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So here is the idea I am currently working with. The players are going to explore a Kingdom of Slime.
Specifically it is the ruins of a city covered in an Ooze. The Ooze is a single massive creature who's core is located at the center of the city (IE: Final fight ofthe adventure) however it is able to create many peripheral bodies using the city's dead as templates. Basically as the players wander the city they will be fighting Ooze people; Ooze guards, Ooze Knights, Ooze Peasants, Ooze mages, etc....
Now the basic creatures I've got covered thanks to the advanced beastiary from Green Ronin. but what I am working on now is enviroment rules
The important thing to keep in mind is despite there being lots of Ooze people to fight it is actually only a single creature as big as a city, creating fake people to fight off the PCs and keep them from it's core.
Main points I'm working with
There is about a foot of slime on the ground through the entire city. This is also part of the creature
The Peripheral Ooze people can not leave the ground slime
The Ooze Kingdom can sense the presence of the PCs as long as they are touching the slime but not with precision (it's just too big)
The Ooze is somewhat slow to react. It can't just swamp the PCs with an endless horde right away but if the PCs linger in one spot too long they will see more and more Ooze people converging on their location.
Anyone who dies in the slime can be used as a template bythe slime to create an Ooze copy. IE: PC gose down, Group can expect to face an Ooze PC even if they Rez their companion, the Slime Kingdom will have "memorized" the template.
can you think of anything else that might be good to include
One thing to watch for: the party could just boost their ranged defences and burn/disintegrate/whatever the ground slime, stopping the opponent's melee fighters from doing anything.
Noted, although party isn't going to be too high a level when they face this (6 players around level 4 to 6 I think, depending on what they do with some of the earlier adventures).
I don't think they will have the resources to burn their way from the edge of the ruined town to the castle.
Scorched Earth tactics is probably something that the creature would notice more than just walking through the slime.
Party walking along or even somewhat stealth = slight itch somewhere
Fireballs and Greek Fire = OWOWOWOWOW! Smash it
I'll come up with some sort of reaction encounter. At the very least it'll let the Core pinpoint the PC's exact location
Fantastic idea - super creative. How old is the ooze? How far through surrounding tunnels has it come? Could it have encountered weirder creatures (aberrations) which it could also use the shapes of to attack the party?
Fantastic idea - super creative. How old is the ooze? How far through surrounding tunnels has it come? Could it have encountered weirder creatures (aberrations) which it could also use the shapes of to attack the party?
The idea is that it was a weapon the Runelords dropped on the town of one of their enemies. It's been confined on an island and buried for thousands of years but recent quakes have opened the ruins to the surface. It's possible for it to have encountered a few wierd things but not a lot.
The idea for the campaign as a whole is that the island that was the last haven for an empire destroyed by the Runelords and recent quakes are uncovering various ruins of what was once a major city, ruled by Mages who called themselves Dragon Lords.
Reminds me of this new comic series which came out recently called Spread. The Spread here being the Ooze of course.
In that comic The Spread also is very slow to think, so to speak, because the information (all of it) has to slowly travel to the brain and be processed (if I understand it correctly) Everything it has infected to get the "spread" template pretty much work as the white blood cells. A.k.a. it attacks anyone close to it. Although the Spread, given enough time, can think and react to things around.
E.g. in the comics there are survivors spread around. Some allowed themselves to be infected and became super monsters with human intelligence. Others were able to communicate with it and had some sort of a relationship, they were able to have a safe zone within the Spread as long as they do what it wants. Then there are the crazy ones who are immune to it which choose to stay within the Spread's influence, using it as a weapon so they raid those which aren't immune and run back into the danger zone.
Loads of cool stuff in that comic, which you can probably get ideas from.
How your slime starts also sounds a lot like the first few chapters in the comic when they explained it lol.
That sounds pretty neat, i'll have to take a look for it, might give me some extra ideas
Like a tribe of Kobolds living in harmony with the slime
I really like this idea too. It's probably worth playing a Q&A session with yourself about the ooze. From your description, some that spring to mind are?
What are the ooze's touch thresholds, what are its pain thresholds? What are the reaction times and the location sensitivity for those thresholds? Can it get increasingly sensitive? What happens if a sensation moves quickly, slowly or stands still? What does it do if a sensation ceases?
How does it communicate with its peripheral oozes - telepathy, empathy, pheromones, something else? How precise are the instructions? Is the communication one-way or two-way. Are there different communication methods? Can it sense when a peripheral ooze is killed/destroyed?
Apart from touch, what other senses does it have and how good are they?
How does the ooze sustain itself? Is it growing or shrinking? Is it sentient in any way, if so what are it's goals?
Once you have comprehensively answered your questions, start to think about how a party might interact and plan what sort of reactions the ooze would have. Iterate as often as necessary.
I really like this idea too. It's probably worth playing a Q&A session with yourself about the ooze. From your description, some that spring to mind are?
What are the ooze's touch thresholds, what are its pain thresholds? What are the reaction times and the location sensitivity for those thresholds? Can it get increasingly sensitive? What happens if a sensation moves quickly, slowly or stands still? What does it do if a sensation ceases?
How does it communicate with its peripheral oozes - telepathy, empathy, pheromones, something else? How precise are the instructions? Is the communication one-way or two-way. Are there different communication methods? Can it sense when a peripheral ooze is killed/destroyed?
Apart from touch, what other senses does it have and how good are they?
How does the ooze sustain itself? Is it growing or shrinking? Is it sentient in any way, if so what are it's goals?
Once you have comprehensively answered your questions, start to think about how a party might interact and plan what sort of reactions the ooze would have. Iterate as often as necessary.
Thanks for bringing up the senses, I should have considered that right away.
Primairly touch and maybe taste. These are going to be pretty much omni-present as long as PCs are touching the slime that covers the ruins. But as long as the PCs don't do something major (like a fireball) it can't sense them precise enough to react. As the PCs draw closer to the core it gets better at pinpointing their location and can react to them more rapidly.
Sight and Sound are dependant on the Periphery slimes. These are technically part of the whole so even though I am using them as seperate creatures stat wise they are actually all just 1 creature.
So if it wants to "see" and area it has to create a Slime near by and send it to investigate.
It can create a Periphery Slime of anything it's eaten. Periphery Slimes are made using the Ooze Creature Template from Advance Beastiary (CR:+3, so even a Slime Kobold is going to be a bit of threat)
The Ooze got it's initial meal on the inhabitants of the town, which allowed it to grow to such huge proportions. When it got burried in the disaster that followed soon after it went mostly dormant. The recent quakes awakened it and it started expanding looking for food again. Mostly finding underground vermine until a quake opened the ruins to the surface.
The Kobolds had established a sort of symbiotic relationship with it for generations until it fully awakened, now it's started eating the tribe and they are in panic mode, thinking they have angered the Slime God and are looking for sacrifices
It's not bright. Mostly; Eat, Grow, Protect the Core
Threatwise I'm breaking the ruins into 4 Rings. Outer Ring is mostly EL: 1-3. 2nd Ring is 2-4 3rd ring is 3-5. The Castle where the Core is will be around 4-6 on average.
Safe zones for the PCs are the 2nd floor of any building. The Slime dosen't go uphill and the PEriphery Slimes can't leave the Mass. So if the PCs can find a building with intact 2nd floor they have what is effectively a Blind Spot.
Blind to the Slime, but not the Kobolds looking for Sacrifices.
Also for the Kobolds I'm giving some of them the Ooze Sorcerer Bloodline from Deep Magic