Ochre Jellies and Vargouilles

The ochre jelly is a monster from D&D that is based on the amoeba. Its special ability is that it splits into multiple monsters when struck with lightning spells or weapons.

I have two metal miniatures of this creature from Grenadier. The jelly on the left is from the Monsters large boxed set (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 5002), and the one on the right is from one of the Monster Manuscript boxed sets (Monster Manuscript Vol.VII 1507, MM59).

They're essentially something that anyone with a hot glue gun or blob of clay can make nowadays, but the early Grenadier slimes are quite interesting because they were sculpted with eyes.

悪いスライムじゃないよ!

I actually made a press mold of this particular miniature at one time with the intention of using the Dark Art to cast up a modified miniature in clear resin. I planned to use small clear beads mixed in the resin as vacuoles and organelles, a larger colored bead as the nucleus (or eye), and bits of treasure or bone as excretory crystals.

I never got around to make the cast, but if I ever find that mold again I will definitely finish that project.

The most recent depictions of ochre jellies show them with writhing pseudopods that they use to bludgeon prey. The Pathfinder Battles Ochre Jelly (Dungeons Deep #028) is typical of this representation.

I find the idea of an ochre jelly fighting with flailing pseudopods rather unfitting, and offer an alternative method of attack. I envision small ochre jellies trying to envelop the heads of victims to suffocate them like the slimes from Dungeon Meshi.

Large ochre jellies on the other hand, rear up and then collapse on top of their prey to engulf them like real amoebas do.

I actually like the D&D Miniatures Living Spell Cloud Kill (Eberron: Rising from the Last War #029) as an ochre jelly proxy because it looks like it is about to rise up and come crashing down on its victim.

The next monster I'll cover is the vargouille. It first appeared in the AD&D Monster Manual II, where its bite resulted in the permanent loss of hit points. In later editions it seems that the vargouille gained the ability to kiss its victims and transform their heads into new vargouilles that would then separate from the body and fly off.

Is it possible to kiss without an upper lip?

The vargouille seems to be based on the chonchon or tue-tue from the mythology of the Mapuche people of Araucanía and Patagonia. It is also a monster used in both RuneQuest and Castlevania.

The chonchon is the transformed head of a kalku, who appears as a normal human by day. At night, the chonchon separates itself from its body to go about its nocturnal activities.

Chon Chon by Ed Kwong

It is often said to be invisible to normal human eyes, and its cry is supposed to bring misfortune to those who hear it.

El chon chón de Limón Camilo

The chonchon also reminds me a lot of the harpy from the Daijiro Morohoshi story Adam's Rib (アダムの肋骨).

I bought a couple of Vargouille miniatures from the D&D Icons of the Realms line because they were really cheap. There are two variants that differ based on the color of their hair. On the left is the black haired version (Waterdeep Dragon Heist #03), and on the right is the brown haired version (Waterdeep Dragon Heist #14).

An even cheaper option is to make them on your own as described over at HotT in the Lower Hunter. I may create some with talons and wings like actual chonchons in the future.