Hive Malfunction is a dimwitted Stem Slime. It looks only to feed in a vain attempt to create Goolings. Anything alive is a way to get nutrients in order to fuel another attempt.
Hive Malfunction was a Stem Slime drone exiled from its hive in hopes of becoming a queen for a new hive. Unfortunately, its core had mutated. It could eat to grow like a proper queen, but it would never produce any Goolings to craft its own hive with.
Wandering from the Fungal Wastes into the Fungal Plains in search of food, the beast tormented the Stem Ram tribes for two decades. It ate men, women, children, and any food they dared leave unattended. It was a scourge.
20 years after its appearance, the trickster known as Fungal Blade devised a plan to put an end to it. Luring the simple-minded, food-focused attention of the beast, he led it into a watering hole. Its body melted away. As it tried to retreat, blazing arrows fired through its body. Its brain hardened; it fell. The natives cheered.