Otyugh

"Capturing and transporting these shit-beasts for a city's sewer system is perhaps the most ridiculous job I have ever agreed to."

• - Trallon of the Thieves Guild

Basic Information

Anatomy

Otyughs are strange-looking creatures, with bloated, pear-shaped bodies around 12 feet wide supported by three elephantine legs and has a tough leathery hide. They have a pair of long tentacles bedecked with rough, thorny growths and end in leaf-shaped pads bearing rows of more hooked spines. A third tentacle sprouts from the top of the otyugh's body, forming a vine-like stalk ending in a pair of eyes and an olfactory organ.
The body of the creature contains a massive fang-filled mouth, shaped like a crude gash through its center. A typical otyugh weighs around 500 pounds. Otyughs have the ability to regenerate over time, with small wounds able to seal up in a few seconds, but severed tentacles or limbs requiring days.

Genetics and Reproduction

Otyughs are hermaphrodites and reproduce asexually, however the method can be quite disturbing. Each tentacle pad has within a single retractable hollow spine that is used to inject a single fertilized egg into a living creature that has been snared and immobilized. It is thought that the body temperature of the victim is needed to incubate the egg which grows rapidly, absorbing the skeleton and flesh of the host and transforming it to its own structure over a period of three to five days, depending on the size of the host creature.

Growth Rate & Stages

Otyughs grow rapidly once a food source is available reaching maturity in less than three months.

Ecology and Habitats

Dwelling primarily in underground caves, otyughs can be found skulking among piles of refuse and waste. They made such places their lairs, or else gathered refuse to fill their lairs. An otyugh spends the majority of time in its lair, burying itself in trash with only the sensory stalk protruding above the heap. It sits for hours on end, shovelling "food" into its maw with its tentacles.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Otyughs are primarily omnivorous scavengers. They can consume almost all kinds of refuse and waste, such as carrion, offal, and even sewerage. Nevertheless, they also adopt the strategy of an ambush predator and will take fresh meat whenever given the chance.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The eyesight of an otyugh is thought to be in the infra-red and therefore perceives thermal images of its surroundings. The beast dislikes sunlight and will make strong efforts to avoid it.
The olfactory gland is highly sensitive and used to locate pungent odours that lead the beast to the refuse it gathers or consumes as food.

Scientific Name

Biomorph

Conservation Status

Naturally cave dwellers, these beasts are often caputured as a means to remove garbage and treat sewerage in large human cities.