Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: O is for Ominous!

[cure]

Ooze, Exotic, Void

Characteristics:
-mobile & free floating
-silent
-odourless
-needless but insatiable
-mindless
-waste free
-undead friendly
-may afford concealment
-may afford limited protection against light
-highly resistant to turning
-kills bacteria on contact
-reliably dispatches vermin
-a significant threat to life generally
-not a cause of unplanned undeath

Recommendations:
-worthy guardian for the undead, in particular those preferring a sterile environment
-appropriate for the living only with sound binding or containment
-a means in a pinch of slowing the decomposition of corpses and tissue matter
-of mild interest to the torturer who “has everything”
-research its applicability to the construction of egoless, enervating weapons

“Something From Nothing With Void Ooze”, The Red Wizards Almanac 1358 DR, private library of Hazlik

or

"The Mists are not in nothing,", the phrase recurred throughout his notes, it was scribbled into the margins of most of the books and scrolls, it was carved crudely into the wood of his desk, it was chiseled brazenly upon the wall. We had a vague inkling of its meaning, although we did not appreciate at the time that it also appeared in the so called 'portal passage' of the Third Book of Ezra. You see the rest of us had come to accept that our lives beyond the Mists were forever lost to us. But not Morgan. He had sworn upon the dead, the living, even the gods to escape this place which he had never ceased to describe as a 'prison.' And in the decade since we parted he had been busy. We sought to grasp the guiding thread of his research. But madness and that cursed phrase, staring back at us from the wall opposite his desk, alone seemed to make some slight sense of the vast resources that he had marshaled. At last overcome by frustration, I hurled an especially esoteric tome at those taunting words. But the flutter of the pages became dull, indistinct. As did the chiselled letters and the stone that bore them. Time grew heavy, ponderously so, as though expiring. All the distinctions of sound, of colour, of moment gave way to . . . well . . . nothing . . . or very nearly so. For something, slowly, ever so slowly at first, oozed into existence. The book had escaped the bonds of this world, had gone out of existence, but in return, in some unspeakable accounting, a terrible danger to us all had come into existence. It was precisely nothing, nothing at all, nothing to be feared, void ‘itself’ incarnate.

-Guest speaker addressing the Department of Philosophy at the University of Dementlieu

[Gemathustra]

I like the second one much more: the first one is just a drab list.

[alhoon]

Just a question, since I don't follow this from all the way back: Is someone compiling these short stories? They will make a lovely campaign addition as local legends, stories overheard at inns etc... and actually they also make an interesting reading.

[Gemathustra]

Mr Mangrum is compiling all of these blurbs for an evil little project of his.

[cure]

A private, perfected monster manual of the mists, of which he will share with us much as possible, with copyright being the fly in the ointment preventing a complete presentation.

[cure]

OOZE, EXOTIC, FLESH JELLY

"And your flesh shall not return to the earth, neither as ash, nor as dust. It will mass and merge together into the bringer of festering doom that shall be the death of all. Such will be the hour of darkness unparalleled."

-Ravings of a madman in the streets of Tvashti

[Nathan of the FoS]

Ogre mage [Monster Manual]

Lord Matsuzaka waited a moment before nodding, and now Kentu could see the movement, ever so slight, of the rice curtain that had signalled the nobleman's response.

"Your pardon, Lord Matsuzaka," he said boldly. "But our conversation is being overheard by an eavesdropper!" As he spoke he rose and parted the rice curtain with the tip of his katana. There, in the darkened room beyond, he saw the great gross eyes and the terrible tushes and the single great horn; Lord Matsuzaka's "advisor" was none other than the infamous oni Kaketsu himself!

Romance of the Water-Steel Blades, Orija Natsusune

Omnimental [Monster Manual III]

Now add to the surging Air the strong Earth, to the shifting Fire the force of Water; from Air Wisdom, from Water Patience, from Fire Wrath, from Earth Fortitude. Thus is formed by the combination of All in All, in equal measure, the strong servant known as Universal Epitome, or Omnimental.

from The Book of First Things, standard introductory arcane text


Ooze, common, white pudding [Frostburn]

I was about to break the ice before putting down my line, baited with a bit of the squirrel our traps had caught, when Mikhail took me by the shoulder. "Not here," he said flatly. "The water is alive." He pointed to something below the clear black ice, but I could not make out what it was he had seen.

Seeing my look of blank incomprehension, he said, "Watch." We retreated about thirty feet, and he found a stone of perhaps twenty pounds which he heaved into the center of the pond. There was a booming and cracking as the ice gave way, and then something--in appearance very like an ambulatory snowbank--rose in the black water and tested the edges of the ice with its psuedopoda before sinking again.

Larraby Quift, Adventures of a Wanderer

Ooze, exotic, shadow jelly [Planar Handbook]

The thing oozed across the floor, black as the void and liquid as mercury, flowing first this way, then that, just as I had seen amoebas do under the microscope; but this was an "amoeba" large enough to devour a man! I was still and silent, hoping that both for the return of my host and that his pet--if pet it was--would not notice me in the meantime.

And then a pause to its undulations! And it began to roll with evil purpose toward me. Precisely at this moment of alarm Master Shadowcloak entered and saw the thing; taking something from his coat-sleeve, he put it to his mouth, and a soundless shrill of music seemed to pass through the air. The creature immediately retreated, passing through a small dark portal in a corner of the laboratory which I had not noticed until that moment. Stepping after it, Shadowcloak closed the door behind it. "Your pardon, Master Whitesides," he said coolly. "It was careless of me to leave that door ajar."

In the House of Fallen Leaves, Mortimer Jacques Whitesides

[Nathan of the FoS]

Oni, common [Oriental Adventures]

Then an oni stepped onto the path, twice as tall as a man and three times as broad; his teeth were like boar's teeth, and three gross green eyes blinked in his forehead. He wore a necklace made of human skulls plated in copper, and his club was like a tree.

"By decree of the Forest Lord Kaketsu, none shall pass!" the oni growled, and raised its club.

Kentu bowed. "While I have no desire to offend the Forest Lord Kaketsu, I am obligated to speak to Lord Matsuzaka, and therefore to traverse this forest. I must therefore command you to stand aside, oni, as my mission demands the utmost speed."

Romance of the Water-Steel Blades, Orija Natsusune

[Nathan of the FoS]

Ooze, common, gray ooze [Monster Manual]

Close shave today. Was exploring with deV. in the Upper Cloaca, about a hundred yards off the Main Line; we were discussing which way to go next when deV. asked if that puddle of water wasn't quite a bit closer than it had been when we started the conversation! She was right, of course; it wasn't any honest puddle. It was biggish as oozes go, too--maybe four meters across.

A quick retreat followed by a couple of vials of oil and some alchemist's fire soon put that right, but if we had taken just a few steps down that tunnel neither of us might have come back.

Journal of Nathanael Dent, grimetrekker, 12.7.752

Ooze, common, ochre jelly [Monster Manual]

So we had busted into the crypt and were exploring the upper levels, and I'm thinking to myself that this stiff has the worst taste in decor of anyone I'd ever heard of. Everything was painted mustard yellow--walls, ceiling, floors, most of the furniture--it made your teeth vibrate just lookin' at it pretty quick.

But we come to find out pretty quick that it wasn't lack of taste--it was camouflage for his pets...

Geddar Ironheart

[Nathan of the FoS]

Oni, go-zu oni (Oriental Adventures)

It is said of Mt. Hakare, that there is an oni who lives there, Jatsurate by name, who is no enemy (though no great friend) of men; he can be persuaded to give counsel to those who find him if they can show the justice of their cause. He is known by his great bull's head, and can see all spirits and hidden things; the famed samurai Kentu is said to have learned from him many techniques, including Bull's Charge and Flowering Lotus, for which he later became famous.

Kenzo Nakamura, The History of the Islands of the Sun

[Mangrum]

Thanks -- and that's it for O.