Amorphous. The marmalade can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Knowledge Consumed. When the marmalade kills a creature with its slam attack or when it consumes a corpse that has been dead for less than 24 hours, it gains all of that creature’s memories and learns everything the creature knew, including any languages. If the creature is a Medium or smaller humanoid, the marmalade can also take on that creature’s appearance using its Change Shape feature.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the marmalade fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Multiattack. The marmalade makes two slam attacks.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (3d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage and 22 (4d10) acid damage.
Acid Spray (Recharge 5-6). The marmalade squirts acid in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 33 (6d10) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Change Shape. The marmalade takes on the appearance of a Medium or smaller humanoid that has consumed (see Knowledge Consumed) or back into its true form. It reverts to its true form if it dies. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying is borne by the new form.
In a new form, the marmalade retains all of its statistics. It merely takes on the appearance of the humanoid.
The marmalade can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The marmalade regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Acid Spit. The marmalade chooses one creature it can see within 20 feet of it. That creature must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 16 (3d10) acid damage.
Command Ooze. The marmalade targets one ooze with a challenge rating of 4 or less it can see within 30 feet of it. The ooze can make one weapon attack as a reaction and gains advantage on the attack roll.
Absorb Ooze (Costs 2 Actions). The marmalade targets one ooze with less than 20 hit points remaining within 20 feet of it. The marmalade absorbs the ooze, destroying that creature and regaining a number of hit points equal to the number of remaining hit points the destroyed ooze had.
Description
Thousands of years ago, a mad drow wizard named Maroc the Rotten became obsessed with creating a new ooze that could reason and carryout orders. His experiments resulted in the former, which meant Maroc never achieved the latter. His creation, a sanguine goop that preferred to take the vague shape of a humanoid, reasoned its way out of captivity and devoured the mage. The first blood marmalade traveled out into the Underdark, seeking more victims before it multiplied.
Devourers of Knowledge. Blood marmalades are intelligent oozes that gain the memories and knowledge of any creature they devour. Their hunger for flesh is only exceeded by their hunger to know more than any other creature in the world. They set elaborate traps for humanoids, particularly wizards, and try to draw intelligent creatures into their lairs with tempting offers of treasure and lost tomes. Any intelligent or fleshy organisms near blood marmalades do not tend to last long, but the odd monsters keep mindless oozes as guards.
You Are What You Eat. Blood marmalades can take on the appearance of any humanoid creature they have consumed. They use the visage of their former victims as disguises to lure new meals into their homes and travel among the living to enact their plans.
Maroc’s Madness. Because all blood marmalades are descended from the original that consumed Maroc the Rotten, all have a touch of the wizard’s madness and malevolence. They delight in torturing their victims (by appearing as loved ones the ooze devoured if possible) before consuming them. Blood marmalades claim agony and feart make their prey more delicious.
Ooze Nature. An ooze does not require sleep.
Lair and Lair Actions
Blood marmalades lair in the towers of wizards they murder and caves in the Underdark. They surround themselves with mindless ooze guardians they can control and make a point of being close enough to a busy road or city so that they can slip out into the night and hunt intelligent prey.
The walls, floors, and ceilings of a blood marmalade's lair drip with a slippery mucus that begins to magically appear in the place after the ooze claims it as a home. The thicker this mucus, the longer the blood marmalade has lived in the lair.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the marmalade takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the marmalade can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- A 20-foot-square glob of mucus erupts from the floor within 90 feet of the marmalade. Each non-ooze creature that moves into or is in contact with that area of the floor when the mucus appears must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. Creatures that fail are restrained. The mucus last until initiative count 20 of the next round.
- The marmalade picks one creature it can see within 60 feet of it. A glob of thick mucus magically appear and fly at the creature's head. That creature must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or it is blinded until initiative count 20 of the next round.
Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary marmalade's lair is warped by the ooze's unnatural presence, which creates one or more of the following effects:
- Small lakes of red mud appear within 1 mile of the lair.
- A thick red mist surrounds the area within 1 mile of the lair, making the area lightly obscured.
- Oozes within 3 miles of the lair tremble with excitement and hunt in packs.
If the marmalade dies, any ooze packs immediately disperse and the other effects fade over the course of 3d10 days.