The Pudding King

X Worldbuilders:

GM James R

The Pudding King in cube form. Drow for scale.

The Pudding King was a half-Svirfneblin, half-ooze creature, formed from a series of obsessive experiments gone awry. He used his new-found powers to claim a sort of deity status among his fellow deep gnomes, ruling mercilessly over them in a series of Underdark caves.

He was the main villain of The Underdungeon's second season.

Abilities

The Pudding King could magically transform himself into a gelatinous cube. When not in cube form, the pudding king was a very proficient spellcaster, and would often use cloudkill and misty step to move quickly and exterminate intruders mercilessly.

When encountering larger or more numerous enemies, the Pudding King could also create massive areas-of-effect containing a sticky and acidic green slime.

Immortality

Obsessed with never being overthrown, the Pudding King worked with his highest ranking artificer and archmage to devise a way to always beat death. Together, they used a spell known as Clone to create a small army of duplicate Svirfneblin bodies, each identical to the Pudding King's original form.

Thanks to the power of the spell, when the Pudding King is killed, his soul immediately returns to one of the clone bodies, and within minutes, he is back in action with a new form. It's believed that the Pudding King had over 100 clones in storage, held secretly under his throne room.

Blingdenstone

Map of Blingdenstone - The Pudding King's throne is top left near the exit. Large scaffolding in the bottom right eventually housed a drill that led to the surface.

The tunnels that the Pudding King ruled over contained a variety of specialized caverns and unique traits not found in all Svirfneblin communites, he called his kingdom Blingdenstone, and ruled over it with an iron fist.

Rust Pets

The Pudding King allowed his subjects to keep Rust Monsters as pets, keeping them on leashes. The drawback to there being so many monsters running around meant that all tools and equipment in the caves would need to be glass or stone based. In addition, the monsters would often eat any weapons owned by the deep gnomes, leaving them for the most part defenseless (and unable to rise up against their tyrant).

Ooze Culture

As the king was part ooze, he allowed others oozes to freely roam the caverns, where they would often devour or cause issues for the deep gnomes living there. However, as the king revered slimes more than he did gnomes, they often would get away with their antics.

Behind the Screen

• Blingdenstone and the Pudding King are roughly based on a similarly named kingdom and ruler from Out of the Abyss, though there are some very striking differences, including his ability to become a Gelatinous Cube