Creeping Jelly

Imagine a creature born from a failed summoning spell, able to devour almost anything with an acid touch. A crawling horror of slime and hunger with an insatiable craving to feed on the living. This would be the creeping jelly, a lethal lesson in what can go wrong when casting a spell.

A Lethal Lesson

The creeping jelly was the accidental creation of the Snoghoof Coven on Sow Terra. During the attempt to summon the chaos gremlin, Hog Roast, the Witches of Snoghoof miscast the spell. Instead of summoning Hog Roast, the Arcane Path spell went wild. The errant magic dragged an undulating mass of semi-intelligent ectoplasm from the Plane of Shade. It attacked the mages on the spot.

Afterward, with the witches dead or escaped, it oozed its slow way out into greater Sow Terra. Quietly, the ravenous slime burbled along in search of fresh victims to satisfy its acidic hunger. But the beast had left its mark. The surviving members of the Coven took this failure and turned it into a success.

They refined and perfected how to summon a creeping jelly. This technique expanded to other mages who branched out even farther to summon other kinds of dangerous oozes and jellies.

Slow But Deadly

The creature is known for slow, deliberate movements with countless grasping tentacles of slime to grab nearby victims. Because of its slow rate of movement, and semi-transparent ectoplasmic body, the creeping jelly is an ambush predator. It lies in wait, molding with its surroundings to blend in. This way, it lets a victim walk into its slime mold body and become trapped.

Once caught, the victim is digested in hours. Bones, items, armor, and similar objects that can’t be digested are stored inside the creature. As the creeping jelly slides along, it will attempt to drop the remains in its wake.

Mages are warned to take extra care when casting summoning spells, since failure sometimes results in a creeping jelly. Adventurers hunt these toxic creatures down. Both because of the threat they pose to communities and the treasures floating inside them.

Creeping Jelly by JJ Kirby

Type

Ooze

Environment

Any, but moist and dark environments are preferred

Geographic Distribution

Any