30 Day OD&D Challenge - What about Gelatinous Cubes? - Day Thirteen

Today's Our Topic is "What about Gelatinous Cubes?" as we continue our celebration of International Original Dungeons and Dragons Month!

In Voulume 2 of OD&D - Monsters & Treasure it makes a brief mention of the Gelatinous Cube:

Geletinous(sic) Cubes: Underground creatures of near complete transparency which fit exactly the typical corridor of a dungeon. Metal objects absorbed into them would be visible thereafter within their bodies. These monsters would be difficult to harm and have a large number of Hit Dice.

That is all we had in the beginning as guidance on running these monsters. It is a shame really that we do not have all the variations that must have popped up around the country as new campaigns were started.

Then when the Greyhawk Supplement came, we had more information about them. 

Gelatinous Cubes - Number Appearing 1, AC 8, Move in Inches 6, Hit Dice 4, % in Lair Nil, Treasure Type *(see the paragraph regarding this monster for its possible treasure.

GELATINOUS CUBES: As the name implies, these monsters are shaped very much like cubes, typically being about 10’ per side so as to be able to sweep clean of all living materials (as well as dead cells) the floor and walls of the labyrinthine dungeon passages. Any flesh which comes in contact with a Gelatinous Cube becomes anesthetized unless a saving throw vs. paralization is made. The touch also causes 2-8 points of damage as the creature seeks to dissolve and devour flesh. These creatures are subject to normal weapons and fire, but lightning, cold, paralization, fear, and polymorph attacks do not harm them. Many 'Cubes have rich treasures within their semitransparent bodies, for they pick up metallic and otherwise non-digestible objects in their rounds, and these items often remain within the body for long periods of time before being redeposited.

So they could have rich treasures, so it was up to the referee to decide what they did or did not have. Of course, there were a couple of consideration when running them. While slow it could overtake heavily encumbered characters and then they had a choice: drop some of what they were carrying or turn and fight or try to get to a side passage or enter a room and wait till it moved on (and hope the room was unoccupied). There could of course be other choices. Of course what could be seen within it could and did affect the choices the character made, there was no reason to fight one that did not have anything suspended within its body, but one that had several objects within it, might indeed be worth fighting.

Once my PCs ran into a Gelatinous Cube that had somehow gotten(or was helped) out of the dungeon into the wilderness. Instead of the normal 1000 cubic feet it was over 50,000 cubic feet and growing steadily. They had a really rough time of it, since as it got bigger it had achieved sentience and a steadily growing level of intelligence. In the process of killing it they started a forest fire that burned for 2d20 days (32 days in this case). They had no way to put out the fire, not even any spells that would help, eventually it rained. Meanwhile, after getting away from the fire, they back-tracked it through the forest looking for anything it might have dropped along the way, they followed a trail that was bare ground 100 feet wide that gradually become more narrow as they went until it was only 10 feet wide. They found a number of weapons near the beginning of the trail, nothing magic, along with some gold, silver and copper.

They are assumed to be 10'x10'x10'  or 1000 cubic feet in size, I play them as weighing about 35-40 tons and as such they are an immovable object and even when killed, getting past were they were can be a very labor and time intensive project. 

One of my forum members (The Archivist) suggested the following: 

They are assumed to be 10'x10'x10'  or 1000 cubic feet in size, I play them as weighing about 35-40 tons and as such they are an immovable object and even when killed, getting past were they were can be a very labor and time intensive project. Once every so often depending on food sources, then will expel up to a hundred - 1 inch cubes which will explore every nook and cranny as they feed and grow. At this size they can pass through opening as small as 1/32 inch in diameter.  It is rumored that should one escape a dungeon that it would not be any natural limit to its size. There are also rumors that their intelligence grows as they do.

I used that idea in the game I mentioned above.

In the original game, doors in dungeons were notorious for never staying open , closing by themselves. I always took the position that it was because Gelatinous Cubes would try to force themselves through an open door to get at anything edible inside and if they were old enough and inflexible enough they would stay there straining to get at the goodies, but unable to do so, where a younger old might be able to get at the whatever it was. It also explained why all of my doors had sheet metal over the wood of the door to protect it from them.

Gelatinous Cubes were invented by Gronan of Simmerya aka Michael Mornard who played in Greyhawk with Gygax, Blackmoor with Arneson and Tékumel with Barker. Here is the way (after much urging) he tells the story:

Okay. Well, it starts with the Ochre Jelly being described as "a giant amoeba." My thought was "why not giant protozoa of other types?" SO I thought up a giant paramecium. They have things called "trichocysts," which are apparently some sort of prey capturing or defensive mechanism... they shoot out little filaments. In my HS biology text they were described as stinging cells that paralyze prey (which seems to be wrong, but there ya go). So I was describing this and somebody said "Walk around it," so I said "it's ten feet wide."

Some time later the Gelatinous Cube arrived. Clear like a paramecium, ten feet wide like my giant paramecium, paralyses like my giant paramecium. So I figured a second or third hand description of the GP had reached Gary and turned into the Gel Cube.

Since then Rob(Kuntz) has told me about one or more stories Gary read that featured blobby gooey eating things, plus of course movies like 'The Blob.'

So I am prepared to state categorically that the Gelatinous Cube either is or is not derived indirectly from my Giant Paramecium.

And that's the truth.

If it helps, remember that the atmosphere at the time was not one of linear structure, but rather that there was a big bubbling cauldron of ideas that we were all throwing stuff into and hauling stuff out of all the time.

I am sold, Mornard invented it. Gary named it. ;)

Another idea was:

When they get to 10' High by 10' Wide by 11' Long they spawn 172,800 baby Gelatinous Cubes. At this size they can be eaten by many monsters because they don't have the powers of a mature cube, those only gradually develop as they grow. So they immediately try to squeeze into every available crack or crevasse that they can find. By the time they grow to 10" by 10" by 10" or 1000 cubic inches they are no longer edible by most monsters but there are a number of hazards they still have to watch out for and this is all instinctual. At this size they can still squeeze into tiny places or that is 1" by 1" by 1000 inches long. At this size they are now able to eat oozes, molds and other such creatures if they encounter them.

Another I saw somewhere was a 20' deep pit trap with a Gelatinous Cube occupying the bottom 10', miss your saving throw and you are paralysed and cannot even grab a rope your fellow PCs have lowered for you to climb or you might be stuck knee deep in it immediately.

There are numerous ways to use them. I once had several wondering the corridors of a huge dungeon level, the players went into a room, investigated a couple of secret doors, fought a battle, bypassed some traps to obtain a treasure and then when they went to leave there were cubes approaching from both directions, they waited it out after they picked their chins up off the floor. The looks on their faces were more than worth it.

Tomorrow's topic is "Owlbears and Other Oddities".