Ochre Jelly

Oozes are a weird brand of monster. They are amorphous blobs of jelly (?) that slither in search of food. And that's it. They only want to eat and grow as big as possible. Doesn't sound the most fascinating, but just in Bestiary 1 there are four distinct types of them.

Today on the menu we have the Ochre Jelly. Outside of its color, what sets it apart? The fact that it only dissolves the flesh, leaving everything else intact. It also splits in two upon receiving slashing or piercing damage (that's a one-way ticket to your party finding themselves outnumbered very quickly).

There are many applications of both of these abilities, it's just the question of finding them. A necromancer making sure his skeletons are kept nice and clean? An artist working in bone using a pet slime to make sure he only has the best materials? Group of bandits using the ooze to kill people, taking advantage of the fact that it doesn't dissolve precious materials? I think we can easily see that particular critter finding its uses in great many scenarios, even outside of combat.

- Max

Hook 1 (Max) - Hunger in the Dark

Every culture has its customs regarding the burial of the dead. People of the Pale Orchard believe that flesh holds your soul down in the mud, thus in order to move on, your skeleton needs to be picked clean of its putrid meat.

Once a person dies, their corpse is taken by the Bone Clerks who throw their body into the Yellow Pit. It remains therein for some time before then being returned, clean and white, ready to be properly buried and on to the afterlife.

The thing is, with everybody fed to it, the Yellow Pit grows bigger.

Hook 2 (Nemanja) - Heal or High Water

Gustav Olaf is a skittish cleric who has information that can bring down the corrupt regime in the Arthenian Grand Principality. Gustav is also extremely paranoid and is currently hidden in a faraway cave waiting for his contact. He has an incredibly devious plan to keep the information from falling into the wrong hands. Indeed, Gustav has written all of the information on his skin and keeps two other things with him in his hiding place: a box that contains single ochre jelly within and another box that holds at least two dozen healing scrolls.

Should anyone else but the designated contact appear, Gustav plans to release the ooze, at which point he will spend the rest of the combat healing any oozes that split apart. In practice, this means that instead of several splits during a fight with a single ochre ooze, this will prolong the combat until the battlefield is positively swarming with oozes, making combat—and survival—all but impossible.

Hook 3 (TJ) - Streetsweeper

Cleaning the streets of a bustling metropolis is a tall order. The city council in Aerilon has hired numerous companies that all end up falling short of keeping the city truly clean. Their newest hire has some- 

Unconventional methods. 

Ochre jellies, with their ooze-like acidity and ability to squeeze into cracks and crevices, have the city looking better than it ever has. Concerned citizens have voiced opposition to having oozes on the major thoroughfare, but the cleaning crews have repeatedly assured that they're harmless and under control. If that control ends up being more tenuous than they claim, it could spell disaster.