Old School Monsters: Otyugh

On today's morning commute, the radio news channel had their regular feature on food and cooking. Today's topic was "foods we love to hate". Two foods in particular were discussed: brussels sprouts and offal.



Offal (which I thought was pronounced "Oh'ful", but the food columnist insisted was pronounced "Awful") are the parts of an animal that most sane people refuse to eat. Tongue, kidneys, tripe, liver, brains, that sort of thing. The food columnist made a steak and kidney pie, which the radio announcer ate, and reportedly enjoyed.


Listening (in mild disbelief) to a discussion of eating offal, that led me to a reminiscence on the Otyugh, the larger-than-life, and more dangerous dungeon-version of the oyster. The Otyugh is the dungeon's garbage filter. It has a symbiotic relationship with the other dungeon-denizens, subsisting on their dung, offal and carrion, but also happy to opportunistically supplement its diet with fresh adventurer.


The Otyugh manages (just barely) to qualify as an old-school monster, as it does not make its first appearance until the AD&D Monster Manual. Do original monsters in the AD&D monster manual qualify as old-school? I think so, but others may disagree. The insiration for this monster is a mystery to me, but it was used quite regularly in my dungeons, as a justification for the lack of sewage systems or other ways of cleaning the dungeon. It, and the Gelatinous Cube, were the fantasy equivalents of the vacuum cleaner.


The Otyugh, and its' big brother, the Neo-Otyugh, warranted their own entries in the Monster Manual. That is somewhat odd, considering that others, like Nagas and Lycanthropes, got only one entry each, with sub-paragraphs explaining the different sub-types of that monster category.


I wonder, did the Otyugh make the cut of monsters for 4e?
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