Oozes in fantasy...where's the inspiration?

[RainOfSteel]

I recall reading a Conan story that has a jelly/ooze type creature in it. Conan was chained (or tied) to a large stone (IIRC) cylinder. The ooze was in the cylinder, and, well, oozed its way over the top in an attempt to consume Conan, who of course dealt with the situation.

(My apologies, I cannot remember the specific name of the story, but as I only read the first few books, it has to be fairly early on.)

 

[Mystaros]

Early D&D was influenced as much by science-fiction as it was by fantasy, so a lot of the themes from classic novels, stories, and movies the likes of "The Blob That Ate Poughkeepise" and "The Fungi Masters from Targov IV" entered into the thoughtstream. These kinds of stories also provided plant creatures, strange golems, and other things that are considered odd by "mainstream high fantasy" standards. Of course, the swords & sorcery works of Howard fall in between fantasy and science-fiction, and have quite a number of these elements, too... so there was certainly some influence from that vector.

 

[blargney the second]

If our game food-related disasters led to new creatures, we'd see more buffalochickens than owlbears.

*lol*

 

[Mishihari Lord]

The first thing that comes to my mind is the "Ring of Flesh" from one of the later Elric books.

 

[Mycanid]

Hmm ... the blob movie of course ... honestly the cold spawn from the F & the GM stories also came to mind ... but the biggun fer me (reference point wise) was the cthulu stuff....

I always wondered where the gelatinous cube came from. Now THERE is a unique beastie. Nightmares about Jello perhaps? :\

 

[Thurbane]

Wow, in all my years of gaming, no one's ever eaten pudding at the table. Perhaps it's time for that to change.

If our game food-related disasters led to new creatures, we'd see more buffalochickens than owlbears.

*LOL* - seriously, someone has to stat up a Buffalochicken now!

 

[demiurge1138]

Darn it! I was going to post that!

You and me both.

Demiurge out.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

I always wondered where the gelatinous cube came from. Now THERE is a unique beastie. Nightmares about Jello perhaps? :\

One of my favorite OotS shorts was their encounter with a gelantinous cube.

Elan - "I'm a pineapple chunk!"

It might be more a niche critter to explain why dungeons are so "clean".

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It might be more a niche critter to explain why dungeons are so "clean".

I suspect that's it.

 

[Slife]

It might be more a niche critter to explain why dungeons are so "clean".

That, and it fits exactly on a square of graph paper.

And you can even use a spare dice from Monopoly if you don't have a mini for it.