#Lore24 – Entry #84 – Fantasy Month #24 – Capture Cubes

From the journal of Angeliqua “Goldeneyes” Cartacustos:

Strange creations, these capture cubes, and quite effective if employed strategically in sensitive places, so I gather.  Though I cannot say for certain who is responsible for their creation, I would hazard a guess that their origins lie with the Houslin family’s ancestry; admittedly this is pure speculation on my part, but it would fit with what I know of Lady Regina, certainly.  She did briefly toy with the idea of instilling within her most vexing staff the ability to summon such a creature, after all.

I may have been a little too vocal when I refused to be her test subject for those experiments.

I am not sorry.

Capture cubes are a form of artificially created creature, not unlike a basic homunculus in their basic makeup, with practically no intelligence and little in the way of mobility.  They are essentially massive blocks of nearly transparent jelly, after all, between six and ten feet on each side, if not larger, and quite malleable like a normal ooze, though they somehow retain their overall cubic shape.  Some of these creatures reportedly have the ability to replicate themselves, if they are somehow cut into two or more large enough pieces without damaging them significantly enough to dissolve their form.  Most often used as a security emplacement to trap those unfortunate enough to come into contact with them, the cubes nonetheless are capable of movement, albeit slowly, giving them the ability to effect something of a patrol route within the areas they are placed. 

As their name suggests, capture cubes are meant to incapacitate intruders who stumble upon them and keep them alive until they can be properly secured by the more intelligent guards.  The fact that they are nearly completely transparent, at least initially, makes detecting them difficult unless they have recently “fed”, so those who would sneak through an area guarded by these creatures must be especially cautious.  There have been accounts on record that have reported these creatures placed at the bottom of pit traps or placed in specialized slots above corridors, waiting for the traps to trigger for either the victim or the cube to drop, resulting in an easy capture.

Unlike the more dangerous oozes that can be found within the dank and dark dungeons of the world, capture cubes don’t consume their prey, rather, only the clothes worn by them.  Any non-living animal- or plant-based material is dissolved, and any metal, glass, or stone material is expelled, though items of sufficiently strong magical enchantment composed of matter it normally consumes will likewise be expelled.  The victim is held in place by the sticky nature of the jelly, being guided somehow to the center of the cube, which, as it dissolves the victim’s clothing, turns entirely black, blocking out light and leaving those captured suspended in complete darkness, somehow able to breathe (reportedly with some difficulty), but unable to speak or struggle free in any but the most exceptional cases.  It is possible for larger cubes to absorb up to two victims, perhaps more in the case of smaller beings, placing them in decidedly close conditions within itself.

Typically at this point the cubes will begin returning to a designated point, bringing their captured prey with them to be disgorged into the waiting hands of the guards or whoever may be in charge of the area they have been set to patrol, or, if there are other active threats and no more material to consume, will disgorge the victims from itself, leaving them covered in the completely black jelly, which is extremely sticky and clingy, proving most difficult to remove without magical aid; usually those thusly disgorged will be completely disoriented and unable to see and barely able to move, so they are only slightly less secure than if they were still inside the cube.  Within a few minutes, the creatures will resume their nearly transparent nature and continue to hunt.  Eventually the material on the disgorged victims will dissolve, usually after a few hours, if left unattended.

There have been varying accounts of what happens when these creatures are killed, possibly hinting at variations in their makeup or construction.  They are difficult to damage by non-magical weaponry, as such strikes will result in the weapons sticking to the creature and being pulled into it, though magic can be effective, especially fire and cold.  Some simply dissolve into a puddle of slightly sticky slime, while others reportedly remain much more sticky, enough so as to potentially trap those who would try to cross through it, or at least, hinder their movement for a time.  At least two accounts of combat with these creatures mention that they exploded upon death, showing their attackers with their slime, resulting in damaged or completely dissolved clothing and armor and severely hindered movement until removed or until it later dissolved on its own.

I would rather not ponder on the nature of the person who originally conceived the capture cubes.  While effective at what they are meant to do, undeniably so, the idea of trapping someone inside utter darkness, covered in sticky slime, unable to move or struggle free for hours, just makes me shiver.