Foreword by Branlak Sesef
I write these words by flickering candlelight in my laboratory atop Talismondé’s highest tower. Over decades I have hunted and catalogued the most grotesque and terrible slimy horrors to stalk dungeon halls, forgotten ruins, and the hidden corners of our world. Some are born of ancient magic run amok; others—worse still—were woven of foul experiments and planar taint.
In these pages you shall find both living predators and environmental scourges, each capable of ending life in unspeakable ways. May this compendium serve as both warning and guide: learn their forms, their colors, their appetites, and you may yet survive an encounter.
– Branlak Sesef, who sleeps fitfully in the knowledge that the next horror lurks just beyond sight.
| The Compendium | ||
| # | Name | Description |
| 1 | Black Pudding | A heaving mass of glistening black slime, Black Puddings dissolve flesh, bone, metal, and stone with their caustic touch. When struck by blades or lightning, they split into smaller puddings, doubling the threat. They lurk silently in dank tunnels, sensing vibrations to guide their hunt. |
| 2 | Gelatinous Cube | An eerie, nearly invisible predator, the Cube slides down corridors, engulfing everything organic in its path. Bones and armor float within its translucent form like suspended relics. When prey stumbles in, it paralyses and digests victims alive, leaving only bleached remnants behind. |
| 3 | Ochre Jelly | A sluggish, yellow ooze clings to cavern ceilings. When it drops, victims find themselves wrapped in acidic folds. Slashing or lightning attacks shatter it into writhing fragments that continue the assault. Deep Underdark tribes revere—and fear—it as the “Hunger Made Flesh.” |
| 4 | Gray Ooze | This pale gray, viscous slime resembles damp stone until it corrodes metal and flesh. Gray Oozes slip through castle walls and dungeon floors, dissolving weapons and armor in silent, unstoppable rivers of dissolution. |
| 5 | Green Slime | A pulsing sheet of green contagion, this slime devours wood and flesh with ravenous speed. It clings to beams and chests, waiting for careless hands. Only fire or deep freeze can stop its relentless spread, and even then the wounds it leaves pulse ominously for days. |
| 6 | Violet Fungus | Clusters of purple mushrooms hide rubbery tendrils that lash out to rot flesh instantly. They swarm grave pits and battlefield graves, shrieking in a chorus of hungry voices as they feast. |
| 7 | Yellow Mold | A beautiful, golden growth, Yellow Mold thrives in darkness. When exposed to light or jostled, it releases choking, toxic spores that fell adventurers in minutes. Entire corridors pulse with its sickly glow. |
| 8 | Brown Mold | A dark brown mold that leeches heat, Brown Mold freezes creatures solid. Those who draw near find their bones iced over, their breath crystallized in midair, until they stand as macabre statues. |
| 9 | Olive Slime | This infectious, olive-green ooze attaches to living hosts, puppeting them until their insides are consumed. Carriers appear normal for days before collapsing into writhing heaps of slime. |
| 10 | Slithering Tracker | A nearly colorless, clear ooze that senses vibrations. It lashes out with acidic tendrils, paralysing victims before draining their fluids. Desert caravans vanish without trace, leaving only strange slime trails behind. |
| 11 | Bloodbloater Ooze | A crimson horror that gorges on blood, swelling grotesquely until it bursts in a shower of corrosive ichor. “I have never seen such voracious hunger… nor such a vile death.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 12 | Radiant Ooze | A glowing white ooze crackling with radiant energy. It burns flesh with blinding light and scorches eyes. Some say it sprang from botched resurrection rituals when life’s light was unleashed too fiercely. |
| 13 | Arcane Ooze | A swirling mass of violet-blue sludge that devours spells. It crackles with magical backlashes when struck, unleashing bursts of raw arcana. Its gelatinous form flickers with ruined sigils. |
| 14 | Corrupt Slime | Dark, obsidian slime tainted by evil. It poisons wounds, wilts plant and creature alike, and whispers madness at the edge of hearing. Victims feel malevolence gnawing at their souls long past the final gasp. |
| 15 | Crysmal Ooze | Glittering like heaps of clear crystal, Crysmal Oozes slash with razor facets and refract spells unpredictably. Hunters speak of deadly mirages dancing in torchlight before the shards strike. |
| 16 | Shadow Slime | A slick, pitch-black mass that drains strength and merges with darkness. It drifts silently across walls, striking unseen. Ancient texts call it “the First Shadow made flesh.” |
| 17 | Crystal Ooze | A slow, transparent jelly encrusted with mineral glitter. It refracts light into hypnotic patterns and carves runes of destruction in stone as it glides. Some say those runes tell lost histories. |
| 18 | Slime Creature (Template) | A grisly, grayish-green malformation that warps any living body into an amorphous horror. Former men, goblins, even dragons writhe as mindless slimes, driven only by hunger and a whispering collective will. |
| 19 | Slime of the Stygian Depths | An inky black ooze from the Abyss that devours flesh and soul. Its touch leaves a chill of despair; victims claim it steals memories alongside flesh. “It clings to the soul long after the body is gone.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 20 | Green Slime Sporecloud | A drifting pale green cloud of microscopic spores. Inhaled, they germinate in lungs and erupt into slime that suffocates from within. Adventurers light candles to spot its faint glow. |
| 21 | Necrotic Ooze | A sludge of sickly gray and black, animated by death magic. It withers flesh and bone, twitching corpses still visible within its mass. Some say it is the sorrow of failed necromancers given form. |
| 22 | Plague Slime | A foul, yellow-green ooze that spreads pestilence on contact. Victims suffer fever, blood plague, and mind‐fever as wounds fester with writhing maggots. “Beware the village where no dogs bark.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 23 | Quicksilver Ooze | A gleaming liquid silver mass immune to blades. It flows like mercury around weapons, crushing foes with sheer momentum. Some alchemists believe it fell from a shattered star. |
| 24 | Verdant Slime | A vibrant green ooze that infects flesh and rapidly sprouts thorny vines and blossoms. Battlefields colonized by it erupt overnight into grotesque jungles dripping blood. |
| 25 | Whispering Ooze | A translucent, pale gray slime murmuring countless voices. Prolonged listening unravels the mind, as if the ooze pulls sanity thread by thread. |
| 26 | Burning Sludge | A tarry, black mass veined with molten red. It ignites flesh and wood on contact, thriving in infernos. Branlak watched one melt a temple gate to glowing slag and wept for lost art. |
| 27 | Ebon Mold | Thick, ink-black fungus that devours spirit as well as flesh. Entire tombs have been hollowed by its creeping fronds, leaving empty shells of the once‐honored dead. |
| 28 | Toxic Sludge | A murky brown mixture of alchemical waste and malevolence. It pools in sewers and labs, corroding flesh and lungs with noxious vapors. No creature remains near it long. |
| 29 | Prismatic Ooze | Shimmering with rainbow hues, this ooze refracts magic and light into chaotic bursts—blindness, madness, flame—each color a different curse. Scholars debate its origin as a twisted rainbow. |
| 30 | Ashen Slime | A ghostly ash-gray ooze that reduces victims to dust. Those consumed crumble into fine ash, leaving only whispering ghosts behind. |
| 31 | Searing Mold | Ember-red fungal growth radiating intense heat. It ignites cloth and flesh in moments. Survivors cough smoke until they collapse. |
| 32 | Bile Slime | A nauseating yellow-green ooze that vomits acid bile. Its stench weakens foes, inducing vertigo and hallucinations before it strikes. |
| 33 | Shifting Muck | A muddy brown sludge that pulls prey under like quicksand, digesting them alive. Entire hunting parties vanish beneath its surface, leaving only muffled screams. |
| 34 | Silent Sludge | A creeping mass of obsidian black that makes no sound or tremor. It glides through cracks and doorways, dissolving victims without a whisper. |
| 35 | Choking Mold | A dense, dark gray fungus that explodes in choking spores. Its cloud clings invisibly to skin and clothes, spreading death to any it follows. |
| 36 | Blighted Ooze | A pitch-black ooze veined with sickly green. It warps landscape and life, turning forests twisted and creatures monstrous. “The path of a Blighted Ooze is the death of the world writ small.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 37 | Mirewretch Slime | A swampy olive-green muck that drags prey into fetid waters. It uses half-digested corpses as lures, their bones clicking in the ooze’s murky depths. |
| 38 | Iridescent Mold | A multicolored, shimmering fungus that induces horrific mutations. Those who breathe its spores awaken with extra eyes, twisted limbs, or worse. |
| 39 | Ember Slime | A fiery orange-red ooze that feeds on heat. It erupts scalding steam when threatened and quenches fires to grow stronger. |
| 40 | Rotcyst Ooze | A pale, fleshy pink ooze that infects flesh with painful cysts. When they burst, new oozelings spread to devour the living, leaving survivors scarred and haunted. |
| 41 | Molten Ooze | A molten red-orange slurry that flows like lava but moves with intent. It incinerates stone and flesh alike—“I watched it turn fortress walls into glowing rivers of slag.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 42 | Howling Slime | A translucent pale blue ooze that emits a ceaseless, sanity-shattering wail. Enclosed spaces amplify its howl until victims claw their ears into bloody pulp. |
| 43 | Venommire Ooze | A deep emerald-green sludge that poisons water and flesh. Its toxins paralyse hearts in moments, leaving hushed graveyards where fish once abounded. |
| 44 | Grave Mold | Creeping ghostly gray fronds that drain the essence of corpses and tombs. It wraps gravestones in chilling embrace—“There is no greater profanity than a grave made hollow by this fungus.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 45 | Razor Sludge | A metallic gray ooze studded with bone and stone shards that whirl like blades. It shreds flesh and gear into ribbons, leaving only pools of gore. |
| 46 | Pale Slime | A ghostly white ooze thriving in lightless cold. A single touch freezes bones and extinguishes heat, leaving frozen corpses in its wake. |
| 47 | Blister Mold | A pus-yellow fungus whose spores cause skin to erupt in burning blisters. Victims perish from agony and madness long before the infection runs its course. |
| 48 | Gravemuck | A tar-black sludge that oozes from mass graves. It groans with hunger, pulling itself toward the living. Corpses emerge half-consumed, snarling from its depths. |
| 49 | Hollow Ooze | A translucent whitish slime that siphons emotions—courage, joy, even love—leaving survivors as hollow shells. |
| 50 | Crimson Creep | A deep blood-red mold that pulses with life. When touched, tendrils lash out to pierce flesh and drink blood, expanding its scarlet cathedral. “It turned a pantry into a pulsing chapel of gore in hours.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 51 | Blazing Pudding | A pitch-black ooze streaked with glowing red veins, Blazing Puddings melt stone and flesh. They thrive in volcanic fissures, snuffing out entire mountain hamlets. |
| 52 | Corrosive Mycelium | A sprawling grayish-white fungal mat secreting acid that eats wood, metal, and stone. Unwary travelers find floors collapse underfoot into acid pits. |
| 53 | Mirage Slime | A shimmering amber-like ooze that conjures illusory oases and lost loved ones. Those lured away vanish without a trace. “Worse than any blade is the hope it dangles.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 54 | Spite Mold | A dark purple fungus that reacts to magic with explosive spore clouds. Sorcerers dare not approach lest their own spells be turned to ruin. |
| 55 | Tarry Sludge | A pitch-black ooze dripping like rotten oil. It smothers and suffocates, hoisting victims aloft in sticky webs before digestion. |
| 56 | Nightcry Ooze | A midnight blue slime only active under moonlight. Its eerie keening paralyzes hearers, drawing them willingly into its grasp. |
| 57 | Cindersludge | A charcoal-gray ooze flecked with glowing red embers. When disturbed it bursts into flame, burning victims from within. |
| 58 | Festerbloom | A rotten green plant-ooze hybrid that blooms poisonous flowers. Sweet perfumes lure prey into sticky vines that devour all within their grasp. |
| 59 | Dustmire Slime | A dusty tan ooze drifting through deserts. It coalesces into suffocating torrents that strip flesh from bone in the scorching sun. “In its embrace, even screams turn to dust.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 60 | Soulrot Mold | A sickly purple mold almost sentient in its hunger. It infects flesh and spirit, inducing hallucinations of deepest fears before consuming body and mind alike. |
| 61 | Gloom Ooze | A deep charcoal gray ooze that dims torches and saps memory. Survivors often cannot recall even their own names after crossing its path. |
| 62 | Wretch Mold | A putrid brown fungus so foul its stench bends stomachs and spirit alike. Its spores choke lungs and leave victims retching until the mold claims them utterly. |
| 63 | Bilepool Slime | A mossy green swamp ooze that emits toxic gas. A single breath can render strong men delirious as the slime slithers over them to complete the kill. |
| 64 | Shiver Ooze | A translucent ice-blue ooze that flashes body heat into freezing pain. Explorers in haunted glaciers whisper of silent Shivers beneath the ice. |
| 65 | Mossweft | A vibrant emerald-green mold weaving across ruins. It grips and strangles those who linger, growing thicker with every heartbeat. |
| 66 | Bloodglass Ooze | A mass of blood-red ooze that shatters into razor shards when struck. Each shard becomes a miniature predator, slicing prey to ribbons. “We bled fountains before fleeing.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 67 | Verminbloom | A muddy tan fungus that erupts into swarms of biting insects when threatened. Entire caverns become living nests of gnawing doom. |
| 68 | Ashmire Mold | A drifting ash-gray mold that feeds on magic, reducing wands and scrolls to inert dust. |
| 69 | Marrow Sludge | A creeping off-white ooze that seeks living bone, hollowing victims from within and leaving empty skins as its trophies. |
| 70 | Lantern Lichen | A pale yellow-green hazard that glows softly like will-o’-wisps. Travelers drawn toward its light find themselves waist-deep in quickmud or worse. |
| 71 | Vaporsludge | A milky gray ooze that generates caustic mists. Armies have been wiped out when Vaporsludge slipped unseen through mist-shrouded marshes. |
| 72 | Ironrot Mold | A rust-orange fungus that devours metal. Blades crumble and armor flakes away, and burning it only sprays lethal sporulation. |
| 73 | Driftmuck | A dark tar brown ooze floating on still waters. It clutches and drowns prey before dragging them into fetid depths. |
| 74 | Fleshwarp Slime | A pallid, sickly purple ooze that emits mutagenic pheromones. Nearby creatures twist and swell in grotesque parodies of life before collapsing into slime spawn. |
| 75 | Hallowed Rot | A decay-brown blight that corrupts holy sites, fusing stone and flesh into fungal flesh. Clerics weep to see altars turned to living rot. |
| 76 | Oblivion Mold | A void-black fungus that erases matter—and memory—where it grows. Entire events and people cease to exist, leaving only gaps in history. |
| 77 | Caustwing Sludge | A vibrant acid-green ooze that drips from cave ceilings. It falls in acidic droplets, dissolving armor and flesh on impact. |
| 78 | Spindlevine Mold | Pale white tendrils pulse like veins, sensing vibrations. They braid around limbs and tighten until bones snap and throats collapse. |
| 79 | Whisper Slime | A translucent pale jade ooze murmuring inaudible secrets. Those who listen too long do its bidding in twisted homage. “The voice was my own,” writes Branlak. |
| 80 | Plaguefoam | A frothy sickly green ooze that blooms on fetid waters. Its touch spreads wasting disease, leaving survivors skeletal and driven mad. |
| 81 | Hollowblight Mold | A chalk-white mold that infests bone, hollowing skeletons until victims collapse in agony. “The clatter of a dying man’s bones is not soon forgotten.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 82 | Amber Sludge | A honey-amber ooze that entombs victims in perfect stasis. Living or dead, they remain aware but immobile for centuries, preserved in eternal torment. |
| 83 | Gorebelch Ooze | A deep crimson and purple mass that vomits acidic blood when struck. It drenches battlefields in gore, drowning both friend and foe alike. |
| 84 | Dreamrot Fungus | A pale blue web of fungus that invades dreams. Victims return night after night until their bodies wander into its arms, dreaming themselves to death. |
| 85 | Scourmire Sludge | An oily black sludge that poisons rivers. Animals who drink mutate hideously or die in spasms. “You know the water is cursed when even the fish avoid it.” — Branlak Sesef |
| 86 | Wormglass Slime | A clear, crystalline ooze that blisters skin into jagged shards. Victims petrify slowly as crystalline growths pierce flesh. |
| 87 | Vilethorn Mold | A delicate white lace of fungus that fires paralytic spines when touched. Explorers call it “the assassin’s garden.” |
| 88 | Emberbile Ooze | A glowing orange ooze found near volcanic vents. It ignites flesh and wood, and grows stronger when fed fire magic. |
| 89 | Tallowmuck | A pale yellow slime smelling of rancid tallow. It clings to wounds and slows healing, leaving sufferers wracked with pain and festering sores. |
| 90 | Chime Mold | A silvery-blue mold that hums musical notes when disturbed. Its vibrations attract subterranean predators or collapse tunnels like a deadly siren’s call. |
| 91 | Silkbane Sludge | A steel-gray ooze that weaves into clothing and armor, hardening to trap victims in their garments until they suffocate. |
| 92 | Ghoulmoss | A black-green moss that animates corpses into shambling guardians. The grove seemed peaceful—until the trees began to walk. |
| 93 | Venombloom | A vibrant violet fungus that releases paralytic pollen. Its fields bloom in abandoned lands, a warning and a curse. |
| 94 | Murkplume Sludge | A murky brown ooze that seeps into lungs and mind, inducing hallucinations until victims lose all grasp on reality. |
| 95 | Skintomb Mold | A waxy off-white mold that grows beneath living skin. Victims collapse into husks filled with fungal fruiting bodies. |
| 96 | Ruinfoam | A gray-green foam that devours stone. Walls, statues, and even mountains crumble under its relentless caustic tide. |
| 97 | Carrionlace Slime | A black and crimson slime that mimics blood and viscera. It lures scavengers, then digests them in slow, acidic waves. |
| 98 | Hallowbind Fungus | Pale green vines that entwine corpses, animating them as hollow guardians. Those felled within its roots rise within minutes to join its ranks. |
| 99 | Cindermuck | A dark gray ooze that smolders like banked coals. When disturbed, it flashes into flame, cooking victims from within. |
| 100 | Verdant Maw | A deep mossy green plant-fungus hybrid that mimics forest floor. Those who step upon it are seized by fleshy tendrils and dragged into its cavernous maw. “The last sound was laughter. It was not mine.” — Branlak Sesef |
| Appendix: Hazard subclass | ||
| Hazard-Type (non-sentient environmental threats) | ||
| 7. Yellow Mold | ||
| 8. Brown Mold | ||
| 20. Green Slime Sporecloud | ||
| 24. Deadly Pudding3 | ||
| 28. Toxic Sludge | ||
| 30. Corrosive Slime Pit | ||
| 38. Living Spell (Grease) | ||
| 39. Living Spell (Acid Arrow) | ||
| 40. Corpse Mold | ||
| 41. Mycotoxin Spores | ||
| 42. Drowned Slime | ||
| 70. Lantern Lichen |
Witness and Warning: Opinions of the Learned
Master Arctherion Velmbrass, Guild Scribe of the Alchemists’ Covenant
“Sesef’s Bestiary is a wonder, yes — but a reckless one. Cataloging horrors is not the same as mastering them. Mark my words: there will be blood because of this.”
Arctherion Velmbrass, a man of strict order and discipline, stands firm in his belief that such dangerous knowledge should not be disseminated without caution. The Alchemists’ Covenant has issued several inquiries into Branlak’s safety practices. Velmbrass advocates for a more secure, academic approach to the study of the monstrous and dangerous.
Sister Elyndra of the White Lantern
“I pity Branlak Sesef. To live among such records of despair must blacken the soul beyond salvation. His work is a map of rot, but even a map through hell is a kind of mercy.”
Elyndra, a devout member of the Church of the White Lantern, offers a compassionate but stern critique. While she acknowledges the necessity of Branlak’s work for the protection of the faithful, she maintains that no soul should linger too long in the study of such horrors, lest they be forever marked by them.
Kurto Venn, Ratcatcher of the Sump Town Warrens
“Branlak? Hah! That mad bugger knows what he’s talking about, that’s for sure. I keep a sprig of saltweed and a fire-pitch torch thanks to his pages. Saved my hide more than once, down where the walls drip and the stones moan.”
A survivor of the city’s muck-ridden underworld, Kurto praises Sesef’s practical approach, noting that his work offers invaluable insights for anyone who seeks to survive the depths. He has learned to swear by the alchemical remedies listed, though he prefers a more direct “let’s burn it down” approach to dealing with oozes.
Lady Vestrel Ravinspire, Court Arcanist of Auris
“A useful catalog for field apprentices, though Sesef’s melodramatic tone grows tiresome. Still, even the worst poet can occasionally pen a vital truth.”
Lady Vestrel, a scholar of the arcane elite, is less than impressed by Branlak’s artistic flourishes but concedes that his work has merits for novice wizards and adventurers. She believes the text should be required reading at the Arcanum Academy, with an added note on removing emotional prose from scientific works.
Shermans fantasy world 