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4e Fan Creations and House RulesWorking on variant powers? Statting up a PC race or your version of a monster? Creating or converting an adventure? Put it here!
I've been giving some thought to a silly product based on the much-loved Gelatinous Cube (GC).
Gelatinous Digestives! Tiny GCs (about the size of a marble, but obviously not the same shape ) that a company (as yet unnamed; suggestions?) breeds and sells as digestive aids. People swallow them whole and they really clean out their system. They are also marketed for other purposes, not the least of which being drain cleaners. They also have the added benefit of going hogwild on the sewage system, so waterways don't get polluted. The company even has a sophisticated recycling system in place. Every now and then a large GC will grow in the sewers, but the company hires adventurers to take them out as needed.
Furthermore, I was thinking of having an interesting encounter in a warehouse. While chasing a bandit, the bandit runs into a warehouse full of these things and knocks over a crate of these things as a distraction, shattering all the nice glass jars that were housing the harmlessly-sized GCs. The result? A swarm of tiny GCs, all hungry for a chunk of rare adventurer meat!
So, I have two questions about all this:
1) I don't know that much about GC ecology. Is this all feasible? Do GCs coalesce if a bunch are gathered in the same place? Would they be happy to go through and out of a person like that?
2) The fun part: What would a swarm of tiny GCs look like, stats-wise? I'm a blank slate here, so I'm definitely open for suggestions!
Nice idea, this will definitely be in my eberron campaign !
Love the concept of monsters bred for some of their special skills like the acidic properties of the good ol'cube.
I doubt ingesting them would be a good idea but the "sewer cleaning device" is truly a great idea and it fits perfectly with the ecology of that slime. Maybe a magebred version could be ingested by altering the acid of the cube and making it more like a human stomach pH...
Don't know, though, what kind of stats those tiny fellows should have.
Hmm... I like the idea of the magebred GCs, though stomach acid would be too strong for any place other than the stomach itself.
Ooh! Sudden idea while I was writing this response! They could be magically bred to have a ph-neutral layer of gelatin surrounding the sour acidic core. Any kids accidentally biting into these would be in for an unpleasant surprise...
Also, can anyone think of other uses for them, or for slightly larger versions? Garbage disposals? Sponges? Etc.?
Come to think of it, there's a ton of things this company could do if it has the right mix of wizards in R&D. Glowing cubes? Sure! They'd make an excellent accessory to medieval-themed rave parties. Heck, some underground wizards could make them a natural source of narcotics. Imagine a shady character holding out a handful of these and selling them at your local less-than-reputable inn.
... Or, they could be used as lamps. That works too.
You could put them in your garden to get rid of pests, too. At night they would glow and light up your sidewalk. Great at barbeques or any outdoor gettogether.
Not so sure about the garden idea, though if you want to use it for your own campaign, I won't stop you. Basically, GCs engulf and digest any organic matter they can get their hands on. This includes plants, which is why I'm wary of making them gardening implements. I also don't envision them running around free too often. People keep them contained in glass quite frequently, blissfully unaware of how dangerous they are, which makes for some very interesting scenes where incredibly loud noises suddenly shatter the glass in an area.
Gelatinous Digestives! Tiny GCs (about the size of a marble, but obviously not the same shape ) that a company (as yet unnamed; suggestions?) breeds and sells as digestive aids.
Sounds a little more like an assassination technique! Slip a tiny GC into a drink or some food, it gets swallowed, and digests the person from the inside out!
That is a cool idea. Combine the two ideas, nixing the digestive aid but embracing the mini-gelatinous cubes as a 'keep our city clean' movement. unfortunately a few drunks passed out in alleys are found half eaten and a wealthy noble is killed (a la alien chestburster, only slower and with relish). The PC's not must round up these beasts (A skill challenge?) culminating in a battle royal with the mama in a test kitchen/factory setting. perhaps her creator does not wish to see her destroyed?
Sounds a little more like an assassination technique! Slip a tiny GC into a drink or some food, it gets swallowed, and digests the person from the inside out!
"It's true what they say: Cops and women don't mix. It's like eating a spoonful of Drano. Sure it'll clean you out, but it'll leave you hollow inside."
As would anything from sterilizing equipment to removing evidence from a murder weapon.
If you engineered the acid, you might be able to get it so specific it could eat rust but not metal. Great for recycling.
Cleaning dirty plates, pots and pans. Gutters. Oh god the cleaning of gutters. Fort hat matter, you could use it as a personal toilet or privy. Just have an out house with a few dozen in the bottom and bam.
Pest control. If you have stone tunnels that have rats or other small critters, it could easily eat them.
It also might be a way of handling undead. In the city cemetery, a single one is placed in the coffin, and it slowly eats the entire body (and coffin). Sure, your bones are gone, but no zombies or skeletons!
__________________ Seeking players in Chattanooga, TN 4e game.
These are some fantastic ideas, folks! I'm excited about my Gelatinous campaign setting, with the silly little critters littering cities everywhere!
All that being said, I came up with an idea for a swarm based roughly on the Stirge Swarm and editing in stuff from the normal GC entry. This should be a working starting point, and once I get this template down, I can adjust them to a variety of levels. Imagine it's level 12 because these cubes are bred to be aggressive industrial-strength cleaners. In reality it's because I wanted them to be brutes, but the Stirge was the lowest-level swarm I could find that was a brute.
Gelatinous Cubette Swarm
Level 12 Brute
Mediumn natural beast (blind, ooze, swarm)
XP 700 Initiative +6 Senses Perception +7, tremorsense 10 Swarm Attack aura 1; the gelatinous cubette swarm makes a basic attack as a free action against each enemy that begins its turn in the aura. In addition, the aura counts as difficult terrain. HP 146; Bloodied 73 AC 24 Fortitude 25 Reflex 22 Will 21 Immune gaze; Resist 15 acid, half damage from melee and ranged attacks; Vulnerable 10 against close and area attacks Speed 3; see also clinging swarm Clinging swarm (standard; at-will)
+13 vs. Reflex; target is grabbed and takes ongoing 15 acid damage until it escapes the grab. If the target is also in the gelatinous cubette swarm's square, the gelatinous cubette swarm moves with the target until it escapes the grab. Grabbing in this way slows the target rather than immobilizing. An enemy struck by the gelatinous cubette swarm's opportunity attack stops moving, if a move provoked the attack. Alignment Unaligned Languages - Skills Stealth +13 Str 14 (+8) Dex 14 (+8) Wis 13 (+7) Con 16 (+9) Int 1 (+1) Cha 1 (+1)
In Paul Kidd's book "Return to white plume mountain", the police investigating a gangland killing in the street use a gelatinous cube for cleanup of the bodies (they transport it in a big cart, and use firepoles to persuade it to move where they need it to go)
your idea is both simple and combines humor and creepiness to make it genius.
I had an idea of an assassination attempt in an inn- A PC gets the special "Exotic Cocktail" with some ice cubes, only these aren't ICE cubes....
Another idea is having one of those as a companion or Familiar.
A rogue having a few trained pet GCs can have them crawling inside a lock or a trap mechanism in order to dissolve the tricky parts, speeding his work so that he can concentrate on slitting some throats... Now that I've mentioned it, what better way there is to get rid of a dead body?
And for another wacky notion- a puzzle involving a Rubik's Cube consisting of tiny GCs that only start producing acid When solved, and than ooze away to reveal an item of interest (a key, for example).
Now how's that for some brainstorming?
__________________ Me doesn't kno inglish much good, pleez tray too ignor my mistackes.
Seriously, English isn't my native tongue (Hebrew is), so forgive my grammer and spelling.
--------------------------------------------------------------
A good friend will help you move.
A great friend will help you move a body.
__________________ Me doesn't kno inglish much good, pleez tray too ignor my mistackes.
Seriously, English isn't my native tongue (Hebrew is), so forgive my grammer and spelling.
--------------------------------------------------------------
A good friend will help you move.
A great friend will help you move a body.
You could also have the GC swarm eventually clump together and form the full sized version.
Yeah, I had actually considered this. For example, if they grab the center-square target for 3 turns in a row, they become a level 12 full-grown GC (gotta make a stat block for that, too) and automatically engulf and daze any target they were grabbing within the swarm aura. Any suggestions for some extra abilities that might make it more deadly at level 12? Obviously the acid damage would be 15 instead of 5.
While I'm at it, I was also thinking of changing the swarm attack mechanic a bit. Basically, there are two things going on: first, I want to keep the flavor that they don't really do any damage unless they stick on a target for a while. Hence the grab, similar to the big GCs engulf. Second, I want the person at the center to feel the "OHMYGODGETTHEMOFFME!!!" pressure no matter where they run to. Hence slowing instead of immobilizing. They can still move, but the swarm clings to them wherever they go. This might encourage a defender to keep it far away from everyone else. Perhaps a mechanic would be in order that, as long as no one else is in the center, the swarm actually moves to the square of the first creature in the aura it hits. Would this make them too deadly, or perhaps it can be a mechanic for even higher-level swarms?
Also: habaal, I LOVE the Rubik's Cube idea! It's fun and easy to manage in a game. Are there any other cube-based puzzles out there that could fit into a similar theme?
“I want to thank you for coming down on such short notice.” He was friendly and well groomed. His stylish business jacket and short cloak were a polite shade of earth-tones I approved of immediately. His good looks helped.
“Not a problem, I usually eat on this side of town, and the Gates aren’t too bad this time of day.” We were walking down a beige hallway that looked like every other we’d been down so far. I no longer had any idea where we were, but that was fine. I could always get home with the ERD that Wendy gave me last year. Also known as an Emergency Recall Disk, it could teleport you to a designated spot as a one-time-only self-defense. It cost her a fortune, and I couldn’t refuse. I gave her a raise instead. She was worth it.
“You solve this problem, and I’ll buy you lunch myself!” His grim humor was a pleasant change from my usual customers. Most of mine had trouble making ends meet, let alone paying a druid to heal their family pet. “It was just brought to my attention today, and it seems to have been going on for a while now.”
“Did I really need to sign all of those non-disclosure forms? And where are you keeping animals? I thought this was a Hetra-chip factory.” I looked at my timer, we had been walking for about 8 minutes. We must be at the far end of the factory by now.
“Yes... down this hall... and we are. We are also a research lab. So, in case someone slips and says something about a project, you have agree not to blab it to the BNN prime time news.” It was hard to take offense with the friendly tone he had, so I didn’t.
“I take it that it’s some kind of guard animal? Kind of a primitive way to secure a place.”
“Depends on the type. Here we are.”
I looked around and saw nothing. He just smiled and waved at a scryer that was watching us from a nearby wall. Someone must have been monitoring us, because suddenly the floor in front of me disappeared. It revealed a pit of brown, rippling water. The smell was less than pleasant. I frowned. “An illusion,” I asked?
“No.” His voice was firm. “An illusion covering a generated force wall. Perfectly safe.”
“And if the power goes ou...”
He cut me off for the first time. “Then backup power crystals keep it running, and we can slide the floor shut.”
I was not very confident about that. Seems it would be better to leave it open as a defense if the power did go off. Even I know a trap when I see one. Kneeling down, I could see nothing in the sewer water.
“Please be careful. It can be very dangerous if you’re careless.” I did not ask how he knew that.
“Where is it?” I still saw nothing.
“Right in front of you.” I still saw nothing but the water rippling. The smell was overpowering. Then I realized what I was looking at, and it was not sewer water.
“Where did you get it?” I backed up despite myself. At least I did it calmly.
“We have all the appropriate licenses for it.”
“Right. Where did you get it?”
“Madam, I can show you any paperwork you need.” His voice had become more professional and a lot less pleasant. I got the distinct feeling that being between it and him might be a bad idea. I moved.
“Fine. But would you mind telling me what a Gel Cube is doing in a pit trap below your HALLWAY floor?” If he noticed the edge to my voice, he ignored it masterfully.
“It is for the ‘disposal of hazardous biological waste materials’. It is in the hall because we use it to filter the sewer line leaving the secured area, and could find no other way to bring it in. Putting it outside where someone might accident upon it was too careless to even consider.” He looked down at it. “It seems to have been having trouble lately.”
I gave up. “Really?” I looked at it while staying out of arms-reach.
“Yes, over the last month, it has been unable to filter the fluid coming from the labs. Since we also use it to clean the normal sewage too...”
“Hence the smell...”
“Right.” He wrinkled his nose. “Any ideas what may be wrong?”
I looked it him. “There’s a ten foot cube of slime in your hallway floor, and you’re asking me ‘What’s wrong’?” He sighed. I raised my eyebrow in response.
“All right.” He carefully rephrased the question. “What is causing it to not filter the sewage?”
“Do you feed it anything besides sewage?” I looked at it again. It was impossible to see anything that might be considered a physiology in the thing.
“We throw it some meat on occasion.” I looked up at him sharply. He didn’t match my gaze. “Mostly, it seems to absorb anything we throw into it. Chemicals, even toxic ones, have no effect on it. Lately, though, it seems to have stopped keeping up with it. It just lets it flow through.”
“Started about a month ago? And just kept getting steadily worse?”
“Right. Never had a problem before. It just keeps filtering less and less waste.”
“How much goes through here?” I fought down the urge to poke it with a stick. It might seem unprofessional.
“No idea. We don’t meter it, since there is no cost for running it.”
“And because documenting it would be a possible liability.”
“Right.”
“Right.” I looked at it. It seemed straightforward enough. “You’re overfeeding it.”
“What? It eats everything!”
“It’s not a hole. It’s a living thing.” I thought about it. “Actually, it’s a colony of living things. The point is, it will filter everything it CAN. It has limits. Seems it just started reaching them.” Thinking some more, I figured it out. “Have you hired more employees? Added more bathrooms, or started using them more?”
He looked down at it again. “Actually, yes, we have. Makes good sense. Sure it isn’t sick?”
“I have never heard of a cube dying of anything but fire.”
“Ok then. Let’s go write that check.” He smiled again as the floor reappeared and he walked over it. Turning around, he saw me still on the other side of the false floor. I hadn’t moved. “You coming?”
I smiled at him. “You write the check, and I’ll wait here.” He laughed out loud and left me there.
I walked out with a very, very, VERY good check.
__________________ The Fool
Mr. Oberon
John Bowden
Basically, The swarm can grab and cling. It can only cling onto one target, and it automatically moves into the square of the creature it clings. Everyone else in the swarm is grabbed unless the clinged person moves the swarm away from the grabbed people. Everyone takes ongoing 15 acid. I don't know if it's possible to grab swarms, but if it is, I should add a line about them not being grabbable so no one "throws" the cubettes off of them.
In a related topic, I've already mentioned that I love the Rubik's Cube idea. Is there anything I can stick onto a cube that would give it a rubbery, "gelatinous" feel to the people solving it?
) that a company (as yet unnamed; suggestions?) breeds and sells as digestive aids. People swallow them whole and they really clean out their system. They are also marketed for other purposes, not the least of which being drain cleaners. They also have the added benefit of going hogwild on the sewage system, so waterways don't get polluted. The company even has a sophisticated recycling system in place. Every now and then a large GC will grow in the sewers, but the company hires adventurers to take them out as needed.
Clinging swarm (standard; at-will)
Linear Mode
