[Cosmosdex] The Fictional Encyclopedia


Shambling Mess


Shambling Mess
“Please! Get it off of me! My vacation - ruined!” — Duchess Eipiela, Grand Soothal Consort

No art currently, maybe you can help

  • Strength-2
  • Intelligence-1
  • Charisma-1
  • Endurance-9
  • Agility-3
  • Luck-3

Danger Level: Low
Likes: Hugs
Dislikes: Excessive heat or cold

Attack Method: Envelopes food, once it detects that the thing it is hugging is small enough to be food.

Environment: Flood plains/grasslands, Swamps
Lifespan: Indefinitely
Size: 10 ft tall
Diet: Filter feeder. Consumes seaweed, plankton, microorganisms, minerals, grainseed, etc

Rarity: Common

Original Creator: greatwheatshrike

Physical Description


One organ provides a non-stick-coating for their bottom parts to reduce ground friction. This substance is sometimes farmed out of them industrially by various higher species.


They just kind of shamble around, looking for food and other shambling messes. They mostly blob about horizontally, though they can straighten themselves up tallways to overcome sheer vertical faces by simply reaching up top, anchoring themselves there, and sucking all of their mass and organs upwards.


Shambling Horders: Rare individuals are mean and will not reciprocate when another shambling mess hugs them. They horde many of a certain type of organ.

Spotted Mess: This one's got spots.


Icky: Most characters hugged by a shambling mass will feel weird about it for a while.


• A shambling mess, when attacked, will instinctively guide any foreign object traveling through its goo mass around any organs. This makes it very difficult to permanently damage a shambling mess through blunt trauma without lulling it into trusting you first. It's much easier to kill a shambling mess with a special No-Mess detergent that dissipates their suspension, available at most hardware stores. This detergent is usually on sale during a planet's thaw season.

• Shambling messes can be frozen for up to 30 days without permanent damage, and most dormant freeze periods up to 100 days will not damage a shambling mess enough to prove fatal. Their goo suspension's freezing point is slightly below the freezing point of water.

• Shambling messes are vulnerable to heat, though, with high temperatures breaking them down into a more liquidy state that cannot support their organs.

Image Gallery

No art currently, maybe you can help.