ECOLOGY

Environment any underground
Organization solitary or nest (2–4)
Treasure standard

At home in the muck and filth of the sewers beneath large cities, slime nagas prey upon the weak and dejected of urban society. They lurk beneath the surface, and carve out their domains in the darkened tunnels, fighting with other subterranean denizens for territory. Though they live below-ground for security and safety, they have no aversion to light and occasionally sun themselves in rancid cesspools. Their scales range in color from green to brown, and are often a mottled combination of various shades that is difficult to discern beneath a thick coating of putrid slime. A slime naga stretches 12–14 feet long and weighs about 250 pounds.

Ecology

Slime nagas have a particular affinity for the various types of oozes that frequently live among them in dank sewers and grimy caverns. They have a natural ability to command oozes of all types, though they find it harder to bring intelligent oozes under their control. Slime nagas gather great stables of these creatures, and use them as guardians of their gutter kingdoms. If invaders penetrate a slime naga's domain, it invisibly directs its enslaved army to attack. Slime nagas who travel beyond their territories invariably bring along a retinue of controlled jellies, puddings, and slimes.

Even though most oozes are simple and mindless creatures, slime nagas delight in the utter control they have over these mindless creatures. This racial urge for control extends to more complicated living things, though it requires actual effort and planning. Slime nagas often form cabals and criminal gangs in their home cities, and lead groups of desperate criminals and pliable addicts from the shadows of their subterranean dens. Thanks to a naga's spells, few of its minions are ever aware that their leader is an inhuman aberration—a safe anonymity the slime prefers.

Slime nagas covet knowledge about the people around them. They like hearing stories from the city's surface, and spend hours sifting through refuse looking for castoff secrets. Blackmail invariably plays heavily into the schemes of whatever criminal enterprises they form. A slime naga may eagerly release an intruder or potential meal in exchange for hidden knowledge, especially illicit details the naga can hold over someone's head.

Similarly, those with an understanding of the creatures often seek them out to trade for information about their enemies, in return for secrets they themselves possess—a slime naga can uncover anything it doesn't already know by means of its magic, human agents, and slithering minions.

In their quests for knowledge and power, most slime nagas eventually develop some material fixation, hoarding strange collections that invariably mark their lairs. One may treasure exotic wine bottles, and another foreign coins, while another finds intricate value in last-century's finest clothing.

Befitting their putrid homes, slime nagas have poor senses of smell. They can only pick up strong scents in their immediate vicinity, and are terrible at differentiating between similar smells. Correspondingly, slime nagas have a poor palate, and cannot tell the difference between fine cuisine and bland slop. They nonetheless seek out expensive foods and wines, and consider them fitting tributes from lesser creatures seeking their favor—more because possessing it means no one else can, rather than for any enjoyment of the meal itself.

Habitat and Society

While the majority of slime nagas are found just beneath the surface streets in large urban centers, not all of them live among the filth and bustle of cities. Rural slime nagas typically live in swamps and mires, often within a few day's travel of a humanoid settlement. Urban slime nagas look down upon their rural cousins, seeing them as less intelligent and more bestial. There is some element of truth in this assumption—like their urban counterparts, these slime nagas build cults of fanatics and healthy stables of enslaved oozes, but the followers they gather to their sides are often debased country folk, savage humanoids, or even outright monsters.

As intelligent creatures, slime nagas understand the dangers of the shadows. They sometimes form pacts and allegiances with other denizens of the dark. They get along fairly well with water nagas and dark nagas, with whom they often share habitats—often bullying their smaller relations into service. They also occasionally beg, blackmail, or beat dark folk, derros, chokers, mongrelfolk, and skulks into serving them in their underworld endeavors.

Even though they cooperate with other creatures, Slime nagas don't often group together in large numbers with others of their kind. Slime nagas are egotistical creatures, but have little patience for others' boasting. In large enclaves, conflicts often arise as each slime naga tries to outdo the others. Slime nagas always try to increase their status within a nest. Petty competitions create a pecking order within the nest, and feuds run deep as the slime nagas exploit their inferiors and grovel to their superiors. These clashes eventually worsen until the nest splits, each member gathering whatever oozes it can dominate and moving on to seek its own territory. Most settlements can't provide enough resources for multiple nests of slime nagas, so exiled nagas move on to new cities, preferably ones not already inhabited by their kind.