D&D 5E (2014) Do Otyughs literally eat... (dung)???

[AmerginLiath]

Through all of this, remember that Otyughs are intelligent and have their own language. Which means that D&D worlds are surely full of filthy euphemisms that are just borrowings of coprophilic terms from the Otyugh tongue...

 

[Umbran]

I mean, would there even be any nutritional value in eating poo?

Remember, there's another word for poo: Fertilizer!

Fact of the matter is that most animals are not particularly efficient at extracting nutrients from food. A whole lot of it passes right on through, Normally, this stuff is fed on by insects, invertebrates, fungi, plants, bacteria, and so on.

Maybe the otyugh houses within its gut a little fungal/bacterial farm, part processing, part food source. The farm feeds on the garbage, and it in return gives the beast sustenance. Much the same already happens in humans - you yourself have gut flora that helps you get nutrients from food.

 

[Henry]

Through all of this, remember that Otyughs are intelligent and have their own language. Which means that D&D worlds are surely full of filthy euphemisms that are just borrowings of coprophilic terms from the Otyugh tongue...

So you're saying that, like the Inuits and snow urban legend, the Otyugh language has over a hundred different words for "poo"?

 

[I'm A Banana]

So you're saying that, like the Inuits and snow urban legend, the Otyugh language has over a hundred different words for "poo"?

It's like a fine cheese.

"Overtones of milk and beef, with a strong grassy head. The texture is not unlike an over-ripe cantaloupe, and it has a soupçon of stomach bile. A-."

Or...

Somewhere in the City of Doors, there is a restaurant with an otyugh chef. Touts are fond of sending guests there when they don't tip well. It's not surprising in the vastness of Sigil that such a place exists. What is perhaps more surprising is the rave reviews the place has been getting in the Tempus Sigilian recently. Wise minds might attribute this to the over-eager ad campaign of one Harys Hatchis, but seeing the hoi polloi of the town dine on yesterday's outhouse harvest ("fresh!" raves the anonymous reviewer) while they rave about its unique culinary qualities and how truly appreciating this acquired taste requires a more refined pallet is a sight perhaps more grand and inspiring than the heights of Celestia. Truly, belief shapes the planes: if everyone believes it is fine cuisine, it must be!

 

[MechaPilot]

So you're saying that, like the Inuits and snow urban legend, the Otyugh language has over a hundred different words for "poo"?

Human might as well if you were to add up the formal and slang words from all human languages.

Poo, Poo-poo, Poop, Doo-doo, Feces, Deuce, Tish, #2, Excrement, Diarrhea, Brown Bullets, Loaf (as in "to pinch a"), Tail (as in "to grow a"), Scat, Stool, Dump (as in "to take a"), etc.

That's 16 right there.

 

[TarionzCousin]

They can speak to every intelligent creature via telepathy, but Otyugh's only have an intelligence of 6. So their vocabulary and speech is rather limited.

Someone here at EN World has a wonderful example of a typical conversation with an otyugh in their signature. I'm sorry I can't remember who it is.

 

[delericho]

Remember, there's another word for poo: Fertilizer!

Fact of the matter is that most animals are not particularly efficient at extracting nutrients from food. A whole lot of it passes right on through, Normally, this stuff is fed on by insects, invertebrates, fungi, plants, bacteria, and so on.

Yep, that's pretty much what I was going to say. Although I would have said it less well.

Incidentally, "Les Miserables" (the book, not the musical or film versions) has quite a long digression extolling the great wealth of... dung... that could be harvested from under any then-modern city.

 

[PnPgamer]

I remember from biology class that most herbivore mammals use about 40% of the nutrition contained in the food they eat,making the rest 60% comes out of their butts.

Exceptions exists though. Hyenas use 90% and eat bones as well, which makes them produce balls of undigested bones.

 

[Scorpio616]

Makes me wonder, do Otyughs eat their OWN poo? (Waste not, want not...) Double gross if they do!!!

I'd say there is no guarantee they excrete solid waste. Being an aberration, there's no guarantee they operate that much like a normal critter. I'd say it just as likely that the only waste an otyugh secretes is a toxic saliva like slurry into it's mouth, with all other matter being added to it's bulk.

 

[Scorpio616]

And how about that the otyugh can now psychically beam images into peoples brains. As if keeping one's rations down around these things wasn't hard enough. Even if the thing wants to be non hostile, it will be probably send images that it likes... maybe things like *Two Hags, One Goblet* or *Tubghoul*.

"Limited Telepathy. The otyugh can magically transmit simple messages and images to any creature within 120 feet of it that can understand a language. This form of telepathy doesn't allow the receiving creature to telepathically respond."