RPG Menagerie: Black Pudding

There is such a thing in D&D as an "ooze" family of creatures, no doubt because words like "ooze" and "slime", while basically meaning the same thing, are fun, icky words to slap onto a monster. But also because their appearance as liquid or fluid makes them living traps for unwary delvers. So there are many, with a wide variety of colors and levels of viscosity. The "black pudding", though?

Monster: Black Pudding
Game/Product: AD&D/Monster Manual (1st ed.)

Writing: Gary Gygax. Art: David A. Trampier
Origin: The name is taken from a dark type of blood sausage - delicious, actually - whose connection to blood probably inspired a monstrous form. Not that Black Pudding looks like sausages. It is perhaps more like American chocolate putting, a thick fluid that, to be dangerous, has the properties of glue and acid. They're essentially the Blob in earthen colors.
Fear Level: Fairly high. First, it's a bit of a surprise, as you'd usually stumble into one in the dark. Second, though it's not intelligent and normally a scavenger, its digestive juices' effect on equipment could be scary. You're likely in a cave somewhere, far from merchants who could help you replace it.
Danger Level: Medium. It's tough, and it's meant to hose the party, destroy armor and weapons, etc., but a forewarned party could avoid disturbing it.
Famous examples: There are stories of Elder Black Puddings that grow a near-indestructible crust over their giant bodies; one lives in the Noxious Chasm. In other media, Star Trek's Horta might be considered a sentient black pudding.
I wonder if: It would be more disturbing if it crawled along in sausage form.