Proto-shoggoth
Proto-shoggoths are protoplasmic oozes created by the elder things.1
Appearance
A proto-shoggoth appears as a tangled mass of roiling flesh and organs weighing approximately 160 pounds, and is capable of forming all manner of hideous shapes.1
Ecology
Proto-shoggoths reproduce by infecting the bodies of other living creatures, causing a proto-shoggoth to emerge from their corpses. To grow, a proto-shoggoth seeks out others of its kind to merge into a larger version of the whole called a syncytium. Syncytia can only merge with other syncytia (not with non-syncytium proto-shoggoths) to complete the transformation to a shoggoth.1
Society
The mindless proto-shoggoths are driven by two overwhelming instincts: to infect living flesh and merge with other proto-shoggoths. Once a creature is infected, a proto-shoggoth instinctively knows to stay in the area and attempts to merge with the offspring that will emerge from the victim's body. Proto-shoggoths that fail to merge with each other are incompatible, can never again attempt to merge with each other tend to keep a distance between themselves.1
Once two proto-shoggoths merge into a syncytium, it loses the ability to infect flesh and gains a rudimentary intellect to more easily seek out other proto-shoggoths. Syncytia understand that lingering in areas where other proto-shoggoths are active will eventually give them opportunities to grow; syncytia often act as their protectors of proto-shoggoths, and have used rudimentary cunning to lure or chase prey into proto-shoggoth nests.1
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 . “Bestiary” in The Whisper Out of Time, 91. Paizo Inc., 2016