Jubilex's Garden

 

Jubilex’s Garden: On Deadly Slimes and Jellies

By Ioka Mase

Travelers who have passed through certain dangerous regions, including the northern desolation and certain pockets of the East Hills, have occasionally reported finding strange caverns and other dark, usually subterranean locations corrupted by a terrifying undead haunts coupled with treacherous slimes and toxic jellies—including live or even sentient masses of this kind. These environments, which I shall call “Jubilex’s Gardens,” pose great peril to any who come upon them, both for the powers of the malevolent spirits as well as the physically destructive properties of the slimes and jellies. All such substances are exceedingly corrosive to the touch, capable of quickly dissolving not only wood and textile but even metals, soft stone, and of course bone and flesh. 

     Although this author has not personally experienced the horrors of any such site, the theories set forth in these pages are drawn from countless observations of those who have, as well as the study of artifacts associated with undead and slime-type hazards, and review of surviving texts from antiquity.

 1. Phantoms: the seed of corruption

A variety of spectral undead, phantoms tend to form through the combination of extreme emotional trauma and the presence of negative energy. Unlike a geist, which might linger peacefully, a phantom is usually a soul snapped into a state of perpetual unrest through the so-called “psychic imprint.” As Darrower has written:

The psychic imprint entails the unconscious recording of the very moment when negative energy instantly snuffed the life of a person exhibiting extraordinarily high levels of adverse emotional intensity. The sudden shock is critical: only if the negative energy event happens so quickly that the residual energy cannot dissipate will the moment be recorded and linger as a phantom.

Scholars since Darrower have suggested further that the creation of a phantom includes also a significant environmental or even geological component: that the negative energy is recorded not in the ethereal plane but through physical material such as quartz, limestone, or lead. This could explain why phantoms are seldom seen above ground, for instance, except in old ruins or castles that may contain such chemical compounds.

Being a “recording” as it is, phantoms tend to manifest the intense emotions either through sound (moans, shrieks, and other haunting sounds are common) or visual representations (ranging from dark shadows to colorless effigies to turbulent masses of physical anger). Though all phantoms bear a “message,” it is unknown whether this is done consciously or simply a product of its nature as a recording—though most believe the latter as a phantom’s message is always cryptic and not known to change over time. Phantoms do not acknowledge the living, leaving sages hotly divided on whether phantoms are sentient, and thus truly “undead,” at all.  But this debate is beyond the scope of these writings.

Geists: frequently associated with or found near phantoms, geists are spirits that have lost their identity entirely yet remain tied to specific locations. They are most often invisible, and believed mindless, forces of spectral hunger or malice. Some geists, called “poltergeists” from the Khelgir tongue, are powerful enough to physically manipulate the physical world. These have been known to hurl stones, pottery, or other objects—though seldom with enough force to cause injury.

2. The origin of slimes.

Even though who question whether phantoms and geists are true “undead” acknowledge that within a phantom exists a soul that has not passed on to the Outer Planes. That soul remains tethered to our dimension by its powerful emotional anchors, all of which draw negative energy to itself. Under certain conditions, this negative energy arrives within ectoplasms of other dimensions—especially the ethereal plane.

Though frequently dismissed as mere “slime,” many of the otherworldly substances pulled to our realm though this process are biological in nature and some can survive or even thrive here. Whether those display sentient characteristics arrive with them or evolve such traits later is currently a question beyond answer. It is worth noting, however, that some theorize these substances do not achieve consciousness through natural processes, but rather are endowed with it through the intervention of malevolent forces. Of these, surely the best known is the demon lord Jubilex, The Faceless One, after which the title of this work is taken. But whether Jubilex actually exists, or what such a demon prince intends to accomplish through the animation of corrosive jellies, we shall hopefully never know.

3. The grey ooze

Of the observed sentient slimes, the grey /// [at this point, the remaining text is marred beyond legibility]