Monster Monday: Goo Bat Swarm

Today's Monster Monday is the goo bat, a blood-sucking ball of ooze with bat wings. Goo bats swarm their prey, glomming on to them to slow them down with a thick layer of slime which begins to siphon the blood from their body. They leave behind jellified corpses that burst open into new swarms of goo bats.

Whoa, is that an original illustration? Well, it sure as heck ain't a professional illustration. I got a tablet, so I'm going to start drawing some of the monsters I stat up. The goal is that eventually every Monster Monday will have its own original illustration (and I'll gradually get better at drawing them).

Hey, Halloween is coming up! Starting this Wednesday, I will be posting a new skeleton stat block every day until Halloween. It's an event I'm calling: d20 Despot's Seven Spooky Skeletons.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2017 Jonah Bomgaars.

A swarm of thousands of globs of ooze flaps toward you on slimy, bat-like wings

Goo Bat Swarm   CR 3

XP 800

N Diminutive ooze (swarm)

Init +2; Senses blindsight 60 ft.; Perception -5

DEFENSE

AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 14 (+2 Dex, +4 size)

hp 26 (4d8+8)

Fort +3, Ref +3, Will -4

Defensive Abilities swarm traits

Immune acid, ooze traits, weapon damage

OFFENSE

Speed 5 ft., fly 40 ft. (average)

Melee swarm (1d6 plus goo)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Special Attacks distraction (DC 14), goo

STATISTICS

Str 3, Dex 15, Con 14, Int --, Wis 1, Cha 1

Base Atk +3; CMB --; CMD --

SQ swarm traits

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Goo (Ex)

Creatures damaged by a goo bat swarm are coated in a thick slime.  The slime restricts the target’s movement, imposing a -1 penalty on attack rolls, skill checks, and Reflex saves, and reducing the target’s move speed by 5 ft. (to a minimum 5 ft.).  These effects stack each time the creature takes damage from this or another goo bat swarm. 

   In addition, each round a creature remains coated with this slime, they must make a DC 14 Fortitude save or take 1 point of Constitution damage.  The save DC is Constitution-based.  A creature killed in this way cannot be raised with the spell raise dead.  Over the course of 1d3 days, its body will be converted to ooze and birth a new swarm of goo bats unless the goo is removed from the body and burned. 

   The goo is sticky and tough to remove.  Simple cleaning cantrips like prestidigitation are insufficient to remove it.  A creature can remove the goo by being totally doused or immersed in water, or by taking 10 or more points of fire damage from an area of effect spell. 

ECOLOGY

Environment underground

Organization solitary

Treasure none

A goo bat is a fist-sized ball of ooze with slimy bat wings.  Alone, they are fairly innocuous, but in a swarm they can pose a serious threat.  Creatures caught in a goo bat swarm are bombarded by hundreds of the creatures, which glom onto their target, coating it in thick, sticky goo that slows them as it drains them of blood.  Goo bats are natives of deep caverns.  They are rarely seen in the surface world, but an infestation in a city can be devastating. 

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Plot Hooks and Encounter Ideas

• The town guards are investigating a series of murders that left behind oddly slimy corpses. One night, the corpses explode into goo bats, swarming the city.
• An odd purple gelatinous cube has been spotted in the deep caverns, and it is always surrounded by a swarm of flying balls of goo.
• The svirfneblins want you to investigate a porous giant fungus that appears to produce goo bats.

-your jellified d20 despot