Scavenger slime

Scavenger slime

(Creature)

Type

Ooze

CR

9

Environment

Any

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Alien Archive, pg(s). 100

Scavenger slimes are mindless oozes with an instinctive ability to understand technology which are best known for the ability to build shells from scavenged trash to protect themselves.

Appearance

Scavenger slimes are oozes measuring about 6 feet across. They secrete a dense resin whose conductivity can be varied, allowing them to bind and repair technological items with their pseudopods. They use this ability to build durable shells from trash, with complex life support systems capable of protecting them from the vacuum, as well as numerous jury-rigged weapons.

History

Scavenger slimes were first created by a long-dead civilisation, who tried to combat universal entropy, as a gel capable of repairing nearly everything. At some point, a vat of this gel became sentient and started reproducing, becoming the first scavenger slimes. They outlived their makers, and spread across the galaxy by hitchhiking on the starships of the scattering survivors of their parent civilisation.

Ecology

Despite their mindlessness, scavenger slimes can intuitively understand and repair nearly anything, but rarely to the point of being as reliable as these items once were. They are usually also incapable of actually using the items that they have rebuilt, except for weapons, which they can instinctively understand, aim, trigger and control like a special limb.

Scavenger slimes lurk in ruins and abandoned space stations across the galaxy. They defend their hoards ferociously from treasure hunters and adventurers, integrating technology into their shell and weapons. They lay hundred of eggs capable of clinging to clothing, from which they spread to dark corners and sabotage starships.

Society

Certain creatures find scavenger slimes delightful, despite their danger: the equally destructive gremlins see them as kin, and goblins share their love of kitbashing technology. Some pirates seed freighters with scavenger slime eggs, then watch as they wreak havoc on their prey. Scavenger slime resin can be harvested to make stickybomb grenades, and some particularly daring engineers employ them to quickly adapt and repair ship systems, and treat them with chemicals that automatically kill them if they gain freedom.

Variants

The rare gene-scavenger slimes tear down and rebuild living creatures instead of inorganic technology. They build their shells from the remains of living victims, which are sometimes still living and conscious when the gene-scavenger slime breaks them down. Compared to normal scavenger slimes, gene-scavenger slimes demonstrate a far bigger range of special abilities which they acquired from other creatures.