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Description
Most of my entries on "dragons" often make mention about how the term has been so overused to the point of meaninglessness. While something may be called a "dragon," it is often not a true dragon. For this entry, I don't think I need to go too deep into this subject. Mainly because you need to only take one look at a Slime Dragon to understand that it is clearly not a true dragon. These creatures are slimes, ones who have been caught in a rather unfortunate situation.

Slime Dragons are not a different species of slimes, nor is are they even a sub-species. They are true slimes, but they have taken on this form due to a failure within the slime network. As I stated in my entry about slimes, colonies of this species all have an underground mass that is composed of elderly slimes that have fused together. This combination of hearts and goo receives, stores and transfers information with individual slimes who link up to the network with their pseudo-bodies. These systems are crucial in colonies, as it allows the separate slimes to quickly relay information and learn new skills. The hearts within this mass function just like our brains, and they link up with one another to hold and use a large amount of information. Unfortunately, they suffer the same problems our brains do when we grow old. Though they can live healthily for many decades, sooner or later a heart starts to degrade. Things are forgotten, signals become faded and errors in memory occur. Thankfully, the slime network is made up of several hearts, so they can keep the system running efficiently and make sure no knowledge is lost. In time, though, these weakening organs need to be replaced with another, one younger and more in tune. Most of the times, these dying hearts are quickly crushed within the network and digested so that they may still bring aid to their kind in some way. While this may sound brutal, slimes find it to be a noble end, as they have done their duty and now can truly be one with the network. These ancient organs are removed so the network stays efficient and strong, but they are also terminated because they become susceptible to something slimes call a "rotted signal." This term applies to signals that are taken in and produced by a failing heart that are extremely simplistic and capable of overriding all other information. One slime best described these signals as being like chants you hear from crowds during events. A large mass of people will all have their individual conversations and thoughts, but then one of them starts loudly repeating one word over and over. Eventually it spreads like an infection, causing the individuals to become one loud noise that obliterates all else. These "rotted signals" can say many things, but a common one that shows up in flawed networks gives in to a primal urge. For some reason, the dying heart will give in to this feeling of hunger, and it will quickly spread to the others. Within minutes, the whole network will be overridden and their form will change. Out of the ground will burst this warped creature, driven by an endless desire to consume.

You do not even need to know that the corrupted hearts are obsessed with hunger, as the Slime Dragon's appearance gives that away. A darkened mass of slime that is pretty much a gaping maw that greedily swallows all that stands before it. The slime network will meld and mix with one another, causing the overall color of the beast to be dark and foul. The outer layer will congeal and harden to the point where the slime will dry out and form these dead, brittle plates. Slithering slowly on its single "foot," it will creep through the land looking for food. Though this corrupted beast is sluggish, it makes up for it with its many "tongues" that claw their way from its abyssal throat. These gooey appendages come in all sorts of colors, because these "tongues" were once individual slimes who have been taken over by the Slime Dragon's bestial signal. Like I said before, slimes transfer information through contact, and the Slime Dragon is no different. Any slime who touches this creature will be infected with the rotted signal and they will join the hungering mass. Their pseudo-body and heart will slither into the open maw and turn into a "tongue" to help feed the beast. Slime Dragons can have a varying number of these stolen appendages, ranging from three to over a dozen. When the infected network first erupts from the ground, it often claims a few slimes who are caught off guard by the sudden transformation. Each slime it takes over will add to its arsenal, which it uses to snare prey and pull them into its slimy gullet. Victims who are eaten are drawn into its thin "chest" region, where the harden plates and slime crush the prisoner to a bloody pulp. Consumed nutrients make the Slime Dragon bigger, but it does little to satiate its hunger. Even after consuming a whole caravan of victims, it will continue its hunt for sustenance.

It should be pretty obvious by now that Slime Dragons are incredibly dangerous and destructive creatures. While I normally dislike the idea of getting rid of a creature or species just because some people find it harmful or annoying, I do fully advocate the taking down of Slime Dragons. I say this because this is not a species, it is pretty much a disease. A sickness that can claim slimes and turn them into a violent amalgamation that poses a threat to every living thing around it. Eliminating these beasts only brings positives to the world, as it saves innocent slimes from a horrible fate and it keeps everyone else safe from its ravenous hunger. The only issue with this ideal is that Slime Dragons are difficult monsters to slay. With hardened plates and thick goop, getting your weapons to do any damage to them is hard. With only a few organs being the only weak spots on this creature, you need to be very precise if you want to take it down. Added to this issue is its many flexible tongues and cavernous mouth that will easily snare foes before they even get the chance to attack. With each tongue driven by an individual heart, they are not easy to trick or outmaneuver. They can stretch to protect the side and back of the dragon from attack, sometimes even lifting the entire body into the air to evade harm! I have never had to try and kill one of these beasts, but I can already say that doing so is an incredibly difficult feat.

One thing to keep in mind when fighting a Slime Dragon is that the only way to kill it is to terminate the one heart that is producing the rotted signal. All the other organs in the network, or those that have been hijacked to form the tongues, are merely obeying the sent signal and amplifying it. You need to take out the source for the whole thing to come apart. The problem is that finding this single heart isn't exactly easy. I can at least tell you that it is located in the chest region of the dragon. The hearts in the "head" or mouth area are all trapped individuals who are controlling the tongues. Killing them will take out the tongues, but it won't stop the beast (I highly advise not doing this, as these slimes can be saved). All effort needs to be focused on the chest, in hopes of taking out the source of the madness. Piercing weapons are a must, as you need to get deep in the slime to even reach these organs. If you know someone with magic, take that route. I have heard that freezing or drying out the monstrosity can help slow it and make it vulnerable, but that will most likely kill all hearts within the beast. A method that could be used is severing the head from the body, which would stop the signal from reaching the tongues. How you would find a blade large and sharp enough to do this is beyond me, but people are crafty! Someone could figure it out! Speaking of, one colleague of mine mentioned that certain success has been found through electrocuting the chest region of the slime. Apparently using weak lightening spells on that area can disrupt the signals of the hearts within, causing the Slime Dragon to falter and break down. With enough applications of this technique, the people involved were able to safely pull out hearts from the melting body, saving many of the slimes and weakening the dragon on a whole. With its form disrupted, they were easily able to locate the hearts of the network and remove them. After that, they just identified which one was faulty and they destroyed it. The rest were able to recover and continue with their lives. Hearing this was quite exciting, as it is the only time I have heard of a slime network being preserved after taking out a Slime Dragon. Most of the time, the whole network has to perish, as no one can take the time in the heat of battle to try and pin-point the one bad heart. It is a sad, but often necessary thing. With this new technique, though, there is a chance to save them! Unfortunately, this method is extremely time-consuming and precise. Too much of a shock will fry them all, and too little will do nothing to disrupt the creature. It is a risky maneuver that could cost the lives of those who are trying to save the slimes, and many people aren't willing to die for such a thing. Hopefully someone can find a way to refine this technique and make it easier and reliable so that people won't have the excuse not to use it! So you mages get on it!

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

Description
Most of my entries on "dragons" often make mention about how the term has been so overused to the point of meaninglessness. While something may be called a "dragon," it is often not a true dragon. For this entry, I don't think I need to go too deep into this subject. Mainly because you need to only take one look at a Slime Dragon to understand that it is clearly not a true dragon. These creatures are slimes, ones who have been caught in a rather unfortunate situation.

Slime Dragons are not a different species of slimes, nor is are they even a sub-species. They are true slimes, but they have taken on this form due to a failure within the slime network. As I stated in my entry about slimes, colonies of this species all have an underground mass that is composed of elderly slimes that have fused together. This combination of hearts and goo receives, stores and transfers information with individual slimes who link up to the network with their pseudo-bodies. These systems are crucial in colonies, as it allows the separate slimes to quickly relay information and learn new skills. The hearts within this mass function just like our brains, and they link up with one another to hold and use a large amount of information. Unfortunately, they suffer the same problems our brains do when we grow old. Though they can live healthily for many decades, sooner or later a heart starts to degrade. Things are forgotten, signals become faded and errors in memory occur. Thankfully, the slime network is made up of several hearts, so they can keep the system running efficiently and make sure no knowledge is lost. In time, though, these weakening organs need to be replaced with another, one younger and more in tune. Most of the times, these dying hearts are quickly crushed within the network and digested so that they may still bring aid to their kind in some way. While this may sound brutal, slimes find it to be a noble end, as they have done their duty and now can truly be one with the network. These ancient organs are removed so the network stays efficient and strong, but they are also terminated because they become susceptible to something slimes call a "rotted signal." This term applies to signals that are taken in and produced by a failing heart that are extremely simplistic and capable of overriding all other information. One slime best described these signals as being like chants you hear from crowds during events. A large mass of people will all have their individual conversations and thoughts, but then one of them starts loudly repeating one word over and over. Eventually it spreads like an infection, causing the individuals to become one loud noise that obliterates all else. These "rotted signals" can say many things, but a common one that shows up in flawed networks gives in to a primal urge. For some reason, the dying heart will give in to this feeling of hunger, and it will quickly spread to the others. Within minutes, the whole network will be overridden and their form will change. Out of the ground will burst this warped creature, driven by an endless desire to consume.

You do not even need to know that the corrupted hearts are obsessed with hunger, as the Slime Dragon's appearance gives that away. A darkened mass of slime that is pretty much a gaping maw that greedily swallows all that stands before it. The slime network will meld and mix with one another, causing the overall color of the beast to be dark and foul. The outer layer will congeal and harden to the point where the slime will dry out and form these dead, brittle plates. Slithering slowly on its single "foot," it will creep through the land looking for food. Though this corrupted beast is sluggish, it makes up for it with its many "tongues" that claw their way from its abyssal throat. These gooey appendages come in all sorts of colors, because these "tongues" were once individual slimes who have been taken over by the Slime Dragon's bestial signal. Like I said before, slimes transfer information through contact, and the Slime Dragon is no different. Any slime who touches this creature will be infected with the rotted signal and they will join the hungering mass. Their pseudo-body and heart will slither into the open maw and turn into a "tongue" to help feed the beast. Slime Dragons can have a varying number of these stolen appendages, ranging from three to over a dozen. When the infected network first erupts from the ground, it often claims a few slimes who are caught off guard by the sudden transformation. Each slime it takes over will add to its arsenal, which it uses to snare prey and pull them into its slimy gullet. Victims who are eaten are drawn into its thin "chest" region, where the harden plates and slime crush the prisoner to a bloody pulp. Consumed nutrients make the Slime Dragon bigger, but it does little to satiate its hunger. Even after consuming a whole caravan of victims, it will continue its hunt for sustenance.

It should be pretty obvious by now that Slime Dragons are incredibly dangerous and destructive creatures. While I normally dislike the idea of getting rid of a creature or species just because some people find it harmful or annoying, I do fully advocate the taking down of Slime Dragons. I say this because this is not a species, it is pretty much a disease. A sickness that can claim slimes and turn them into a violent amalgamation that poses a threat to every living thing around it. Eliminating these beasts only brings positives to the world, as it saves innocent slimes from a horrible fate and it keeps everyone else safe from its ravenous hunger. The only issue with this ideal is that Slime Dragons are difficult monsters to slay. With hardened plates and thick goop, getting your weapons to do any damage to them is hard. With only a few organs being the only weak spots on this creature, you need to be very precise if you want to take it down. Added to this issue is its many flexible tongues and cavernous mouth that will easily snare foes before they even get the chance to attack. With each tongue driven by an individual heart, they are not easy to trick or outmaneuver. They can stretch to protect the side and back of the dragon from attack, sometimes even lifting the entire body into the air to evade harm! I have never had to try and kill one of these beasts, but I can already say that doing so is an incredibly difficult feat.

One thing to keep in mind when fighting a Slime Dragon is that the only way to kill it is to terminate the one heart that is producing the rotted signal. All the other organs in the network, or those that have been hijacked to form the tongues, are merely obeying the sent signal and amplifying it. You need to take out the source for the whole thing to come apart. The problem is that finding this single heart isn't exactly easy. I can at least tell you that it is located in the chest region of the dragon. The hearts in the "head" or mouth area are all trapped individuals who are controlling the tongues. Killing them will take out the tongues, but it won't stop the beast (I highly advise not doing this, as these slimes can be saved). All effort needs to be focused on the chest, in hopes of taking out the source of the madness. Piercing weapons are a must, as you need to get deep in the slime to even reach these organs. If you know someone with magic, take that route. I have heard that freezing or drying out the monstrosity can help slow it and make it vulnerable, but that will most likely kill all hearts within the beast. A method that could be used is severing the head from the body, which would stop the signal from reaching the tongues. How you would find a blade large and sharp enough to do this is beyond me, but people are crafty! Someone could figure it out! Speaking of, one colleague of mine mentioned that certain success has been found through electrocuting the chest region of the slime. Apparently using weak lightening spells on that area can disrupt the signals of the hearts within, causing the Slime Dragon to falter and break down. With enough applications of this technique, the people involved were able to safely pull out hearts from the melting body, saving many of the slimes and weakening the dragon on a whole. With its form disrupted, they were easily able to locate the hearts of the network and remove them. After that, they just identified which one was faulty and they destroyed it. The rest were able to recover and continue with their lives. Hearing this was quite exciting, as it is the only time I have heard of a slime network being preserved after taking out a Slime Dragon. Most of the time, the whole network has to perish, as no one can take the time in the heat of battle to try and pin-point the one bad heart. It is a sad, but often necessary thing. With this new technique, though, there is a chance to save them! Unfortunately, this method is extremely time-consuming and precise. Too much of a shock will fry them all, and too little will do nothing to disrupt the creature. It is a risky maneuver that could cost the lives of those who are trying to save the slimes, and many people aren't willing to die for such a thing. Hopefully someone can find a way to refine this technique and make it easier and reliable so that people won't have the excuse not to use it! So you mages get on it!

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian