Gelatinous cube
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b Gelatinous cube 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 8 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 6 |
| Base experience | 76 |
| Speed | 6 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Rare |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 600 |
| Nutritional value | 150 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | Fire, cold, shock, sleep, poison, acid, petrification |
| Resistances conveyed |
Fire, cold, shock, sleep
|
The gelatinous cube, b, is a monster in NetHack. Unlike the Dungeons & Dragons creature from which it is derived, it has no means to engulf the player; however it still possesses the means to paralyze the unwary. Their corpses are acidic, but may also provide fire/cold/shock/sleep resistance.
Gelatinous cubes are noteworthy in that as they move they will eat organic items they pass over and engulf most other items (exceptions being rocks or a punished player's iron ball and chain) which are then placed into the cube's inventory. They are thus useful for cleaning useless items out of a level, and the bane of stashes.
Encyclopedia entry
These giant amoeboid creatures look like nothing more than puddles of slime, but they both live and move, feeding on metal or wood as well as the occasional dungeon explorer to supplement their diet.
But we were not on a station platform. We were on the track ahead
as the nightmare, plastic column of fetid black iridescence oozed
tightly onward through its fifteen-foot sinus, gathering unholy
speed and driving before it a spiral, re-thickening cloud of the
pallid abyss vapor. It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster
than any subway train -- a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic
bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes
forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light all over the
tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic
penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its
kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.
[ At the Mountains of Madness, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
