MITD Sweet XVI and Never Been Guessed

[3Power]

While the Monster in the Darkness could just be getting older, maybe it's the Bugbears using Goodberries in their stew? Would explain why he would be feeling not hungry anymore

That would be one heck of a herring, but I like the idea.

There are things that can Wish or Reality Revise as a SPELL- a lich, a demilich, and your more classable and humanoid psionic or sorcerous creatures: Githyanki, Illithids, some epic-level Maenad.

Also creatures with inherent spellcasting as a sorcerer or cleric, such as ha-nagas or angels.

Heavies who seem MiTD like in many ways but lack the magical skillsets
Creatures with all the power checkboxes but who are either way too big or don't have the right number of eyes and limbs
Creatures of the right size and power but who don't fit with MiTD's unique personality

I do not think there is a creature that fits neatly. So we're left considering ways in which you might fudge the gaps in this list- can we give a protean two eyes and a mouth? Can we shrink down an amethyst dragon? Can we stack a couple templates on a Hollyphant? Can we fudge the teleport rules enough to get O-Chul where he needs to go with a level 4 spell?

I think people are too married to the initial presentation of the MitD as a threat. We are introduced (off camera) to what is portrayed as physical prowess when he "hits" Miko, and are then subsequently shown MitD lightly tapping the ground and creating an earthquake, which can easily track as physical strength. Then the escape happens, and happens in a way which strongly implies Wish, and the concept is turned on its head, because now we are left with a creature who is not only supremely strong, but supremely magical, a venn diagram for which there are little to no overlapping creatures. However, if you then go back and look at the tower and earthquake scene with the mindset that there is a magical explanation for both, such as the telekinetic thrust mode of telekinesis and earthquake, then I think there are more satisfying solution. However, as I said, people seem married to the initial strength based explanation and would rather downplay the scale of the magic used in the escape scene to allow for a very physically strong creature to be the candidate, rather than consider that the creature used magic to perform those feats.

On a related note, I decided to look up discussions on "what happens if a dimensionally anchored creature tries to teleport someone else," and the consensus on RAW seems to be that because the spell "brings people along," if the caster doesn't go, nobody goes.

... unless he expends half his actions NOT changing. Because, say, he is trying to fit in with his friends, none of which constantly change. Which would be seen by those around him unaware of the effort it requires as laziness, since it takes him twice as much time to get anything done as it would for anyone else.

All of which has been stated before, in this thread, in response to this very assertion, without ever being contested.

It's been contested, both because it loses in occams razor to him actually having those eyes without having to do anything to maintain them, even when asleep, and that maintaining the same form constantly goes against their fluff.

The protean is specifically mentioned as:
"Always appearing in flux"
"Rarely does any attribute last for more than a minute"
"Even newborns are tides of flesh, ever changing."
"Imbued with hatred for all non-shapechanging beings"
"Looking down at even other shapechangers for staying in the same form for hours"
"Constantly traveling, looking for other creatures to duplicate and abilities to assume, often killing them afterwards."

I don't know how anyone can read that passage and come to the conclusion that it describes a creature who "always wants to stay the same to make friends with non-shapechangers and is too lazy to not use an action to not transform."

Conservation of Detail is overrated.

Context?

[Peelee]

Context?

I conveniently made sure to include the post ID so you can click the button in the quote block to be directed to the full post.

[Squire Doodad]

I think people are too married to the initial presentation of the MitD as a threat. We are introduced (off camera) to what is portrayed as physical prowess when he "hits" Miko, and are then subsequently shown MitD lightly tapping the ground and creating an earthquake, which can easily track as physical strength. Then the escape happens, and happens in a way which strongly implies Wish, and the concept is turned on its head, because now we are left with a creature who is not only supremely strong, but supremely magical, a venn diagram for which there are little to no overlapping creatures. However, if you then go back and look at the tower and earthquake scene with the mindset that there is a magical explanation for both, such as the telekinetic thrust mode of telekinesis and earthquake, then I think there are more satisfying solution. However, as I said, people seem married to the initial strength based explanation and would rather downplay the scale of the magic used in the escape scene to allow for a very physically strong creature to be the candidate, rather than consider that the creature used magic to perform those feats.

I believe we've had this discuss before; the only appropriate means of magically doing the Tower Scene that we've found are far too weak or have other prerequisites that screw with the plausibility. And even saying "well what if he goes full throttle by mistake" won't work if the limit is too weak, and performing an entirely different, high-powered option makes as much sense for a telekinetic creature as the "headbutting an egg" analogy.
Things like magic EQ exist and are noted as beneficial when they come up, but despite our best attempts we just haven't found much with a magical solution within the constraints of the big scenes.

I think either something where their telekinesis has special fluff about being wildly unpredictable when young, or especially if a Critical Failure/Success causes a different effect than normal, would be satisfactory. Not to mention something that simply has an absurd custom weight limit on its telekinetic powers. But, either way, nothing that meaningfully achieves this has been found.

[3Power]

I believe we've had this discuss before; the only appropriate means of magically doing the Tower Scene that we've found are far too weak or have other prerequisites that screw with the plausibility. And even saying "well what if he goes full throttle by mistake" won't work if the limit is too weak, and performing an entirely different, high-powered option makes as much sense for a telekinetic creature as the "headbutting an egg" analogy.
Things like magic EQ exist and are noted as beneficial when they come up, but despite our best attempts we just haven't found much with a magical solution within the constraints of the big scenes.

I think either something where their telekinesis has special fluff about being wildly unpredictable when young, or especially if a Critical Failure/Success causes a different effect than normal, would be satisfactory. Not to mention something that simply has an absurd custom weight limit on its telekinetic powers. But, either way, nothing that meaningfully achieves this has been found.

Any discussion about what is too strong or too weak for the tower scene is subjective.

The question is "is there a method by which someone could magically launch a creature at high speed?"

The answer is "yes."

[Squire Doodad]

Any discussion about what is too strong or too weak for the tower scene is subjective.

The question is "is there a method by which someone could magically launch a creature at high speed?"

The answer is "yes."

You can say that, but when the weight limit isn't enough to lift an armored person without even considering chucking them through a wall, it becomes a major nonstarter no matter how much subjectivity you put in.

[3Power]

You can say that, but when the weight limit isn't enough to lift an armored person without even considering chucking them through a wall, it becomes a major nonstarter no matter how much subjectivity you put in.

First of all, armored humans are easily under 375 pounds. The problem was the horse.
Second, I doubt the Giant cares about weight limits.

[Darth Paul]

On one hand, this is most likely a variation of the "MitD eats to fill the loneliness, but now he has more important things to do than eat" argument - but I wouldn't be surprised if MitD's species has an obscure growth spurt fluff somewhere that he's on the verge of.

This is an angle I hadn't thought of, put it down to fatigue (I had just got out of physical therapy). I tend to agree with this, or the possibility that he has actually finished growing to Adult size. Or both.

... Which would be seen by those around him unaware of the effort it requires as laziness, since it takes him twice as much time to get anything done as it would for anyone else.

Grey Wolf

Waddya know, that's exactly the reason I'm doing physical therapy!

[Ruck]

I what I do expect is that his reveal will be pretty epic and will serve the story and not some sourcebook.

Indeed, "the reveal is a crucial part of the story."

And I don't think "crucial" means that we the readers finally know what he is; I think it's going to be a pivotal scene to the climax in some way.

[Schroeswald]

If we’re expecting the MiTD’s species to be easily recognizable to an average OOTS reader its the slaad and we can call it a day because they remain the only remotely iconic monster that’s a good fit.

[Shining Wrath]

Ruck just made me think of something - can you teleport to an occupied space? The 3.5 spell description doesn't actually say "No", so I guess it's possible. I think they fixed that for 5e.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Ruck just made me think of something - can you teleport to an occupied space?

I believe that'd fall under the % chance of "mishap" (where you take a bit of damage, and roll again)?

GW

[Crusher]

... unless he expends half his actions NOT changing. Because, say, he is trying to fit in with his friends, none of which constantly change. Which would be seen by those around him unaware of the effort it requires as laziness, since it takes him twice as much time to get anything done as it would for anyone else.

All of which has been stated before, in this thread, in response to this very assertion, without ever being contested.

Grey Wolf

I don’t entirely disagree, but didn’t he consistently have two yellow eyes when caught by the SBGHs? Who was he fitting in with then?

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I don’t entirely disagree, but didn’t he consistently have two yellow eyes when caught by the SBGHs? Who was he fitting in with then?

Whomever he was trying to become friends with pre-SBGH post-parental abandonment. He was never antagonistic - it's why he tried to politely request to be let go instead of just tapping the SBGH's box and being on his way. He has always tried to fit in, and even in the jungle, almost everything around him would have had the fairly standard binocular vision setup.

As to "consistently", we have no idea. The scene starts practically in media res. For all we can tell, he had just deluded himself into thinking he had made friends with a tiger. But maybe the day before he had thought himself friends with some four-eyed D&D jungle creature, and he had four eyes for a few hours.

GW

[Eric the White]

It's not the same, no, but given how the author has said its overrated, making theories based on it seems like a poor basis to use.

Again, notwithstanding that I disagreed with the premise that it was meaningless if not related to biological change to start with.

That's a very fair point, I just don't really see this a heel-face turn. The MitD has always been childlike and good. He remains so now. Where he is developing is in realizing that not all people that claim to be your friends actually have your best interests and wellbeing at heart. That's been shown much better through his actions in helping in the escape and by painting the doors.

I don't think that his lack of hunger stems from the fact that he no longer feels lonely as some have suggested. My personal thought (based on my choice of Barghest) is that the bug bear cook figures he must need humanoid food and has been putting it in the stew. Consequently he's getting ready to become a greater Barghest.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

The MitD has always been childlike and good.

MitD heartily joined on the evil laugh after hearing Xykon's plans, and has until now had no issues with eating sentient creatures as long as they were not babies (and explicitly, the babies compunction applied to all creatures, sentient and non-sentient alike).

He was perfectly fine with evil actions until he started talking to O-Chul.

GW

[Taelas]

Ruck just made me think of something - can you teleport to an occupied space? The 3.5 spell description doesn't actually say "No", so I guess it's possible. I think they fixed that for 5e.

That's covered under Conjuration: "A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it."

Come to think of it, that's another point against the Escape scene being teleportation of some kind, as they appeared mid-air above Hinjo (though not a solid one, as V has teleported while flying—though that was using epic teleport).

[Chris Mass]

Hi all. Long time lurker who always follows this thread with interest. Just had a random thought occur and wanted to throw it out there in case it's remotely helpful.

Saw some talk up thread that the thing about MitD eating Dwarfs being some sort of oblique reference to Red Dwarf. Someone else posted about the Polymorph episode, but I sincerely doubt there's anything much there.

However, as I'm sure many of you know, a ton of D&D monsters originated in the Fiend Factory articles in *White* Dwarf.

Seems a lot more plausible if this is some sort of clue, that it's pointing towards a monster that first showed up there. I know many things made it into the original Fiend Folio back in the day and are well known D&D creatures even now, but presumably a lot of stuff didn't.

Not sure if this is old news and somebody has combed over an archive of those old articles for candidates long ago, but figured I'd give it a mention. Apologies if this is redundant

[Ruck]

I don’t entirely disagree, but didn’t he consistently have two yellow eyes when caught by the SBGHs? Who was he fitting in with then?

Whomever he was trying to become friends with pre-SBGH post-parental abandonment. He was never antagonistic - it's why he tried to politely request to be let go instead of just tapping the SBGH's box and being on his way. He has always tried to fit in, and even in the jungle, almost everything around him would have had the fairly standard binocular vision setup.

As to "consistently", we have no idea. The scene starts practically in media res. For all we can tell, he had just deluded himself into thinking he had made friends with a tiger. But maybe the day before he had thought himself friends with some four-eyed D&D jungle creature, and he had four eyes for a few hours.

GW

Somewhat related, if you don't really like the "he's maintaining a face to fit in" idea, idea, I found a post by Peelee in an old thread that offers another explanation without resorting to that:

You may call "he always has two eyes when the camera is on him" cheating. But in a world that literally runs off dramatic convention, where a one-in-a-million chance that an imp summoning help will get him a massive, super-powerful demon, where a warlord is able to conquer an entire continent based solely on his grasp of the narrative, I would say that it is perfectly in line with how the rest of the world works.

I do not think the MitD is taking standard actions to have his eyes be in their positions constantly. I think that in one shot, he has two eyes by each other in the same mass, in another shot he has one eye in the same place and another on a tall eyestalk with a low base, in another shot a tentacle with an eye on it and an eye on the top of his low head and another in the back but we don't see it because we only see the front, every time with the eyes positioned so that it appears they are in the same position, and more or fewer or displaced eyes off-camera, because the fact that he is kept as a surprise means the universe itself will work with that fact. Because that's how this universe explicitly works. If you tell another character a plan on-camera, the plan will not work regardless of how good it is, because that's how the universe. If an ever-shifting monster is kept as a surprise, the eyes will not spoil the surprise, because that's how the universe works. Or, if you prefer, the odds of us only ever seeing MitD's ever-shifting eyes always in the same position and same count are one in a million - or, in other words, a sure thing.

Because that's how this universe works.

(In fact, I might need to edit my essay to include a link to this.)

Or, another way to see it is, we don't really know what is going on in the darkness. Maybe there are a bunch of other occasionally forming eyes we don't see. Maybe what is actually different eyes moving around and sprouting from different places we just end up only looking at MitD when they're both in that standard position. Or heck, maybe the magical (I think?) darkness purposely makes MitD appear that way outwardly because Xykon and Redcloak don't want to have to look at a bunch of moving eyeballs.

[DavidBV]

A rambling unrelated to the last strip.

Since I failed in finding a D&D creature that matches the given clues to my entire satisfaction, and since I feel the same about candidates proposed, I was looking into greek mythology. MitD could be linked to the disappeared Eastern Pantheon... and maybe even be a descendant of Typhoon, called the "Father of all Monsters", and son of Zeus himself. Typhoon was the father of the Medusa, the Lion of Nemea, the Sphynx, Cerberus, the Chimera... all his offspring seems to be a monstruous celebrity.

The appeal I find in this idea is that plot-wise, this could make the MitD part of the "solution", as a remnant of the pantheon's color. The only "small problem" I have is... I haven't found yet any good match :P but I keep searching. Maaybe someone with better knowledge of greek mythology has already discarded this path, but at least I am learning fun stuff...

[Jervis]

A rambling unrelated to the last strip.

Since I failed in finding a D&D creature that matches the given clues to my entire satisfaction, and since I feel the same about candidates proposed, I was looking into greek mythology. MitD could be linked to the disappeared Eastern Pantheon... and maybe even be a descendant of Typhoon, called the "Father of all Monsters", and son of Zeus himself. Typhoon was the father of the Medusa, the Lion of Nemea, the Sphynx, Cerberus, the Chimera... all his offspring seems to be a monstruous celebrity.

The appeal I find in this idea is that plot-wise, this could make the MitD part of the "solution", as a remnant of the pantheon's color. The only "small problem" I have is... I haven't found yet any good match :P but I keep searching. Maaybe someone with better knowledge of greek mythology has already discarded this path, but at least I am learning fun stuff...

Only issue is that the Greek pantheon died off worlds ago so you would need MitD’s family to have either survived all that for a million worlds or he would have to come from the snarl world. And as far as we know nothing would have been able to cross over. The flashback that told us about the snarl mentioned that it attacked someone from a rift but i’m not sure something could cross over then. He would also be the son of a god which in dnd terms makes him divine rank 0, which gives him mind effecting immunity.

That aside, I do like the idea thematically though it would make the task of making peace with the dark one somewhat redundant. Some kind of son of Zeus might be neat but there aren’t a lot of monsters directly related to him that fit the bill. If it wasn’t for divine ranking making him immune to mind effecting I’d say any kid of Zeus might fit the bill.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

thematically

Thematically, I think that the chances of the plot being resolved by the sudden re-emergence of the green divine quiddity, therefore sidelining the need to collaborate with RC and DO to be rather small.

Also, originally RL greek monsters do not require green quiddity to be formed - we have seen a medusa in the comic. And without the gods to pray to, even if somehow a green quiddity creature had survived (making it in fact the most real thing in the universe together with the snarl, since both would be 4-colour creatures) would still not help because what they need is green spellcasting, not just the creature itself.

---

In thread news, I was fixing a couple of typos in the OP (thank you, VanFanel!) and I went ahead and sketched the latest clue into 2a: diet. It is probably too early for it, but I can always edit it later if it turns out to lead somewhere.

GW

[Jervis]

Thematically, I think that the chances of the plot being resolved by the sudden re-emergence of the green divine quiddity, therefore sidelining the need to collaborate with RC and DO to be rather small.

Also, originally RL greek monsters do not require green quiddity to be formed - we have seen a medusa in the comic. And without the gods to pray to, even if somehow a green quiddity creature had survived (making it in fact the most real thing in the universe together iwth the snarl, since both would be 4-colour creatures) would still not help because what they need is green spellcasting, not just the creature itself.

To me it all comes down to redcloak. He’s all about the sunk cost fallacy. From his perspective he’s gone to far to turn back now and he won’t do anything to go against his game plan. How in character would it be for him to be so wrapped up in his autoterminal sunk cost thinking that he burns up the dark one and goblin kind as a whole’s chance to get in good with the other gods because of it? My opinion is very. We’re all assuming a character arc that ends with him seeing the error of his ways but to me he’s going very far in the other direction. Especially after Tarquin showed us that thinking with narrative structure isn’t always the answer. That doesn’t mean that dark one and goblins in general need to keep getting the short end of the stick, but I don’t see redcloak being the answer here.

Juxtapose that with MitD, who’s character development has been going toward being helpful to the heroes in the end. I could totally see him being willing to help while redcloak is trying to hold the world ransom and negotiate. As a result he finds his bargaining power evaporate into nothingness and and we get some kinda lesson about hubris while the conclusion is going down.

There’s also the question of if the snarl rift spot welding will even happen. The world inside the snarl is almost certainly a four color world that formed from the snarl. We’ll probably still need four colors for something but I can’t be sure what.

[Darth Paul]

There’s also the question of if the snarl rift spot welding will even happen. The world inside the snarl is almost certainly a four color world that formed from the snarl. We’ll probably still need four colors for something but I can’t be sure what.

It's hard for me to imagine, after all the pages spent on it, Thor's plan coming to nothing- but I've very often been wrong before. But it almost certainly won't happen exactly as planned, either.

If the Snarl is intelligent, and aware of the world inside, could its lashing out be a primal attempt to protect that world? Instead of a villianous Macguffin, might it be a protagonist of some kind in the end? (Or at least be persuaded to make peace with the protagonists?)
PS- I'm sure this question isn't original with me, but I don't read enough of the forums to know how manytimes its been asked....

[Crusher]

Hi all. Long time lurker who always follows this thread with interest. Just had a random thought occur and wanted to throw it out there in case it's remotely helpful.

Saw some talk up thread that the thing about MitD eating Dwarfs being some sort of oblique reference to Red Dwarf. Someone else posted about the Polymorph episode, but I sincerely doubt there's anything much there.

However, as I'm sure many of you know, a ton of D&D monsters originated in the Fiend Factory articles in *White* Dwarf.

Seems a lot more plausible if this is some sort of clue, that it's pointing towards a monster that first showed up there. I know many things made it into the original Fiend Folio back in the day and are well known D&D creatures even now, but presumably a lot of stuff didn't.

Not sure if this is old news and somebody has combed over an archive of those old articles for candidates long ago, but figured I'd give it a mention. Apologies if this is redundant

Hmm, interesting. Looks like White Dwarf regularly put out D&D monsters up to #100 or so at which point they switched entirely to Warhammer and other stuff, though most of the stuff after #50 is either silly or popular book monster conversions. As you'd imagine Enworld has been on this, though only intermittently over the years. A bunch of them ended up in Field Folio but apparently a bunch didn't and there were quite a few monsters overall (maybe 250, ballpark).

[Carl]

Thematically, I think that the chances of the plot being resolved by the sudden re-emergence of the green divine quiddity, therefore sidelining the need to collaborate with RC and DO to be rather small.

Also, originally RL greek monsters do not require green quiddity to be formed - we have seen a medusa in the comic. And without the gods to pray to, even if somehow a green quiddity creature had survived (making it in fact the most real thing in the universe together iwth the snarl, since both would be 4-colour creatures) would still not help because what they need is green spellcasting, not just the creature itself.

---

In thread news, I was fixing a couple of typos in the OP (thank you, VanFanel!) and I went ahead and sketched the latest clue into 2a: diet. It is probably too early for it, but I can always edit it later if it turns out to lead somewhere.

GW

Theoretically if his species lives on the astral plane or some other such place normally they could have survived since way back when. I agree on the point about needing divine magic though.

On the template line of thinking. does anyone know the lore behind the Paragon Creature Template? Whilst i don't really have any good candidates to apply it to it's a perfect example of a template type that solves a lot of problems as it gives some solid defences and 15 extra attribute points across the board. That puts a lot of options that where previously dismissed because of low strength back into contention for example. No idea if the lore behind it makes sense and it's just an example honestly, ut one i figured i'd ask questions about.

[Jervis]

It's hard for me to imagine, after all the pages spent on it, Thor's plan coming to nothing- but I've very often been wrong before. But it almost certainly won't happen exactly as planned, either.

If the Snarl is intelligent, and aware of the world inside, could its lashing out be a primal attempt to protect that world? Instead of a villianous Macguffin, might it be a protagonist of some kind in the end? (Or at least be persuaded to make peace with the protagonists?)
PS- I'm sure this question isn't original with me, but I don't read enough of the forums to know how manytimes its been asked....

Keep in mind, plans said on panel never work.

[Crusher]

Theoretically if his species lives on the astral plane or some other such place normally they could have survived since way back when. I agree on the point about needing divine magic though.

On the template line of thinking. does anyone know the lore behind the Paragon Creature Template? Whilst i don't really have any good candidates to apply it to it's a perfect example of a template type that solves a lot of problems as it gives some solid defences and 15 extra attribute points across the board. That puts a lot of options that where previously dismissed because of low strength back into contention for example. No idea if the lore behind it makes sense and it's just an example honestly, ut one i figured i'd ask questions about.

My understanding is that a Paragon creature is a (the?) utterly perfect version of a particular type of creature. It is the strongest, fastest, smartest, toughest, etc etc troll or orc or hydra or flumph or whatever. I've only ever seen it used once, in the mega dungeon Slumbering Tsar there's a (the?) paragon troll named Three-Fang. It only appears when certain events happen, which gives the party some warning its coming. And they better be ready, because its a buzzsaw.

Also, I've found a source for the Fiend Factory monsters and they are quite something. 1e so its hard to extrapolate, but its fun to see the original incarnations of old favorites like Githyanki and Hook Horrors. A decent number of them are intentionally ridiculous (like the Stair Stalker which is a monster obsessed with walking up and down stairs, and the Dahddy which is a mummy that's out wandering around because it stayed out too late carousing and got kicked out by the "Mummy" which was waiting up for it at the tomb. The Dahddy's facial bandages are slightly peeled back, revealing the black eye it apparently got the night before), but there are some potentially interesting ones like the Shadow Demon (which, iirc is immune to attacks from non-magical weapons and takes half damage from everything when its in complete darkness) and the Tacharanid which is... kind of wild.

Here are the ones I thought were interesting for various reasons:

Tacharanid: It involuntarily changes shape *every* time its hit by an attack, has a spell cast on it, or suffers "any other adverse action". Its shapes all have a consistent theme (which the DM picks and is encouraged to be creative with) so the various shapes should all be roughly the same size and body type (if its a quadruped to start, its shapes should all be more or less quadrupedal) and every time it changes shape it alternates between strong monsters and weak monsters. Its also got weird magic resistance in that it ALWAYS has a chance to save vs effects even ones that don't normally allow a save like Power Word: Death. Also, it can 100% heal itself once/day.

Since its monster theme is entirely up the DM, it has no stats, because they're whatever the DM thinks they should be based on what its theme will be. So, it might be a dragon themed one and starts as a Wyvern, and it gets hit and it turns into an Ancient Red Dragon, then gets hit again and turns into a Young White Dragon, then gets hit again and turns into something strong, etc. etc. I'm a little daunted trying to think how to even go about scoring this thing as a candidate but I'm sure you can see the possibilities.

Grey Sqaargs: Basically stone golems, but VERY hard to hit and their STR is always equal to the combined STR of everything on the other side of their current fight. In 3.5 a Heavy Warhorse has an 18 STR so, Windstriker + Miko is probably over 30.

Loculi - Hmm. This might actually be something. So, Loculi are a race of semi-humanoid reptile monsters with an age power-progression chart just like dragons. They don't look crazy-weird but they aren't something you see every day, kind of like a cross between a lizard man and an armadillo. They have 6 legs, a pair of useable arms and a heavy, bony ankylosaurus-like tail. Their back and limbs are heavily armor plated which get tougher as they get older, their young are pretty fragile but they get sturdier as they get older, really old ones can use magic and psionic abilities and, the piece de resistance: they'll eat just about anything but they particularly enjoy eating gnome and dwarf meat (they get along fine with elves and humans, but they hate dwarves and gnomes).

Ok, so, babies are 6" tall while freakishly ancient ones are 10' tall, but I'm going to focus on just regular, run-of-the-mill ancient ones (a d100 roll of "99" rather than "100"). A 511-800 year old Loculi is 7' 4" tall, the armored parts are AC1 (roughly equal to platemail plus a shield), its got 9d8+8 hp (which is in the ballpark of an adult or even old red dragon in 1E AD&D, the version when the Loculi was introduced), the only stat they list is INT (14, which isn't bad. There are deities with 18s and below for stats) but its tail-smash hits for 2d12+2 and its bite hits for 2d10 which is nearly ancient dragon territory so its probably extremely strong. They have a range of psionic and magic-user/illusionist spells though nothing is analogous to Teleport or Wish. I might actually do a proper presentation of it later.

Sodger O Caber - An unusually tall, green, buff, good-looking elf made out of wood (its living, basically Fey). Lots of health and very hard to hit, and when in serious trouble can teleport itself (along with its mount and anything on the mount) back to Pine Island (which in theory might be the abandoned elven island. Actually, that works with their fluff better than I initially thought). Really excellent stats across the board but not strong enough, even translating from 1E.

[Jervis]

Grey Sqaargs: Basically stone golems, but VERY hard to hit and their STR is always equal to the combined STR of everything on the other side of their current fight. In 3.5 a Heavy Warhorse has an 18 STR so, Windstriker + Miko is probably over 30.

Loculi - Hmm. This might actually be something. So, Loculi are a race of semi-humanoid reptile monsters with an age power-progression chart just like dragons. They don't look crazy-weird but they aren't something you see every day, kind of like a cross between a lizard man and an armadillo. They have 6 legs, a pair of useable arms and a heavy, bony ankylosaurus-like tail. Their back and limbs are heavily armor plated which get tougher as they get older, their young are pretty fragile but they get sturdier as they get older, really old ones can use magic and psionic abilities and, the piece de resistance: they'll eat just about anything but they particularly enjoy eating gnome and dwarf meat (they get along fine with elves and humans, but they hate dwarves and gnomes).

Ok, so, babies are 6" tall while freakishly ancient ones are 10' tall, but I'm going to focus on just regular, run-of-the-mill ancient ones (a d100 roll of "99" rather than "100"). A 511-800 year old Loculi is 7' 4" tall, the armored parts are AC1 (roughly equal to platemail plus a shield), its got 9d8+8 hp (which is in the ballpark of an adult or even old red dragon in 1E AD&D, the version when the Loculi was introduced), the only stat they list is INT (14, which isn't bad. There are deities with 18s and below for stats) but its tail-smash hits for 2d12+2 and its bite hits for 2d10 which is nearly ancient dragon territory so its probably extremely strong. They have a range of psionic and magic-user/illusionist spells though nothing is analogous to Teleport or Wish. I might actually do a proper presentation of it later.

Could a Sqaarg count everyone in the city as an enemy, thus getting near arbitrary strength when the earthquake scene came up?

[Crusher]

Ok, its been a while so I'll probably forget some stuff, but I present for your consideration the Loculi.

The overview is basically what I just said in the post before this one. Kind of weird-looking lizard people that get more powerful as they get older. AFAIK they were only ever stat-ed in 1E AD&D so this will be a bit of an adventure. Specifically, we're looking at a 511-800 year old Ancient one (a roll of a 99 out of 100).

Escape Scene - None, off to a bad start. However, this is AD&D 1E. The entire list of monsters in the Monster Manual that can Teleport are the powerful Demons and Devils. That's it. Nothing else can. They have a bunch of psionic abilities, can cast like a 5th level Magic User/Illusionist, and Ancient Ones can use, and typically have, scrolls, potions and other magic items. That's normally a cop-out, but the monster write-up specifically gives an ancient one a 60% chance of having 1-4 scrolls, a 50% chance of 2-5 potions, and a 25% chance of having another magic item on them so they might have something up their sleeve. Finally, most monsters got a power upgrade from 1E to 2E and a much bigger one going to 3E. So... maybe?

Tower Scene - Its got the HP of an Old Blue Dragon or Adult Red Dragon (roughly) and a better AC than any chromatic dragon except Red (I suspect Blues were supposed to be AC 1, but they're AC 2). Punches about as hard as a 1E Stone Giant and that's not even its good attack. It bites like a Green Dragon and its tail-smash is in the ballpark of a Red Dragon's bite. Looking at the 3.5E of these various monsters, we're looking at stuff with STR scores ranging from 27-33 so its in the ballpark of the bottom of the potential scale (that's understating things slightly. The Stone Giant is 27, *everything* else is a 33). Its tough, but is it tough enough to simply laugh off a round of attacks from Miko or Belkar? Maybe? Depends on how it would scale into 3.5E. However, they love heat, are immune to fire damage, and actually regenerate from taking fire damage. If it was standing on a campfire while the attacks happened, then maybe.

Circus Scene - Yeah, its actually pretty weird looking. Big spiky tail, armored body, six legs, fairly conventional lizard person head and arms mounted on the front of it (they don't walk upright). It actually looks very slightly like a Xenocrysth. You wouldn't confuse the two, but it wouldn't be a shock if they were related (they're not, afaik). But Loculi aren't "monsters" per se. They're Lawful Neutral decently intelligent social creatures that are friendly with elves and halflings, often trading with them, and they tolerate humans and half-orcs, so it might be tough to have a bunch of theoretically friendly creatures point and laugh at them.

Not an impossible category - Its not stated what their monster type is (that wasn't a thing in 1E, I guess). I'd guess magical beast, but humanoid is at least possible. It needs to eat (mostly. See below), sleep, etc.

Around before strip #100? - Published December 1982

Size/Strength requirement - Its an octoped (Probably. I just noticed the picture shows it having 6 legs plus 2 arms, but the fluff says it only has 4 legs plus 2 arms) so it probably counts as Large but its certainly not Huge and it *probably* has a STR of 30 or higher.

Vulnerable to Mind Control - Yes, it is.

Pros:
- Dwarf meat is a delicacy for it.
- I intentionally didn't pick its biggest and strongest size category so it could indeed get bigger.
- It needs to eat (and it'll eat almost anything) and sleep, but if it gets enough heat it can cut back on its eating and in extreme conditions can stop eating and drinking entirely.
- Little immature ones are pretty stupid (INT 7) but Ancient ones get pretty smart (14-16 INT)
- 1E was easily the lowest power version of AD&D so its power level would scale up a lot going to 3.5E. A Very Old Blue Dragon (roughly comparable power-wise in 1E) in 3.5E is AC 37 with DR15/magic (which probably isn't adequate but isn't far off).
- The age category I'm talking about could heal itself via Psionics and its a least arguable that some Loculi could have Psionic Teleport. This is kind of maddening, because Psionic Teleport is on the overall list of abilities they could have, and it *should* be on the list of abilities they do have (because they're considered Magic Users/Illusionists and that's the only group that can get Psionic Teleport) but its not there. Grand Matrons can get it, but they're only female (I assume).
- Typical communication for this age category is via "semi-telepathic empathy" using no actual sound, though younger ones do talk and most understand Common.
- Their bodies are a little odd so they aren't super flexible and are a little clumsy.

Cons:
- Translating everything from 1E is kind of a mess so there's huge error ranges around all of this.

[Crusher]

Could a Sqaarg count everyone in the city as an enemy, thus getting near arbitrary strength when the earthquake scene came up?

Good news and bad news. The good news is that it gets the STR of *everyone* on the other side, and it specifically includes people who are fighting at range and haven't hit it yet. The bad news is its STR caps at 40. Though that's 40 in *1E* which is pretty freaking gigantic. A Pit Fiend is 18/00 and a Hill Giant is 19.