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.