Viewer requested video time. This week, it's Dalmosh of the Infinite Maws. Perhaps a mere blip on the scale of the abyss, but something of a legend for good reason. Dalmosh is a demon kaiju, a living, breathing cataclysm.
Let's set the scene.
Calling Dalmosh from the abyssal depths requires a ritual and a feast of epic proportions. We're talking about a spread that's the stuff of legends, worth a small fortune of 10,000 gold pieces. Imagine the scene: a vast cauldron, bubbling with the most exquisite, mouth-watering delicacies from across the realms, an offering so lavish that it could salivate a god, surrounded with hundreds of platters, each a meal fit for a whole group of people, dish after dish of gorgeous and rare foods, and amidst this opulent display, the members of a ritual circle are chanting deeply for a solid hour, weaving magic to draw Dalmosh forth, not just with the promise of this grand feast but with the chanted promises of assured, massive devastation for the lord of hunger.
The summoning ritual reaches deep into the chaotic heart of the Abyss to a layer housing the Flesh Mountains, one of many living layers; the landscape is all undulating hills of meat, covered in thick skin with drifts of old dead skin flakes like dunes, patches of thick, stinking hair like alpine tussock plants and more than a few species of carnivorous fungus and oozes. The mountains of flesh are shaped into strange swirling patterns, thanks to the eons of voracious eating by Dalmosh, a 50-foot-tall, gigantic humanoid of unknown origin.
Somewhere above his largest maw are two deep-set blue eyes, but that's about as close as he has to a face; his entire body is kind of soft, he has no actual bones, and his entire bulk is kept together by muscle, thick vascular tubes and tough sinews that web their way through his insides, the rest is all digestive system, his entire body is really an immortal living gateway to a bounded sub-dimension called The Gullet, it doesn't occupy any space but is co-terminus with the inside of Dalmosh's body and spawns a new portal every time Dalmosh spawns a new mouth, which happens any time he gets slashed open by a weapon or some such.
A creature that is large seems to move slowly but covers a lot of ground; a standard movement in a round would be 50 feet (15m) or twice if he is charging at some new target of his hunger. Dalmosh is only really motivated by hunger and an equally endless desire for destruction, any creature up to large size that gets in his way will be grabbed and thrown into his maw, taking a huge amount of bludgeoning damage, followed by round after round of inexorable acid damage while trapped in the Gizzard of Dalmosh, the crushing and digesting compartment before it gets to the portal into the Gullet sub-realm, so you can still cut your way back out of Dalmosh from inside his gizzard, you have to inflict 75 points of damage in a single round with a light weapon, not an easy task. The gizzard is fairly large, and it can hold up to eight medium-sized people; most inanimate material swallowed goes straight through into the Gullet. Dalmosh has a standard, brutal, and effective combat move, he will charge 50 feet through a group of targets and inflict a full bite attack on each target adjacent to his path, which can be devastating to large groups of other creatures, making short work of masses of ranked soldiers in the blood wars, for example.
To quote directly from the 5th monster manual for 3.5 edition dungeons and dragons,
"Though Dalmosh is dull, brutal, and indiscriminately destructive, he has managed to accumulate admirers. Trolls and ogres view Dalmosh as the ultimate expression of their vicious, avaricious natures. Some orcs do the same, but they see Dalmosh as a potential weapon, not as an object of worship.
Those who summon Dalmosh do so to destroy their enemies. No sane creature believes that Dalmosh is capable of more than this. In fact, Dalmosh’s summoners know they risk their lives, for he of the Infinite Maws readily eats those who remain nearby after a summoning ritual.
He has no ecological niche. He simply devours everything in his path, following the movement and noise that attract him to a potential meal. The Flesh Mountains, his home, stretch across several layers of the Abyss. His dwelling is a vast cave eaten out of those same mountains, where he lounges and takes brief moments to digest. The mountains eternally grow larger, and only Dalmosh’s endless eating keeps them in check. Some say that Dalmosh is the living will of the Flesh Mountains, a strange entity that has existed as long as the Abyss itself.
When summoned away from the Flesh Mountains, Dalmosh will always return and reform there after two days, earlier if somehow killed by something, he just reforms in the Flesh Mountains eternally.
Creatures that Dalmosh swallows sometimes knowingly choose to enter the Gullet rather than perish in his gizzard. Those unfortunate creatures that lack the means to travel the planes become trapped. They survive by eating the remains that fall from the sky, gathering magic items, building materials, and other tools that survive the trip into the Gullet. Here and there, crude settlements have arisen, and Garnamastra is the largest of these. A rakshasa known as the Eyeless Tyrant rules this place, backed by a small cabal of assassins and spellcasters"
I recall that movie with the Cloverfield monster, and the ideo that it was covered in parasites so large, they were a lethal threat to creatures as small and puny as humans.
Dalmosh is a creature of flesh, so why not have sufficiently large chunks that get carved off him in battle, have similar qualities, but be much smaller. The Spawn of Dalmosh could still be large in size, depends on the chunk carved off and how fast it can reshape into a humanoid shape.
Dalmosh's stomping grounds, are as alive and as grotesque as the demon itself. Imagine mountains made of meat, their surfaces undulating, covered in a skin-like crust, with drifts of old dead skin flaking off like snow. Here, amidst this living landscape, thrive the demonic fungus and oozes – entities born from the very essence of the Abyss.
The carnivorous fungus here is no ordinary mold. These are aggressive, sentient growths, feeding not just on the decay left in Dalmosh's wake but on the very energy of the Abyss itself. They lure, trap, and consume anything that comes too close, digesting it slowly, adding to the grotesque beauty of the Flesh Mountains.
And then there are the oozes – slithering, sentient slimes that roam the fleshly valleys and crevices. These are not mere puddles of goo; they are predators, each with its unique method of hunting. Some dissolve their prey with acidic secretions, while others engulf and digest them over time.
But Dalmosh always returns, and with him, the cycle continues. He devours, he destroys, and in doing so, he feeds the very land that sustains the bizarre ecosystem of the Flesh Mountains. It's a symbiotic relationship, in a twisted, abyssal sense.
My name is AJ Pickett, if you enjoy these deep dives into Dungeons and Dragons lore, please subscribe to the channel and hit the like button, thank you for listening and as always, I will be back with more for you, very soon.
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