Malevolent Horror. The horror of encountering the animated offal can drive a person into madness. When a creature can visibly see the animated offal or comes within 30ft. of the animated offal, creatures must make a DC 12 Wisdom check. On a failed save, the creature must roll on the following Short-Term Madness table:
Short-Term Madness 1d100 (Effect lasts 1d10 minutes)
01-20 : The character retreats into his or her mind and becomes paralyzed. The effect ends if the character takes any damage.
21–30 : The character becomes incapacitated and spends the duration screaming, laughing, or weeping.
31–40 : The character becomes frightened and must use his or her action and movement each round to flee from the source of the fear.
41–50 : The character begins babbling and is incapable of normal speech or spellcasting.
51–60 : The character must use his or her action each round to attack the nearest creature.
61–70 : The character experiences vivid hallucinations and has disadvantage on ability checks.
71–75 : The character does whatever anyone tells him or her to do that isn’t obviously self-destructive.
76–80 : The character experiences an overpowering urge to eat something strange such as dirt, slime, or offal.
81–90 : The character is stunned.
91–100 : The character falls unconscious.
Flowing Flesh. The animated offal can move through spaces as narrow as 6 inches wide without squeezing.
Healing Sense. The animated offal can sense healing spells, effects, and potions within 120 feet of it. If the ooze is the target of a healing spell, if it consumes a healing potion, or if it is affected by a similar magical effect, it gains a +2 bonus to its AC, has advantage on Dexterity saving throws, and can use its Pseudopod attack as a bonus action for 1 minute.
Ooze Nature. The animated offal does not require air, food, drink, or sleep.
Multiattack. The animated offal makes two Pseudopod attacks.
Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) bludgeoning damage plus and additional 18 (4d8) necrotic damage from absorbing the target's flesh. If the target is a Large or smaller creature and the animated offal doesn’t have two other creatures grappled, the target is grappled (escape DC 16). If the target is holding or carrying one or more healing potions, there is a 25 percent chance one potion shatters during the attack, allowing the animated offal to absorb the healing energy and gain the benefits of its Healing Sense.
Subsume. The animated offal begins absorbing one creature it is grappling. The creature must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 18 (4d8)necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The animated offal regains hp equal to half the damage dealt. If the animated offal is at its hp maximum, it gains temporary hp for 1 hour instead. The animated offal can add temporary hp gained from this trait to temporary hp gained earlier from this trait. Its temporary hp can’t exceed 48. If its temporary hp would exceed 48, a new animated offal appears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the animated offal. The new Ooze is Small, doesn’t have this bonus action, and has 10 hp.
A creature killed by this bonus action is fully subsumed into the animated offal and can be restored to life only by means of a resurrection spell or similar magic.
Description
This disgusting mass of congealed blood, intermingled with other fluids, is interrupted here and there by pieces of flesh—scraps of skin and muscle, bone, and the occasional whole or partial limb or milky eyeball. It all moves together in a slow, shuddering flow.
The first animated offal was the unintentional product of war. A field hospital for the wounded included a large pit where all the castoffs from their work—blood, pus, surgically removed flesh, and the like—were dumped. The residual energy from the constant healing spells, and the dregs of healing potions in bottles also dumped in the pit, stirred the mass of offal into a strange semblance of life.
Since its initial creation, mad or evil magical researchers have recreated the circumstances that birthed the first such creature, bringing new animated offal into the world. Such creatures also reproduce. Once an animated offal absorbs enough new organic matter into its mass, a portion splits off, creating an entirely new ooze.
Originally created by healing magic, an animated offal is attracted to such energies. If a healing spell is cast near it, or there are healing potions in the area, the animated offal moves toward them in preference to other targets, seeking to consume such energies.
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