Much to your surprise, the slime seems to melt away as the plank touches it. Maybe the structure was built to keep it under control.
But you also start feeling uncomfortable. You think it has something to do with the pained aura – that it’s getting strong enough to make you start to feel pain.
Is the slime causing the pain, then, or is it softening it somehow? Or maybe just blocking whatever lets you sense it?
Any of those explanations make it difficult to justify continuing to poke around without knowing more about the situation. You pull the plank back. As you do, you realize there’s something on it – probably something in the slime.
Perhaps if you can figure out what it is, you’ll be able to get some idea of what to do.
It’s… A tiny chitinous claw, clamped onto the plank.