Opinions on what is insulting to Rich apparently differ.

From where I'm standing, Rich can reasonably be assumed to understand the capabilities of the creature in the darkness--such that "who is right here" does actually matter: since the book spells out specific shapeshifting abilities for the protean that's what the protean has. And if someone comes into the thread thinking otherwise...the appropriate response to them is "one of your premises is wrong, fix it," not, "my opinion which is exactly equal in validity to yours disagrees with yours, let's roll dice" or anything that doesn't hinge on factual accuracy.

(I also am not co-signing an assertion that it's not okay if the creature in the darkness can turn into anything, if someone proposes an actual means by which a Star Trek changeling* could have teleported O-Chul and that random elf.)

*Do not attempt to tell me they can't turn into anything. Laas turned into fire and into a form that could travel through space. Odo turned into mist. What the writers sometimes say when they're ineffectually trying to pretend their "science fiction" show didn't actually feature a race of creatures of pure magic is unimportant.