Speculation on the Monster In The Darkness [OotS]

[blargney the second]

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

 

[wingsandsword]

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

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.

 

[Umbran]

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.

 

[fba827]

[...] 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!

 

[Dausuul]

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.

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.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

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.

 

[blargney the second]

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

 

[wingsandsword]

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.

 

[Leatherhead]

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.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

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.