[D&Dish] The city built around the tarrasque.

[Thomas T]

I was inspired while reading about the tarrasque (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/tarrasque.htm). Specificaly the bit about its regeneration.

<i>"Once apon a time a nation decided to end the threat of the tarrasque once and for all. An army was assembled, led by the greatest heroes of the age. Most importantly, a number of powerful magical weapons were created for the battle. The monster was lured into a tight canyon and the battle began.

"At terrible cost, the tarrasque was defeated. But not slain. It was impaled by fourteen Immovable Harpoons (like an immovable rod, but spikey), each attached to a thick adamantine chain sunk deep into the canyon walls by magic. The tarrasque was restrained.

"A fortress was built around the tarrasque, to watch over it. Every day it's watchers hack away at the tarrasque with powerful magic weapons to keep it weakened in case of escape. Even so, there are casualties as they misjudge its reach, or as it's angry thrashing causes rockfalls.

"Of course, being a powerful magical crearture, the tarrasque's blood, flesh and other body parts have certain useful properties. A side effect of keeping the tarrasque imprisoned like this was a neverending supply of powerful magical components. A city grew up around the fortress to house the various wizards, scholars and alchemists that came to exploit the tarrasque's bounty. Eventually, it was almost as if the neverending stream of tarrasque blood, flesh and bone was more important than imprisoning the beast itself."</i>

I'm picturing decadant nobles made immortal by their continuued consumption of tarrasque flesh. Warrior-butchers wielding vorpal greatswords to hack away at the tarrasque and channels cut into the stone underneath the beast to channel the valuable blood away. The tarrasque's distant screams and roars would be a continuous background noise for the people in the city, with "tarrasque-quakes" common. Almost an industry of ludicrously expensive magic items crafted from its body parts - tarrasquehide armour, tarrasquebone spears and potions and other alchemical miscellania of course.

You could play up the creepiness of the whole thing, maybe eating the flesh and blood of the tarrasque has unwanted side-effects. I'm thinking of tarrasque blood being analogous to the spice from dune - in this city the blood's used in just about everything and it has unusual effects on the populous.

Even with the tarrasque mostly restrained, getting close isn't a good idea and there'll be pretty frequent casualties amongst the butchers. Because of its reflective carapace, mnagic is a no go so it has to be someone getting in close with a big knife. Every now and then the chains will need to be re-planted to make sure they've not been loosened by the tarrasque's thrashing about - what fun that'll be.

And there's the whole hubris angle - maybe the pressure to cut away more and more of it lets it pull free of one or more of the immovable harpoons. And an inevitable tarrasque-worshipping cult that is covertly planning to free their god.

And if you want to play up the "tarrasque as force of nature" thing, maybe its imprisonment is throwing the natural order of things out of whack. The tarrasque is a necessary part of the ecosystem and plays "natural predator" to something really nasty. Without the tarrasque killing off the nasties every X years they've had time to grow into their adult, even nastier form.

I mean, come on; a fortress built around a chained godzilla who's constantly being butchered is dripping with adventure hooks and just plain cool.

[Dorsai]

I would soooo play in this setting.

[aprogressivist]

Very cool! :D

[Dulahan]

Whoa.

That is cool.

[Last Knight]

I would soooo play in this setting.
Likewise

[domino]

A+

[Belphanior]

I award this the Belphanior Seal of Approval. I'd play this. Hell, I'll run this.

[LeftWingPenguin]

Perhaps it's because I just saw Silent Hill last night, but I find this to be an intensely disturbing image--the idea of an entire industry grown up around the torture of an immortal being.

[Dorsai]

Perhaps it's because I just saw Silent Hill last night, but I find this to be an intensely disturbing image--the idea of an entire industry grown up around the torture of an immortal being.
Not just an industry, an entire economy.

[riotgearepsilon]

Super creepy, super awesome. I approve!

This is totally going in to the Aquarius setting.

[Moxiane]

I would soooo play in this setting.
Also.

[Thomas T]

Well, I've been a bit too negative and critical in threads lately. I felt that I should contribute something constructive.

[AmesJainchill]

Needless to say...*Epic Yoink*

This is a cool idea.

[Simple Man]

Dude. That rocks. I thought of a similar thing with an ancient red dragon once, but they don't regenerate like a tarrasque. In my version the city harnessed the dragon's breath weapon chemicals, creating flying ships, gas carriages, etc.

But I definately like the tainting part of eating the tarrasque flesh.

I'm even thinking the city should end up with a religion/cult based on tarrasque worship, while there's a faction that split off and kill it once and for all.

;)

[Nelzie]

Man oh man. That is certainly an interesting idea...

Perhaps I could slap something like this deep into my gameworld at the farthest reaches of the farthest reaches.

[damion4242]

This definatly has cool points.

I heartily approve. I would so play thing...

Although you would think eventually they would have machines or something to hack
bits off.

Like a giant grinder attacked to each limb.

What if the Tarrasque adapted to it's predicament,

Even worse...what if it liked it.

[Simple Man]

If the tarrasque loses a limb or body part, the lost portion regrows in 1d6 minutes (the detached piece dies and decays normally). The creature can reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump.

Which begs the question: If you cut the tarrasque down the center, which half would live?

[MonsterMash]

pure brilliance

[Simple Man]

What if eating the flesh and/or drinking the blood of the tarrasque was a mortally addictive process? Meaning that whoever did it could never leave the city, because they would (let's say) go up one age category for every day they didn't eat the flesh until they die. They are also immune to the Fearsome Presence of the tarrasque, and while the tortured screams would be unnerving for anyone entering the town, they would be commonplace for residents.

What sort of emotional side effects would the eating/drinking of the tarrasque cause? I'd say probably more emotional outbursts (mebbe even bipolar disorder) and increased time sleeping (as the tarrasque usually hibernates for decades).

[Thomas T]

Also:

Neighbouring nations increasingly uneasy with the idea that <i>The frikkin' tarrasque!</i> is being kept in a cage next door. Since they're not benefitting from it's imprisonment - in fact they're particularly unhappy about the great advantage it gives the tarrasque's guardians - and there's the chance of it breaking free, they're unanimously in favour of putting the monster down while they have the opportunity

Eventually, they're going to decide to send an army to beseige the city and try and do the job themselves. And a seige is another great opportunity for the tarrasque's bonds to be damaged and for it to break free.

I like the idea of scholar-butchers, with this great body of lore based on vivsecting the tarrasque. Laboratories wallpapered with speculative anatomical diagrams and white-bearded sages in blood-spattered aprons debating over the tarrasque's physiology. Planning out where to take the next cuts and where the most alchemicaly useful body parts are.

[Snowblind]

A bit like Jade Empire.

[Simple Man]

A bit like Jade Empire.

Ah yes, the waters of the empire pouring forth from the souless-but-immortal Water Dragon

[Last Knight]

Not just an industry, an entire economy.
Not just an economy, but an entire way of life... a culture, dependent upon the imprisonment and vivisection of an immortal being.

[damion4242]

I like the idea of scholar-butchers, with this great body of lore based on vivsecting the tarrasque. Laboratories wallpapered with speculative anatomical diagrams and white-bearded sages in blood-spattered aprons debating over the tarrasque's physiology. Planning out where to take the next cuts and where the most alchemicaly useful body parts are.


Might as well go a step further. Use it as a power source. Maybe there is a mill that is turned by this limb getting chopped off an regrowing every d6 minutes.




Maybe....one day it stops regenerating. But it still produces blood. Do they kill it when they have a chance, or do they keep it for the blood?

[knightsky]

*swipe*

I am sooo using this in my C&C campaign...

[Last Knight]

There's a thought - tap an artery, use it to turn a wheel or a turbine. Like a hydroelectric dam...

[OldSkoolGeek]

Y'know, I remember something similar to this being posted. The bit that stuck out in my mind about that post was the machine used keep the Tarrasque down, namely huge machines with adamantine tips that regularly pierced the creature.

I believe the actual description was "imagine huge 'drinky birds' with adamantine beaks poking the Tarrasque at regular intervals".

[Thomas T]

Then there's the possibility of people involved in the original capture still being around.

Maybe the mage-smith that designed the immovable harpoons had expected the tarrasque to be killed once it was immobilised. He's apalled at what's been done and now spends most of the day drinking away his memories in cheap bars. People whisper rumours about who he used to be, but mostly they know him as the sad case that always has to be pushed out of the door at closing.

A warrior that planted one of the harpoons in the tarrasque is a celebrity - manipulated into position by some of the powers that be to put a ncie face on things. At the yearly celebration of the monster's capture, he makes a ceremonial cut in its hide - to general applause. Listening to some of the propaganda, you'd think he brought the beast down single-handedly.

Others have moved on in their lives, adventuring in far-away parts. maybe even rising to positions of power elsewhere. The return of one or more of the original heroes could create quite a stir, especially if they decide that they're not happy with what's being done with their legacy. The city's rulers would have a vested interest in making sure that <i>their</i> pet hero is the only one around.

[OldSkoolGeek]

Might as well go a step further. Use it as a power source. Maybe there is a mill that is turned by this limb getting chopped off an regrowing every d6 minutes.
More efficiently, the lopped limbs are further lopped and used as timber for furnaces.

[Last Knight]

Not very efficient - flesh doesn't produce much heat, and requires a great deal to cause it to combust.

However...

meat as a food staple for the town, bones for construction/manufacturing weapons/artifacts/&c?

[Keyes]

What if this is history repeating itself? Long, long, long ago, the tarrasque was captured, just as now, and only escaped (levelling the city in the process) after the nobles became so corrupted by the beast's blood that they got stupid and sloppy.

The former nobles, their home destroyed, became savage nomads. Over generations they've grown even more monstrous.

What they called themselves then has been lost to history.

Now, all know them as trolls :cool:

[Christopher V. Brady]

This is soooooo cool! *Absconds with it!*

[damion4242]

meat as a food staple for the town, bones for construction/manufacturing weapons/artifacts/&c?

Well, I'll underestimate and say a limb weighs 600 pounds. (About 3 people). going by the pic here.

So, 4 limbs(+1 tail) gives you 5x600 = 3000 lbs of meat every 3 minutes....

So, that's 720 tons of meat a day.

That's ALOT.

[Thomas T]

Now, all know them as trolls :cool:
Ooh - I like that. The tarrasque's regeneration is <i>contagious</i>.

What if that was the tarrasque's "natural" life-cycle and trolls are baby tarrasques? Normally it takes millenia for the tarrasque "infection" to take root in a species, but the continuous consumption of tarrasque flesh and blood has accellerated the process in some people (half-troll template).

And - as you say - trolls are actually the remains of the great race that once ruled the world, but who's civilization was destroyed by some unknown disaster *wink wink*

[Thomas T]

Well, I'll underestimate and say a limb weighs 600 pounds. (About 3 people). going by the pic here.

So, 4 limbs(+1 tail) gives you 5x600 = 3000 lbs of meat every 3 minutes....
You couldn't actually take that much meat off without letting it get loose though. You wouldn't want it to have even a single limb free. I imagine it being more long the lines of tearing off strips of hide, hunks of tail-meat, cutting away the bicep and so on. A balancing act between keeping the tarrasque critically injured and leaving its body structurally sound enough that it can't just tear itself off the immovable harpoons.

[Lighthill]

Neighbouring nations increasingly uneasy with the idea that <i>The frikkin' tarrasque!</i> is being kept in a cage next door. Since they're not benefitting from it's imprisonment - in fact they're particularly unhappy about the great advantage it gives the tarrasque's guardians - and there's the chance of it breaking free, they're unanimously in favour of putting the monster down while they have the opportunity

Eventually, they're going to decide to send an army to beseige the city and try and do the job themselves. And a seige is another great opportunity for the tarrasque's bonds to be damaged and for it to break free.

Put it down? Why would you put down the greatest economic resource in the world? Instead, maybe they try to caputure it for themselves! But moving the Tarrasque clearly isn't feasible, so instead, they try to take over the kingdom!

Also, maybe they decide war isn't the way to go: the side with all the Tarrasque-derived magic items will have a natural advantage in a head-on confrontation. A siege won't work; the beseiged city can live forever on Tarrasque kebabs. Even if they could break in, they're smart enough to realize the risk of weakening the Tarrasque's bonds. Finally, rumor has it that the Decadent and Mentally Unhinged Nobles of the city have threatened to release the frickin' Tarrasque as a scorched-earth tactic if it looks like they're losing.

No, instead, the neighboring countries decide to subvert the city from within. But how?

[Thomas T]

No, instead, the neighboring countries decide to subvert the city from within. But how?
Well, that's the PCs' job isn't it :D.

[gloomhound]

What if this is history repeating itself? Long, long, long ago, the tarrasque was captured, just as now, and only escaped (levelling the city in the process) after the nobles became so corrupted by the beast's blood that they got stupid and sloppy.

The former nobles, their home destroyed, became savage nomads. Over generations they've grown even more monstrous.

What they called themselves then has been lost to history.

Now, all know them as trolls :cool:

You have just made the coolest idea ever, even better!

[Marco]

I *like* it!!
-Marco

[Simple Man]

Subbed for when I get Eberron and convert it to True20...

;)

[Kwitchit]

Another idea for a tarrasque-based adventure:
The PCs are fairly low-level. They are summoned in front of the Duke, who tells them that he has received news that the Beast of the End of Days is awake, and heading for their city. However, he has an idea.
His court wizards have enchanted a pebble so that the tarrasque will wish to be near it at all times. They must take it to the enemy city, and drop it somewhere in the centre, preferably down a well. The tarrasque's looking for it will do the rest. When the tarrasque eats the pebble, it will act normally until it goes back to sleep- but it will be in the middle of the enemy city!

Looks like a win-win situation. Destroy your enemies, and save your city. However, there's one problem- once the PCs pick up the pebble, the tarrasque will be chasing them. It moves at an average of just over 30 feet per round, and it never stops. They have a sizeable head start, but there are obstacles...

[Desert_Ranger]

This is awesome.

[Halafax]

It's a very evocative setting. Not that every campain needs it, but there doesn't seem to be much room for typical dungeon delving. Unless, of course, there really is a link between consumption of the creature and the trolls (or even other creatures) of that world. The very ground beneath the city is slowly being riddled with the tunnels of it's spawn, called forth by the presence of their progenitor. That would provide underground warrens full of foes. Maybe the most corrupted of the nobles are already aware of the danger, but supress that knowledge because they have fallen under the sway of the Tarrasque themselves.

Shade of chaos corruption for warhammer fantasy, or even Lovecraft's "shadow over Insmouth".

[stack0v3rflow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xipe_Totec

Xipe Totec
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Aztec mythology, Xipe Totec ("our lord the flayed one") was a life-death-rebirth deity, god of agriculture, the west, disease, spring, goldsmiths and the seasons. He flayed himself to give food to humanity, symbolic of the maize seed losing the outer layer of the seed before germination. Without his skin, he was depicted as a golden god.

Annually, slaves were selected as sacrifices to Xipe Totec. These slaves were carefully flayed to produce a nearly whole skin which was then worn by the priests during the fertility rituals that followed the sacrifice. Some accounts indicate that a thigh bone from the sacrifice was defleshed and used by the priest to touch spectators in a fertility blessing. Paintings and several clay figures have been found which illustrate the flaying method and the appearance of priests wearing flayed skins.

[Lord Liaden]

That is a magnificently evocative basis for a tarrasque-worshipping cult. And of course the sacrifices don't have to be symbolic as in the real world; the tarrasque's hungry maw is right nearby.

[Tog]

What if the Tarrasque adapted to it's predicament,

Even worse...what if it liked it.

There was a situation like this in that "Vile" issue of Dungeon awhile back - a case with an ogre mage who had become an extreme masochist from years of being tortured & regenerating.

Of course, a situation like this would pretty much put an evil influence over the city, which would mean a tendency towards (lawful) evil alignments among its citizens.

What if they charged admission to the "harvestings"? Special spectator boxes to watch the tarrasque get carved from... obviously that's tending off into "Book of Vile Darkness" territory

[Nelzie]

There was a situation like this in that "Vile" issue of Dungeon awhile back - a case with an ogre mage who had become an extreme masochist from years of being tortured & regenerating.

Of course, a situation like this would pretty much put an evil influence over the city, which would mean a tendency towards (lawful) evil alignments among its citizens.

What if they charged admission to the "harvestings"? Special spectator boxes to watch the tarrasque get carved from... obviously that's tending off into "Book of Vile Darkness" territory

That could work and would make sense if the city had gone for many, many, many years holding the Tarrasque down and fell into extreme decadence.

There's lots of things that could be done with that.

If the blood can change a man. What would the blood do to worms and insects? Surely they don't collect every last drop of the blood, some is spilled into the pit and later into the streets as they carve up the meat for food.

Maybe they start to get "dangerous" in their taunting of the Tarrasque. They let one arm regrow and let it be free in the stadium for "Gladiators" to do battle with. So not only is it a harvesting time, but also a bloodsport.

[Lord Liaden]

You know, one often hears criticism of various "D&Disms" that are part of the game's unique fantasy subgenre: overpowered magic, casual return from death, obsession with monsters and treasure, etc. IMO this is a sterling example of taking some of those unique elements, extending them to their logical conclusion, and turning them into a great storytelling opportunity. :)

[Chiaroscuro]

This thread is why I love RPGnet. You guys rock.

Seriously.

[Lost Demiurge]

I am so stealing this for my homebrew.

YOINK!

[Tog]

Oh, there you go -

a twist on the old "Arena of Death" trope:

criminals in Tarrasque-ville are given a choice - instant painless death, or working on the tarrasque harvesting gang; possibly fatal but you get a small chance to live.

[Tog]

If the blood can change a man. What would the blood do to worms and insects? Surely they don't collect every last drop of the blood, some is spilled into the pit and later into the streets as they carve up the meat for food.

Makes me think of the "Scarred Lands" and the evil influence of the titan Kadum's blood on the flora and fauna of the Lands.

Hope the city doesn't have a wererat problem - immortal wererats could be a distraction at an inopportune moment, such as when the tarrasque starts to break loose.

[Last Knight]

Oh, there you go -

a twist on the old "Arena of Death" trope:

criminals in Tarrasque-ville are given a choice - instant painless death, or working on the tarrasque harvesting gang; possibly fatal but you get a small chance to live.
And the man power shortage has grown acute enough where this is the punishment for ALL criminals.

[Quintin Stone]

Put it down? Why would you put down the greatest economic resource in the world? Instead, maybe they try to caputure it for themselves! But moving the Tarrasque clearly isn't feasible, so instead, they try to take over the kingdom!

Also, maybe they decide war isn't the way to go: the side with all the Tarrasque-derived magic items will have a natural advantage in a head-on confrontation. A siege won't work; the beseiged city can live forever on Tarrasque kebabs. Even if they could break in, they're smart enough to realize the risk of weakening the Tarrasque's bonds. Finally, rumor has it that the Decadent and Mentally Unhinged Nobles of the city have threatened to release the frickin' Tarrasque as a scorched-earth tactic if it looks like they're losing.
It's the ultimate Doomsday Device. Mutually Assured Destruction. You'd have to be crazy to attack them!

[ShanG]

Nifty.

The idea of the Tarrasque being harvested so characters can Eat its Flesh and Drink its Blood put me in the mind of the 3.0 Malhavoc supplement Requiem for a God, which featured Godsflesh and Godsblood, and a number of rules for interacting with them which could be easily adapted to the Tarrasque. Items made from or infused with the Tarrasque's flesh and body, feats that require the character to imbibe the Tarrasque's flesh and gain special abilities, spells that require it as a component.

[Bobaloo]

One more vote for really cool and I'd like to fit it into my homebrew. (Well, if I really had an active homebrew.)

A couple more random ideas to add:

Knowing the temptation having such a beast accessible would be, Tarrasque worship is expressly outlawed in the city. The powers that be are trying to keep this situation on a scientific or academic basis, and know that a cult would lead to trouble. Of course this only keeps the cult underground. Has some deity or fiendish lord decided to grant divine spells/abilities on behalf of the Tarrasque, thus "proving the reality" of his divinity. Also, there would probably be a cadre of some sort constantly on the lookout to find and destroy these cultists.

There is also an ironic bent to illegal Tarrasque worship. All the imagery and symbolism for the city is tied to the Tarrasque. Tarrasque head shaped helmets for the city watch and guard. Tarrasque imagery on Shields/Armor and flags. A patriotism and zeal for the Tarrasque that nears worship.

[AmesJainchill]

It's the ultimate Doomsday Device. Mutually Assured Destruction. You'd have to be crazy to attack them!

Tarrasqueistan Politician: "A Doomsday Monster!

Once an enemy attacked, a cloud of Tarrasquium 2324 will surround the world, rendering it uninhabitable!"

Non-Tarrasqueistan Mage: "Of course, the point of such a monster is lost IF YOU DON'T TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT!"

TP: "...it was to be announced at the court appearance on Monday. You know how His Highness likes surprises."

[dmakovec]

That is phenomenal. My mind is currently bending in various ways to incorporate something similar into my Exalted game.

[Quintin Stone]

Mr. President, we cannot allow a Tarrasque gap!

[Bloodcat]

^^^ Dude, your avatar rocks!

This idea also sounds similar to the comic miniseries Empire, which is about a supervillain who actually WON.

The Superman equivalent was kept in a machine downstairs barely living where drugs were made out of his blood that kept the evil overlord's minions addicted and in check.

I might lift the basics of this idea for my short TMNT minicampaign that involves a world pandemic, zombies, and biomonsters. Maybe the source of the non manmade troubles is a Terrasque like creature kept in Area 51? Hmm...

[knightsky]

This thread just keeps getting better and better.

[cultureulterior]

If I was running this, I would change the (Base class, but Better PRCs) so that you could only enter them if you had eaten the flesh of the the tarrasque.

Something like:
Without Tarrasque : With ::
Ordinary Barbarian : Frenzied Berserker

Also, this is the best idea ever.

[damion4242]

What if some natural disaster threatens to engulf the city, like say a nearby volcano erupting?

It's a race to find something that will actuall kill it before it gets free. Everyone knows it will suvive the volcano easily.

What if they try to move it?. How the heck would you DO that?

Trial by Tarrasque: Criminals are fed into it's open maw. If they cut their way out, their innocent.

I must say, the technological applications are cool
Tarrasque flesh golems?
tarrasque flesh ships: If this ship is damaged, musculare action closes the hole


Maybe blood is weaker than flesh. Drinking it changes you, but not a as much. Weaker than the trolls, these are called...orcs. And, they can cross breed with humanity.

Perhaps the torment of the tarrasque has caused it to send out a psychic beacon...which causes it's troll progeny to join together into...it's replacement.

[SJE]

Wow- such a cool idea. I may even steal it for my Exalted game (Tarrasque= Behemoth)

SJE

[Aaron Peori]

Wow- such a cool idea. I may even steal it for my Exalted game (Tarrasque= Behemoth)

SJE

I know I am. But... what would you call the thing?

----------------
Epsilon

[SJE]

The Tarask?

:)

SJE

[Broken]

I know I am. But... what would you call the thing?

----------------
Epsilon

Tarramot?

[Christmas Ape]

This thread is in all ways awesome.

[damion4242]

Tarramot?


Perhaps it is a type of regenerating gemlord imprisoned under Gem. Pieces ripped off of it become gems! :)

[Pete Whalley]

Rock.


That is all.

[MadCow]

Don't forget to add clearly insane tarrasque rights activists as a major antagonist in the setting. :D

[Shane Cubis]

This idea slots neatly into the desert-y part of my campaign world, El-Nubis, which is as yet mostly undesigned. I'm looking to make it a bunch of city-states, a la Dark Sun, and a tarrasque-based one is completely fucking cool.

Throw in the desert trolls I want as a fallen race of former tarrasque-keepers, and it's perfect! (In my world, the trolls are starting to regain their intelligence thanks to a power from the Far Realm and it's proxy in trolldom, The Leader).

I reckon the tarrasque cultists would pierce themselves with tiny silver replicas of the immovable harpoons, and would probably flay themselves before bathing in it's blood. I'd give them red robes, few possessions, shaved heads and a heap of weird piercings.

Oh, and that fanatical look in the eye you see in crazy religious weirdos walking round major cities.

This forum rawks.

Shane Cubis

[Keyes]

This thread keeps inspiring me.. I love it!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f38/keyescannon/coft.jpg

Tarrasque artwork by Claudio Prozas!

[Christopher V. Brady]

This thread keeps inspiring me.. I love it!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f38/keyescannon/coft.jpg

Tarrasque artwork by Claudio Prozas!
DUDE! That' a great pic!!! WOW!

[Cerulean Lion]

Y'know, I remember something similar to this being posted. The bit that stuck out in my mind about that post was the machine used keep the Tarrasque down, namely huge machines with adamantine tips that regularly pierced the creature.

I believe the actual description was "imagine huge 'drinky birds' with adamantine beaks poking the Tarrasque at regular intervals".

OldSkoolGeek, I hereby award you one Creepy Image Point.

Cerulean (shudder) Lion.

[Broblawsky0]

This is a really, amazingly cool idea. Incidentally, from the AD&D 2e MM:

"Legend says that a great treasure can be extracted from the tarrasque's carapace. The upper portion, treated with acid and then heated in a furnace, is thought to yield gems (10d10 diamonds of 1,000 gp base value each). The underbelly material, mixed with the creature's blood and adamantite, is said to produce a metal that can be forged by master dwarven blacksmiths into 1d4 shields of +5 enchantment. It takes two years to manufacture each shield, and the dwarves aren't likely to do it for free."

So that's ~55,000 gp worth of gems and ~67000 gp worth of magical items per 1d6 minutes, assuming the carapace regenerates totally within 1d6 minutes.

[shadowjack]

So that's ~55,000 gp worth of gems and ~67000 gp worth of magical items per 1d6 minutes, assuming the carapace regenerates totally within 1d6 minutes.

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus Christ! :eek:

That's... fifty million gold pieces per day. Eighteen fucking trillion gil per year. Not counting the market for bits and blood.

...hell, nobody's attacking this city. And not because the city's army is ridiculously overequipped, but because everyone else wants to know how they can get a piece of the action. Everyone.

[DarkDragonlord]

maybe you could call the people who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the ceature "tarra-humans" or men they could be the high class nobles or maybe they are used as front line soldiers. they gain the appearance of the tarrasque and gaining some little of power.

i also wonder if using tarrasque parts in spells would make the any more powerful.


just my two cents

[Archer]

"The lords of the city are blind! They cannot see that the Blessed Destroyer was sent by the gods, not as a scourge, but as a gift! A fire sweeps through the forest, and the tall and proud trees become naught but smoke. But when the smoke clears, new seeds sprout, growing into new trees, taller and prouder trees! So it is with the Destroyer! He is to sweep away the trash of the old world to make room for the new, as he has swept away worlds without number before. But the lords of the city keep the Blessed Destroyer chained like a beast! They break the cycle! Look around you! Can you not see the world is sinking into decadence and stagnation? The world thirsts for the Destroyer, but they deny it! They deny the gift! It falls to us! We must free the Blessed Destroyer from their pit of evil!"

- Last sermon of Brother Athol

[Lighthill]

That's... fifty million gold pieces per day. Eighteen fucking trillion gil per year. Not counting the market for bits and blood.

...hell, nobody's attacking this city. And not because the city's army is ridiculously overequipped, but because everyone else wants to know how they can get a piece of the action. Everyone.

Man, think what that will do to the economy! If the cartel that controls this thing doesn't put a pretty heavy cap on how many gems they actually extract and spend, they'll probably drive down local prices like you wouldn't believe. Either outcome is cool: in one case, you've got a bunch of guys who could get as many diamonds as they want to, but who keep the supply low to keep prices up.

This is depressingly like the real-world diamond market, so instead I'd go with option b: they don't restrict the supply at all. Diamonds are a regular construction material here. They're cheaper than cheese. They're considered garish. Muggers will knock you unconscious with a sock filled with diamonds.

Hm. What would be a valuable commodity in Tarrasquesville? What would the citizens get paid in? What could an enemy bribe them with?

[JDCorley]

Great idea. Once again showing that every damn thing in D&D is a plot hook if you look at it right.

[medivh]

Hm. What would be a valuable commodity in Tarrasquesville? What would the citizens get paid in? What could an enemy bribe them with?

Gold? Sell them gold for their diamonds.

Sell them your service. In return for diamonds and tarrasque blood that you can sell in your homeland, lend them your swordarm for a year and a half.

Sell them weapons powerful enough to hurt the tarrasque, or cut through the enchanted shields made from its hide.

Sell them pottery to carry the blood in.

Sell them salt or ice to keep the tarrasque-meat un-spoiled until it's to be consumed.

Sell them art. Sell them semi-precious stones, gems that aren't diamonds. Like amber, tigers eye, quartz.

Sell them grains, so they can eat something besides tarrasque-meat.

Sell them fine wines and precious silks

Sell them counter-siege equipment, so their half-immortal soldiers can sally forth against any army that lays siege against their fair city.

[egamad]

What would be a valuable commodity in Tarrasquesville? What would the citizens get paid in? What could an enemy bribe them with?

Fruits and vegetables. The staple food is Tarrasque meat, and the land is too infertile and dry to support farming. Grains can be bought cheaply, but an apple is a rare treat.

EDIT: Holy crap, what if you have crops of corn watered with frickin' Tarrasque blood!?

I love this idea so very very dearly.

[Belphanior]

This thread got even cooler when I wasn't looking! I quite like the idea of Prestige Classes requiring the blood of the Tarrasque. While the city's enemies are still mucking about with fighters and rogues, these people have proper Shadowdancers and Knight Protectors.

Man, this even explains D&D's hit points and the reason why people get better diplomats by killing people. Everybody is like a little mini-Destroyer in his or her own right by now. Impossible to kill with just a single arrow, shooting thunder from their hands, and built for the kill. Watch out goblins, the PCs are coming for you!

[Julius Sleazer]

Riffing off of what's been said already about diamonds, you could have a dwarven empire whose economy was largely based around their monopoly of the setting's largest diamond mine...until the lords of Tarrasqueville swamped the market with their own ill-gotten diamonds.

How will the dwarves seek revenge?

Will they outfit the other rivals of Tarrasqueville in the best weapons & armor that dwarvenkind can produce?

Will the dwarves, who have for centuries served as a barrier between the surface world and the monsters that lurk beneath, ally with the subterranean horrors in a desperate attempt to destroy the Tarrasque?

Will the dwarves tunnel a passage into the sewers of Tarrasqueville and then hire a party of adventurers to sneak in and slay the great beast?

[Lord Liaden]

I find it rather unsettling to visualize how royally p!ssed-off the tarrasque is going to be if and when it finally gets free.

Hiroshima will have nothing on Tarrasqueville.

BTW anyone have any better ideas on what would be an appropriate name for this burg?

[Thomas T]

BTW anyone have any better ideas on what would be an appropriate name for this burg?
I was thinking Taltasqa. That would be the name of the city as a whole, but specificaly the fortress - presumably meaning "prison of the tarrasque" in whatever the local language is. There would probably be common name for the city that didn't include the fortress.

[JohnBiles]

I know I am. But... what would you call the thing?

----------------
Epsilon

The mental image I get for putting this into Exalted is that a city manages to imprison and harvest the Kukla, given he's the closest thing to an unstoppable death machine like the Tarrasque.

[Thomas T]

Also:

Something that Taltasqa <i>really</i> needs is water. It's built on top of the canyon that the Tarrasque was defeated in - the site wasn't chosen for it's suitability for settlement. And as it happens, this means no easy sources of water nearby.

Though if you really wanted to pile the D&Disms high a corps of clerics could solve the problem. I'd be more inclined to say that there's magical public fountains created and maintained by the city's rulers, though it seems that there's never <i>quite</i> enough.

[Valfader]

Also:

Something that Taltasqa <i>really</i> needs is water. It's built on top of the canyon that the Tarrasque was defeated in - the site wasn't chosen for it's suitability for settlement. And as it happens, this means no easy sources of water nearby.

Though if you really wanted to pile the D&Disms high a corps of clerics could solve the problem. I'd be more inclined to say that there's magical public fountains created and maintained by the city's rulers, though it seems that there's never <i>quite</i> enough.
Given just how much magic they can get, I'd say it's be easy to throw a few portal to the elemental plane of water, invest in a lot of dacanters of endless water, or the like.

[gloomhound]

What if the majority of the best gems must be feed back to the Tarrasque or it sickens and it's meat no longer is edible. Might bring the amount of wealth down to a reasonable level. I think this is the best thread every posted here, even better than the nasty gamer thread.

[Nelzie]

I find it rather unsettling to visualize how royally p!ssed-off the tarrasque is going to be if and when it finally gets free.

Hiroshima will have nothing on Tarrasqueville.

BTW anyone have any better ideas on what would be an appropriate name for this burg?

The Tarrasque is naturally royally pissed off like that. There won't be a change in its natural behavior due to such imprisonment. The creature is just vile pure dang nasty soulless horrific eating and destruction machine.

[Thomas T]

Also:

The smell. This city would <i>reek</i>. As if the butchery and open-flowing blood wasn't enough, there's all the alchemical experiments going on. And just for a garnish, lets say that since the city wasn't planned, is built across two sides of a canyon with an immovable object in its centre, the sewage system is... inefficient.

If we say that the wind almost always blows from the same direction due to whatever local geography, then there can be a fun division of the city.

Breezeside (breeside?) gets the wind first. Its the high class district where all the well-to-dos live and only the most prestigious wizards and alchemists have their labs.

Stinkside suffers the worst of the smell. Since anyone that can afford it moves to breezeside, there's little incentive amongst the powers that be to improve the state of the stinkside sewers. It takes almost as long to get used to the smell as it does the sound of the tarrasque's rage.

And:

The immovable harpoons each have a different command word. The command words are considered state secrets, each recorded in different places in different ways. The people originally entrusted with these words are the ones that became the nascent city's rulers. To this day the 14 nobles in charge of the city are called word-bearers, and each seat's command word is a secret handed down from iteration to iteration.

Even given the secrecy of the harpoons' command words, there are no chances taken. Only slaves with their tongues cut out are used as workers around the tarrasque. Before each butcher is allowed to take up their enromous flensing sword, their mouths are stuffed with cotton and tight bandages wound across their mouths. Only the most trusted people will be allowed near the tarrasque without similar measures.

[Valfader]

To add to Thomas T's post, the wordbearers are constantly wearing various magical amulets against scrying, mindreading, and the like.

[Christopher V. Brady]

To add to Thomas T's post, the wordbearers are constantly wearing various magical amulets against scrying, mindreading, and the like.

It's their ring/badge of office, also IT is the object that knows the command word to the Harpoons, not the men or women who wear them. So when they're passed on to the newly sworn in, the former Wordbearers forget the commnad word.

Or you could just geas them to die if they ever try to say the command word...

[JoshShaw]

Given just how much magic they can get, I'd say it's be easy to throw a few portal to the elemental plane of water, invest in a lot of dacanters of endless water, or the like.

Yes, but various emanations of the tarasque affect the magical fountains, not making it undrinkable, mind you, just enough to give it that slightly reddish color and unmistakeable tang.

[Lord Kelvin]

The reason the command words are remembered at all is because they need to be re-set occasionally, right?

Some of the harpoons have never had to be re-set, being set in stronger rock than the rest, or because the the tarrasque's thrashing mainly works at the others. So what happens when the day comes that these "stable" harpoons do have to be re-set...and it turns out the command word has been jumbled by the passage of time and the game of Telephone ("The secret word is aardvark!" "Hard bark, right."), or someone died without passing it on (in this case it could be either a dark family secret, or even the family might be in the dark).

And if one of the cults finds out, they can plan a grand scheme that causes the harpoon whose word was lost to become the unexpected lynchpin. Can the PCs figure out what's going on with the unexplained mining and strange patterns the flensers have been using?

[Thomas T]

To add to Thomas T's post, the wordbearers are constantly wearing various magical amulets against scrying, mindreading, and the like.
Nice, but you're not thinking like a paranoid decadent in charge of the most dangerous and lucrative monster in the world :).

The <i>entire city</i> is warded against scrying and telepathic magics for extra security. Only the wordbearers and their trusted agents are able to use such magic, since they carry special talismans that counteract the warding.

Very tight security, without nullifying the powers of those that would use them responsibility. And as an unavoidable side effect, giving the wordbearers that additional level of <i>personal</i> power and security.

[Valfader]

Nice, but you're not thinking like a paranoid decadent in charge of the most dangerous and lucrative monster in the world :).

The <i>entire city</i> is warded against scrying and telepathic magics for extra security. Only the wordbearers and their trusted agents are able to use such magic, since they carry special talismans that counteract the warding.

Very tight security, without nullifying the powers of those that would use them responsibility. And as an unavoidable side effect, giving the wordbearers that additional level of <i>personal</i> power and security.
Well, why not create golems, or other mindless creatures, to serve the ones working with the beast, instead of using slaves, whose memories might be tapped magically? Then again, sneaking out slaves who know stuff about it, can make for exciting adventures.

The creature could also be freed by someone digging under, and collapsing, rooms down there. That could be a neat assault plan. Release the monster in your enemy's city, and remove their resource of wealth.

A wizard might 'accidently' clone the creature, when working in a lab, so only licenced magicians have access to the bits. I think this has been mentioned before, though.

Slaves breed for combat through mind-control and a Tarrasque diet.

[theCimmerian]

For the money problem: in order to get the 10d100 gems, you need to kill it completely. Maybe the 14 harpoons (or whatever imprisons it) can't kill it. So a particularly good Tarrasque-Butcher's attack might liberate a gem here or there, but never in the history of the city have they been able to kill it completely.

Maybe the power and corruption you get from drinking its blood/wearing its skin/implanting bone shards in your body depends upon how deep into its flesh the parts came from. Scratch a paw, drink, and get fast healing 1 for a minute with a mild tendency to violence. Cut off a limb and have a steak, and you get regeneration 2 for a week and a temporary switch two steps down on the morality scale.

Send 50 mind-controlled/drugged/blackmailed slaves in a suicide attack to bring you a piece of its heart, and if they succeed gain a troll's physical attributes, a hunger for raw flesh from members of your own original species, and the ability to shapeshift into a troll as a free action.

And maybe 1 in 100 people that wears Tarrasque-scale armor eventually goes insane and rejoins himself or herself to the Tarrasque by jumping down its maw or even just running up to the Tarrasque and fusing directly with its skin.

[OldSkoolGeek]

OldSkoolGeek, I hereby award you one Creepy Image Point.

Cerulean (shudder) Lion.
Cool! My first point! Thanx!

[Tog]

Well, why not create golems, or other mindless creatures, to serve the ones working with the beast, instead of using slaves, whose memories might be tapped magically? Then again, sneaking out slaves who know stuff about it, can make for exciting adventures.

Back to my idea of the "Death or Tarrasque" option - those criminals sent in to harvest the "T" get mindwiped afterwards so as to hide the evidence.

Plot hook: One of the PCs is such a person whose memories are starting to come back, starting with horrible nightmares set in a deep cavern...

[Cerulean Lion]

The "wordbearers" know the command words needed to reset the Harpoons.
The Tqrrasque cultists know that the wordbearers know this. If they can kill all the wordbearers, then nobody can reset the Harpoons, and maybe the Blessed Destroyer can break free.
Even if they can't get them all, maybe they can make all their heirs afraid to take up the title.

[CaffeineBoy]

Freaking brilliant. My head literally exploded! My fingers are typing on pure muscle memory.

[Dragon_Blooded]

BTW anyone have any better ideas on what would be an appropriate name for this burg?

You could always use Tarascon (or Tarrascon), which is the name of the real-life city where the legend of the Tarasque (D&D Tarrasque) comes from. More info here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasque).

Eduardo Penna

[shadowjack]

Nice. Taking from that link:

The king of Nerluc had attacked the Tarasque with knights and catapults to no avail. But Saint Martha found the beast and charmed it with hymns and prayers, and led back the tamed Tarasque to the city. The people, terrified by the monster, attacked it when it drew nigh. The monster offered no resistance and died there. Martha then preached a sermon to the people and converted many of them to Christianity. Sorry for what they had done to the tamed monster, the newly-Christianized townspeople changed the town's name to Tarascon.

If mythic parallels, religion, and politics are to your taste, we've got plenty to play with here. Imagine if a pacifistic sect - with some appropriate food and animal-treatment taboos - sets up in this city. Preferably with miracle-working messiah figure. On one hand, many in the city government will want these interlopers gone - the entire economy depends on "animal" cruelty, damn it! On the other hand, a saint that can tame horrible beasts may be a handy addition to the containment protocols. Add to that the appeal of the new religion to the oppressed underclass of the city (and many in the bored upper class), bickering with the other local cults, and arguments over taxation, and you've got a strong Biblical Rome vibe going.

(Though one might not want to play too much with New Testament parallels, here. If the common death penalty is "feeding the condemned to the Beast", and one carries the parallels to extremes, you could end up with some really fucking creepy twists on the Christ stories. "Eat of my flesh" indeed. Brrrrrr.)

[Thomas T]

Now I have a problem. I like minimalist approaches to fantasy and the more cosmopolitan D&D elements get tied into it, the more I feel that the idea is diluted. But a large proportion of the coolness <i>depends</i> on the fact that it's exploiting D&Disms.

Is it cheap to selectively ignore D&Disms that are irrelevant or that just aren't as cool as the alternatives? Maybe just say "X, Y and Z aren't available locally. They're the kind of stuff the PCs might bring onto the scene." - things like the decanters of endless water, golems and so on?

[clockworkjoe]

A few other variations:

Perhaps The tarrasque cannot be held by chains connected to the ground. Instead, the harpoons are carefully arranged so that it is paralyzed (advanced jujitsu type placement). However, if held to the ground, the beast will eventually break free.

So they place it in water.

A vast lake or reservoir, the tarrasque tethered to shore by various chains connected to the harpoons but unable to gain leverage to free itself. Specialized teams of butchers figure out how to fly or swim or use special platforms to cut the monster but the water becomes contaminated and seeps into a nearby river or ocean.

Hell, place it on the open ocean. A fleet of ships follow the flesh-berg, harpooning pieces of it out through steampowered cannons.


Other option

The Tarrasque was held in place by another civilization long ago. It was recently re-discovered by a team of adventurers at the bottom of a dungeon. They are awed by it but don't think to exploit it. When they get back to the surface, they part and tell their families and friends about it. The legend spreads and soon rival teams from different nations descend on the dungeon. Instead of a monopoly, it becomes a gold/flesh rush as shanty towns appear overnight near the dungeon and adventurers fight each other for a piece of the action. Great battles are fought near the Tarrasque on a daily basis. Will the fighting eventually free the monster or will some order arise? What happens when towns are built in a dungeon?

[Tog]

What happens when towns are built in a dungeon?

Pshaw, I remember when we used to do that kind of thing ALL THE TIME. :)

(Admit it - if you RPG'd back in the late 70s you had a dungeon with a level with either a town or shops or both. Why? How? Who knows? That was just the way we did stuff back then.)

[Chiaroscuro]

The Tarrasque is naturally royally pissed off like that. There won't be a change in its natural behavior due to such imprisonment. The creature is just vile pure dang nasty soulless horrific eating and destruction machine.
"What we are dealing with is a perfect engine, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. "

Anyway, the devaluing of currency got me thinking: the amounts of spell components are given in GP values. Would it happen that you could cast stoneskin more cheaply if diamonds were plentiful... or would you just need more diamonds? If the spell kept up with the commodity market then you'd never know how much diamond dust you'd need from moment to moment. You could end up needing a cart full of precious stones to make the spell work.

OTOH, the amount produced by the Big T is given in GP value, too, so as you devalued diamonds, the amount its carapace yeilded would have to increase. That is, the diamonds would get bigger and bigger. That's a little harder to explain than spells, I guess. Probably not worth pursuing.

-C.

[Julius Sleazer]

Is it cheap to selectively ignore D&Disms that are irrelevant or that just aren't as cool as the alternatives? Maybe just say "X, Y and Z aren't available locally. They're the kind of stuff the PCs might bring onto the scene." - things like the decanters of endless water, golems and so on?


Go for it! It's your campaign, and besides this idea is way too cool to pass up on.

[Tim Gray]

*reads first post* This is pretty cool. The style made me think of the Scarred Lands setting.

[ShanG]

OTOH, the amount produced by the Big T is given in GP value, too, so as you devalued diamonds, the amount its carapace yeilded would have to increase. That is, the diamonds would get bigger and bigger. That's a little harder to explain than spells, I guess. Probably not worth pursuing.
-C.

Oh, come now. That's all very true, but you're not thinking in the right mindset.

It's not that these Tarragems are just worth a certain amount. Oh, no. In Tarrascon, these jewels are the currency. As stones are mined out of the beast, jewelers take them and work them into smaller jewels which are the most commonly accepted form of trade - making the citizens of Tarrascon fabulously wealthy compared to other petty civilizations which use such mundane currency as gold.

The fact that they're constantly renewing simply means that you've got a steady but controllable rate of inflation - no different from the value of gold in a mining town, really.

Oh, ho ho ho.

That causes me to wonder - what effect has this constant torture had on the quality of the stones it's producing? In a similar vein to the comment about quality of meat - I'm imagining that the first stones cut forth would have been clear, flawless diamonds, but over the years the stones began to have a slight pink cast or bloody stripes running through them, and today - today the gems being cut forth are a bright, angry blood red.

[Lord Liaden]

Now I have a problem. I like minimalist approaches to fantasy and the more cosmopolitan D&D elements get tied into it, the more I feel that the idea is diluted. But a large proportion of the coolness <i>depends</i> on the fact that it's exploiting D&Disms.

Is it cheap to selectively ignore D&Disms that are irrelevant or that just aren't as cool as the alternatives? Maybe just say "X, Y and Z aren't available locally. They're the kind of stuff the PCs might bring onto the scene." - things like the decanters of endless water, golems and so on?
Hey, D&D has produced no few worlds where the "ground rules" of magic vary from the the norm for various reasons: the Hollow Word, Dark Sun, Ravenloft etc. Selected things (that would be inconvenient to the setting) just don't function there, or function differently.

For that matter, such local conditions could have been particularly supportive for defeating the Tarrasque, which was why this site was chosen in the first place.

[Cerulean Lion]

Would (Tarrasque)-Blood Diamonds have new magical properties?
Which properties? Would those properties increase if an enchanted Blood Stone is fed fresh blood?

[Lord Liaden]

Also:

The smell. This city would <i>reek</i>. As if the butchery and open-flowing blood wasn't enough, there's all the alchemical experiments going on. And just for a garnish, lets say that since the city wasn't planned, is built across two sides of a canyon with an immovable object in its centre, the sewage system is... inefficient.

If we say that the wind almost always blows from the same direction due to whatever local geography, then there can be a fun division of the city.

Breezeside (breeside?) gets the wind first. Its the high class district where all the well-to-dos live and only the most prestigious wizards and alchemists have their labs.

Stinkside suffers the worst of the smell. Since anyone that can afford it moves to breezeside, there's little incentive amongst the powers that be to improve the state of the stinkside sewers. It takes almost as long to get used to the smell as it does the sound of the tarrasque's rage.
I think you've hit on something that outsiders could trade with the city for: waste disposal. Let their merchants cart off bodily and alchemical wastes for landfill. Lots of modern real-world cities have such an arrangement.

They also have concerns about contaminated waste among citizens, who protest the arrangement even if it is lucrative. Of course in this case you have to wonder what that magically contaminated waste is breeding in that landfill...

[Cortani]

Best idea I've heard all week (It's been a Very good week for the idea-department).

The existence of a second Tarrasque has been confirmed by sages and scryers. Nations pour vast resources into tracking it down and claiming it for their own use.

Through the limited telepathic bond the two god-beasts share, the second has learned that not hiding will lead to agony beyond meaning. However, a godzilla-sized omnivore can only remain concealed for so long.

What happens if another nation acquires a Tarrasque? Will they follow the same model and try to break the first monopoly? Will the two fight each other for control of both? How will the cultists interpret this?

Heck, will someone try to breed them?

[damion4242]

Is it cheap to selectively ignore D&Disms that are irrelevant or that just aren't as cool as the alternatives? Maybe just say "X, Y and Z aren't available locally. They're the kind of stuff the PCs might bring onto the scene." - things like the decanters of endless water, golems and so on?

Me, I kinda like making the explotation more mechanical. I dont' really see a problem with things like decanters of endless water, etc. It's not like these would benefit the Stinkside at all. :p

(Especially if you ignore the part about the jewels, or just you can't extract pieces of the creaters carapace THAT effectivly).

[KreenWarrior]

So, what's a tarrasque Flesh Golem going to look like? I imagine the city's Mage Guild makes quite a few of them... lessee, how about the older they are, the more they morph to look like a miniature tarrasque? And that no matter what you do to disguise it, no matter how much the mages assure the citizens that the creatures are perfectly safe, you can't shake the feeling that these things are intelligent, linked to the great beast itself, and ANGRY. Good thing that golems almost never break their bindings... of course, the old ones seem to always dissapear. Are the mages hiding something about their servants?

[Gizmit]

Flesh Pits - Everybody is Tarrascon has had a taste of The Beasts flesh, be it the gristle thrown to the peasants on Feast Days, or the tenderest cuts consumed by the slowly-mutating nobility. What none but the alchemists, flesh-renders, and flesh-tenders know is that a sufficient quantity of Tarrasque flesh, bathed in it's own blood will begin to grow. The Cult of the Magnificient Beast recently learned this and stole a man-sized hunk. They have diverted a minor blood fountain, and have managed to create a sizeable pool for the flesh to sit in. Within a day, all of the rot that had begun to eat at it was gone. By the next day, small limbs had sprouted all over it.

The nobles are, of course, alarmed that such a large mass of meat was stolen. While they don't know what happened to it, they'll hire the PCs within the week to find out. Where did it go? Who took it? What's it growing into?

[Bill_Coffin]

Also:

Something that Taltasqa <i>really</i> needs is water. It's built on top of the canyon that the Tarrasque was defeated in - the site wasn't chosen for it's suitability for settlement. And as it happens, this means no easy sources of water nearby.

Though if you really wanted to pile the D&Disms high a corps of clerics could solve the problem. I'd be more inclined to say that there's magical public fountains created and maintained by the city's rulers, though it seems that there's never <i>quite</i> enough.

Apologies if what i'm about to say has been mentioned previously, but this thread has gotten me too fired up to withhold from posting to it any longer.

I really like the idea of Taralsqa needing water in a bad way. The location of the city was chosen on how well it could trap the tarrasque, not how well it could sustain a permanent population. I would imagine this place would be not only without immediate sources of water,but it might be way the heck out in the middle of a vast wasteland so that the "final battle" with the creature might be done someplace where the collateral damage to local settlements could be mitigated or even eliminated altogether. For Taralsqa to have been built in the middle of Hell's Furnace (or whatever the major desert of your campaign world might be) means that yeah, it will need enormous amounts of water. And even if there are plentiful magical sources of it within the town,water is the sort of thing you really can't get enough of, so I could see it even becoming a commodity good or even a form of currency. Nobles will squander it or put it on display with massive pools and baths, to show their rank.

Speaking of the nobility, something that might drive their greed and vanity is, as always, having things the commoners don't have and making sure they know it. If Tarrasque meat is so incredibly plentiful, it's also incredibly boring. When everybody can eat it, it has no high value anymore. Real world example: in colonial America, lobster used to be what you fed your servants because it was so incredibly plentiful. Now that they have been so heavily harvested, they have value once more, and they have changed from the cheap food you pay minimum-wagers to the kind of thing only the well-heeled can expect to eat with any serious frequency. Same thing with tarrasque meat, which means that damn near anything else will be a luxury food. Pomegranates, beef, garden greens...anything but tarrasque. Besides, if you eat it all day long,it's going to get old, fast, so other foods will carry a premium. For that matter, so will spices. I can see the common folk paying through the nose to have extensive spice collections to make their daily ration of tarrasque taste differently enough to stave off boredom.

"Today's ingredient...TARRASQUE."
"Um, Chairman? That was the ingredient for the last 192 shows in a row. You think...?"
"SILENCE!"

[Bill_Coffin]

Something else...even if you can produce a mountain of gems from a tarrasque carapace, that doesn't mean the local authorities have to allow their expenditure in the city. Lots of African diamond camps never allowed people to trade in their finds for anything but barter goods, or they had to cash them out at what the camp/syndicate was paying for them and then spend their money locally. but buying with local stones was strictly verboten. Same thing here. The nobility, made fabulously wealthy off their tarrasque monopoly, and with the legion of guardsmen and magic items and culture of fear in their favor, simply make it a capital offense for anybody to use tarraque gems (or any precious stone, for that matter) as currency or for barter in the city. You have to buy and sell in gold, which can be obtained through city-sanction currency exchanges (they run a local mint, so even neighboring gold gets exchanged, for even more profit to the bosses) or wholesale of the gems to specially licensed gem brokers who kick 90% of their take upstairs. The whole thing is hugely corrupt,though, and there is a healthy blakc market in gemstones, something that the local guards, noble police forces,and freelance bounty hunters all go after. Even in acity as fabulously wealthy as this one, there is still rich and poor, and under the right circumstances, the poor will break the law so they can be like the rich. This could be one of those pressure cooker situations that enemies of the city might seek to exploit to overthrow it. Not to release the tarrasque, but to affect the kind of "regime change" that would place them in power instead of the old, debauched lords who used to run the place.

Oon another topic altogether, let's not forget about powerful demon lords,undead masters and other such villains who would love to see the tarrasque set free just to wreak havoc. The destruction of the city and its social/political/economic impact would all be side effects.

Likewise, what if the players find themselves with the opportunity to set the tarrasque free? One one hand, it would destroy this evil, evil city and the hundreds of other cities and nations that are growing increasingly dark-hearted as a result of their complicity with the savagery on display here. (But is it savage to be so cruel to a creature that will only destroy whatever is in its path?) But on the other hand, they owuld be unleashing an otherwise unstoppable horror that will eventually destroy innocent lives. What to do?

And finally, I see any psionics in the vicinity getting lots of disturbing dreams broadcast to them by the tarrasque, which is in constant pain. Even if the creature is incredibly dumb,its suffering must be something psionics would pick up whether they want to or not -- like having an Emergency Broadcast System alert constantly in the background. Psionics can actually sympathize with the creature, perhaps enough, even,to bring its misery to an end. Maybe not to let it go -- they know how dangerous it is -- but to bring the industrial butchery and vivisection of the creature to a standstill.

And finally, this is indeed one of the greatest campaign ideas I have ever come across. I won't even try to qualify it with some witty remark. It's just an incredible, incredible concept that can be extrapolated in a hundred different ways to a hundred different degrees. Professionals in the audience, take note! This is the real deal, right here. A great idea for a great idea's sake. We could all use plenty more of them, though honestly, you could write an entire sourcebook off of the initial post of this thread alone. Bravo.

[Mossy Mole]

The Tarrasque was held in place by another civilization long ago. It was recently re-discovered by a team of adventurers at the bottom of a dungeon.

Sounds like the ultimate how-to-get the treasure home challenge :D

[Archer]

Is it cheap to selectively ignore D&Disms that are irrelevant or that just aren't as cool as the alternatives? Maybe just say "X, Y and Z aren't available locally. They're the kind of stuff the PCs might bring onto the scene." - things like the decanters of endless water, golems and so on?

If you don't want golem tarrasque butcherers, you can simply say that human labor is cheaper. Even without tarrasquegems, the city is going to be one of the wealthiest places in the world. There's going to be a constant stream of migrants looking for a piece of that wealth swelling the labor pool. Every time a butcher falls, there are ten more waiting for his job. If they have scryers to filter out the spies and cultists, there would be no incentive to spend time and gold on an all-construct workforce.

[Bookwrack]

Another complication might be that because of the Tarrasque industry, the whole region has become very magicaly poor. Pardon me for injecting science into fantasy, but to do all that regenerating, the Tarrasque is either burning large amounts of stored energy, and shifting flesh around (which it's obviously not) or drawing on ambient magic in order to regenerate all that loss mass. So every time the Tarrasque is harvested, the ambient level of magic takes another hit as the Godbeast sucks it in to regrow lost flesh.

This could be the reason for the current water shortage, in that many of the magical water fountains have started drying up, there is no longer remaining enough ambient magic to sustain them (coupled with all the alchemists, wizards, and everything else that will be drawing on the same now limited resource as well).

Nevermind the fact that the majority bindings holding the Tarrasque in place are either magicaly powered, or magial as well...

As for the currency issue, there could be the fact that harvesting enough of the carapace of hide to get good jems is EXTRAORDINARILY dangerous. It requires getting butchers in close enough, long enough, to flense a good sized portion of the monsters back...

Last, in Dragon Magazine a good few years back, I remember there being an article, either about monstrous templates, or prestige classes, on of which was linked to the Tarrasque (I think the article was about Cults of Monsters, and it was a prestige class in as much as applied to dedicated members of the cults). The one for the Tarrasque had cultists becoming, bigger, dumber, tougher (and tarrasquer looking) as well as suffering the rising urge to seek out their 'god' and awaken it.

[Thomas T]

And finally, this is indeed one of the greatest campaign ideas I have ever come across. I won't even try to qualify it with some witty remark. It's just an incredible, incredible concept that can be extrapolated in a hundred different ways to a hundred different degrees. Professionals in the audience, take note! This is the real deal, right here. A great idea for a great idea's sake. We could all use plenty more of them, though honestly, you could write an entire sourcebook off of the initial post of this thread alone. Bravo.
...
Wow - thanks very much. That's some serious head-bloating material there, I ought to be careful :).

[Tog]

And finally, I see any psionics in the vicinity getting lots of disturbing dreams broadcast to them by the tarrasque, which is in constant pain. Even if the creature is incredibly dumb,its suffering must be something psionics would pick up whether they want to or not -- like having an Emergency Broadcast System alert constantly in the background. Psionics can actually sympathize with the creature, perhaps enough, even,to bring its misery to an end. Maybe not to let it go -- they know how dangerous it is -- but to bring the industrial butchery and vivisection of the creature to a standstill.


Well, THAT'S why psionics/scrying don't work in T-ville. All they get is a "blinding" message of pain/anger/fright, so overwhelming that it's unintelligible.

[medivh]

Well, THAT'S why psionics/scrying don't work in T-ville. All they get is a "blinding" message of pain/anger/fright, so overwhelming that it's unintelligible.

Like "detect evil" doesn't work in Ravenloft? Yeah, that could work.

[Loup Du Noir]

This is an excellent idea. I think I might modify if somewhat for use in my upcoming D&D game.

As it stands, this serves as an excellent set piece to highlight the evil that men do. Upon Crucis (the campaign world), this is already served by the gradual fall into Necromantic practices and undeath that the nation of Embre is experiencing with its war against the Srax. Instead of having this as a human thing, I will apply it to another old D&D standby - the Orc.

In the northeastern regions of Crucis, the endless frozen Wastes lie. Here, for centuries dwelt the Wazlad, nomad human tribes eking out an existence upon the ice. Isolated by distance and environment from the rest of the peoples of Crucis. Amongst their tribes they spoke of the Destroyer, a terrible beast, nature's wrath made flesh. The Destroyer was held responsible for the avalanches, for floods and for the death of tribes, yet no human had ever lain eyes upon it. But there were more than just humans upon the Waste.

Orcs are hunters and conquerors, fractious, feral and brutal. They waged war upon one another, and upon the Wazlad, even bringing down the great white drakes of the north. In their legends they spoke of the Ravager, a wyrm like no other, so vast and powerful that time had no hold over it, the bitter cold of the Waste could not touch, and even death feared to cast its shadow upon it. The Destroyer was as a second God to the Waste Orcs, an expression of their own desire to destroy.

But amongst the fierce, hateful Orcs of the bitter north, worship was always tainted with jealousy, and desire. So long as the Destroyer yet lived, they could not proclaim themselves supreme, for there would always be one foe against whom whole warbands would scatter and flee. And so, with the aid of their dark clerics, the greatest of the Orcs discovered the resting place of the beast. Marshalling their armies, thirteen clans mustered their forces, the strongest and savagest of warriors, their greatest dragon slaves, tortured ice bears and broken Wazladi in their legion. And each of the chiefs of the thirteen tribes wielded a bitter cold spear of bone, crafted from the broken spine of a White wyrm, imbued with the dark magic of their jealous, hateful god Gruumsh.

They found it in a lonely cave in the coldest, bleakest stretch of the Wastes, before the true earth gave way to sheets of endless ice. Their intention was to kill the beast, to take its skull and blood and bones and cast them to the winds so that all would know of the power of the Orc, but mighty as they were, they lacked the resources to kill the beast. For a full week the battles raged, as the Destroyer slaughtered Orc, slave and beast with animal ferocity. But mighty as it was, even the Destroyer could tire and grow weak, and the chains of cold and magic woven into the fabric of the chieftain's spears brought the beast to its knees. Broken, the monster fell.

As was the custom of their people, the greatest of the remaining chieftains strode boldly to the weakened titan, and drank deep of the monster's hearts blood, and then each of the lesser on down the tribes, until each Orc had his fill. The blood made the Orcs strong, and the wounds they had taken during the battle healed. The bounty did not abate. Though beaten, the monster did not die. This troubled the remaining chieftains, and they confronted the clerics of Gruumsh, asking for meaning.

The clerics proclaimed the undying beast a gift from He Who Never Sleeps, a reward for those strong enough to take it. They worked their black magic upon the creature, setting chains imbued by their dark god across it to bind the creature. This done, the Clerics proclaimed another sign from Gruumsh, that with this great work, the time was come for the Orcs to extend their reach, to wipe out the hated Wazlad, and head south into the fertile lands of men. With the power of the Destroyer, the destiny of the Orcs was at hand.

This takes away most of the moral ambiguity of the original version, putting it much more firmly in the camp of "horrible monsters, poor Tarrasque", but it works well for the game I am running.

[The Horror]

So who is going to write up the sourcebook then? Because I'd not only totally buy it, I'd probably pick up the D&D corebooks as well! Very very cool idea.

[Orsino]

This could be one of those pressure cooker situations that enemies of the city might seek to exploit to overthrow it. Not to release the tarrasque, but to affect the kind of "regime change" that would place them in power instead of the old, debauched lords who used to run the place.


"We will only torture and butcher the Tarrasque for Good!"

[Bill_Coffin]

"We will only torture and butcher the Tarrasque for Good!"

I think an easy way for people to rationalize the treatment of the tarrasque is by judging how they live off of the beast. If they overthrow this decadent regime with something that at least feels a little less sinister, that might be all a new set of lords might need to sleep at night. That, and the knowledge that this monster would eat them all if it had the chance, so I can see hard-bitten champions simply not caring about this creature. Maybe they consider it too stupid to feel anything. Or maybe they feel charged by their god to punish this avatar of wickedness. One way or another, people will find a way to justify their treatment of the tarrasque, especially if the creature is the source of a very lucrative industry and an extraordinary standard of living.

[DarkDragonlord]

i have a question if they sell the flesh and blood of the tarrasque then whats stopping a wizard from cloning it and doing this all over again somewhere else or wrose yet making variant tarrasques (via templates). what about the ceatures surronding the city what if trolls starting getting their hand on the flesh or wrose yet vampires what would be the effect of the blood of the tarrasque on them?

[Cerulean Lion]

Based on DarkDragonlord's idea:

Tarrasque-flesh smugglers.
Bottles of Tarrasque blood sold on the open market.
A black-market trade in bits of bone and fragments of carapace and pieces of glands.
City nobles trying to stop this, or taking part in it.
The Cult of the Destroyer interfering, to stop the "blasphemy" or to get these items for themselves.

[JibbaJabbaWocky]

Consider this idea Yoinked.

:)

If awesomeness were ice cream, this D&D setting would be Pistachio. (The greatest ice cream ever)

[John_C]

I can easily see a cult that believes that, because the Tarrasque, the very incarnation of evil, is imprisoned that there is no longer any such thing as damnation.

So long as Satan is trapped, there is no sin...or at least no punishment for it. So do as you will, take what pleasure you like. You'll never have to pay for for your sins.

[Cerulean Lion]

This cult would react very badly to anyone trying to free the Tarrasque, or to anyone arguing that it ought not to be tormented.

Edit: And what about those who believed that, as long as Satan was imprisoned, evil is weakened?
They'd fight to prevent its escape, even against others who want to free it because of the evil things being done to it.
Warfare of Good vs Good, each determined to oppose Evil.

[Thomas T]

i have a question if they sell the flesh and blood of the tarrasque then whats stopping a wizard from cloning it and doing this all over again somewhere else or wrose yet making variant tarrasques (via templates).
Well for starters, they'd have to invent/rediscover cloning magic. Hell, maybe that's a holy grail for some of the wizards experimenting on the tarrasque's flesh.

[damion4242]

Well for starters, they'd have to invent/rediscover cloning magic. Hell, maybe that's a holy grail for some of the wizards experimenting on the tarrasque's flesh.

That would be one of those experiments that it would SUCK if it got loose. :p

I'm picturing this cute little medium size Tarrasque. Sure, it's not all THAT dangerous, but how do you kill it?

[Tog]

And what about those who believed that, as long as Satan was imprisoned, evil is weakened?
They'd fight to prevent its escape, even against others who want to free it because of the evil things being done to it.
Warfare of Good vs Good, each determined to oppose Evil.

Arguably what they're doing to the Tarrasque is "torture", and therefore evil. Which I why I argue that there would be a large corrupting influence on Taltasqa causing the population to tend towards Neutral Evil or Lawful Evil (not Chaotic as that would be counter to the existence of a city in the first place).

Not that justifying evil by arguing it prevents a greater evil (?) has ever stopped anyone, much less in the Real World.

And something nobody's addressed so far, I think - what's the impact on the various local dieties? Are they encouraging the captivity? Plotting against it? Unless they're Chaotic Evil, it might be in their best interest to have the thing under control, one way or another.

[Cerulean Lion]

Arguably what they're doing to the Tarrasque is "torture", and therefore evil. Which I why I argue that there would be a large corrupting influence on Taltasqa causing the population to tend towards Neutral Evil or Lawful Evil (not Chaotic as that would be counter to the existence of a city in the first place).

Not that justifying evil by arguing it prevents a greater evil (?) has ever stopped anyone, much less in the Real World.

And something nobody's addressed so far, I think - what's the impact on the various local dieties? Are they encouraging the captivity? Plotting against it? Unless they're Chaotic Evil, it might be in their best interest to have the thing under control, one way or another.
I'd think pretty much all the good dieties will be horrified.
Evil dieties might be indifferent: some might actually approve.
Neutral ones? [shrug] Anyone's guess.

[Jerrythehun]

Arguably what they're doing to the Tarrasque is "torture", and therefore evil. Which I why I argue that there would be a large corrupting influence on Taltasqa causing the population to tend towards Neutral Evil or Lawful Evil (not Chaotic as that would be counter to the existence of a city in the first place).

Not that justifying evil by arguing it prevents a greater evil (?) has ever stopped anyone, much less in the Real World.

And something nobody's addressed so far, I think - what's the impact on the various local dieties? Are they encouraging the captivity? Plotting against it? Unless they're Chaotic Evil, it might be in their best interest to have the thing under control, one way or another.

If I was a resident of a place where an indestructible beast the size of a village rampages periodically through the land killing every living thing, I'd have serious doubts as to what the fuck the gods would have to say about it.

Especially as a commoner, if a god or pantheon can't or won't stop this thing, why should I care at all about them? Yeah, yeah, big scary dood, ya going to throw lightning bolts at me, that's really scary. Because my village, my fields, my flocks and the lord's army were all EATEN BY A GIANT TARRASQUE, so what could a god do to or for me?

I think the religious implications alone make this a great setting idea. This is a fantastic thread!!!

[Valfader]

Hmm... What if it was a God that had been captured, instead of the Tarrasque?

Of course, it'd need far more magic to hold it in place than a bunch of immovable harpoons will do.

[Tog]

I'd think pretty much all the good dieties will be horrified.
Evil dieties might be indifferent: some might actually approve.
Neutral ones? [shrug] Anyone's guess.

Here's my take on the diety question, per D&D alignments:

LG, NG, CG: totally horrified and offended. BUT the Tarrasque running loose would also mean a hideous amount of death and destruction. I'd say the NG gods would be the most inclined to keep the beast where it is - LG would object but be unwilling to risk the destruction, CG similar.

LN: The fact that the beast is controlled outweighs the suffering caused to it.

CN: Ambivalent?

True N: Waiting for a karmic balance to assert itself? Possibly also ambivalent.

LE: Supportive of keeping the beast under control AND in pain. The one must suffer that the many benefit from it.

NE: Ambivalent? If the citizens of Taltasqa benefit from the beast's suffering, all the more power to them. Possibly in favor of releasing the beast IF it was in some way beneficial to the interests of the NE god(s).

CE: Tentatively supportive of the city, only in the sense that they had proved themselves the more powerful by bringing the tarrasque into bondage. If the tarrasque gets loose, though, it's obviously proved itself more fit than the city's inhabitants and should be encouraged to take vengance on them.

Far as I'm concered (and again, this is opinion) the city would be dominated by Law and opposed by Chaos, with adherents of Chaotic Neutral being the biggest threat.

[Tog]

If I was a resident of a place where an indestructible beast the size of a village rampages periodically through the land killing every living thing, I'd have serious doubts as to what the fuck the gods would have to say about it.


Unless the tarrasque was serving the gods in some way, possibly as a judgement on the land?

Or as a pet?

Skavon the Flame Lord is still waiting for Fluffy to come home, and he's getting VERY worried... ;)

[Jerrythehun]

Hmm... What if it was a God that had been captured, instead of the Tarrasque?

Of course, it'd need far more magic to hold it in place than a bunch of immovable harpoons will do.

There's the Githyanki city (Core setting) in the Astral Plane built in the corpse of a gawd.

My guess is that a gawd might be "caught" in some mythical way. Maybe bound with the Golden Chains of Blank made from the Feathers of the Blank, etc, etc.

[Rasmus Wagner]

Actually, in D&D, diamonds tend to be spent rather than accumulated. They are used for Stoneskin and other spells, and probaly play a large role in the construction of magic weapons.

Man, think what that will do to the economy! If the cartel that controls this thing doesn't put a pretty heavy cap on how many gems they actually extract and spend, they'll probably drive down local prices like you wouldn't believe. Either outcome is cool: in one case, you've got a bunch of guys who could get as many diamonds as they want to, but who keep the supply low to keep prices up.

This is depressingly like the real-world diamond market, so instead I'd go with option b: they don't restrict the supply at all. Diamonds are a regular construction material here. They're cheaper than cheese. They're considered garish. Muggers will knock you unconscious with a sock filled with diamonds.

Hm. What would be a valuable commodity in Tarrasquesville? What would the citizens get paid in? What could an enemy bribe them with?

[Albert]

Y'know, seems that this kind of situation is what Paladins are for. To go in and slay the monster, despite all the rationalizations and temptations.

Or, if the surrounding lands make Soddom and Gommorrah look like a good place to raise a family, set it free.

-Albert

[Quintin Stone]

The tarrasque is the personification of neutral and chaos. It is neither good nor evil. It simply exists to satisfy its voracious appetite. Therefore, I can see the gods of chaos and neutrality none too happy with its situation.

Speaking of appetite, the tarrasque eats to survive and survives to eat. During its active cycles, the tarrasque normally "eats everything for miles around, including all animals and vegetation." Clearly the city cannot (and probably would not want to) feed the beast its normal amount of sustenance. How does this affect it?

Unable to satisfy its hunger, the tarrasque can never enter its natural dormant cycle. It is awake constantly, in pain, starving. I can see its unsated hunger negatively affecting its regeneration rate. And can you imagine the sound of a tarrasque screaming 24 hours a day? If they harpoon its mouth shut, they cannot feed it at all (no famous tarrasque executions). Instead, they'd have to keep a continuous silence spell over the entire prison. This also keeps the harpoons safe from being removed, until the spell is canceled or dispelled.

[Jerrythehun]

The tarrasque is the personification of neutral and chaos. It is neither good nor evil. It simply exists to satisfy its voracious appetite. Therefore, I can see the gods of chaos and neutrality none too happy with its situation.

Speaking of appetite, the tarrasque eats to survive and survives to eat. During its active cycles, the tarrasque normally "eats everything for miles around, including all animals and vegetation." Clearly the city cannot (and probably would not want to) feed the beast its normal amount of sustenance. How does this affect it?

Unable to satisfy its hunger, the tarrasque can never enter its natural dormant cycle. It is awake constantly, in pain, starving. I can see its unsated hunger negatively affecting its regeneration rate. And can you imagine the sound of a tarrasque screaming 24 hours a day? If they harpoon its mouth shut, they cannot feed it at all (no famous tarrasque executions). Instead, they'd have to keep a continuous silence spell over the entire prison. This also keeps the harpoons safe from being removed, until the spell is canceled or dispelled.


Perhaps it is fed? Perhaps the agricultural products of a nation go into it's maw....perhaps Tarrasqueville must conquer other places to steal the food?

[LordAsteroth]

Regarding the question of cloning, consider that there is one Tarrasque, and only ever one. Perhaps the quality that makes the Tarrasque the immortal god-beast is entirely unique, not carried on in pieces of it's body. Split it in half, and one half will regenerate, the other becoming either dead (but potent) flesh and bone, or becoming reabsorbed if allowed. This removes the problem of having to worry about controling availability. Tarrasque meat for all!

[Lethe]

I have nothing to add except you guys have made D&D cool.

[Hia]

I imagine that just about every Druid in the world would hate this city for doing something like that.

[Jerrythehun]

I imagine that just about every Druid in the world would hate this city for doing something like that.

Oh, I don't know about that. It depends on whether the beast has a role in nature.

[Fringe Worthy]

The mortal races are doomed, their older sins shall come back and destroy them.

A greater power has seen this, it knows this. It has sent it's only child, a sacrifice of flesh and blood, who in it's torment, shall provide a chance for safety and redemptions.

Disciples shall form around, they shall partate of him, of his lessons, of his power, his pain, and they shall bring survival and redemption.

You play some of the human children of the tarrasque. Doubting, fearful, exstatic... Tis your duty to save the world, despite it's fear of you. You must provide meaning for the tarasque's pain and the power that sacrificed it.

(This realm wasn't the first realm of the mortal races. This was a dimensions where the few escapes of an earlier, more brutal time, escaped too. Pity the past has caught up with them. Have fun with an epic level/exhalted style campain)

Or more bluntly, the Tarrasque is a christ life figure, sent, to save the world by the consumption of its flesh and blood, it's pain bringing redemption.

[The Lord of Nothings]

This is the PERFECT setting for the group I game with. I haven't played much D&D with them, but I know they like stuff with characterization and depth and all that jazz...and its hard to get them to do a straight dungeon crawl. Or to get them to work together.
I've got this great vision of creating a party of moderate to high level characters. They're all really competant and they've all been hired by different people to get to the Tarrasque and kill it/set it free/sacrifice it to their God/talk to it/whatever. After a whole campaign's worth of politicking and dungeon-crawling, they finally get to the thing. Until this point, they've all had to work together-- due to the various dungeons and factions they have to navigate.
Once they all reach the Tarrasque, knives come out, plots come to fruition, hands are played and whatever happens is ultimitly up to the players....
As people pointed out, there are so many ways to see this situation. Maybe the party splits along Lawful lines. Maybe it splits along Evil lines. Maybe the Blackguard and the Paladin kill everyone else rather then see the thing go. Maybe all the Chaotic characters set it free... FOR FREEDOM!
etc
This also postpones the inevitable backstabbing for the end of the game, since you all need to work together to get to the damn thing....

[The Lord of Nothings]

The mortal races are doomed, their older sins shall come back and destroy them.


Or more bluntly, the Tarrasque is a christ life figure, sent, to save the world by the consumption of its flesh and blood, it's pain bringing redemption.

The eating of a god is a very old mythological motif.
Which is another thing the guys I game with like to play with.
I need to get somebody to run this NOW

[ShanG]

Perhaps it is fed? Perhaps the agricultural products of a nation go into it's maw....perhaps Tarrasqueville must conquer other places to steal the food?

Mmm. No, not just the food. Everything.

The Tarrasque normally 'eats everything for miles around, including all animals and vegetation.' In order to keep it satieted and regenerating, the armies of Tarrascon are going to be wiping out large swaths of the landscape. Forests. Herds of cattle. Villages. Maybe they can only feed it enough to keep it alive, but sooner or later they're going to want to give it a more substantial meal.

I imagine their army as it crosses the land, each soldier painted with inhuman blood, bulging with muscles and strange growths, covered in scars that no human could survive, girded in armor of reflective carapace, and wielding swords of bone set with diamond teeth.
I picture them returning after the conquest, bringing their spoils with them. Animals, crowded into cages or driven in herds.. Whole harvests mowed down, entire forests felled, villages razed to the ground, all of it piled upon creaking carts to bring along. Then come the people, bound together in rows, forming a line that fills the road and stretches back to the horizon.
The procession moves slowly down the street, as gloating fanfare sounds and the citiizens line the street in their splended clothes, cheering. The ancient, gnarled wordbearers speak a solemn ritual as the gates are opened and the procession leads up the broad steps. The tarrasque screams and gnashes his teeth, drowning out the cheering, chanting, sobbing, wailing. And then, one by one, the carts are thrown into its gaping mouth.

[Jerrythehun]

Mmm. No, not just the food. Everything.

The Tarrasque normally 'eats everything for miles around, including all animals and vegetation.' In order to keep it satieted and regenerating, the armies of Tarrascon are going to be wiping out large swaths of the landscape. Forests. Herds of cattle. Villages. Maybe they can only feed it enough to keep it alive, but sooner or later they're going to want to give it a more substantial meal.

I imagine their army as it crosses the land, each soldier painted with inhuman blood, bulging with muscles and strange growths, covered in scars that no human could survive, girded in armor of reflective carapace, and wielding swords of bone set with diamond teeth.
I picture them returning after the conquest, bringing their spoils with them. Animals, crowded into cages or driven in herds.. Whole harvests mowed down, entire forests felled, villages razed to the ground, all of it piled upon creaking carts to bring along. Then come the people, bound together in rows, forming a line that fills the road and stretches back to the horizon.
The procession moves slowly down the street, as gloating fanfare sounds and the citiizens line the street in their splended clothes, cheering. The ancient, gnarled wordbearers speak a solemn ritual as the gates are opened and the procession leads up the broad steps. The tarrasque screams and gnashes his teeth, drowning out the cheering, chanting, sobbing, wailing. And then, one by one, the carts are thrown into its gaping mouth.

Oh, hells yeah!!!!

See ya suckers, this concept is MINE!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[Cosmic Philosopher]

Wow, there's a lot of pretty cool ideas here. Am I the only one that imagined China Mieville coming up with a similar idea?

[SPrintF]

After years and years of this, the subsonic distress cries of the imprisoned tarrasque finally call its brethren across the planes of existence. Gigantic forms, like and yet unlike the tortured beast, emerge from the subtle realms and advance towards the city. Do they intend to free the beast? Or to destroy it utterly, and silence its maddening cries?

And in the city, a young warrior climbs into a monstrous suit of armor, crafted from the flesh, scale and bone of the tarrasque. This is not his fight by choice. He was called to it as surely as the beasts that now stride towards the city, driven by the relentless demands of his father, the King, and his necromancer servants who fashioned this hideous armor. He sees the creatures approaching, and knows his heart is not in this fight.

But he also knows: he musn't run away.

[SPrintF]

Am I the only one that imagined China Mieville coming up with a similar idea?

You're probably thinking of The Scar, which has a city chained to a different beast for a different purpose.

[Last Knight]

Am I the only one that imagined China Mieville coming up with a similar idea?

You're probably thinking of The Scar, which has a city chained to a different beast for a different purpose.
I could see New Crobuzon doing this, though. Hell, think of the bones in the middle of the city - maybe they already did.

[Melle]

Someone mentioned contractors to haul away waste from the city to landfill some distance away. Prime breeding ground for creepy mutated scavengers. But also a resource. A skilled alchemist-smuggler can extract almost an ounce of tarrasque blood from a each load of garbage, to be sold on the black market. Then, even the landfill becomes a vast guarded compound as the tarrasque lords try to keep their monopoly absolute, with the smugglers trying bribery, secret tunnels, hijacking garbage wagons, etc.

Also, the most secret experiment of them all, that not even all the Wordbearers know about? Some of the highest ranks of the mages are trying