Normally, I don't go to RPGNet.  But I got this link sent to me and this is just too nifty an idea not to share.  

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=261519

Quote from: Thomas TI was inspired while reading about the tarrasque. Specificaly the bit about its regeneration.

"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'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.

Now that certainly seems like a cool idea!  I was struck when I read this right after checking in on the Colonel's thread -- this seems like something truly fantastic that could be set in a world that ordinary D&D characters could be in.

And with the idea of the Tarrasque being the predator of something even *worse*, I could just see the party having to free it and herd it through the city without *all* of it being destroyed...  :heh:

Here's a twist - all that wealth, all that power, all those components and items and tarrasque blood immortality, would instantly END if the Tarrasque were ever actually slain.

So now the city, it's ruling class, all the wizards, and the keepers of the Tarrasque have actual incentive to keep anybody from ever trying to permenantly slay the beast. Not only would this cut off their source of income in the future, it would destroy everything they've ever worked for. They would be powerless. They would be nothing.

Now say Big T gets out. Maybe the cult you mentioned frees him. The rulers of the city don't want it destroyed - they want it re-contained. So THEY can be the main villians, if the PCs try to kill the beast.

There's any number of layers you could twist on this.  Even worse than trying to herd the Tarrasque out of the city would be trying to get it back in!

And what if the PCs are hooked on Tarrasque blood?  If they try to kill it, maybe they'll die, too.  And can even high-level PCs handle it if an entire city is out lynch them?

Very cool idea but if anyone wanted to topple the power structure wouldn't it just take a Wish spell cast after a harvest run?


The city would need a massive counter intellegence organization to counter act the one spell which could end its power from just about anywhere on the world.

Quote from: BolverkVery cool idea but if anyone wanted to topple the power structure wouldn't it just take a Wish spell cast after a harvest run?


The city would need a massive counter intellegence organization to counter act the one spell which could end its power from just about anywhere on the world.

I think Wish only works if you bring it down to -500 hit points first. As long as you keep it above that, the plan still works.

Also, being unique, it's entirely possible that nobody knows how to get rid of it for good. The DM could make up a new "only way to kill the Tarrasque" and then the players would be in the dark, too.

Quote from: Name LipsI think Wish only works if you bring it down to -500 hit points first. As long as you keep it above that, the plan still works.

You wouldn't have to wish it dead, just wish away a few of its restraints to give the city some trouble.

"I wish all the restraints took a 5 foot step away from the Tarrasque."  :heh:

Wishes aren't exactly common, but I suppose it does take just one happy funster for all hell to break lose.  And, let's face it, the ONLY reason to use a city like this is to have the Tarrasque break free at some point and do his little Godzilla best on the city built around him.  

Quote from: Gunhilda"I wish all the restraints took a 5 foot step away from the Tarrasque."  :heh:

Wishes aren't exactly common, but I suppose it does take just one happy funster for all hell to break lose.  And, let's face it, the ONLY reason to use a city like this is to have the Tarrasque break free at some point and do his little Godzilla best on the city built around him.  

I don't know... 17th level isn't all that hard to reach and all it takes from there is a willingness to blow 5k xps... in a magicly hyped environment like this one I'd say wishes are indeed pretty common.

Quote from: BolverkI don't know... 17th level isn't all that hard to reach and all it takes from there is a willingness to blow 5k xps... in a magicly hyped environment like this one I'd say wishes are indeed pretty common.

I'd say that entirely depends on the world setting.  It's most likely that all the high level heroes that did the work of dropping the beast setting up the city and  containing it have sinced died off.  Left is the remainder.  The slack, the wealthy and the greedy.  People that don't have to really work at anything they just have to have enough wealth to control the power.  They don't need to be of Forgotten Realms scale levels to be able to do anything.  If your populace as a whole has no really class/level then your typical public hero could be level 5 a truly heroic person level 10.  You wouldn't need to have any NPC higher then that for the world to be believable.  Leave it up to the PC's to become the true powers behind things.  Perhaps they are the cult working to free the Tarasque.

Quote from: GunhildaNormally, I don't go to RPGNet.  But I got this link sent to me and this is just too nifty an idea not to share.  

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=261519



Now that certainly seems like a cool idea!  I was struck when I read this right after checking in on the Colonel's thread -- this seems like something truly fantastic that could be set in a world that ordinary D&D characters could be in.

And with the idea of the Tarrasque being the predator of something even *worse*, I could just see the party having to free it and herd it through the city without *all* of it being destroyed...  :heh:

Wow. I just saw this and what a terrifically creative idea. No, make that IDEAS. There's so much potential for this.