Evidence why The Mitd is obviously gonna..........

[Lkctgo]

Isn't it really likely to be a Marut (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/inevitable.htm)?

The Marut fits in many ways:

1. Maruts confront those who would try to deny the grave itself.

Any who use unnatural means to extend their life span could be targeted by a marut. Those who take extraordinary measures to cheat death in some other way might be labeled transgressors as well.

Now imagine if Rich wouldn't think it was ironic to place a Marut under lich Xykon's Command?

2. It has a High CR of >15. (which at the first time the order met Xykon would be about 4levels higher? Maybe it's even an advanced Marut? )

3. It has a damage reduction 15/chaotic weapons. Which is why Belkar could do just about tosh to him (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0477.html), while we are at it, what about Miko (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0374.html)?

4. It's has the left fist of sonic, which can explain how it could do sonic damage while screaming stop. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0475.html)

5. It can use Earthquake, same as the Mitd using it here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0477.html).

6. It can use Plane shift, which explains how it teleported Old Chul and V away (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0661.html).

7. It's dad was big, way bigger than the Mitd (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0651.html), A baby Marut is 16-28 HD (Large); while an advanced(daddy) Marut would be 29-45 HD (Huge).

8. Marut's have low light vision, which explains how it can see in that stupid umbrella.

9. Marut's have a high charisma, which can explain why it can keep attracting those rodent cockroaches and maybe how it was able to turn Old Chul's attitude to friendly.

10. Marut's have a strength score of 35. Which will totally explain why it could do this. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0374.html)

11. Lastly, It's alignment is Lawful Neutral, Which explains why the Mitd would be able to decide it's own fate, as said by Old Chul.

Rich always said that the Mitd was a very familiar creature in dnd and that everyone would know it when they saw it, it fits.

Except for:

1. It is an inevitable after all, no father/mother to speak off.

2. It doesn't need to eat, but it can still eat if needed.

Could anyone think around this?

What does everyone else think?

[Shale]

The MitD has at least one parent, and eats. Inevitables are mechanical constructs that would do neither. Maruts in particular have a +12 Sense Motive check, while the MitD's would be lucky to get out of double-digit negatives. Maruts are categorically single-minded, MitD has epic-level ADD.

So, I don't think so, no.

[Lkctgo]

The MitD has at least one parent, and eats. Inevitables are mechanical constructs that would do neither. Maruts in particular have a +12 Sense Motive check, while the MitD's would be lucky to get out of double-digit negatives. Maruts are categorically single-minded, MitD has epic-level ADD.

So, I don't think so, no.

Which makes it so much more ironic if it was. But on a serious note, anyone know a way around it?

[Magnor Criol]

Gonna have to agree with Shale here. You have some good points but the things that MitD does that Inevitables don't do are pretty conclusive proof that it's not a construct, in my opinion.

Though it would fit the Giant's sense of twisty coincidences nicely. =p

[Tass]

And an int score of 12? Doesn't sound like good ol' MitD.

[David Argall]

Let's not forget that 17 wis for that matter.

However our prime hint seems to say that MitD is not a D&D-only monster. It might be some sort of weird dinosaur or movie monster that has D&D stats as well, but it seems it is something that our non-D&D player has at least a chance of recognizing.

[Croverus]

Maybe he's a super Jawa!

Just saying... it'd explain the eyes...


I'll go to my corner now...:smallfrown:

[daggaz]

Huh... gotta say except for those few points, thats the best damn fit ive seen put forward so far. Suppose Rich could just write his way around them, he already states he only follows the rules when they are good for the comic, not the other way around. So maybe maruts are living creatures in Ootsverse, and as children, have very low int and wis scores? Would be an easy fix to the only things that really stick out too much.

[Kish]

Plane Shift (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/planeShift.htm) in D&D takes you to another plane.
Plane Shift as it's been presented in OotS to date takes you to another plane. It also has a touch range. It doesn't explain the creature in the darkness making O-Chul (not "Old Chul," huh?) and Vaarsuvius disappear at range and appear somewhere else on the same plane. Plane Shift isn't a match, it's a "can stretch to fit by ignoring details." CR 15 is way low for the creature in the darkness at any point in the story. I don't know what shouting would have to do with the creature's left fist. "Should kill liches on sight" is something I have a real hard time imagining why someone would use as evidence for rather than against. And finally.


Rich always said that the Mitd was a very familiar creature in dnd and that everyone would know it when they saw it, it fits.

He. Never. Said. That. Perhaps the person who writes Old Chul did about another creature?

Verdict: I want the tarrasque theory back. (And no, I still think that one's silly too.)

[Forbiddenwar]

People also seem to forget the MITD special ability to generate seperate forum threads regarding its species, even though the only allowed, by forum rules, thread is still on the first page.

Regarding what Rich said: It is possible to guess. It is not something he just made up for the strip. That is all.

[Watcher]

There's already a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114313) for this.

[Zevox]

...oh Great Cthulu this one is bad. Well, here we go:


1. Maruts confront those who would try to deny the grave itself.

Any who use unnatural means to extend their life span could be targeted by a marut. Those who take extraordinary measures to cheat death in some other way might be labeled transgressors as well.

Now imagine if Rich wouldn't think it was ironic to place a Marut under lich Xykon's Command?
Ironic it would be I suppose, but it would require a hell of a lot of explaining. MitD acts nothing like a Marut, and the most blatant problem of all is the one you point out here. Maruts exist to track down and punish those who try to avoid death. If MitD were a Marut, he would have long since attacked Xykon, and perhaps Redcloak as well, because that's what Maruts do.

And it would be highly unlikely he would be in a jungle as we see in SoD. And it would not have been surprising for him to be capable of speech. And those hunters who captured him would be pretty unlikely to recognize what he was. And he would not be such an ignorant buffon (as others noted, int 12, wis 17 - MitD might have a decent score in one of those, but certainly not both, and highly unlikely something as high as that 17 in wisdom). And that's just the start of it all.



6. It can use Plane shift, which explains how it teleported Old Chul and V away (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0661.html).
As Kish noted, Plane Shift does not work like that. It sends the target to another plane, not another location on their current plane. That was quite clearly a teleportation effect.

Best guess as to what that was that I have heard is Wish. It doesn't require him to touch the targets, like all the basic translocation magic does, and would explain why it took effect just from him yelling at O-Chul and V that they had to escape.


7. It's dad was big, way bigger than the Mitd (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0651.html), A baby Marut is 16-28 HD (Large); while an advanced(daddy) Marut would be 29-45 HD (Huge).
No. No, no, a thousand times no. Maruts are constructs, and an extraplanar beings to boot. There is no such thing as a baby Marut. There is no such things as a baby construct of any sort, nor is there any such thing as a baby of most types of extraplanar being (they spring fully formed from their plane of origin in most cases). Those kinds of creatures just don't work that way.

Nor do advanced HD creatures work like that - the basic versions are full adults (for those that have children/adults), and advanced versions are simply more powerful adults of their kind, adults that have become tougher with experience.


9. Marut's have a high charisma, which can explain why it can keep attracting those rodent cockroaches and maybe how it was able to turn Old Chul's attitude to friendly.
...MitD does not attract the roaches. They follow Xykon around, and initially began following the group before they acquired MitD (see SoD). Nor did he "turn O-Chul's attitude to friendly" (seriously, "Old Chul?" Where did you get that?). The two had no reason to be antagonistic to each other to begin with. MitD is child-like and innocent, and O-Chul is not an idiot who would simply write him off as evil just because he's with Xykon. If anything, O-Chul befriended MitD, not the other way around.


11. Lastly, It's alignment is Lawful Neutral, Which explains why the Mitd would be able to decide it's own fate, as said by Old Chul.
Okay, no matter how I think about this, it makes no sense. How on earth do you think that being Lawful Neutral in any way allows it to "decide it's own fate?" The alignment itself sure as hell has nothing to do with that. Quite the contrary, Lawful Neutral characters would be more likely to believe in a pre-determined fate that they cannot change than that they can decide their own fate. Deciding one's own fate is more a chaotic thing, not a lawful one.

And actually, being a Marut would give MitD a pre-determined fate. Maruts exist for exactly one purpose: hunt down those who extend their lifespans unnaturally. That is their "fate," that is all there is to them. Most likely they don't even have true individual personalities - they are constructs, after all.

So, yeah, pretty ridiculous theory when you think about it.

Zevox

[Acero]

no. those things are lawful. MitD ain't

[Raging Gene Ray]

1. Maruts confront those who would try to deny the grave itself.

Any who use unnatural means to extend their life span could be targeted by a marut. Those who take extraordinary measures to cheat death in some other way might be labeled transgressors as well.

Now imagine if Rich wouldn't think it was ironic to place a Marut under lich Xykon's Command?

It wouldn't make sense. Marut's don't learn to attack those that extend their lives from their families. They don't even have families like Zevox said. They're manufactured in Mechanus with that mission fully formed in their minds.

If the MitD were a Marut, he would have either killed or been destroyed by Xykon before he could even get put in the darkness.

[Thanatosia]

Have you read Start of Darkness? Because there are some major hints there to the MitD's identity that do not jive with Maruts, namely:
The MitD is very very very Ugly. Not just unattractive, but revolting to look upon. People vomit just looking at it. Xykon's first words upon seeing it is 'Whoa! You sure are one ugly sumbitch, aren't you?' I realy dont see Maruts falling into that level of ugly.

[Nimrod's Son]

Marut's have a high charisma, which can explain why it can keep attracting those rodent cockroaches and maybe how it was able to turn Old Chul's attitude to friendly.
Old Chul? Rodent cockroaches? Has the room you're typing in just been painted or something?

[the_tick_rules]

If it's a Marut it's obviously defective.