Quicksilver Ooze (CR 12/MR 5)

A slithering globule of shining silvery metal slides with uncanny speed, flowing almost gracefully across floor and walls. The reflections in its mirror-like surface ripple and distort as it swells and undulates, and its smooth lines and undulant pseudopods morph fluidly into rows of perfectly smooth blades and spines of deadly sharpness.

Quicksilver Ooze (CR 12/MR 5)
XP 19,200
N Large ooze (mythic)
Init +5; Senses Perception +0

Defense

AC 29, touch 15, flat-footed 23 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +14 natural, –1 size)
hp 187 (14d8+124)
Fort +10, Ref +11, Will +4
Defensive Abilities block attacksMA, improved evasion; DR 10/epic; Immune electricity, fire, ooze traits
Weaknesses torpor

Offense

Speed 60 ft., climb 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +15 (3d6+6/19–20/x3 plus mercuric poison)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks augmented criticalMA, fluid accelerationMA, melt metal, metallic malleability, mythic power (5/day, surge +1d8+1), mercuric poison

Statistics

Str 23, Dex 21, Con 22, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 1
Base Atk +10; CMB +17; CMD 33 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Extra Mythic PowerMF, Lightning ReflexesMF, B, Potent SurgeMF
Skills Climb +14
SQ compression, mimetic magicMA, thermoelectric diffusionMA

Ecology

Environment any land
Organization solitary
Treasure incidental

Special Abilities

Augmented Critical (Ex) A quicksilver ooze’s blows slip through cracks in defenses and shift constantly from crushing bludgeons to cruel spikes and serrations, increasing the critical threat range of its slam attacks to 19-20 and its critical multiplier to x3.

Block Attacks (Ex) Once per round, when the quicksilver ooze is hit by a melee or ranged attack, it can attempt a melee attack using its highest attack bonus. If this result exceeds the result from the attack against it, the creature is unaffected by the attack (as if the attack had missed).

Fluid Acceleration (Ex) Once per minute as a swift action, a quicksilver ooze can accelerate its movement and attacks as if using haste. This effect lasts until the end of its next turn. A quicksilver ooze can spend one use of mythic power while activating this ability to duplicate the effect of mythic haste, or two uses of its mythic power to duplicate the effect of augmented mythic haste. This is a non-magical effect.

Melt Metal (Ex) A quicksilver ooze’s slam attack melds with and liquefies metal armor and shields, passing through them as if they did not exist and leaving gaps and rents where its blows cause the liquefied metal to fall away. Any metal armor or shield worn by the target of its attack loses 1 point of hardness and takes 1d6 points of damage (bypassing hardness) and has the Armor Class bonus it grants reduced by 1 each time the quicksilver ooze hits with an attack (DC 23 Reflex negates). This has no effect on armor or shields made of wood, stone, bone, leather, cloth, or other materials.

Metal weapons that strike a quicksilver ooze likewise lose 1 point of hardness and take 1d6 points of damage (bypassing hardness) with each attack that strikes the ooze’s touch Armor Class (DC 23 Reflex negates), even if they do not hit its normal Armor Class or do not overcome its damage reduction. This ability has no effect on artifacts, epic magic items, or items made of gold, silver, or Elysian bronze, but constructs made of metal are affected as if they were objects. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Mercuric Poison (Ex) Slam-injury; save Fort DC 23; frequency 1/ round for 6 rounds; effect 1d4 Dex and sickened for 1 minute; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Metallic Malleability (Ex) A quicksilver ooze’s natural attacks deal bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage and are considered adamantine, cold iron, epic, and silver for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Mimetic Magic (Su) When a quicksilver ooze is hit with a magical weapon, it duplicates that weapon’s enhancement bonus for 1 minute. If struck by a weapon with a higher enhancement bonus, it duplicates that bonus for 1 minute. If struck by a weapon with the same enhancement bonus, it resets the duration of this absorption to 1 minute from the most recent hit. If struck by a weapon with a lower enhancement bonus, this ability has no effect. If the weapon has any special abilities, such as flaming, keen, speed, or brilliant energy, a quicksilver ooze can spend one use of its mythic power to duplicate a random special ability from that weapon for 1 minute. A quicksilver ooze can duplicate multiple special abilities simultaneously if struck by a weapon (or several weapons) with multiple abilities. It cannot absorb weapon properties that apply only to ranged weapons.

Mindless Lightning Reflexes (Ex) A quicksilver ooze gains Lightning Reflexes as a bonus feat even though it is mindless.

Thermoelectric Diffusion (Ex) If a quicksilver ooze is struck by an effect that deals electricity or fire damage, it conducts and diffuses that damage to nearby creatures. Any creature adjacent to the quicksilver ooze takes half damage from the effect (and may make a saving throw or apply spell resistance to the effect, if the electricity or fire effect allows it). If the effect affects an area, creatures already within the area do not take additional damage from being adjacent to the ooze.

Torpor (Ex) Whenever a quicksilver ooze takes cold or sonic damage, it becomes staggered for 1 round for every 20 points of damage it takes. If the ooze is struck by an effect that deals electricity or fire damage, this cancels one round of torpor for every 10 points of damage the effect would have dealt.


Quicksilver oozes are originally came into being in the slagheaps of divine foundries, formed from the congealed toxic effluent of magical manufactories and the enchanted residue that dripped from the forge-fires of the gods as they hammered out the weapons they would gift to their mightiest heroes.

The inventors of the divinely wrought alloy now known as Elysian bronze are said to have developed its lethal properties by quenching their metalwork in mercury rather than water before rinsing them in the blood of slain beasts of legend. The eldritch energies of incandescent heat, shattering thunderbolts, and raw mythic power slowly leached into the contents of these quenching vats, giving a queer sort of life, if not sentience or purpose, to the mystical medium left behind. These unwanted residues were dumped into the tailings of the divine forges, filtering down over the ages into the mortal world.

Ecology
Quicksilver oozes move much faster than typical oozes, slipping along walls and flowing through small cracks, shifting and flexing their form rapidly and evading attacks at the last moment. However, they are known to lie dormant for long periods in stone basins or containers, again out of some vague instinctual compulsion to store themselves in such vessels. More than one greedy explorer has disturbed such a silvery pool thinking it some kind of planar portal or even just a pool of wealth to steal, only to learn their deadly error too late. Their lethal strikes and destructive tendencies make them much-feared adversaries of adventurers, but some mythic alchemists, artificers, and smiths attempt to capture them and distill their essence and their substance to empower their mightiest works of creation.

Habitat and Society
Quicksilver oozes are mindless creatures, knowing little but the urge to seek out metal and melt it down, refining and purifying it, destroying whatever it regards as impurities. Its constant exposure to the smithcraft of the planes has imprinted untold variations of weapons into the neuromimetic memory of its cells, allowing it to duplicate the form and function of any number of weapons and magical weapon enhancements. Absorbing the imprint of mortal metals and their puerile enchantments is not as nourishing to it as the mythic creations that spawned its progenitors, but they nonetheless provide the ooze with life, health, and strength. Quicksilver oozes do not consume organic matter, though they have a deep-seated urge to drench themselves in blood. It does not nourish them, but some type of cellular memory yet retains the long-ago forging process and craves the commingling of blood and mercury in and on itself.

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