July And Beyond

Its a good thing I’m out of school, because the next few months have a lot of shit coming out.

July sees the release of a novel I wont read, Demonomicon, and Tomb of Horrors. I intend on getting a copy of the latter two, but will unfortunately likely only use the last (anytime soon, anyway). I’ve never played Tomb of Horrors with the exception of a half-hearted attempt in 3rd Edition, which resulted in a clutch of exalted half-dragon kobold monks getting trapped in the first goddamned room. Of course, that was back in the day when mechanics existed that would randomly force a reset, so we’ll see how 4E actually, you know, legitimately challenges players.

August is also a big month: both Dark Sun books (instead of one, as it was for Forgotten Realms and Eberron), the Dark Sun adventure Marauders on the Dune Sea, and Psionic Power. Dark Sun by itself is already more than enough badass for the entire month. In addition to it being a very far stretch from your typical fantasy setting, we’ll also get the rules on themes. I generally always build characters around a cohesive theme, such as a wizard with mostly fire-keyword spells, or a minotaur with a lot of charging/mobility exploits, but themes give you a granted power as well as serve as prereqs for certain feats and paragon paths. What with all the existing stuff I’m curious (but confident in R&D’s capabilities) as to how it will work out.

There’s a small chunk of preview info for Psionic Power: a level 29 psionic attack called ravenous singularity, a level 11 attack for the alienist paragon path (GLEE!) called far realm gift, and some features of the grandmaster of flowers epic destiny. While the name probably wont strike fear into anyone without allergies, it does have a lot of movement kickers (never provoke opportunity attacks, and you can move your full speed whenever you are allowed to shift).

Oooh, another minis expansion in September? And its called Lords of Madness? Sounds like I got a good starting date for my Eberron campaign.

Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Turaglas, the Ebon Maw

Holy crap thats a long title, but since Turaglas can get as big as (and I quote), “as big as the DM fucking wants,” I suppose its fitting. I’d never heard of Turaglas before, which isnt surprising since he originally appeared in Dragon 312 and was otherwise resigned to a few obscure references in Fiendish Codex 1.

The article is eleven pages long, written by Ari Marmell. It opens with the history of Turaglas, the Feeders, his imprisonment by Orcus and Demogorgon, and how he slowly stirs in his prison (as all incarcerated evils are want to do). With all the backstory out of the way, that brings us to Turaglas himself. Turaglas gets a very, very meaty statblock, consuming almost 2/3 of the page. Digesting his mechanics is no small course, as he brings quite a few new ideas to the table and good God I need to stop with the food puns.

For starters, he’s a level 30 solo brute of such power that it apparently took both Orcus and Demogorgon to imprison him, which tells me that maybe being shacked up for countless eons has taken a toll on his health. At Gargantuan size, Turaglas can best be described twenty-foot diameter carpet of mouths and eyes, which means that he is 5 squares on a side (with a recommended cap of 10 squares). I was thinking of a neat way to model him since unlike most monsters, characters can and will enter his personal space, and decided on a square tile with rings that could be added around it for each time expand is used.

His attacks revolve around biting, puking, or just sitting on you. Seriously.

His basic bite has no range at all (so you have to be on top of him), he can shoot acid up to 20 squares at up to two targets, he has a Reach 3 bite that pulls you into his space, he can bite you if you try to leave (more on that in a bit), he can use a Close burst 3 (thankfully recharging) attack that pulls everyone it hits into his space, he has a Close blast 6 at-will acid attack, he has a recharging ability that lets him grow bigger (with no cap other than when the DM gets tired of doing it), can reduce his size (and pull creatures closer to his center), expands twice when bloodied, can digest slain characters for either hit points of action points, aaand finally get teleport 12 squares as a minor action.

Oh yeah, and almost everything he does causes slow (save ends) and his area is difficult terrain, so good luck getting out once you’re in.

Whew!

At least he is normally pretty slow (Speed 4), but has spider climb, so its a lot like the blob…if the blob was a manifestation of the Abyss’s all-consuming hunger. I like the powers a lot. They are creative, evocative, and new.

Good stuff, and we’re only three pages in. The remainder of the article stats out the aspect of Turaglas (level 24 elite soldier), his exarch Gargmanethka (a level 27 elite controller big-ass otyugh), and bizarre green humanoids with venus fly traps-for-heads called turagathshnee (level 17 skirmisher) before wrapping things up with the Feeders of the Ebon Maw.

Not surprisingly, the Feeders spend their time feeding Turaglas souls so that when the time comes that he doesnt eat them. The most efficient method is by using one of the “fangs of Turaglas”, which are also referred to as the Feeder’s utensils. They are a collection of 13 lifebane weapons, which is a new magic item property described in the article that weakens creatures on a crit and has a daily property that weakens a target and gives you temporary hit points.

Good article, and I think I found my big-bad for the Eberron campaign that I’m planning.