DCC Bestiary - Gelatinous Cube

 

In the Temple of Elemental Evil, there is the bizarre, the original, the alien … gelatinous cube.

This should be an awesome monster.  It’s a seminal and iconic monster of Dungeons & Dragons out of the mind of Gary Gygax, and it also sings the song of Dungeon Crawl Classics, it’s a glob of proto-matter that sweeps through the dungeon, swallowing everything it’s path.

But in D&D it isn’t awesome.  It’s a dull, avoidable creature, only good for a quick jump scare and then easily avoided.  The winning defensive strategy is ‘step out of its way’.  That, unfortunately, does not sing the song of Dungeon Crawl Classics.

Now the Primeval Slime entry in the core DCC rulebook is a pretty good chassis to build a gelatinous cube on – in fact they name many of the cube’s traditional abilities in the descriptive text, but it lacks some of the stealth or engulfing abilities, and it would take a bit of construction to mimic the D&D cube in spirit.  So, I went back to the Moldvay Basic D&D rules to see what they had for an original monster description, and then I went and googled ‘how do amoebas eat’ and went down the rabbit hole of single cell organism defensive and offensive abilities, an amoeba that takes the shape of Gandalf the Wizard's Hat … as well as other obscure facts.

So, a barely perceptible monster that an adventuring party can run headlong into, sure, that works … but once discovered, it’s got to do something other than lurch forward.  Let’s give it some amoeba-like pseudopods to draw in nearby food, keep the listed primeval slime’s abilities of paralyzing touch, protoplasmic breakdown, and immunity to cold and lightning.

To make it true to it’s original write-up, we’ll add in a new engulf ability, reduce it’s Armor Class from 10 to 7, change the initiative modifier from ‘always goes last’ to -3, give it 8d8 hit dice, increase it’s speed a bit to 10’, reduce it’s Action Dice to 2d20 (would you believe a 10’ x 10’ primeval slime should have 8d20 Action Dice??).

Thoughts, ideas, comments, or how you incorporate the gelatinous cube into your game?  Drop me an email, at archadethered@gmail.com.

Gelatinous Cube

     Primeval oozes of different hues exhibit different behaviours or 'personalities'.  Some clear primeval oozes seem most content when they can occupy a fixed space they can fill their mass with, such as a hole, alcove or tunnel.  Often, clear primeval oozes can grow their body mass to fill an entire passageway, becoming cube-shaped.  The ability to fill a hall or passage and being nearly transparent makes them an accidentally successful predator, sweeping up unsuspecting creatures, debris, and anything left in their path.  When in the presence of organic food, the cube can extend pseudopods to grab prey and pull them into it’s mass to digest it.
     Because they are transparent, in a poorly lit environment, an unsuspecting party might walk directly into a gelatinous cube unless they notice it with a DC 15 Intelligence check.
     Some gelatinous cubes may have metallic or mineral objects such as weapons or gems in their body that could be retrieved after it is slain, if intrepid victors can figure out how to extract them without suffering from the paralytic and dissolving enzimes.
 

     Gelatinous Cube: Init -3; Atk pseudopod tendrils +4 melee (2d4); AC 7; HD 8d8 (hp 36); MV 10’; Act 2d20; SP half damage from slicing and piercing weapons, immune to cold and lightning, mindless; SV Fort +6, Ref -8, Will -6; AL N.
     A gelatinous cube that hits with a pseudopod or engulfing attack that hits a victim uses paralytic enzymes to cause the victim to make a DC 14 Fortitude save or render their victim mo1tionless for 1d8 turns.
     If a gelatinous cube manages to paralyze it’s opponent, it may use an action to engulf an adjacent opponent.  Alternatively, if an opponent moves into the cube’s space (by not seeing it and failing a DC 14 Agility Saving Throw), they are engulfed.  Subsequently, the victim takes 1d4 Stamina damage each round as they are slowly dissolved.  If their Stamina reaches 0, they are killed and their body is rendered into soup.  An engulfed creature can try to claw its way out of the cube, or be pulled out by an opponent with a DC 18 Strength check.  Anyone voluntarily reaching into the cube must make a DC 14 Fortitude save or also be paralyzed.