2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day Ninety-Four

Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!

Today is Part 39 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Monsters & Treasure Volume 2.

**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**

Today we continue on with our look at the original D&D monsters starting with what is called the clean-up crew. You should also note that these are semi-intelligent hives minds for there is never only one:

OCHRE JELLY: The clean-up crew includes Ochre Jelly and similar weird monsters. Ochre Jelly is a giant amoeba which can be killed by fire or cold, but hits by weaponry or lightning bolts will merely make them into several smaller Ochre Jellies. Ochre Jelly does not affect stone or metal, but it does destroy wood, and it causes one die of damage per turn it is in contact with exposed flesh. It seeps through small cracks easily.

All of these creatures are great fun and create a lot of grief for the adventuring party. The Ochre Jelly can seep through small cracks easily so it can show up unexpectedly. A character leans against a wall to rest and it oozes out of a crack the wall and starts feasting or maybe destroys so leather straps or eats the backpack. They are fairly slow, so when they are hit by weaponry and especially by lightning bolts, they tend to splash, so those several smaller Ochre Jellies can end up almost anywhere. They have a chameleon quality and tend to be very hard to see blending into the background.

BLACK (or GRAY) PUDDING: Another member of the clean-up crew and nuisance monster. Black Puddings are not affected by cold. It is spread into smaller ones by chops or lightning bolts, but is killed by fire. Black Puddings dissolve wood, corrode metal at a reasonably fast rate, have no effect on stone, and cause three dice of damage to exposed flesh. If an armored character runs through a Black Pudding the monster’s corrosive power will eat away the foot and leg protection of the armor so that it will fall-away next turn. Black Puddings can pass through fairly small openings, and they can travel as easily on ceilings as on floors. 

Note the word "chops," a word that Dave Arneson used a lot in Blackmoor. These monster move twice as fast as the Ochre Jelly and they also splash too. Black Puddings can drop from the ceiling directly onto anything passing below. It only takes once and players learn to look up at the ceiling. Note also that these monster do three times the damage of the Ochre Jelly. Gray Puddings blend into many of the walls found in dungeons and they are often undetected until it is too late. They also are very difficult to see when they are on a ceiling, much harder to see than a Black Pudding even when there is plenty of light.

GREEN SLIME: A non-mobile hazard, Green Slime can be killed by fire or cold, but it is not affected by lightning bolts or striking by weapons. It eats away wood and metal but not stone. Green Slime sticks to flesh and penetrates it in one turn, thereafter turning the flesh into Green Slime. Green Slime cannot be scraped off, so when it contacts something the item must be discarded or excised in some way. A Cure Disease spell will also serve to kill and remove Green Slime, even when it is in contact with flesh.

There are Green, Gray, Red, Black, White, and Blue Slimes all of which are quite deadly. They secrete an anesthetic so it is very possible for it to be eating away at your flesh and you will not know it. People are known to have seated themselves in it, completely unaware until an arm or leg gives way beneath them.

GRAY OOZE: A seeping horror which closely resembles wet stone and is thus difficult to detect. It will not be spread by non-harmful weapons, but it is subject only to lightning bolts or cuts and chops by weaponry, for it is impervious to cold or fire. It does not harm wood or stone, but it corrodes metal at the same rate that Black Pudding does. It does two dice of damage to exposed flesh for every turn it is in contact with it.

This monster also secretes an anesthetic and can ooze onto a creature and start devouring it. Yes, unlike the slimes, this monster can move and it will try to stay undetected until it is ready to engulf you.

YELLOW MOLD: A deadly underground fungus which can be exterminated only by fire. It attacks wood and flesh — doing one die of damage if it contacts exposed skin — but does no harm to metal or stone. However, its worst threat is its spores. Rough contact with Yellow Mold will have a 50% chance of causing it to break and send forth clouds of asphyxiating spores in a 1” × 1” cloud. Any creatures within the spore cloud must make saving throws as if they had been exposed to poison, and failure to make saving throws results in death for the parties concerned.

Yellow Mold is just one variety and it comes in many different colors. As with the other members of the clean-up crew above, it is semi-intelligent and a hive mind that is distributed throughout its every occurrence within a dungeon.

This next one appears a few pages later, possibly because it was added later in the process and it saved retyping this part of the manuscript.

Geletinous 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 body. These monsters would be difficult to harm and have a large number of Hit Dice.

In all the early prints it was misspelled and the spelling was not corrected to read Gelatinous Cubes until the 2013 print. At least I always assumed it was misspelled. This monster was also not included in the table that started this volume. Since less information was provided (it would not be detailed until the Greyhawk Supplement was released.) this gave us even more leeway than usual to define things about this monster.

So I wrote up this. Number appearing 1-2, AC 2 (difficult to harm), Move in Inches 6/12 (I gave it a charge move), Hit Dice 10 (large number of Hit Dice), Lair 100% since it carries its lair with it, Treasure Type - 70% chance of mundane weapons or armor plus a variety of coins of up to 4000 GP in total value and there is a 20% chance any weapons or armor are magical. Since it is of near complete transparency and the poor lighting of torches and such, there is a 40% chance of blundering into it. When it touches you, that part becomes super-sticky and it holds you as it rapidly engulfs you. If other character try to help you get loose, they risk, 30% chance, of becoming stuck themselves or (separate check) 30% chance it will try to engulf the additional characters. This monster is a scavenger and and a predator given the opportunity. It immediately starts dissolving all organic matter, doing one die damage per melee round as it is strongly caustic.

All weapons both mundane and magical do half damage (except fire) and it regenerates as a Troll. Like a troll it can be given permanent damage from both mundane and magical fire, acid is ineffective because it is able to neutralize acid.

Tomorrow we will start off by looking at Horses and Mules.