# Speculation on the Monster In The Darkness [OotS]



## blargney the second (Jun 17, 2009)

As of strip #663 I'm pretty damn sure the MitD is psionic.  Check out reality revision:
- Display: Visual (inherited from bend reality; the eyes glow, basically)
- Transport travelers. This power can lift one creature per manifester level from anywhere on any plane and place those creatures anywhere else on any plane regardless of local conditions.

So my best guess right now is that the MitD is an abomination with reality revision as a psi-like ability.
-blarg


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## wingsandsword (Jun 17, 2009)

blargney the second said:


> As of strip #663 I'm pretty damn sure the MitD is psionic.  Check out reality revision:
> - Display: Visual (inherited from bend reality; the eyes glow, basically)
> - Transport travelers. This power can lift one creature per manifester level from anywhere on any plane and place those creatures anywhere else on any plane regardless of local conditions.
> 
> ...



The only thing that speaks against the MitD being an Abomination that I know is that Abominations are immune to mind-effecting effects, and in Start of Darkness the MitD was Charmed by Xykon (the only time we've ever seen anybody or anything do anything that really had an effect on it).

Then again, as each abomination is unique, that could be a unique flaw in this one, tied to the idea that it has a particularly weak and childlike mind.


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## Umbran (Jun 17, 2009)

Rich has a really good sense of comic flow, and the joke has gone on so long now that there is no reveal that will ever live up to it.  Anything he does would be anticlimactic, so he won't do anything.

If he's never going to reveal what it is, he doesn't have to define what it is.


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## fba827 (Jun 17, 2009)

Umbran said:


> [...] and the joke has gone on so long now that there is no reveal that will ever live up to it.  Anything he does would be anticlimactic [...]




Agreed!


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## Dausuul (Jun 17, 2009)

It is almost certainly not psionic. Redcloak knew on sight what the monster was, all the way back in "Start of Darkness." But later, when he was questioning O-Chul, he said, "Do you know how long it took me to even figure out if we were USING psionics in this world?" If the monster were psionic, Redcloak would have already known psionics existed. Therefore, it is not any kind of psionic entity.

I think y'all are parsing the rulebooks way too carefully here. Rich Burlew does not, as a rule, carefully review the D&D books and implement every last little detail. The fact that the MitD's eyes glowed when it activated its... whatever it was... is an _extremely_ flimsy basis for any suppositions. In OotS, casters' eyes normally glow when they use their magic. More than likely, that's all this was.



Umbran said:


> Anything he does would be anticlimactic, so he won't do anything.




He said flat-out in one of the books (I think it was "Dungeon Crawling Fools," but don't hold me to that, might have been "War and XPs") that he would eventually reveal what the MitD was, but that it wouldn't happen until very near the end of the comic's run.


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## Wulf Ratbane (Jun 17, 2009)

Dausuul said:


> He said flat-out in one of the books (I think it was "Dungeon Crawling Fools," but don't hold me to that, might have been "War and XPs") that he would eventually reveal what the MitD was, but that it wouldn't happen until very near the end of the comic's run.




If it were up to me: Very last panel.


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## blargney the second (Jun 17, 2009)

wingsandsword said:


> The only thing that speaks against the MitD being an Abomination that I know is that Abominations are immune to mind-effecting effects, and in Start of Darkness the MitD was Charmed by Xykon (the only time we've ever seen anybody or anything do anything that really had an effect on it)..



You know, it doesn't actually say what Xykon did to the MitD in Start of Darkness.  If it was an undead abomination, it could very well have been _control undead_ or something similar.
-blarg


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## wingsandsword (Jun 17, 2009)

blargney the second said:


> You know, it doesn't actually say what Xykon did to the MitD in Start of Darkness.  If it was an undead abomination, it could very well have been _control undead_ or something similar.
> -blarg



I don't think it's undead.  Undead almost always have evil alignments, and it's clear that the MitD is not evil.  It appears to be Neutral or Chaotic Neutral.

Since Xykon is epic-level, maybe he has some Epic Charm/Dominate spell that can work on creatures otherwise immune to mind-effecting effects or something like that.  We already know he has Cloister and Superb Dispelling as Epic spells.


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## Leatherhead (Jun 18, 2009)

Dausuul said:


> It is almost certainly not psionic. Redcloak knew on sight what the monster was, all the way back in "Start of Darkness." But later, when he was questioning O-Chul, he said, "Do you know how long it took me to even figure out if we were USING psionics in this world?" If the monster were psionic, Redcloak would have already known psionics existed. Therefore, it is not any kind of psionic entity.




Two things:

1: Redcloak could have been bluffing, mistaken, or talking on a metaphorical level. Perhaps it is as simple as "I know what you are: You are a persecuted monster being oppressed by the humans and their allies!" 
2: Redcloak never said _when_ he figured out they were using psionics, only that it took him a long time.


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## Lord Pendragon (Jun 19, 2009)

Umbran said:


> Rich has a really good sense of comic flow, and the joke has gone on so long now that there is no reveal that will ever live up to it.



I agree.  He's like Maris, Niles' wife on _Frasier_.


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## Charwoman Gene (Jun 19, 2009)

Lord Pendragon said:


> I agree.  He's like Maris, Niles' wife on _Frasier_.




Nah, too much dialog.  He's more like Mrs. Wolowitz, Harold's mother on Biog Bang Theory.


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## avin (Jun 19, 2009)

It's 8 Bit Theater's Black Mage.


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## cmbarona (Jun 22, 2009)

Or Wilson, from Home Improvement.


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## Pojo (Feb 25, 2010)

It's a Zodar.

Zodar are six foot tall smooth black suits of armor with two eye slits as their only distinguishing feature.  The interior of the armor is all muscle. They weigh five hundred pounds, can lift and throw masts of ships like javelins due to an incredibly high strength score, and do not speak (as established in Start of Darkness, this is a unique feature to the MiTD as opposed to the rest of his race).  They're immune to all environmental effects and can only be harmed by bludgeoning damage, and they NEVER have less than 16 HD, though they can have more.  Three times in their life they can cause any spell to manifest as though they cast it.  Once in their life, they can cause a limited Wish effect to occur - like, say, I don't know, "Escape!", maybe? 

The only feature that does not match is their naturally high int and wis score, which can be explained by his status as a youngling in an assumably incredibly long-lived race (note that the MiTD can read and play complex games as well as discern magical rituals that a theurge cannot - it's highly distractible and incredibly gullible and lazy, not dumb).  Personality differences (Zodar are stoic and mysterious) are related to the fact that it has no idea what race it is and has no experience in being a Zodar - it only knew its dad and its dad was kind of an odd duck.  Everything fits, even things like being able to hold umbrellas and being described as terrifying, yet strangely beautiful.

These guys are straight out of Spelljammer and updated in the 2003 Fiend Folio, and Burlew has noted that the MiTD is both guessable and something he pulled out of an obscure sourcebook, not homebrewed.  And nobody else has guessed it, which means that he's doing a bloody amazing job at keeping it a secret. So in conclusion, I'm awesome?


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## countgray (Feb 25, 2010)

Why not? It's certainly one of the more colorable guesses I have seen.  Only Rich knows for sure.  But zodar certainly seems to fit the evidence.

I will count it as a "maybe".


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## Ourph (Feb 25, 2010)

The MitD is V's raven familiar. Think about it, have you ever seen them in the same panel??? Hmmmm?


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## RangerWickett (Feb 25, 2010)

I'm betting on flumph. Or perhaps a giant space hamster.


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## Dice4Hire (Feb 25, 2010)

Ourph said:


> The MitD is V's raven familiar. Think about it, have you ever seen them in the same panel??? Hmmmm?




By that logic it could be any poster here...... I've never seen any of us in the comic at all......


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Feb 25, 2010)

OK, you caught me.  I'm the Monster in the Darkness.


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## coyote6 (Feb 25, 2010)

Don't believe him! 

I have it on good authority that post after mine was written by the real MiTD


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## ProfessorCirno (Feb 25, 2010)

I remember from somewhere that Rich very distinctively dislikes psionics, so I doubt any major part of the comic will _ever_ involve them ;p


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## frankthedm (Feb 26, 2010)

Pojo said:


> Burlew has noted that the MiTD is both guessable and something he pulled out of an obscure sourcebook, not homebrewed.



Link/quote?

Because if Rich did say that, then zodar is a perfect fit.


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Feb 26, 2010)

Pojo said:


> It's a Zodar.
> 
> Zodar are six foot tall smooth black suits of armor with two eye slits as their only distinguishing feature.  The interior of the armor is all muscle. They weigh five hundred pounds, can lift and throw masts of ships like javelins due to an incredibly high strength score, and do not speak (as established in Start of Darkness, this is a unique feature to the MiTD as opposed to the rest of his race).  They're immune to all environmental effects and can only be harmed by bludgeoning damage, and they NEVER have less than 16 HD, though they can have more.  Three times in their life they can cause any spell to manifest as though they cast it.  Once in their life, they can cause a limited Wish effect to occur - like, say, I don't know, "Escape!", maybe?
> 
> ...



I've never heard of this one before. It seems to fit.


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## TimeWizard76 (Feb 10, 2021)

I would tend to agree with a Zodar, but there is one problem with your idea. The MitD does not leave footprints, and a Zodar does. Sure, the MitD is unique and different from its species, but its speech is the only defined difference.


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