MitD XV: The Other Dark One

[Kornaki]

-If MITD sacrifices himself, "He's dead, he's dead, he's dead and out of this world."

If mitd dies and we're still trying to guess what they are, I will be very upset.

[Hardcore]

Google definition is fun in the comic context: a person's inherent qualities of mind and character.
"your sunny disposition has a way of rubbing off on those around you"

[Hardcore]

My vote MitD XVI: Sunny Dispositions

[Edreyn]

When you start a new thread, if you agree, please add what I suggested some time ago - MitD can have more then four legs - it can be six or eight. I said that his form can be insectoid, crab-like or spider-like. It fits the overall shape, moving eyes without turning whole body, and also in this case he can use same limbs for walking and holding things.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

I think I'll cast a vote for MitD XVI: Soup or Slaad and MitD XVI: Going on Protean.

[Crusher]

When you start a new thread, if you agree, please add what I suggested some time ago - MitD can have more then four legs - it can be six or eight. I said that his form can be insectoid, crab-like or spider-like. It fits the overall shape, moving eyes without turning whole body, and also in this case he can use same limbs for walking and holding things.

I think the issue is that no one is saying he can’t be any of those things. There are a few things we’re pretty confident MitD has or does (he has eyes and teeth, he eats and sleeps, etc). and a few things we’re confident he does not have or do (he doesn’t immediately damage or incapacitate people who look at him, he doesn’t take damage from being in sunlight, the Giant says he’s not a creature the Giant himself made up, etc).

But there’s a vast amount of open space between those two areas, and there’s a finite amount of room to list information. The number of things or characteristics the MitD MIGHT have is very large and it’s not really workable to list them all.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I think the issue is that no one is saying he can’t be any of those things. There are a few things we’re pretty confident MitD has or does (he has eyes and teeth, he eats and sleeps, etc). and a few things we’re confident he does not have or do (he doesn’t immediately damage or incapacitate people who look at him, he doesn’t take damage from being in sunlight, the Giant says he’s not a creature the Giant himself made up, etc).

But there’s a vast amount of open space between those two areas, and there’s a finite amount of room to list information. The number of things or characteristics the MitD MIGHT have is very large and it’s not really workable to list them all.

It also makes the entry seriously unreadable, even after much moving around. "Quadruped" is a nice, simple word for the concept that MitD has forward an backwards set of legs. There is no word I know of in English to mean "3+ legs in non-linear configuration such that some are forward and some are backward from the others".

GW

[Timy]

I am not putting any vote but I am not sure I understand any pun with the "sunny disposition" one.

Someone care to explain ? (or there is nothing more than the fact that he is in darkness with sunny disposition ?)

[Fyraltari]

I am not putting any vote but I am not sure I understand any pun with the "sunny disposition" one.

Someone care to explain ? (or there is nothing more than the fact that he is in darkness with sunny disposition ?)

The Monster in the Dark has the same kind of disposition (happy-to-help kid) as Sunny the Behold Eye-Thingie.

[littlebum2002]

I gotta go with Soup or Slaad, thats far too good of a pun to go to waste

[Riftwolf]

Just out of interest, how many mitd threads have risen and fallen since the last canon appearance of the MitD?

[InvisibleBison]

Just out of interest, how many mitd threads have risen and fallen since the last canon appearance of the MitD?

MitD's last appearance was in #1189, published 2 December 2019. Since then, there have been approximately 2.2 threads - all of threads 15 and 14, and roughly 20% of thread 13.

[littlebum2002]

MitD's last appearance was in #1189, published 2 December 2019. Since then, there have been approximately 2.2 threads - all of threads 15 and 14, and roughly 20% of thread 13.

I vote this as title of the next thread

/s

kinda

[Crusher]

The Monster in the Dark has the same kind of disposition (happy-to-help kid) as Sunny the Behold Eye-Thingie.

Behold! A mind flayed! It is displaced bestially by such a guessing game! Like carrion, crawling feebly towards a resolution.

[Doug Lampert]

MitD's last appearance was in #1189, published 2 December 2019. Since then, there have been approximately 2.2 threads - all of threads 15 and 14, and roughly 20% of thread 13.

I vote this as title of the next thread

/s

kinda

It's a bit long, Let's go with:
MitD: Last Appearance during thread 13, Currently on thread 16, who needs relevance?

I'll vote for it.

[Rogan]

My vote MitD XVI: Sunny Dispositions

Another vote from me for this.

And I'd like to suggest
MitD XVI: Monster? What Monster?
As a callback to "Gate? What gate?" AND
A jab at the purpose of the thread AND
A hint that the Creature in the Dark doesn't behave like a monster.

[CountDVB]

I like MitD XVI: Monster? What Monster?.

Sunny Dispositions is good too!

[Darth Paul]

I've finally got around to reading Schlock Mercenary, and even though I don't think carbosilicate amorph is a good fit for MitD, I did find one amazing similarity between them:

Schlock tells the following tale about his backstory:

"So there I was, with what passes for a migraine headache among humans. And amnesia. All I knew was that I was being hunted..."
"... there was this unioc pirate looking for an amorph for his crew. Well, he found me, or I found him. And three worm-jumps later, our ship had a big hole in it, and I was being shipped off to some circus."

Complete with Schlock in a very MitD-looking cage.

The similar notes in their backgrounds (very fuzzy on early life, chased by hunters, ends up in the circus) is interesting, and the strip is from 2001, so it's remotely possible that the character had some influence at least on MitD's backstory as told in OoPCs. Not likely, but remotely possible, at least in my opinion.

This probably isn't strictly relevant evidence, but I found it fascinating nonetheless.

[Carl]

Not remotly a guess but figured i'd share this for how funny i found it when i woke up. Had a weird dream in a nap and was reading an OOTS where MitD gets revealed, starts with just one corner of him than zooms out next strip to reveal one of the mushroom people from Dark Souls 1. Given what utter PitA's they can be it definitely tickled me. Totally not consistent with what he could really be, but hilarious nonetheless.

[b_jonas]

I've read all kinds of speculation about how the MitD is related to Serini, or how we'll meet a monster of the same species as the MitD in Kraagor's tomb. I never saw good arguments to support this. We knew basically nothing about Serini. Sure, she filled the dungeon with “the nastiest monsters in the world, to reflect his belief in the power of physical might”, and the MitD is supposed to be the scariest thing around, with enough physical might. But am I to believe that every powerful monster on the planet is connected to Serini?

Anyway, since Sunny appeared in #1238, more readers started to speculate. Usually it was outside the MitD threads. Now we actually know something about Serini, and have a reason to suspect a connection. It's the final panels of the latest strip #1252 that really make you think. Serini raised Sunny trusting. O-Chul's opinion was that the MitD was too trusting, never questioning if Team Evil was his friends.

I still don't think that the MitD has a connection with Serini, but it's at least a speculation that we should entertain, and it's worth to record here in the MitD thread.

[Ruck]

I've read all kinds of speculation about how the MitD is related to Serini, or how we'll meet a monster of the same species as the MitD in Kraagor's tomb. I never saw good arguments to support this. We knew basically nothing about Serini. Sure, she filled the dungeon with “the nastiest monsters in the world, to reflect his belief in the power of physical might”, and the MitD is supposed to be the scariest thing around, with enough physical might. But am I to believe that every powerful monster on the planet is connected to Serini?

Anyway, since Sunny appeared in #1238, more readers started to speculate. Usually it was outside the MitD threads. Now we actually know something about Serini, and have a reason to suspect a connection. It's the final panels of the latest strip #1252 that really make you think. Serini raised Sunny trusting. O-Chul's opinion was that the MitD was too trusting, never questioning if Team Evil was his friends.

I still don't think that the MitD has a connection with Serini, but it's at least a speculation that we should entertain, and it's worth to record here in the MitD thread.

This is pretty well put-together for the case for it. I'll add that MITD was found in the forest 29 years prior to the start of the main story (Start of Darkness), and the Scribble's quest started 66 years prior to the story; we don't know exactly how long it took, but the context clues we have make it reasonable to think it didn't last decades. MITD tells O-Chul he remembers his father but not his mother; did Serini decide to send him out in the world for some reason, maybe after giving him the amnesia potion? The timeline, at least, lines up such that it is possible.

That said, I also do not think we'll learn of a connection between MITD and Serini. From the broader perspective of the story, I think MITD's reveal will be tied in to a decision he makes to permanently join the good guys; I think that moment would be cheapened if it came as a result of some connection we didn't know from the story, rather than the events of the story leading up to it.

[Jervis]

I don’t know if anyone has pointed this out before but is it possible that MitD is just a linnorm and the reason he can’t cast animate dead is because he has a alignment contradiction? Yeah good aligned is a bit of a stretch for early on but linnorms fit pretty well.

Also not sure if it was published in the right timeframe but sun dragons I know get smaller as they age, would require him to be mega ancient though.

As for my actual guess at this moment, i’m going to say some flavor of psionic giant. Just a small one right now.

[Quebbster]

I don’t know if anyone has pointed this out before but is it possible that MitD is just a linnorm and the reason he can’t cast animate dead is because he has a alignment contradiction? Yeah good aligned is a bit of a stretch for early on but linnorms fit pretty well.

Also not sure if it was published in the right timeframe but sun dragons I know get smaller as they age, would require him to be mega ancient though.

As for my actual guess at this moment, i’m going to say some flavor of psionic giant. Just a small one right now.

The MitD's statement about his father being BIG is a big strike against anything that gets smaller with age.

[Emanick]

I don’t know if anyone has pointed this out before but is it possible that MitD is just a linnorm and the reason he can’t cast animate dead is because he has a alignment contradiction? Yeah good aligned is a bit of a stretch for early on but linnorms fit pretty well.

Also not sure if it was published in the right timeframe but sun dragons I know get smaller as they age, would require him to be mega ancient though.

As for my actual guess at this moment, i’m going to say some flavor of psionic giant. Just a small one right now.

I'm a fan of the linnorm as well and would love to find a way to make it fit the clues, but I don't think I buy this explanation. The reason we think the MitD can't cast Animate Dead is that Redcloak says he can't. If the reason Redcloak thinks he can't cast it is because he's Good-aligned, then it becomes very difficult to understand why Redcloak keeps him around.

[b_jonas]

If the reason Redcloak thinks he can't cast it is because he's Good-aligned, then it becomes very difficult to understand why Redcloak keeps him around.

Redcloak has no reason to care about the MitD's alignment. He's pragmatic enough to use Xykon to further the Plan. If he thinks the MitD is a powerful ally, Redcloak won't ditch him just because of his alignment. Like Roy says in #251, “What kind of stupid class relies on other peoples' behavior to keep its powers, anyway??”

[InvisibleBison]

I don’t know if anyone has pointed this out before but is it possible that MitD is just a linnorm and the reason he can’t cast animate dead is because he has a alignment contradiction?

Only divine casters are blocked from casting spells that contradict their alignment, and linnorms cast as sorcerers.

[b_jonas]

Only divine casters are blocked from casting spells that contradict their alignment, and linnorms cast as sorcerers.

More importantly, Redcloak specifically says “Really? So I guess those three boxes of mallomars you finished off somehow earned you enough XP to gain 5 levels in cleric overnight?”. It doesn't sound like Redcloak thinks that the MitD can cast clerical spells but is the wrong alignment for animating undead.

Update: ok, now I wonder about something. A Helm of Opposite Alignment costs only 4000 GP. If Team Evil met a potentially useful ally who is very powerful but happens to be the wrong alignment, they could afford to buy one and put it on the head of the potential ally. And since the MitD is in the darkness, we wouldn't even see the helm.

[Jervis]

Only divine casters are blocked from casting spells that contradict their alignment, and linnorms cast as sorcerers.

There are two kinds of Linnorms. One that cast as level 21 sorcerers (the two headed kind) and one that cast as level 18 clerics (the one headed kind). I know way too much about Linnorms being I once got one as a mount with a level 14 Zhentarim sky mage. That was fun.

As a side note was tome of magic out around chapter 100? A true naming monster would be hilarious but I think those came out after the monsters species was locked in

[3Power]

The reason we think the MitD can't cast Animate Dead is that Redcloak says he can't.

More specifically, Redcloak is skeptical of the idea that MitD can cast Animate Dead. Mitd claiming he can help animate the zombies could easily be a Cassandra truth.

[Jervis]

More specifically, Redcloak is skeptical of the idea that MitD can cast Animate Dead. Mitd claiming he can help animate the zombies could easily be a Cassandra truth.

That is a good point. It’s entirely possible that RC knows what he is but somehow skimmed the whole cast as 18th level cleric thing on a Linnorm. If you take dragon magazine content as something that matters all dragons can apply Still Spell and Silent Spell to their magic for free even if they don’t have the feats. So Earthquake and Miracle with no verbal components anyone? Linnorms even have some descriptive text for sending people through walls. Honestly the more I think about it the more I come around to being a Linnorm believer. I think I’ll probably be in that camp until some new evidence shows up or until I find a 1E monster with -1 charisma that fits his stats and has a 3.5 conversion.