Psychic Sludge
You are all that is left of the expedition. The deep earth is no place for the unprepared and now you pray that you will live to learn the lesson. It has been days since you escaped the ambush and the nasty little creatures with the gleaming eyes have been trailing you. Though for whatever reason they slowed when you entered this section of caves with the underground river. You pause near the water and carefully start to collect a canteen full. The magical pills in your pack will purify it thankfully. You relax for a moment a brief second that seems almost as if it was a suggestion spoken to your mind you couldn't resist. As you stare at the dark water placidly something as large as your head rises and lunges at you. It strikes your face with a wet heavy slap having engulphed your head. Your torch drops to into the water with a hiss and everything goes black.
A month later you are home but something that wears your body as a suit and lives your life is in control, it sits in your favorite tavern laughs at your friends while plotting to do whatever it takes and kill who ever it needs to so that it can live a life of hedonistic luxury in your body. You however watch trapped in your own mind and body screaming and struggling to assert control only for this thing to suppress and subdue your best attempts with casual disdain for your will power.
Basic Information
Anatomy
At first glance most would presume this creature one of the many slimes and oozes that dwell in the lightness underworld and given its small size to be of little danger. Roughy the size of a human head and composed of dark blue gel it is a unremarkable species of ooze reproducing by budding and seeming identical to the countless other breeds of Slimes, Oozes, Jellies and Puddings.
The Pyschic Sludge has an array of psionic powers at its disposal to read minds, telepathically implant suggestions, control others emotions and induce fear. They are also able to create a powerful bioelectric shock that they use to kill and or stun prey before consuming it and will use this if they feel threatened by a creature that is resistant or immune to their mental attacks. When desperate to escape the Sludge can produce a number of flagella like tails from any point on its body and attempt to rapidly swim away. On dry land this is nearly useless as they ooze is forced to slink across the ground like a slug.
The bizarre diet and nature of Psychic Sludge leaves many to presume it was created as an agent of infiltration and war by some long forgotten (perhaps the first victim) alchemist or spell caster and the species became abandoned and propagated in the dark waters and pools below ground. Others speculate the species is a natural evolution of a lifeform with cells capable of process ambient magical energy, the Oozes themselves claim they are the creations of a god like ancestor they call the All-Slime that dwells in a holy realm full of fetid pools, fungal forests, mold caked caves and nutrient rich pools of chemical sludge.
Genetics and Reproduction
While the Ooze can live for a rather long time on its own eating plants, sessile organisms and feeding on small amounts of ambient magical energy they can not reproduce unless they enter the parasitic phase of their life cycle. While brutish beasts and animals may suffice for this the species favors the bodies of humanoids so that it can enjoy itself and practice its love of sensations alien to its base form and the practice of mental manipulation and using people in various self indulgent games.
While parasitically and psychically dominating a host the Ooze makes it home in the body linking to its mind and nervous system allowing it to enjoy food, sex and all manner of pleasures it naturally has no ability to feel. More often then not this indulgence leads them to become hedonists and extremists of sensation some even killing their host through acts so extreme their body can't handle it (Typically after reproduction). Reproduction is a simple matter with the ooze needing to consume large amounts of food and mental energy before it can bud and produce microscopic offspring that are passed through the hosts digestive tract. Some of these oozes will abandon their young but the cagey more experienced ones will use them as pawns to infect scores of minions and form hedonistic cults that become shadow organizations pulling the puppet strings of the world around them.
While classified by most as a parasite the oozes are entirely capable of living in symbiotic harmony with a host and some who know of the creatures will seek them out and strike a deal to make use of the creatures powers and benefit from its dwelling inside them in exchange for allowing the ooze to reproduce and indulging the oozes desires for sensation. Symbiotic unions with Psychic Sludge are generally significantly more dangerous and some hosts even develop friendship or stranger relationships with the Sludge sharing their body.
Growth Rate & Stages
Born microscopic in size these oozes quickly consume any organic matter they can eat and rapidly growing in size until they are as large as the tip of a human thumb. After this the baby Ooze will if left for nature to take its course seek out a dark place with abundant dampness to call home. Most prefer a fully aquatic life in their early years and even ones kept by their parent are often put in elaborate aquariums and fed by them. Over fifteen years the Psychic Slime grows in size and mental prowess gathering with others of its kind to exchange thoughts or else are raised and taught by their parent ooze. Strangely the species seems to carry some from of genetic memory from their parent ooze and many learned skills other species take for granting come naturally to even wild members of this species.
Ecology and Habitats
Young Psychic Sludge dwells in water, mud, sewage and similar fluids underground, with their dislike of sunlight and dry heat even when they become introduced to water sources on the surface they tend to prefer the cover of caves, logs and heavy plant growth. It is of note that as their species has a common tendency to travel once they have found an acceptable host that these creatures have become an invasive threat in a number of regions around the world. Thankfully their long growth time and relatively small size means that they just as often become prey to local aquatic predators as reach adulthood. It is by in large active parent oozes who create the largest and most dangerous numbers of this species.
Dietary Needs and Habits
While psychic sludge can survive on nearly anything they can catch or scavenge (A generalist diet in ever sense of the term) they typical desire more lavish and elaborate food and to feed on the mental energy of beings of greater intellect and thought capacity. The better the food and mental energy they absorb the faster they can reproduce thus finding hosts capable of cooking or acquiring more complex food is partially ingrained into the species.
Biological Cycle
Horrifying to any who learn the truth of this species is that they are seemingly immortal or rather do not seem to any deterioration due to age so long as they are riding in a hosts body. The host however is not so lucky and even if the Ooze is not abusing the body will die when their time is up. It is yet unknown if or how long an adult Psychic Sludge lives unbonded. This is further complicated by the fact adults can undergo a state of hibernation where they harden and become rock like conserving their fluids and energy either while waiting for a host or to endure exposure to direct exposure to sunlight, large amounts of salt and dry heat (all can cause the Ooze to dry out and die after a period of time if they do not enter their hibernation state)
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Where as most Oozes are near mindless creatures with limited sensory powers the Psychic Sludge has keen and wide ranging sensory gifts that allow it to find and sense the minds of hosts that can it can use to infiltrate and enjoy the lives of or otherwise absorb and eat. While posseting finely tuned chemo receptors capable of finding basic food these pale compared to the ability to sense the mental activity of living creatures. Through this mind sense they can even narrow down exact elements about the nature, size and strength of the being in question allowing them to fine tune the host they will employ for their species breeding life cycle.
The Coloration of these creatures is partly based on their diet and waters they grow to adult in. Typically they blend well into the colors of the waters they call home. This adaptation of camouflages is slow however and difficult to change once adulthood is reached but does grant the ooze a tremendous advantage in ambushing hosts and prey.
Scientific Name
cerebrum fur uligo
Origin/Ancestry
Ooze
Geographic Distribution
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