MitD XIX: The Potted Plant Is Starting To Look Reasonable

[mashlagoo1982]

Nobody else seems interested... so below are what I see as the pros and cons for Turaglas (aka the Ebon Maw).

Please feel free to critique.

Important Links:
Turaglas_(Turagathshnee_Form)
Turaglas_(True_Form)

Turagathshnee

My current thought is that if MitD is Turaglas, it mostly stays in its Turagathshnee Form. This could either by choice or because it cannot access its True Form fully. For this theory to qualify, Turaglas would need to have access to the strength of its True Form.

Pros:
In its True Form, Turaglas has sufficient STR (44) to meet the strength requirement. There are cons to this that will be covered later.

In either form, Turaglas has high AC (36 or 42) and impressive DR (15/epic and good)

In either form, Turaglas has access to Greater Teleport

In its Turagathshnee Form, Turaglas would resemble a 18ft tall, disproportionally gangly humanoid. It would have an elongated head with a single gaping maw filled with rows of long, razor sharp, fangs. Its skin is mottled grey and both hands and toes are tipped with long talons. There are cons that will be covered later.
In its True Form, Turaglas resembles a gigantic gibbering mouther. There are cons that will be covered later. Both forms are very fantastic to behold.

The original publish date of this creature is October 2003.

Turaglas is vulnerable to mind-affecting effects.

Both forms have high SR.

Both forms have Swallow Whole.

Both forms can regurgitate creatures as a free action once the target reaches 0 hp via Warp Flesh (Su).

Neither form has access to undead creation (please double check the SLAs for me... I don't think any do).

Turaglas has no listed spoken language but can cast tongues (self only).

Turaglas can be easily confused for a regular Turagathshnee. There are cons that will be covered later.

Generic Turagathshnee would not be expected to speak anything let alone common.

Turagathshnee are very rare and powerful in their own right.

Turaglas can and will eat anything.

Inexorable Maw ignores up to 40 points of hardness when biting objects. There are cons that will be covered later.

Turaglas is very powerful and could probably win in a fight against Red Cloak with no issues.

Any version would be out of place in a jungle.


Cons:
In its Turagathshnee Form, Turaglas does not have sufficient STR (28) to meet the strength requirements. There maybe an explanation for this shortcoming that will be discussed later.

In both forms, Turaglas has no eyes. There maybe an explanation for this shortcoming that will be discussed later.

No ability like stench to trigger crowd in circus scene. Are either form horrifying enough? They are to me, but your milage may vary.

Turaglas should not be confused for a regular Turagathshnee because it is over twice the size of a regular one. There maybe an explanation for this shortcoming that will be discussed later.

If Turaglas did swallow Red Cloak whole, would it be able to spit out Xykon's phylactery before the item is destroyed?

The lore may not fit very well. Is the Abyss considered the "parent" of Turaglas? A war was fought between Turaglas(+followers) and Orcus + Demogorgon(+followers). Turaglas lost and is/was trapped, sleeping in a void prison between worlds. This happened thousands upon thousands of years ago. In the interim, both Orcus and Demogorgon had all known records of Turaglas destroyed. Would Rich be willing to work this into OotS universe?

One method of summoning only allows Turaglas into the material plane in Turagathshnee Form and only for a very short duration. Fluff states that summoning method only last minutes. Far longer than MitD has been present. Potential explanation is below.

Has no answer for the stomp scene.

Is a named demon prince... to powerful or inappropriate for setting?



Potential Explanations:
The remaining followers of Turaglas are trying to restore it to power according to lore. Maybe Turaglas is being granted some access to this power and thus is getting access to True Form STR (44). It could also be that Turaglas just prefers to be in its Turagathshnee Form and accidentally let some of its true power out from its True Form when it struck at Miko. This is assuming Turaglas does have access to its True Form already.

In both forms, Turaglas has access to See Invisibility which it is stated to constantly be casting upon itself. The spell calls out vision and seeing. So, it would not be a leap to somehow provide eyes for a create with none. This could also just be art style argument as presented in Protean.

Because all records of Turaglas were destroyed, it is unreasonable to assume most people (the hunters) would expect Turaglas to be anything except a unusually large Turagathshnee (pony/warhorse argument proposed in previous thread).

The duration a summon can last is clearly fluff. It is left up to DM interpretation. No spell is provided to lock down how it should work. It would not be impossible for a story reason to exist that would allow Turaglas to remain summoned for a longer duration. Additionally, the comic provides at least one example of a summon clearing breaking the rules for story purposes (Celia summon trying to recover Roy).


Further Thoughts:
Turaglas being confused for a regular Turagathshnee fits with Red Cloak's statement of knowing what/who it truly is. It would be considered hidden lore that only an individual with extensive (or access to) knowledge of obscure details would know.

It may also make sense that for O-Chul to have knowledge about Turaglas and make the statements regarding the identity. O-Chul would probably have access to knowledge about the more powerful forces that would potentially oppose the Sapphire Guard. Also, who would really believe MitD is Turaglas? So O-Chul making the statement regarding others disbelief would fit with this logic.

Could Dark Speech feat account for the Stop scene we see with Haley and Belkar? Could another SLA account for the scene instead, like Fear? I believe Fear would assume both Haley and Belkar made their Will save and are shaken for 1 round.

Could overrun account for the tower scene? This seems to be one of the only attack like actions Turaglas could perform that would not deal any direct hp damage (hit the lightest game). If so, it would increase the STR to 32 instead of 28. If overrun would work, it would mean Turaglas would fit all criteria in its Turagathshnee Form.

The original magazine source also lists Improved Bull Rush as a feat Turaglas possesses in its Turagathshnee Form. Interestingly the linked stat block above does not reflect this feat. I don't think this really helps improve its standing with the tower scene. Other people probably know better than me, so it is noted here.

Many epic level named monsters were reviewed. Most had something that disqualified them like causing insanity or constantly dripping acid that pools at their feet or speaking common. Turaglas does not seem to outright have a specific quality that disqualifies it like the other candidates.

While Turaglas is stated to be imprisoned, it has clear stats and was obviously intended to interact with PC characters should they reach appropriate levels. Basically, if it was never intended to escape it's prison, why stat it out?


Grey_Wolf, please link this to whatever category Turaglas falls into.
IDC if it is Proposed Ideas or FBS, I just do not want the analysis lost.

For people that want to review the information themselves, there are free PDF sources online where it can be previewed. It's Dragon Magazine v312 pg67-75