Oozes in fantasy...where's the inspiration?
- Thread starter Shade
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Garnfellow
Explorer
Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Along with various H.P. Lovecraft-inspired "formless horrors," I think we have bingo.
Was the monster Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser encountered a cold spawn? It's been ages since I've read those books.
Quartz
Hero
Apart from the various Lovecraftian stories, I once read a story about an amorphous blob from the depths of the ocean which gets washed up on a beach one night after a big storm. The story goes on about how his blob as battled karaken and won, and it gets scared off by a girl with a torch. It's never known light.
lukelightning
First Post
Oozes are fun in theory but the ones that split are a pain to run. Splitting a huge ooze into two gives you two huge oozes? Arrows splitting oozes?
Shade said:If our game food-related disasters led to new creatures, we'd see more buffalochickens than owlbears.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0312.html
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Yeah, as I recall it was. It's shown up in various times in D&D as white puddings, snowflake oozes and the like.Garnfellow said:
Gez
First Post
And of course, one must not forget the seminal masterwork known as the Eye of Argon.
A ball of feral red was rising through the mists of the eastern horizon, disipating the slinking shadows of the night. A coral stood before the pair, enclosing two grazing mares. Grignr reached into a weighted down leather pouch dangling at his side and drew forth the scintillant red emerald he had obtained from the bloated idol. Raising it toward the sun he said, "We shall do well with bauble, eh!"
Carthena gaped at the gem gasping in a terrified manner "The eye of Argon, Oh! Kalla!" At this the gem gave off a blinding glow, then dribbled through Grignr's fingers in a slimy red ooze. Grignr stepped back, pushing Carthena behind him. The droplets of slime slowly converged into a pulsating jelly-like mass. A single opening transfixed the blob, forminf into a leechlike maw.
Then the hideous transgressor of nature flowed towards Grignr, a trail of greenish slime lingering behind it. The single gap puckered repeatedly emitting a ghastly sucking sound.
Grignr spread his legs into a battle stance, steeling his quivering thews for a battle royal with a thing he knew not how to fight. Carthena wound her arms about her protectors neck, mumbling, "Kill it! Kill!" While her entire body trembled.
The thing was almost upon Grignr when he buried his axe into the gristly maw. It passed through the blob and clanged upon the ground. Grignr drew his axe back with a film of yellow-green slime clinging to the blade. The thing was seemingly unaffected. Then it started to slooze up his leg. The hairs upon his nape stoode on end from the slimey feel of the things buly, bulk. The Nautous sucking sound became louder, and Grignr felt the blood being drawn from his body. With each hiss of hideous pucker the thing increased in size.
Grignr shook his foot about madly in an attempt to dislodge the blob, but it clung like a leech, still feeding upon his rapidly draining life fluid. He grasped with his hands trying to rip it off, but only found his hands entangled in a sickly gluelike substance. The slimey thing continued its puckering ; now having grown the size of Grignr's leg from its vampiric feast.
Grignr began to reel and stagger under the blob, his chalk white face and faltering muscles attesting to the gigantic loss of blood. Carthena slipped from Grignr in a death-like faint, a morrow chilling scream upon her red rubish lips. In final desperation Grignr grasped the smoldering torch upon the ground and plunged it into the reeking maw of the travestry. A shudder passed through the thing. Grignr felt the blackness closing upon his eyes, but held on with the last ebb of his rapidly waning vitality. He could feel its grip lessoning as a hideous gurgling sound erupted from the writhing maw. The jelly like mass began to bubble like a vat of boiling tar as quavers passed up and down its entire form.
Carthena gaped at the gem gasping in a terrified manner "The eye of Argon, Oh! Kalla!" At this the gem gave off a blinding glow, then dribbled through Grignr's fingers in a slimy red ooze. Grignr stepped back, pushing Carthena behind him. The droplets of slime slowly converged into a pulsating jelly-like mass. A single opening transfixed the blob, forminf into a leechlike maw.
Then the hideous transgressor of nature flowed towards Grignr, a trail of greenish slime lingering behind it. The single gap puckered repeatedly emitting a ghastly sucking sound.
Grignr spread his legs into a battle stance, steeling his quivering thews for a battle royal with a thing he knew not how to fight. Carthena wound her arms about her protectors neck, mumbling, "Kill it! Kill!" While her entire body trembled.
The thing was almost upon Grignr when he buried his axe into the gristly maw. It passed through the blob and clanged upon the ground. Grignr drew his axe back with a film of yellow-green slime clinging to the blade. The thing was seemingly unaffected. Then it started to slooze up his leg. The hairs upon his nape stoode on end from the slimey feel of the things buly, bulk. The Nautous sucking sound became louder, and Grignr felt the blood being drawn from his body. With each hiss of hideous pucker the thing increased in size.
Grignr shook his foot about madly in an attempt to dislodge the blob, but it clung like a leech, still feeding upon his rapidly draining life fluid. He grasped with his hands trying to rip it off, but only found his hands entangled in a sickly gluelike substance. The slimey thing continued its puckering ; now having grown the size of Grignr's leg from its vampiric feast.
Grignr began to reel and stagger under the blob, his chalk white face and faltering muscles attesting to the gigantic loss of blood. Carthena slipped from Grignr in a death-like faint, a morrow chilling scream upon her red rubish lips. In final desperation Grignr grasped the smoldering torch upon the ground and plunged it into the reeking maw of the travestry. A shudder passed through the thing. Grignr felt the blackness closing upon his eyes, but held on with the last ebb of his rapidly waning vitality. He could feel its grip lessoning as a hideous gurgling sound erupted from the writhing maw. The jelly like mass began to bubble like a vat of boiling tar as quavers passed up and down its entire form.
Dave Arneson (or, rather, one of his early players) has confirmed that the Black Pudding was one of the first "new monsters" he added to the Chainmail roster, and was indeed inspired by watching The Blob (as well, I suppose, as just being the sort of horror you'd expect to find lurking in a dark underworld labyrinth constructed by "generations of mad wizards and insane geniuses").
Huw
First Post
Possibly:
Real life slime molds, amoebas and placozoans.
Doctor Who - loads of blobby monsters in that (Fury from the Deep, Axons, Creature from the Pit). Also, the Energons (energy blobs, i.e. Xeg-Yi and Xag-Ya) resemble the Rutan from Dr Who.
Lovecraft and associated writers, as previously mentioned. The shoggoth and Abhoth are the obvious inspirations.
There're a few more at this wikipedia article (which mentiones The Blob).
Real life slime molds, amoebas and placozoans.
Doctor Who - loads of blobby monsters in that (Fury from the Deep, Axons, Creature from the Pit). Also, the Energons (energy blobs, i.e. Xeg-Yi and Xag-Ya) resemble the Rutan from Dr Who.
Lovecraft and associated writers, as previously mentioned. The shoggoth and Abhoth are the obvious inspirations.
There're a few more at this wikipedia article (which mentiones The Blob).
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