What IS this stuff?

Back in mid-June I found some funky-looking stuff on a heavily decayed log on our property. At first I said, "Ew, gross!" But upon further inspection I said, "Hmmmm.... interesting"

Here's what it looked like the first day I spied it. All I could think of was that it looked like something's eggs.

Look closely and you'll see 2 snails here, one to the right just above the mass, and another one more directly to the right, almost at the edge of the picture. (click photo to enlarge)

When I came back 5 days later, this is what I saw:

With some of this mixed in...

... and some of this by itself.

If anyone has any ideas as to what this might be, I would love to be enlightened. I've seen a few people talking about slime mold on their blogs recently, but I'm not sure if that's what this stuff is or not. I did see a picture on the internets of some stuff that looks exactly like the brown things pictured above on a page discussing slime mold, but that doesn't necessarily confirm that this is slime mold.

I should also note that the brown things gave off a kind of brown "dust" when rubbed (most likely shooting off spores to reproduce?), just in case that helps someone make an ID. Thanks!