| Climate/Terrain: | Any |
|---|---|
| Frequency: | Rare |
| Organization: | Solitary |
| Activity Cycle: | Any |
| Diet: | Carnivore |
| Intelligence: | Non (0) |
| Treasure: | Nil |
| Alignment: | Nil |
| No. Appearing: | 1 |
| Armor Class: | 6 |
| Movement: | 6 |
| Hit Dice: | 10 |
| THAC0: | 11 |
| No. of Attacks: | 1 |
| Damage/Attack: | See below |
| Special Attacks: | Nil |
| Special Defenses: | Immune to acid, cold, and poison |
| Magic Resistance: | Nil |
| Size: | S-L (3-8' diameter) |
| Morale: | Special |
| XP Value: | 4,000 |
Vermilion pudding is the name given to an aggregate colony of the flesh-eating vermilia bacteria. The Red Curse has affected these colonies, imbuing them with the ability to act together as one creature.
The vermilion pudding glows with an eerie internal red light. It usually takes the form of a red-tinged amorphous blob, and like other puddings, it can change shape rapidly and flow through almost any opening. The pudding is extremely sticky and tarlike.
Combat: In order to determine if something is edible, the vermilion pudding can sense heat and vibration from a distance of up to 90 feet. The vermilion pudding will even attack undead creatures that have organic matter in their bodies. The puddings count as +2 magical weapons for the purpose of eating undead or magical flesh.
Vermilion puddings prefer to attack Legacy-using creatures and will attack Inheritors before attacking those with a single Legacy.
Like all deadly puddings, the vermilion pudding is immune to acid, cold, and poison. Lightning bolts and weapon attacks cause them to divide into smaller puddings, each able to attack as an individual pudding. Fire causes normal damage, as do magic missiles. Vermilion puddings can squeeze through very small cracks (such as the chinks and gaps in armor) and can travel on ceilings and walls.
All vermilion puddings are at least three feet in diameter. They have hit points in proportion to their size, roughly according to the following:
| Diameter | Hit Points |
|---|---|
| 3' | 30 |
| 4' | 40 |
| 5' | 50 |
| 6' | 60 |
| 7' | 70 |
| 8' | 80 |
The attack mode of the rapacious vermilion pudding is similar to that of the vermilia infection, except much faster. The pudding causes 1 point of damage the first round, 2 points the second round, 4 points the third round, 8 the fourth, (etc.). If the pudding successfully hits an opponent once, it automatically succeeds each subsequent round until it is destroyed.
Armor provides little protection from the vermilion pudding's attack since the pudding only has to touch its victim. All of its victims have a base of AC 10, although magical armor bonuses, magical protection such as a ring of protection, and dexterity bonuses are still applicable. Any form of metal armor will hold off the vermilion pudding for one round before the pudding finds a hole or a chink in the armor to flow through. The vermilion pudding does not eat the armor itself; it simply flows past it to get at the flesh beneath.
The vermilion pudding is mindless and will never retreat as long as there remains flesh to be eaten.
Ecology: Vermilion puddings reproduce by fission. If a vermilion pudding reaches eight feet in diameter, it will split into two separate four-foot diameter puddings. They adapt to live in a wide variety of climates.