Proto-shoggoth

Proto-shoggoth
(Creature)
Type	Ooze
CR	11
Environment	Any
Alignment	LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE
Adjective	Proto-shoggoth
Source: The Whisper Out of Time, pg(s). 90

Proto-shoggoth syncytium
(Creature)
Type	Ooze
CR	14
Environment	Any
Alignment	LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE
Source: The Whisper Out of Time, pg(s). 90

Proto-shoggoths are protoplasmic oozes created by the elder things.

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.

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.

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 instinctually 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.

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 been known to use rudimentary cunning to lure or chase prey into proto-shoggoth nests.