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Silent, alien and mindless, near-invisible gelatinous cubes cruise their subterranean lairs, endlessly questing for food. Creatures of paralysing, silent death, many adventurers have died within a gelatinous cube’s corrosive confines.

Outside the Lair

The dungeon entrance is low—barely five feet high; the gelatinous cube cannot squeeze under it and thus languishes trapped within.
The remains of a backpack hang from a rocky protuberance. Investigation reveals it has been mostly dissolved by acid.
The faint smell of acid hangs in the air.
A steep, ten-foot-high drop wards the approach to the dungeon; the cube cannot climb the cliff and is thus trapped within.

What’s Going On?

The gelatinous cube lurks motionless in a corridor, waiting for something to blunder into its path.
The gelatinous cube is in the farthest part of the dungeon and is oblivious to the characters’ presence.
Having just cornered and enveloped a pair of large rats, the gelatinous cube is more visible than normal.
Silently, the gelatinous cube approaches the party from the rear.

Major Lair Features

The dungeon’s ceilings and the upper parts of its walls are grimy and festooned with cobwebs. The lower parts are noticeably cleaner.
The dungeon has no wooden doors.
The floor is wholly clear of any rubbish, although rubble does still feature here and there.
Narrow passages—those five feet wider and smaller—in the dungeon are dirty and filthy—starkly contrasting to wider areas that have been scoured clean.

Minor Lair Features

The dungeon walls have distinct “tide marks”, which are about ten feet above the floor. Above this line, the walls are dirty and filthy.
A square ten-foot wide trail of clean floor leads through wider areas.
There are no wall hangings or non-carved graffiti in any part of the dungeon into which the cube can fit.
The grey and dusty cobwebs hanging from the ceiling are all of a uniform length—it is like they have all been carefully trimmed.

Gelatinous Cube’s Appearance

This gelatinous cube has a slight blue tinge to its body, and it emits a faint smell of acid. Sadly, this smell is only detectable in a five-foot radius of the creature.
The cube holds a mass of rubble in its body; at first look, it appears that a cloud of stone is slowly flying down the corridor toward the characters.
This cube contains the bones of its last victim; the poor unfortunate’s skeletal hands are still wrapped around a greatsword’s hilt.
The decomposing head of a tall elf juts from the top of the gelatinous cube’s body; below the head, the body is nothing but bone.

Treasure

Three lustrous black stones riddled with tiny black flecks (bloodstones) hang in the gelatinous cube.
This plain iron dagger has a translucent red stone—a ruby—set in its pommel; the stone glimmers with a faint, hellish radiance.
A suit of plain but expertly crafted plate mail sized for a doughty dwarf warrior fills a goodly part of the gelatinous cube. The suit—missing its various straps—hangs horizontally as if its wearer had dived head-first into the cube.
Like stars, a small glimmering constellation of smooth white stones hangs in the cube’s body.

Trinkets & Trash

This iron potion vial is sadly missing its stopper; it is empty of potion but full of gelatinous cube.
A stone head hangs in the middle of the cube; the head fell off a statue somewhere else in the dungeon.
A cluster of bits of rubble and stone fill the bottom of the gelatinous cube’s body.
Six arrowheads float inside the gelatinous cube.

Credit

This is a short system-neutral extract from Monstrous Lair #96: Gelatinous Cube’s Dungeon by Robert Manson.

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