Aruchai by OlemGolem

# Aruchai

<div style="font-variant: small-caps; line-height:110%; padding-top:3px;">There I was, sitting in my smithy, and then this slimy thing pops up and slithers all over my wares! All my work was ruined, </div>

*it’ll take years to recover what I made! I tried to shoo the thing away and I happened to drive it into a corner behind the anvil. I didn’t want it to escape so I waited until help arrived but it was a long wait. After sundown, a person started to emerge from that thing! I thought it was some kind of trick like it was trying to outsmart me with something, but then I noticed that it looked familiar.*

*“Ben?”, it said.*

*After staring at him for a minute, I noticed who it was.*

*“Tom?”*

<p style='text-align:right'>-Blacksmith Ben Welston</p>

</div>

## Introduction
The Aruchai (singular Arucha), also called Fleishe Kleckse, Blobs of Flesh, or Sea of Flesh, originated in Limbo as a joke from gods of chaos. A slight mistake was that they are intelligent enough to understand that they want to get out of Limbo. When one or more Aruchai defeats a group of enemies in Limbo, and the number of enemies was equal to half or more of the number of fighting Aruchai, then the corpses of the enemies will transform into new Aruchai. While that is happening, the Aruchai are transported to the enemies’ native plane, where they will terrorize the inhabitants for one day. After this day, they transform back to their former selves but retain their chaotic mindsets.

### Physiological Observations
The Arucha looks like a 4 feet tall formless blob of rotting, yellowish flesh with writhing pseudopods. Little parasites crawl over their slimy bodies which slurp up the many fluids that it secretes at times. One of such fluids is a thick, viscous glue-like substance which restricts its mobility. Aruchai refuse to stop moving, regardless of how slow they move. They only slow down to absorb foods but otherwise, they never want to stop to rest.

Be careful when using weapons on this creature, as the body can be so sticky that weapons tend to get stuck and risk being dissolved by the body. After being dissolved, the weapon shatters outward into pieces, which doesn’t harm the creature, but it does harm anyone else in the area. Stay away from the grasping ‘fingers’ if you can. When they touch you, it can use its secretions to knock out your nervous system and paralyze you. This allows it to cover its victim with its slow, sticky, fleshy body and suffocate it. Slowly digesting it until the rest is excreted so it can transform.

Because of the fat and fluid storage, they can ward themselves from any extreme cold. Fire and acids, however, hurts and burns their skin so badly that it can cut deep into their flesh and massively damage their insides as well.

> ##### Special Thanks
>
> * **Author:** OlemGolem
> * **The Ecology Project:** [ecology list](https://redd.it/3o1p25)

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### Intra-species Observations
Aruchai are very rare but usually stay together in groups of 10 or more, slowly traversing the plane of Limbo in the hopes of finding a group of unfortunate wanderers that they can overpower and digest. They are always out for themselves and greedily want to find their way out of the plane of chaos as soon as possible but know that as long as they stick together, their odds of getting there are way better than alone. When there are 100 or more live Aruchai present, they can meld together into one large creature called an Aruchai-Kamoit, a Sea of Writhing Flesh. This creature is way more dangerous as it has a longer reach and more potent fluids plus a larger body.

Aruchai are slow enough to be captured by any inhabitant of Limbo. Chaos gods and other creatures tend to capture them and use them to guard treasure and caverns with low roofs. The cavern floors are covered with a sea of flesh, waiting for a hapless adventurer to come in and release them from their planar prison of chaos.

## DM's Toolkit
This creature is, just like the Flard, also from Dragon Magazine #47. A weird, chaotic, and disgusting creature that wants nothing more than to trade places with someone from a different plane and live out their original lives while remaining Chaotic Neutral. These creatures are a one-way ticket to be cursed in Limbo. Because of this, you could make this a situational hazard for PCs as they have the chance to bring a fallen PC back, or perhaps an adventure where someone lost a beloved partner to these creatures and wants to trade them back for someone else.

You could also use it for alternative settings as just this random creature to scare the crap out of your players. They don’t deal damage, but they’re more like situational timers that you don’t want to go off. I suggest using these in small groups and with a party that needs to learn unconventional tactics such as charm spells or damage types. Rushing at these creatures with weapons will cause a lot of sadness to any character.

Because of this obscure creature’s old stats, I took the liberty to re-stat these two creatures. It still has some old-school features such as triple-damage and magic resistance. This is the closest I got to what is described, though. A good addition to Limbo.

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___
> ## Arucha
>*Small Ooze, Chaotic Neutral*
> ___
> - **Armor Class** 9 (natural armor)
> - **Hit Points** 32 (5d6 + 15)
> - **Speed** 5 ft.
>___
>|STR|DEX|CON|INT|WIS|CHA|
>|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|
>|10 (+0)|13 (+1)|16 (+3)|5 (-3)|14 (+2)|3 (-4)|
>___
> - **Vulnerabilities** Fire, Acid (see fire and acid suffering)
> - **Imunities** Cold
> - **Condition Immunities** Blinded, deafened, prone
> - **Skills** Stealth +3
> - **Senses** Blindsight 60 ft
> - **Languages** None
> - **Challenge** 1/2 (100xp)
> ___
>
> ### Actions
> **Paralyzing Touch** The Arucha touches a creature within 5 feet. The target must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. If the creature fails it falls prone and is paralyzed for one round.
>
> **Consume** The Arucha covers a creature that is prone. If the Arucha remains there until the end of its next turn, it will be teleported to the plane the creature was from and the creature turns into a new Arucha.
> ___
>
> ### Features
> **Amorphous** The Arucha can move through spaces as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
>
> **Fire and Acid Suffering** Instead of double damage, the Arucha suffers triple damage from fire and acid damage.
>
> **Sticky Body** Any weapon attack with a total result higher than 18 will cause the weapon to stick to the body. A creature can retrieve this weapon with an action by making a DC11 Strength check.
>
> **Weird Corrosion** Any nonmagical weapon that is touching the Aruchai corrodes. After dealing damage, the weapon takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to damage rolls. If its penalty drops to -5, the weapon is destroyed and explodes in an area of 5 feet around the Aruchai. The creatures in the area must make a DC 11 Dexterity check or suffer 2d8 damage of the weapon’s damage type. Nonmagical ammunition is destroyed after dealing damage.
>
> **Magic Resistance** The Arucha has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

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___
> ## Aruchai-Kamoit
> *Large Ooze, Chaotic Neutral*
> ___
> - **Armor Class** 9
> - **Hit Points** 52 (5d10 + 25)
> - **Speed** 5 ft.
>___
>|STR|DEX|CON|INT|WIS|CHA|
>|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|
>|15 (+2)|13 (+1)|20 (+5)|5 (-3)|14 (+2)|3 (-4)|
>___
> - **Vulnerabilities** Fire, Acid (see fire and acid suffering)
> - **Imunities** Cold
> - **Condition Immunities** Blinded, deafened, prone
> - **Skills** Stealth +3
> - **Senses** Blindsight 60 ft
> - **Languages** None
> - **Challenge** 1 (200xp)
> ___
>
> ### Actions
> **Paralyzing Touch** The Arucha touches a creature within 5 feet. The target must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. If the creature fails it falls prone and is paralyzed for one round.
>
> **Consume** The Arucha covers a creature that is prone. If the Arucha remains there until the end of its next turn, it will be teleported to the plane the creature was from and the creature turns into a new Arucha.
> ___
>
> ### Features
> **Amorphous** The Arucha can move through spaces as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
>
> **Fire and Acid Suffering** Instead of double damage, the Arucha suffers triple damage from fire and acid damage.
>
> **Sticky Body** Any weapon attack with a total result higher than 18 will cause the weapon to stick to the body. A creature can retrieve this weapon with an action by making a DC11 Strength check.
>
> **Weird Corrosion** Any nonmagical weapon that is touching the Aruchai corrodes. After dealing damage, the weapon takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to damage rolls. If its penalty drops to -5, the weapon is destroyed and explodes in an area of 5 feet around the Aruchai. The creatures in the area must make a DC 11 Dexterity check or suffer 2d8 damage of the weapon’s damage type. Nonmagical ammunition is destroyed after dealing damage.
>
> **Magic Resistance** The Arucha has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

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