Hello, everyone. I've never posted on these forums before (though I used to spend a lot of time on the Wizards forums in the days before 4th edition), and I wanted to see if any of you folks could help me. My apologies if this is the wrong forum, as I know this might be better placed in the "advice" forum.
Anyway, there's a fairly obscure horror novel from 1991 by John Skipp and Craig Spector called The Bridge. It has a fairly ludicrous premise, namely that when enough toxic waste accumulates in one place it spontaneously becomes alive, sentient and evil, but if you can get past how silly the start is the rest of the book works fairly well.
It occurred to me recently that while this premise is silly in the real world, it's actually fairly plausible in Pathfinder, what with wizards and alchemists dumping all manner of runoff from their experiments into the sewers or the wilderness. And seeing as our party contains not one but two druids (one of whom I play), a pollution entity bent on reshaping the world in its own image would actually make a great threat for at least a few adventures. I pitched the idea to my DM and he thought it could be cool, but I'm having trouble adapting the creatures from the book.
In the book, the threat comes in three categories: the animate waste itself (only appears at the beginning), mutated wildlife (called Newspawn) and animated objects.
Animated objects are easy, since there are stats for those in the Bestiary, and the Mana-Wasted mutant template should cover the Newspawn, but it's the ooze-form I'm having trouble with.
While the bestiary does contain instructions for monster creation, I'm having trouble using them, since they seem to want me to start with a CR and go from there, which doesn't work terribly well when you know what special abilities the thing has but not what its CR is supposed to be.
Any thoughts? Again, I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this question, and any help is greatly appreciated.
What are the ooze-form's powers beyond mutating animals and magically bringing stuff to life? Or aren't there any mentioned?
What are the ooze-form's powers beyond mutating animals and magically bringing stuff to life? Or aren't there any mentioned?
Well, it can affect nuclear fission, but I figure that's not relevant to Pathfinder (unless there are some really advanced gnomes out there). In game terms, here's what I have so far:
Anti-Life Aura: The ooze-form is blasphemous, unnatural and all-around wrong, and its very presence hurts living things. In the book, this "life-shredding charge" extends at most ten feet from the ooze-form, and manifests as a tingling in the extremities and lips, followed by a buzzing inside the affected's head and then a burning in the eyes. At a guess, the Sickened condition fits best in game terms.
Awaken: I wrote this as something different from Animate Objects because it works a little differently. The ooze-form can "become one" with solid, unnatural objects (automobiles and, in one case, lawn ornaments), which works like a permanent version of Animate Objects, but takes a long time to work, namely about an hour to animate a pickup truck.
However, the ooze-form can animate other toxic waste almost instantly (a standard action, at a guess), turning liquid waste or semi-liquid sludge into more ooze with a touch. Hypothetically, this could apply to magic potions or alchemical substances as well.
All of these new oozes could merge with the original or, as in the book, spread outward to awaken more waste/objects or create more Newspawn. Either way, they're all linked by a hive mind (referred to as "Overmind" in the book, but as a StarCraft fan I just can't use that term) and continue to function as one giant super-organism.
Mutagens: This is basically just mana fever as shown in the Mana-Wasted mutant's description, except that the toxins are more concentrated in the ooze-form, so things progress faster (after the incubation period, saves probably have to be made every hour instead of every day).
Stench: Described in the book as "an ugly, vaguely industrial reek with the distinct undertaint of decomposition." Granted, the book mentions this in the context of a soap bubble-thin glaze of mutagens that's slowly spreading outward, but I figure since it originated with the ooze-form that it probably has that smell too.
The glaze, by the way, doesn't require stats. It spreads slowly and doesn't attack, so it's more of an environmental hazard than a creature.
What Is This I Don't Even: I seriously don't know what to call this last one, but it's so insane I can't not mention it. Near the end of the book, one of the Newspawn, filled to bursting with animate liquid waste, immolates itself in an explosion akin to a very small nuclear device. The fireball carries the apparently-still-living ash up into the thunderstorm overhead and transmutes all of the water into black acid rain, which proceeds to start eating its way through everyone it lands on (those who aren't killed outright become Newspawn).
I don't know whether to include that last one, as it makes the creature rather difficult to kill short of a Disintegrate spell. At the very least, I suppose it means don't kill it with fire.
What are the ooze-form's powers beyond mutating animals and magically bringing stuff to life? Or aren't there any mentioned?Well, it can affect nuclear fission, but I figure that's not relevant to Pathfinder (unless there are some really advanced gnomes out there). In game terms, here's what I have so far:
Anti-Life Aura: The ooze-form is blasphemous, unnatural and all-around wrong, and its very presence hurts living things. In the book, this "life-shredding charge" extends at most ten feet from the ooze-form, and manifests as a tingling in the extremities and lips, followed by a buzzing inside the affected's head and then a burning in the eyes. At a guess, the Sickened condition fits best in game terms.
Awaken: I wrote this as something different from Animate Objects because it works a little differently. The ooze-form can "become one" with solid, unnatural objects (automobiles and, in one case, lawn ornaments), which works like a permanent version of Animate Objects, but takes a long time to work, namely about an hour to animate a pickup truck.
However, the ooze-form can animate other toxic waste almost instantly (a standard action, at a guess), turning liquid waste or semi-liquid sludge into more ooze with a touch. Hypothetically, this could apply to magic potions or alchemical substances as well.
All of these new oozes could merge with the original or, as in the book, spread outward to awaken more waste/objects or create more Newspawn. Either way, they're all linked by a hive mind (referred to as "Overmind" in the book, but as a StarCraft fan I just can't use that term) and continue to function as one giant super-organism.
Mutagens: This is basically just mana fever as shown in the Mana-Wasted mutant's description, except that the toxins are more concentrated in the ooze-form, so things progress faster (after the incubation period, saves probably have to be made every hour instead of every day).
[b[Stench:[/b] Described in the book as "an ugly, vaguely industrial reek with the distinct undertaint of decomposition." Granted, the book mentions this in the context of a soap bubble-thin glaze of mutagens that's slowly spreading outward, but I figure since it originated with the ooze-form that it probably has that smell too.
The glaze, by the way, doesn't require stats. It spreads slowly and doesn't attack, so it's more of an environmental hazard than a creature.
What Is This I Don't Even: I seriously don't know what to call this last one, but it's so insane I can't not mention it. Near the end of the book, one of the Newspawn, filled to bursting with animate liquid waste, immolates itself in an explosion akin to a very small nuclear device. The fireball carries the apparently-still-living ash up into the thunderstorm overhead and transmutes all of the water into black acid rain, which proceeds to start eating its way through everyone it lands on (those who aren't killed outright become Newspawn).
Hmmm let's see. There's the colour out of space [CR 10] that has an aura and a disintegrating touch that could be replaced by an animating one... the tyrant jelly [CR 9] that can create spawn and control vermin... the tear of burning flame [CR 6] which can do symbiosis... the verdurous ooze [CR 6] has an ability to cause plants to grow as well as a sleep aura... the vampiric ooze [CR 8] can create spawn in the form of zombies...
I think what you're looking at will likely be on the high end of CR, probably at least a 10, maybe a 12.
That last bit actually sounds pretty cool.
Ash Spawn (SU): When a Newspawn is immolated it gives off a burst of ash that contains seeds that transmutes water into more Corrupting Ooze. If there is a storm overhead, the seeds infiltrate the storm causing a black rain that lasts as long as the rain does and deals 1d4 Constitution damage per round (save for half). Reduction to 0 Constitution results in death, the body of the individual reduced to a black puddle. Those that make successful saves during the rain are not killed but must be a save immediately after or be turned into Newspawn.
I'm not sure what the save DCs might be, but I hope this helps.
I'm not sure what the save DCs might be, but I hope this helps.
Actually this helps quite a lot. Having an approximate CR to shoot for means I can actually use the monster creation rules. I'll work on it and, hopefully, post the ooze-form's stats here when I'm done.
Thank you!
Actually this helps quite a lot. Having an approximate CR to shoot for means I can actually use the monster creation rules. I'll work on it and, hopefully, post the ooze-form's stats here when I'm done.
Thank you!
Glad to help! I hope you do post it here, as I'd be interested in seeing it!