Juiblex the Faceless Lord

Another of the Tanar’ri lords elevated to godhood, Juiblex is the Demon Prince of Ooze. Patron of aboleths and intelligent amorphs, the Slime Lord has inscrutable and unknown goals, keeping mainly to itself and not even participating in the politics of the Abyss. On the Prime Material Plane, it is also favored by insane cultists or those desiring power.

Juiblex (PDF Version)
(The Faceless Lord, the Demon Prince of Ooze, the Slime Lord, He Who Slithers, the Glistener, the Lord of Slime, the Formless One, the Lord of Nothing)
Lesser Power of the Abyss, CE

Portfolio:                 Slimes, oozes, jellies, amorphs
Aliases:                     Szhublox
Domain Name:           The 222nd Layer/Shedaklah (the Slime Pits)
Superior:                   None
Allies:                       Bwimb (dead), Bwimb II, Moander (dead)
Foes:                           Eilistraee, Ghaunadaur, Lolth, Piscaethces, Psilofyr, Urdlen
Symbol:                     Raised pseudopod dripping slime
Wor. Align.:             LN, N, CN, LE, NE, CE

The formless and amorphous Juiblex (JOO-blecks or ZHOO-blecks) is patron of slimes, oozes, and jellies. Widely considered incredibly loathsome and disgusting, even by other tanar’ri, it seems to care little for affairs outside of its cavernous realm in the Abyss. Condescendingly called the Lord of Nothing by its rivals, the Lord of Slime seems content to propagate its amorphous followers and slowly dissolve all matter it encounters, but some sages have long speculated that its ancient and alien mind hold great, dark secrets, and that it has not gained more power simply because it chooses not to.

Despite being a tanar’ri and an Abyssal lord, the Formless One plays no part in current Abyssal politics, preferring to keep to itself in its caverns in Shedaklah. Such was not always the case, however; before rising to the status of a true power, it is believed to have been responsible for the creation of the alkiliths, and some sages speculate an ancient coupling with the Great Mother produced the beholder-kin known as the argos. However, these disgusting beings, and the oozes and slimes it favors, led to the other fiends to derisively call it the Lord of Nothing. Today, Juiblex has few enemies and even fewer allies, and counts itself as part of no group or consortium of like-minded powers. Its only current ally of any note is Bwimb II, daughter of the slain Bwimb, Baron of Ooze. The Faceless Lord was once also allied with Moander the Darkbringer, working together to bring rot and destruction to more than one world on the Prime Material Plane, but it seems to not care about the death of the Rotting God, nor is there any evidence it is planning to act against Moander’s slayer, Finder Wyvernspur.

Among those the Faceless Lord truly calls enemies are powers that have siphoned off followers or those who oppose the spread of his amorphous creatures. Key among these is Ghaunadaur, a deity originally from the world of Toril, but whose influence has spread, subsuming Juiblex’s cults on a handful of other worlds as well. Another deity the Lord of Slime opposes is Piscaethces, the Blood Queen, for her wars of extermination against its aboleth followers. This is not so much because it cares about its aboleth followers, but rather because it believes the Blood Queen wants to wholly subsume its position and portfolios. Similarly, Lolth has a fervent desire to absorb the Glistener’s power as well, in no small part due to the handful of cults and drow cities that venerate the Faceless Lord throughout the known spheres. Juiblex has never taken direct action against the Demon Queen of Spiders, preferring to simply fend off her attacks and actions. Unlike the others, the Faceless Lord considers Urdlen an enemy simply because his burrows disrupt the cavern systems that amorphs and slimes call home. Whether Urdlen holds a special animosity towards Juiblex is unknown. One of the Formless One’s most implacable enemies is the myconid god, Psilofyr, who opposes the destructive forces of Juiblex and its amorphs, especially those that are fungal-like. Finally, the Lord of Slime’s relationship with the Demon Queen of Fungi Zuggtmoy is nebulous, but seemingly hostile. Its recent push to conquer her portion of Shedaklah since her imprisonment on the world of Oerth indicates opposition, but some old stories portray them as having other relationships, from an alliance of convenience to being lovers. Until Zuggtmoy is freed from her imprisonment, it is unlikely that the truth of their relationship will be known.

Legends and myths that involve the Faceless Lord are rare, tending to be ancient and fragmentary. It does not seem to have played a role in any recent race’s histories, other than among some aboleth. Among these creatures there are two competing mythologies; those that worship Juiblex see it as their ultimate creator-deity, whose powerful emanations from the realms beyond keep the integrity of their skin intact. The other mythology, found among those aboleths that worship the Blood Queen, hold that the Faceless Lord is a lord of lies who has tricked their brethren away from the true faith, consequently corrupting them beyond redemption. Beyond these mythologies, the Lord of Slime is believed to have played a minor role in a small number of mythologies of ancient, now-extinct elder races, but details are light and difficult to verify.

Juiblex is not an active god, only sending an avatar to the Prime Material Plane if gated in by powerful cultists. It is content to grant spells to any creature that pledges loyalty to it and makes regular sacrifices, but cares little for their well-being or survival. It typically only acts to aid them if directly summoned and given a great sacrificial offering.

Juiblex’s Avatar (Fighter 26, Wizard 18)
While Juiblex has no set form, it most commonly appears as a nine-foot-tall cone-like heap of muck featuring striated colors of foul browns, greens, yellows, and grays dripping in caustic fluids. If it desires, it can form itself into a towering eighteen-foot-tall pillar of ordure, a vast pool of slime, or an acidic blob. Its form is always covered in several glaring red eyes. It can cast spells of an acidic or watery nature, including priest spells, which it can use as wizard spells of the same level.

AC −3; MV 3, Sw 6; HP 159; THAC0 −5; #AT 2
Dmg 2d10 (acid spurt)
MR 35%; SZ L (9 feet tall or varies)
Str 16, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 17, Cha 1
Spells 5/5/5/5/5/3/3/2/1
Saves PPDM 3; RSW 5; PP 4; BW 4; Sp 6

Special Att/Def: Juiblex attacks by spurting acid from its body at a target, causing 2d10 points of damage and forcing items and equipment to make a saving throw or be damaged or destroyed. It can spurt the acid from any point on its body and can spurt in different directions on the same round. If the Faceless Lord misses, use the grenade-like missile chart to determine where it hits; any being within five feet takes 1d6 points of damage from the splash unless a saving throw versus breath weapon is successful. Once per turn, it can spew three cubic feet of a combination of ochre jelly and green slime.

The Faceless Lord can cast darkness, 15′ radius at will, and can cast any of the following spells, one per round, once per day: charm monster, cause disease, death fog, dispel magic, domination, ESP, Evard’s black tentacles, hold monster, invisibility, 10′ radius, phase door, project image, putrefy food & drink, and telekinesis. Once per day, it can summon 1d4 black puddings to server it for 6 turns.

Juiblex is immune to nonmagical weapons, acid, poison, gaseous, and water-based attacks, and takes only half damage from fire- and cold-based attacks. It regenerates one hit point per round, has 120-foot infravision (even through magical darkness), and can detect invisible within a 30 foot radius.

Other Manifestations
The Formless One does not communicate with its priests through omens, dreams, or telepathy. Only when its temples and shrines are threatened will it send any sort of manifestation. In such a situation, the Lord of Slime will randomly transform portions of the temple (sections of wall, columns, pews, etc.), as well as its priests, into a random deadly pudding, ooze, jelly, or other amorphous creature. Juiblex cannot transform objects or creatures not dedicated to its service, however. There is a 30% chance per object/creature that it will be transformed; the DM determines by selection or randomly what it becomes. Upon transformation, their only goal is to cleanse the holy site of all non-amorphous life. Priests believe this act is the result of their failure to hide and protect the sacred site.

The Faceless Lord is served primarily alkilith tanar’ri, deadly puddings, jellies, least and lesser tanar’ri, oozes, and slimes, as well as argos, dhour, gelatinous cubes, gibbering mouthers, gulguthra (otyughs and neo-otyughs), living steel, lutums, metalmasters, plasmoids, protein polymorphs, ropers, silatics, slithering trackers, slithermorphs, slugs, and storopers. Many of these creatures are larger than normal and have unique magical powers. Juiblex has never been known to show its favor or disfavor through the discovery of anything in particular.

The Church
Clergy:                      Clerics, crusaders, specialty priests, shamans
Clergy’s Align.:      CN, LE, NE, CE
Turn Undead:           C: No, Cru: No, SP: No, Sha: No
Cmnd. Undead:         C: Yes, Cru: No, SP: Yes, at priest level −4, Sha: No

All clerics, specialty priests, and shamans of Juiblex receive religion (Juiblex) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. Aboleth clerics and specialty priests receive religion (aboleth) instead.

Juiblex’s church is an extremely obscure cult throughout the known spheres. Few communities know of its existence, although those that do tend to regard it with fear, disgust, and hatred. The sole exception are the aboleths. Many aboleth communities worship the Faceless Lord, and wage endless holy wars against those communities that venerate the Blood Queen, Piscaethces. While there may be other mysterious, intelligent amorphic races who worship him, no humanoid race is known to have any widespread, open cult of the Slime Lord, save some underdark races like drow. Such worship tends to be exclusive, with the priesthood of the Faceless Lord destroying or driving away weaker faiths. Isolated cults sometimes exist hidden within large population centers, but they are always extremely secretive or operate in exile, although occasionally they can gain sway over a village or tribe in other regions. More often than not, they are slain by other members of their society for their disgusting and heretical practices whenever they are discovered.

Temples to the Faceless Lord are rare, and most tend to be ancient ruins of past cults. These ancient temples are circular structures, with concentric rings of halls and rooms surrounding a large central chamber. At the very heart of the chamber is a deep central pit; whenever possible, this pit is filled with some sort of deadly pudding, slime, or other creature. If none of those are available, acid, rot-filled wastewater, or mud may be used. Recently constructed temples tend to be similar, built to emulate these ancient ruins. Much more common, however, are shrines created by small, secretive cults. These shrines are usually located in a natural cavern, but in more civilized areas, they may be built beneath a city’s streets, connected to the sewage system. As with the temples, such shrines typically have a central or recessed pit that is filled with a slime or ooze when possible. These pits will likely have a cover or some other sort of concealment if the shrine is located in a region where Juiblex’s cults must remain hidden. In both shrines and temples, the walls are typically covered with hangings in dark blue and black cloth, with gauzy, dark-colored fabrics as accent. Favored stone for construction are obsidian, marbles, and granites of dark green, dark blue, or black, as well as orbicular granite. When the temples or shrines are secure from outside discovery (inaccessible, magically hidden, built in a community that follows the Formless One, etc.), the walls and pillars will be carved into odd, seemingly moving shapes that cause all non-clergy members to become queasy if they spend too long in the chamber.

Among humanoid cults, novices of Juiblex are called Podlings. Full priests are called Faceless Ones. Titles used by individual priests vary from cult to cult with examples like Master of Slime, Oozing Terror, or Glistening Death. Among aboleth and amorphous (non-solid) cults, novices of the Faceless Lord are called the Permeable. Full priests are called Glisteners. In ascending order of rank, the titles used by the clergy are Slithering Slime, Paralyzing Plasmic, Loathsome Ooze, Gelatinous Doom, Deadly Pudding, and Dissolving Amorph. High-ranking priests of the Lord of Slime have unique individual titles. Regardless of cult, specialty priests are called mucilites. While any intelligent living creature may join the clergy of Juiblex, the priesthood is composed primarily of aboleths (45%), drow (25%), humans (20%), plasmoids and other intelligent non-solid creatures (8%), and various other creatures (2%). Specialty priests (70%) dominate the priesthood, with clerics (20%) and crusaders (6%) making up most of the remainder; shamans (4%) are found only in a few isolated groups of humanoids. Despite a lack of doctrinal barriers, males (78%) compose the majority of the solid clergy, with a much smaller number of females (22%) being found mostly among the drow.

Dogma: Humanoid cults hold that the ultimate form of life is unrestraint by a solid, fleshy form. Worship of the Formless One will not only bring them power, it will also allow them to eventually join its hordes of amorphous creatures, living a sublime life consuming anything and everything.

Aboleth and amorphous cults believe that Juiblex is the sole force that maintains the integrity of their skin and surfaces. Other creatures are food or slaves, while any member of their own race that worships another power if a heretic taking advantage of the Lord of Slime without offering appropriate tribute or sacrifices. Thus, to keep their failures from endangering the whole race, they must be eliminated entirely. They also believe that Juiblex is the holder of great magical secrets that he will reveal to them at the appropriate time, but only if they have maintained faith and destroyed the followers of the false powers.

Day-to-Day Activities: Humanoid cultists of He Who Slithers believe they must make a daily sacrifice to their deity. While in a temple or shrine, living creatures of at least the size of a rat are preferred, but when there is nothing else available, any living or non-living organic material will do. Only one sacrifice is necessary for each temple or shrine per day, but the cultists believe that the more members a local priesthood has, the larger a sacrifice must be to satisfy the Slime Lord. Before initiating the sacrifice, they make lengthy chanting prayers in an unknown or made-up language passed from elder members to younger. Upon completion of the prayer, the sacrificial offering is dumped into the central pit of the temple or shrine. While travelling, priests always carry a bottle of acid with them, into which they put small animals or plants. In situations where nothing else is available, a sacrifice may be coated in oil and incinerated, but any priests who make such an offering must make penance upon reaching a temple by sacrificing a much larger creature than they would otherwise.

Aboleth followers of the Glistener do not maintain such complex rituals. They typically drown their sacrifices in a pit of their own collected slime, believing that this form of death transfers the knowledge to their Abyssal master. Eating the corpse of one so slain is considered a terrible offense and is punishable by immediate death. Most amorphous followers of Juiblex have no set rituals of worship, following the tenants of whichever temple or shrine they are attached to.

Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: As the daily propitiations to the Faceless Lord are supposed to be unwavering, his cultists have no special holy days, ceremonies, or festivals. Cultists typically fold events such as the advancement of initiates into the full priesthood into their regular daily ceremonies.

Major Centers of Worship: As there is little contact between cults of Juiblex, especially across racial boundaries, few centers of the Faceless Lord’s worship attract followers from far afield. It is presumed that any aboleth settlement that follows Juiblex’s faith will have a temple in its midst, but these are difficult to verify. For example, deep beneath the Flaeness on Oerth lies a great lake in which four cities of aboleths have been waging an endless war against each other, with two following the Formless One’s tenets and the other pair paying tribute to Piscaethces the Blood Queen. Whether these cities have temples or not is unknown, but all scholars of the war presume they do. Finally, the few sites that do attract traveling worship tend to be ancient and hidden structures long abandoned beneath the earth, such as the rumored temple that lies somewhere along a route from the surface to the Sunless Sea in the deep UnderOerth.

Affiliated Orders: There are no known widespread martial orders associated with the church of He Who Slithers, although some communities of humans and drow whose primary worship is the Lord of Slime contain elite troops of crusaders or fighter/clerics. There is known to be a community of plasmoids somewhere in the one of the worlds of the Arcane Inner Flow who have become fanatical followers of the Formless One, and they operate at least three pirate vessels that scour the spacelanes for sacrifices to their deity. Both deGleash and delNoric plasmoids have been seen working together, a very unusual occurrence. What name they may be using for themselves is unknown.

Priestly Vestments: All humanoid priests of Juiblex wear layered robes of dark blue and black, with voluminous sleeves. These robes have deep hoods with gauzy fabric in dark subdued hues, such as greys, reds, purples, or yellows, which are sewn across the hood opening. When the hood is pulled up, as required during all ceremonies, the identities of the priests are hidden, and they refer to themselves as the Faceless Ones. Aboleth and amorphous clergy wear no ceremonial gear, primarily due to their body forms. The holy symbol of the clergy is a small, translucent dark blue two-inch glass disc of at least a quarter inch thickness. Humanoid priests typically wear this on a chain around their neck, while aboleths embed it into their foreheads using magical or psionic means.

Adventuring Garb: When adventuring, The Faceless Lord’s clergy employ whatever weapons, armor, or equipment is most appropriate to the task at hand. Shades of dark blues and blacks are almost always included in the priests’ clothing in some manner or another, however.

Specialty Priests (Mucilites)
Requirements:          Wisdom 9
Prime Req.:                Wisdom
Alignment:                LE, NE, CE
Weapons:                   Any
Armor:                       Any
Major Spheres:         All, chaos, charm, divination, elemental earth, elemental water, healing (reversed only), necromantic (reversed only), summoning
Minor Spheres:         Animal, combat, numbers
Magical Items:         Same as clerics
Req. Profs:                Survival (Underdark)
Bonus Profs:             Blind-fighting

  • Mucilites may be of any race capable of becoming a priest, although most are humans, drow, or aboleths.
  • Mucilites are not allowed to multiclass.
  • Mucilites are immune to all diseases, even magically induced ones.
  • Mucilites can cast grease (as the 1st-level wizard spell) or spittle (as the 1st-level priest spell) once per day.
  • At 3rd level, mucilites are immune to all poisons.
  • At 3rd level, mucilites can resist the effects of acids, corrosives, and caustic substances once per day, for one round per level. Mild corrosives cannot harm the priest at all, although they can still damage his gear. More intense acids and corrosives (black dragon breath, Melf’s acid arrow, and the natural attacks of various puddings, oozes, slimes, and jellies) inflict only half the normal damage. If the attack requires a saving throw, the priest gains a +3 bonus, sustaining half damage with a failed saving throw or one-quarter damage with a successful saving throw.
  • At 5th level, mucilites can cast Evard’s black tentacles (as the 4th-level wizard spell) or acid lash (as the 3rd-level wizard spell listed in the Wizard’s Spell Compendium Vol.I) once per day.
  • At 7th level, mucilites can protect themselves from the attacks of any of the various amorphous monsters, including slimes, jellies, oozes, puddings, cubes, and slithering trackers, once per day. An amorphous creature is any monster that has an amorphous or fluid body, attacks through acids or secretions of some kind, and is a native of the Prime Material Plane. The priest is guarded by a protective barrier that amorphous creatures will not touch, and the natural attacks (including ranged attacks) of such monsters automatically fail. If the priest makes an attack against an amorphous creature or if he forces the barrier surrounding him against the monster, the protection automatically ceases.
  • At 7th level, mucilites are immune to all acids and corrosive fluids and substances.
  • At 9th level, mucilites can summon a deadly pudding while in the appropriate environment (black while underground, white in arctic areas, etc.). The pudding is under the priest’s complete control and serves for 3 turns.
  • At 11th level, mucilites can cast a double-sized wall of gel (as the 4th level priest spell) once per day.
  • At 13th level, mucilites can cast amorphous form (as the 5th-level priest spell) once per day
  • At 15th level, mucilites can cast wall of tentacles (as the 7th-level priest spell) or acid storm (as the 7th-level wizard spell) once per day.

Juiblexan Spells
In addition to the spells listed below, priests of the Faceless Lord may cast the 1st-level priest spell spittle, an Iuzan spell detailed in the Priest’s Spell Compendium Vol.III, as well as the 5th-level priest spell amorphous form and the 7th-level priest spell wall of tentacles, both detailed in Demihuman Deities in the entry for Ghaunadaur.

1st Level
Dormancy (Pr 1; Alteration)
Sphere:                    Animal
Range:                     10 yds./level
Components:           V
Duration:                 1d4 turns
Casting Time:          1
Area of Effect:         30 ft. cube
Saving Throw:        Neg.

Dormancy causes green or olive slime to “sleep” for 1d4 turns, ignoring the sensory triggers that normally cause it to drop on passing creatures. The slime “awakens” instantly if fire or extreme cold is applied to it.

4th Level
Slime Guardian (Pr 4; Conjuration/Summoning)
Sphere:                    Summoning
Range:                     0
Components:           V, S, M
Duration:                 2 rds./level
Casting Time:          7
Area of Effect:         The caster
Saving Throw:        None

When a priest casts slime guardian, his or her skin and clothing begin to glisten with a chromatic sheen, like a soap bubble in the sun. The priest is actually covered by a symbiotic slime creature, protecting him or her from any touch attacks and reducing physical damage from weapons or natural attacks by 1 point. Any touch attacks aimed at the caster affect the slime instead, including level drains from undead, the petrifying touch of a cockatrice, and touch-dependent spells such as shocking grasp. The guardian is considered to have 1 hit point per level of the caster and 1 HD for every three caster levels. If it suffers the effects of petrification or similar life-destroying effects, it crumbles away from the caster, its benefits negated. Note that the slime guardian does not protect against disintegrate and other such deadly area-effect spells.

If the guardian is killed, it disappears. Otherwise, it cannot be removed unless the spell is dispelled, Area of effect spells might destroy the slime creature prematurely, although if the caster is subjected to an area spell and makes his or her saving throw, the guardian is assumed to save also.

The material component is a small jar of ointment that the caster must prepare personally. The costs for the ointment range from 50–80 gp. A new jar must be prepared for each casting of the spell.

Wall of Gel (Pr 4; Invocation/Evocation)
Sphere:                    Elemental Water
Range:                     60 yds.
Components:           V, S, M
Duration:                 1 turn/level
Casting Time:          7
Area of Effect:         One 10 × 10 × 2 ft. section of wall/level
Saving Throw:        Neg.

A wall of gel creates a transparent, permeable wall that protects against winds and gases. It offers some protection against missile weapons (any that pass through suffer a −2 penalty on attacks) and spells. (Evocation spells such as fireball and lightning bolt do not penetrate it but might destroy it.) The wall affects creatures attempting to pass through it as well. Any creatures touching the wall must make a successful saving throw vs. paralyzation or be unable to move, attack, defend, or take any other action for 1d4 turns. Any creature walking through the wall saves at a −2 penalty.

Each section is considered AC 8 and is considered destroyed if it suffers 24 points of damage. Sections can be destroyed without affecting other sections, so the wall may suffer “gaps” and still stand.

If the caster so chooses when casting the spell, he or she may opt to mentally cause the wall to move at MV 1, although this option reduces the duration to 1 round per level. Since the depth of the wall is hard to determine from either side, enemies might think that the caster is driving a gelatinous cube before him.

The material component is a square of clear glass, which may be reused.

5th Level
Slime Growth (Pr 5; Alteration)
Sphere:                    Animal
Range:                     5 yds./level
Components:           V, S
Duration:                 1 rd./2 levels
Casting Time:          5
Area of Effect:         1 amorphous creature
Saving Throw:        None

Slime growth causes an amorphous creature to double in size, affecting Hit Dice and hit points but not necessarily damage. Creatures that strike with a pseudopod do not benefit from additional damage. Creatures that attack by enveloping or touching an enemy with as much of their bodies as possible (such as green slimes) cause double damage. In either event, the increase in Hit Dice does not increase the creature’s THAC0.

At the end of the spell’s duration, the creature reverts to its original size. Damage inflicted on the creature remains, however, and might be sufficient to kill it outright if the damage exceeds tine creature’s original hit point total.

4 Responses to Juiblex the Faceless Lord

  1. Anghammarand says:

    Very Nice write up!
    Plenty of applications for hidden shrines, etc.

  2. Wes says:

    Have a player who is a priest of Juiblex, we’ve been eagerly waiting for this one. Love it!

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