DCC Bestiary - Black Witch's Butter

Reading through my copy of Dwarrowdeep, one of the slime-like creatures in there was wonderfully named Black Witch’s Butter – I thought would be nice to make a DCC version, so I started Googling – and lo, and behold there’s a real fungus with that name!

Exidia glandulosa - Wikipedia

So the OSR version is a slime that ejects deadly acidic black ichor at a target, crawl over the corpse, and then digest them.  The real-world version is a fungus that corrodes wood.  So let’s have at it!

The OSR version has an AC of 12 (8 in the descending AC vernacular), 8 Hit Dice, 5’ movement, and attacks for 1d6 or 1d8 damage and corrodes armor … so let’s lean a bit more towards the real life version for something interesting … think of it like a rust monster, only it eats wood and leather rather than steel, oh, and it will crawl onto and consume people.

Black Witch’s Butter

This fungus looks like a bulbous, slimy growth found on wooden surfaces.  It pulses and shifts towards any movement in it’s vicinity.  Folklore and old farmer’s tales say that Black Witch’s Butter are the scrapings from the bottom of a witch’s cauldron given unholy life, but those are just tales … 

     Black Witch’s Butter: Init -5, Atk spore attack +2 melee (corrosive spores); AC 12; HD 4d6 (14 hp); MV 5’; Act 1d20; SP consume organics, mindless, corrosive spores, vulnerable to fire; SV Fort +6, Ref -5, Will -5; AL N.
     This slime-like fungus nests on while consuming organic matter – it can be found on trees, mushroom stalks, wooden constructs such as doors or chests, and occasionally, corpses.  It slowly consumes it’s wooden foundation.
     When triggered by being touched or movement within 10 feet, the black witch’s butter ejects corrosive spores, and all creatures within 10’ take 1d6 damage.  Further, the spores erode inanimate organic matter such as wood or leather – each victim can attempt a DC 12 Fortitude save each round within the spores, or lose one such object that round, starting with the largest (shields, handaxe or mace hafts, backpacks, rope, cloaks, belt pouches, etc).  Victims who leave the spore cloud avoid further damage and corroded objects.
     This fungus is not intelligent or aware, and are immune to mind-affecting effects.
     If a victim falls unconscious or helpless within 10’ of the fungus, it will slowly crawl to it’s new ‘host’ and consume it, rendering a human-sized body to bones and soup-like fluid within an hour.