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.

Nosoi

The Nosoi is the most basic of the psychopomps, and it's definitely friend-shaped—assuming you aren't afraid of birds. This little bird with a plague mask is a great introductory creature to the world of souls.

As I have suggested with some of the other psychopomps, I recommend taking time to decide what happens with souls in your campaign, assuming you're running your own world. Teaming up with a nosoi who's been assigned something a bit too big for their tiny britches would be great. If you're like me, you might have an easier time roleplaying a non-human creature like this one, as human conventions don't fully apply here.

If you're going to use low-level undead, why not toss a nosoi in to add some stakes to an otherwise mundane combat? Zombies trying to swat a bird out of the air or skeletal miners working for a remote necromancer using a nosoi in a birdcage as a literal canary in a soulmine (hah, canary in a coalmine, get it?) are just two examples of how you can make your low-level encounters more interesting. I'm sure you can come up with something, I believe in you!

- TJ

Hook 1 (Max) - The Rules Are the Rules

Well, you died. Unfortunate. Looks like your companions can't bring you back. As you float through the void of non-existence, you hear a loud caw. You turn and see a black raven wearing a leather mask posted atop a branch of a withered tree.

"What's this? Another lost soul, I see? Caw." The beak reaches under its feather, as the creature pulls out a stack of papers, then starts rifling through them. "Bones, I don't think these are yours, caw. You look too, too young indeed. Caw." Another set of documents, then another. The bird-thing nuzzles its feathers in what seems to be confusion. "It appears we might have an issue, caw." What issue can an immortal bird have?

"Looks like someone misplaced your documents, caw. I can't let you through."

Hook 2 (TJ) - Gravekeeper

Gustav didn't mind being alone. He wasn't truly alone, especially after a recent burial. There were the worms digging through the fresh dirt, the beetles that came to investigate the recent commotion, the birds that came to make meals of the aforementioned, and, of course, the spirit of the recently departed. Gustav always thought that he could feel them, at least for a while. After a burial, he'd prepare an extra place setting at each meal as his own kind of reverence, whether he knew the deceased or not. After a meal, he took time to sit and enjoy the quiet: both the natural quiet and the quiet of being deaf. It never really bothered him. Those who came to bury the dead complained of the birdsong and some odd quality to it, though it didn't bother Gustav. Nothing really did. When the time came and Gustav got the sense that the deceased had passed on, the birds seemed to have the same idea and moved along themselves. When that time came, he'd be alone again. But he wasn't truly alone, not really.

Hook 3 (Nemanja) - The Thirteenth Day

A white necromancer by the name of Arangelo became a gravedigger in the small village of Thistlebrook following his retirement from his adventuring days. With him also came his gregarious nosoi, Besmrtnik. Most of the time, Besmrtnik was hard at work helping the old sage in his work—except on the thirteenth day. It was a well-known rule that the Nosoi was never to come close to the body of anyone who died on the thirteenth of any month. As Arangelo was beloved and respected in the village, people knew and respected his rule, and never questioned it.

When the old man passed away in his hundred and first year, working till the very last day, a replacement worker was sent from a nearby town's chapel. Besmtrnik stuck around, though he rarely talked to the man, completing his tasks in a dour and joyless manner. Considering himself to be above superstitions, the new gravedigger ignored the rule about the thirteenth.

Two weeks passed before the young man went missing. Now, a dread dirge can be faintly heard from the graveyard. Those daring to follow the haunting tune will find that Besmrtnik has grown into the form of a massive vulture, and his gentle and funny nature is all but gone...