I have seen the MitD revealed in all his glory!

[syskill]

At least, that's my interpretation of the go board in panel 6 of #651. Obviously, the title and black's dango formation are a visual pun. I think the overall layout of stones on the board is meant to depict the MitD.

Unfortunately I can't figure out what the heck it's a picture of. Anyone care to help me out?

[The Blackbird]

At least, that's my interpretation of the go board in panel 6 of #651. Obviously, the title and black's dango formation are a visual pun. I think the overall layout of stones on the board is meant to depict the MitD.

Unfortunately I can't figure out what the heck it's a picture of. Anyone care to help me out?

I thought the same thing, but then after thinking a bit on it I decided that sometimes, a picture is just a picture.

[Silverraptor]

Ooohhh!!! Oooh! I may know! A bunch of animated stones!... OK, I've got nothing.

[shadzar]

Ooohhh!!! Oooh! I may know! A bunch of animated stones!... OK, I've got nothing.

So you are saying mitd is a Galeb Duhr.

Well his INT does seem to have him fit the "duhr" part pretty well.

[Silverraptor]

So you are saying mitd is a Galeb Duhr.

Well his INT does seem to have him fit the "duhr" part pretty well.

Hehheh. Good one.

[CapedLuigiYoshi]

I thought that, too. Then I thought: MitD might be depicted by all the pebbles, or maybe just by the black ones. Who knows? Only Burlew, really.

[chiasaur11]

I thought that, too. Then I thought: MitD might be depicted by all the pebbles, or maybe just by the black ones. Who knows? Only Burlew, really.

Well, him and the Shadow.

[-Baldur-]

Has anybody suggested that it's a baby Tarrasque?

"My day is always hungry"?

And that cockroach is hanging on pretty tight, cockroaches are hard to kill. Reference to just how difficult the Tarrasque is?

Pure evil? Always hungry?

*shrugs* Im new here. You figure it out.

[Starscream]

I have a question. Anyone know how the monster actually manipulated the game pieces? Did he reach out an arm/claw/tentacle/whatever between panels? Or does he have the Homestar Runner like ability to pick up stuff with no visible arms.

[littlequietguy]

I think many people saw that when they looked at that comic. However I think we probably would have already figured it out by now. (What if your Go games revealed your inner secrets, what then!) It's funny trying to make theories for a comic that try's to fake you out consistently. But the main piece of foreshadowing in that comic was that is the snarl's offspring ("He was BIG and he ate a lot"). Perhaps ate so much he undid all of creation ? But my point is I think the Giant is trying to get a steady output of 1 twist ending per 7 comics and its increasingly hard to tell what's a fake out, what's a case of looking to hard on the part of the fans and what is sinister, sneaky foreshadowing! So yeah I think he's really a bunch of animated Go pieces.

[bdh5533]

my theory is MITD is a Dream Larva:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monst...htm#dreamLarva

Large Size, INT is the low stat, STR is the high stat, Worst nightmare happens if you actaully see the monster (thus why he is hidden always)

okay probably wrong but closest i've found yet :)

[shadzar]

Since mitd couldn't even reach out of the box to make his bet with the Monopoly money and just dropped it, I figure he wa calling out places like 4-3, 16-8, etc for O'Chul or the roach to place his stones for him.

[PId6]

Huh, totally missed it. When I saw that go panel, I was trying to calculate who was winning.

[The Blackbird]

I have a question. Anyone know how the monster actually manipulated the game pieces? Did he reach out an arm/claw/tentacle/whatever between panels? Or does he have the Homestar Runner like ability to pick up stuff with no visible arms.

Maybe it's some obscure psionics creature. In this the MitD appears to be holding a flashlight, but not showing any hands, claws etc.

[shadzar]

Maybe it's some obscure psionics creature. In this the MitD appears to be holding a flashlight, but not showing any hands, claws etc.

If it showed a hand it would no longer be in the darkness.

Spoiler

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Also the way Xykon is looking in one panel mid could easily be the readers since he looks straight at the "camera".

[DoctorJest]

Has anybody suggested that it's a baby Tarrasque?

That has been suggested in the past. In my view, it's one of the more reasonable speculations, given what little we know.

[hungerer]

my theory is MITD is a Dream Larva:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monst...htm#dreamLarva

Large Size, INT is the low stat, STR is the high stat, Worst nightmare happens if you actaully see the monster (thus why he is hidden always)

okay probably wrong but closest i've found yet :)

Good candidate, but no Damage Reduction or earthquake. Mega healing, but it would have felt the stabbiness from Belcar if this this was the guy. Abomination type has a lot of the key basic components however.

Of the SRD, the Prismasaurus has my eye... the darkness would have done a good job of concealing its powers, but no actual stompy stompy power.

[Hatchet]

It's a Grue. V is likely to be eaten by it.

[Badgercloak]

If you look at the go board the black area with the emty spaces look like eyes. If some of the white pieces were border lines it kinda looks like a Black Slaad.

[Selene]

As has also been mentioned many times, if only one Tarrasque can exist in a campaign setting, how can there be a baby? And how can it remember its father?

[shadzar]

As has also been mentioned many times, if only one Tarrasque can exist in a campaign setting, how can there be a baby? And how can it remember its father?

How can a Tarrasque talk?

[Liwen]

my theory is MITD is a Dream Larva:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monst...htm#dreamLarva

Large Size, INT is the low stat, STR is the high stat, Worst nightmare happens if you actaully see the monster (thus why he is hidden always)

okay probably wrong but closest i've found yet :)

Doesn't works. The 15 damage reduction is overcome by good, lawful and epic weapons, so the Monster would have received good damage from Miko's attacks (let's not start a alignment debate, she was lawful and good back then since she still had the paladin class.) The attack wouldn't just tickle.

Beside, Monster-San can't have the worst Nightmare ability. In Start of Darkness,

Spoiler

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he is revealed daily to a crowd in the circus when he used to be before Redcloak came to collect him. Hundreds of Commoners have seen him, and none of them have died from the sight. We are talking about a DC43 here.

Of course, if a dream lava can have baby dream lava, then it possible he doesn't have an effective Worst Nightmare ability, but as far as I can tell, Abominations don't have offspring

[FoE]

As has also been mentioned many times, if only one Tarrasque can exist in a campaign setting, how can there be a baby? And how can it remember its father?

Asexual reproduction. Also, the papa Tarrasque (or maybe someone else) deposited its 'baby' on another plane shortly after birth to be that world's Tarrasque. And so it goes for all the worlds in the multiverse.

Everyone gets to share in the fun!

[kpenguin]

Doesn't works. The 15 damage reduction is overcome by good, lawful and epic weapons, so the Monster would have received good damage from Miko's attacks (let's not start a alignment debate, she was lawful and good back then since she still had the paladin class.) The attack wouldn't just tickle.

While agree with your other analysis, I'd like to point out that we have no evidence that Miko's weapons were good, lawful, or epic.

[daggaz]

How can a Tarrasque talk?

I wont spoiler it since its blurbed all over the boards already.. in Start of Darkness there are knowledgeable characters who are surprised that it can talk, so it is special from its base creature in that respect.

Turn the go board upside down. Its the terrasque's head, drawn pixelated style. You can clearly see the two large horns over the eyes and the smaller horns on its chin.

As far as the terrasque being unique, this is Rich's world, he bends DnD as he sees fit.

But think about it.. if the title and the literal analogy in the comic itself arent enough dead give aways for all of you that the go board is actually a picture of the monster... I just dont know.. you are all lost. The DM is shaking his head in disbelief.

Anyhow, Ive always leaned on the tarrasque side of things. Its the penultimate archetype monster in DnD, and OOTS is a very iconic DnD comic. It just fits, far more than some multi-templated extraplanar wierd thing from an obscure splat book. Just a terrasque, with a few twists such as talking and being SO strong (tarrasques are strong!) that it can stomp earthquakes. THe upside picture of its head in the GO board just seals it for me.


Turn the board upside down, if any playgrounders can come up with another monster that it better matches, I am all ears.

[Fuzzypaws]

It's probably something totally innocuous, like a Half-Giant (psionics handbook, comes with Stomp psi-like power, has hands to manipulate a flashlight, lowish Intelligence, would understand how to play a game like Go), with templates or magic items / permanent spells layered on top to give it its protective abilities.

Alternatively, it can still fairly be called an officially published monster if it's from a prior edition of the game, like something from the old 1E fiend folio or Dragon Magazine or the like.

[daggaz]

Sorry but nobody would be surprised that a half giant could talk. Not to mention that would be unfunnily anticlimatic.

Turn the board over. At any rate, if you compare the closeup shot with panel five, you see that the closeup is from our perspective, not from O'Chul or the MitD's. So flip it and take another look.

[shadzar]

It's a Grue. V is likely to be eaten by it.

Much to our chaggrin, I doubt it is a grue.

I wont spoiler it since its blurbed all over the boards already.. in Start of Darkness

Yes, I know that was my point. It can talk which is not normal, so what would the problem be for any other changes made to the monster to make it a special case of its species.

[Dalenthas]

No no no, he is the darkness. Like a Fleetwood Mac song or something.

[Killer Angel]

Has anybody suggested that it's a baby Tarrasque?
.

Yes, it has been said. Anyway, good call, given that probably you didn't know this (Don't worry... also I was excited when i thought of big T. and then discovered that i was late...)

The pebbles design seems to confirm the theory.