most of the internal organs, etc have been consumed, so the new ooze consumes the little flesh and bone remaining and oozes out of the grave, seeming no more than a thin slime - and so often going unnoticed. The mass of the ooze, however, can cause the dirt to dislodge a bit, thus seeming disturbed compared to its prior form. These oozes tend to 'rest' in hollows in the ground, occationally rising to consume a local goat or (rarely) a cow or human. Again, most are considered to have simply gone missing - perhaps wandered off and taken by wolves or large felines, perhaps stolen / killed by a raider, etc. Some local legends speak of sightings of a slime that suddenly rises up to man height and grapples / engulfs a creature, flattening over the course of minutes as the creatures engulfed is consumed, but such stories are viewed as childish / mythical / etc. DC 25 or 30 Bardic Lore, DC 20 or 25 Know (local).
This could be an interesting set up. The adventurers, if they hear of the menace, might come prepared for an undead, only to face an ooze.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
