Grey Ooze

Grey Ooze

Species	ooze
No. Appearing	1-3
Behaviour	solitary
Range	subterranean
Size	6 ft. diameter, 6 in. deep
Weight	870 lbs.
Intelligence	1
Armour Class	8
Hit Dice	3+3
Action Points	3
Max. Stride	2
THAC0	19
Hp/Die	d4+d6
Attack Forms	1: touch
Damage	touch (2-16)
Special Attacks	corrosive acid, natural immunities

Grey ooze is a lethargic, amorphous creature that oozes its way through the labyrinthine passages of subterranean environments. Similar to a pudding, these creatures exhibit a remarkable ability to contort and squeeze their form to navigate through confined spaces, allowing them to slip through openings as narrow as half an inch in width, such as a dungeon door. While they can manage ascending a stairwell, they're unable to scale a vertical wall or traverse across a ceiling.

In appearance, grey ooze possesses a distinctive, slightly greenish hue. Oozes lack the adaptive feature of camouflage due to their inherent reflective qualities. Thus observers who chance upon their presence in the dark depths are sure to recognise the creature's concerning nature.

Behaviour

Preferring to pool in tight, confined spaces, they like the bases of staircases, the bottoms of pits and the crevices of underground tunnels, where unwary creatures may stumble upon them. Oozes are sedentary in nature, tending to remain in one place for extended periods. Their lifespan is unknown and they may survive for hundreds, even thousands of years; reportedly, they have been found in ancient, buried chambers, though it's not certain that they were able to seep inside such places.

When engaging in an attack, the grey ooze can extend an appendage from their amorphous bodies, thrust outward in a manner akin to a striking snake. This method of attack seeks to surprise prey and cripple its lower limbs, so that it has difficulty moving off, or climbing out of whatever hole the ooze occupies. Then, steadily, the ooze can close with its prey and devour it.

Advantages

Corrosive Acid. The surface of an ooze is highly corrosive, so that a mere touch can inflict excruciating pain by searing the victim's flesh, or cause metal, cloth or wood to spontaneously dissolve on contact. Upon a rolled hit, if the creature succeeds in hitting the defender's armour class (AC), 2-16 damage is caused.

If a miss nevertheless hits AC 10 — regardless of the defender's dexterity — then the grey ooze's d20 die roll of "9" dissolves a third of the defender's clothes, causing 2-8 hit points damage. If the die roll is "10," the defender's shield is eaten and made useless, and 1-4 damage is taken. Any roll of "11" or more, if normally still counted as a miss, then 2 points of armour protection from the defender's armour is dissolved; in this last case, no damage is taken.

If the character has no clothes, then the shield is hit; if the character has no shield, then the character's weapon is hit, destroying it. If there is no weapon, then the character's armour is hit. If all are gone, the character's dexterity can yet preserve him or her from being hit directly. No item saving throws are considered.

Immunities. Grey ooze cannot be affected by either heat-based or cold-based attacks.

See also,
Bestiary
Monster Summoning I (spell)