The eye-mine of Dhurmak

The dwarven settlers at the holding of Dhurmak came to mine the copper veins. They made a modest living that way for years. An undistinguished minor clan with a small but tidy hall in the hills. But once they dug down underneath the ore, they found a surprise.There was worked stone down there. Crushed, as though the hill had shifted and sagged above it. And there were already-cut gems scattered in generous piles throughout the wreckage. 

Each was a green or yellow crystal, cut with facets by an expert. And each gem's centre was a flaw that resembled the slit-eye of a hunting beast.

Not being fools, the clan leaders had the gems examined by sages before allowing anyone to touch them. The scholars confirmed there was magic on them but it was old, weak magic. Made to hold something fast. That made perfect sense to the dwarves. They understood the difficulty of cutting flawed crystal without cracking it.

They stopped mining for copper and started mining for gems instead. Stones with eye-shaped flaws became fashionable. For a while Dhurmak enjoyed a brisk trade.

Disaster fell the first time they entombed one of their own with his jewellery on him. Left alone in the dark with a corpse, the gem liquefied. It spread over the body, dissolved the flesh and draped itself over the bones. Like a slime with an internal skeleton and an eye swimming at its forehead.

It spent half of that first night oozing between the debris sorting room and the mausoleum. Dropping eye-gems into the other coffins. Soon there was a squad of slime-skeletons. They quietly took over the hold entrances and the mine, converting living dwarves as they went. When traders arrived in the morning, they found it sealed tight. Dhurmak had been the victim of a silent invasion.

Now the dwarves are slaves. Driven by the slime skeletons to dig faster, uncovering more and more eye-gems. There are more gems than dwarves. So far, they've been content to share skeletons between them. Each skeleton has three to seven eyes, and a thicker layer of ooze as the number goes up. They've said nothing about their plans, giving orders and threats using hand-signals. Even so, the dwarves know that they live until they dig the last of the eye-gems from the underground ruin, and not a day longer.

AC 7 [12], HD 1 (4hp), Att 1 x slam (1d8) or acid (see special), THAC0 19 [0], MV 60' (20'), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1), ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP (see special), NA 0 (3d4), TT -

Specials:
Acid: 1d8 damage + 1d4 per round until victim makes an appropriate save.
Immunity: Unharmed by piercing attacks. Half damage from bludgeoning, heat, cold. Broken bones halve movement speed, but don't affect the use of limbs.
Eye level: For each additional eye, the creature improves AC and THAC0 by 1 and gains 1 HD. It loses 5' from movement speed.

Eyes	XP
1	16
2	30
3	65
4	175
5	325
6	775
7	1250