Meme (Creature)

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A graybeard on the Prime named Mogen Wym believes a body undergoes a gradual process that cycles through every seven years, completely exchanging a body's old tissue for new. If true, the saying, "You are what you eat," is more accurate than most realize. Even more interesting is the idea that some central pattern remains as a constant overseer of an individual's archetypal form, even though the specific tissue making up the body is constantly growing, dying, and being replaced by new tissue. Weird, eh?
Weirder yet is a creature of the Deep called the meme. Memes typify the idea of a pattern imposing form on body, but the specific elements making up a meme's body are only utilized for a few seconds at most. See, the meme utilizes raw ethereal vapors, particles of solid ether, and ethereal matter that bleeds off real objects in its vicinity to make up its own form temporarily. The meme is a self-perpetuating pattern that uses any nearby material to form its body, sometimes to the detriment of living creatures that get too close to its usurpation field (see below).
From a distance, a meme appears like a vague humanoid form moving under a bedsheet (the bedsheet being the Ethereal medium). Thus, the meme is sometimes as colorful as the Ethereal Plane itself, and sometimes as pale as nearby protomatter. Those within 10 feet of the meme see that the bedsheet image frays a bit-to one side a minivortex constantly swirls stray particulate matter into the meme's form, and on the other side of the meme's form, a mini-vortex likewise sprays "used" particulates back into the ethereal boil. Because its body is constantly in flux, the meme constantly regenerates damage.
Unfortunately, a meme isn't particular about what matter makes up its form-in fact, it prefers a varied "diet," and thus actively hunts the Misty Shore for J normal ethereal beings. Fortunately for the meme's potential prey, certain spells cause great damage to the creature, and transporting a meme to another plane instantly and permanently disperses it.
It's uncertain if memes are lone freaks, part of a strange nomadic race of only a few members, or the barest examples of an entirely new form of life that resides yet undiscovered in the furthest reaches of the Deep Ethereal.
==Combat==
SA - Usurpation field: Anyone within 10' of a meme is automatically exposed to its usurpation field. Within the field all matter must make a check each round or face dissolution. Inanimate objects check on the Item Saving Throw table as if against acid. For every round an item fails, 25% of it crumbles away, and is drawn into the nearby meme to make up part of its body temporarily. Living creatures make saving throws vs. death magic each round. Each failed save indicates a loss of Idlo hit points as a portion of their body dissolves and swirls away to make up part of the nearby merne's body temporarily (hit points lost in this way do not heal normally; they must be magically healed).
SW - A successfully cast hold monster spell causes a meme 3d10 hp of damage, while a successfully cast stasis spell shatters a meme's pattern, killing it.
Category:Creatures
Category:A Guide to the Ethereal Plane Creatures