Moathouse Giant Lizard with Magic Shield in its Gut

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

A giant lizard in the moat house has a magic shield in its gut.

How have you DM'ed in the past - do you provide any hint from external appearances that the gut of the lizard is oddly shaped due to bulging from the internal shield? Is this a small or normal shield, or a buckler? Have you specified an armorial bearing or coat of arms on the shield for campaign flavor?

Or is it all just unprompted pure curiosity by the PCs that they would want to dissect the giant lizard to look for treasure?

[geneweigel]

Regardless of proportions the shield had to pass down its throat so it has to be good-sized I'd imagine maybe even based a stubby looking type like a painted dragon.

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

Dec 30, 2017 0:34:43 GMT -5 geneweigel said:

Regardless of proportions the shield had to pass down its throat so it has to be good-sized I'd imagine maybe even based a stubby looking type like a painted dragon.

Cool, so if a painted dragon type, it could be a wooden shield roughly 22" to 25" in diameter? Treat as a small wooden shield?

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

Would you say that some bulging in the lizards gut would be externally apparent to the adventurers, or might it be still caught up in the giant lizards throat making odd bulging there?

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

Or would you picture shield narrower in width, say 18" and greater height: 24" to 40" height?

[geneweigel]

Universal common logic says with reptiles' "pet" behavior they're very sensitive to garbage and will regurge. So in this case, we're dealing with a Moby Dick situation where it doesn't give a crap that it has a shield in their belly for a while. They ate the person with a shield stuck on their arm. So I'd imagine no protrusion. They're either walking away or butchering for goods. Which is a turn off for most people even in fantasy form but when we played most of these there was the Red Riding Hood factor of cutting open man-eaters as a default. So it was an option. If you want to give them a clue say it by overhearign the men talk about someone getting eaten whole by the lizard then leave it at that.

[geneweigel]

Sorry, I didn't mean Moby Dick I meant "Monstro" from Pinocchio

[foster1941]

I don’t have the module in front of me at the moment and can’t recall - does the lizard have a chance to swallow PCs whole? If so, that’s an obvious hint to check its gullet after it’s killed. Other than that, it seems appropriate to give hints, especially for new players - rumors of it swallowing things if the PCs talk to or spy on the brigands (like Gene mentioned) plus perhaps something like them witnessing it spitting up something, or even mention of a “clanging” sound on a solid hit to its midsection should give attentive players the idea. OTOH a plainly visible shield-shaped protrusion from its gut makes it too obvious.

[Scott]

Most hints are going to make it very obvious. A prior encounter with some creature that swallows whole, like the giant frogs, or maybe something like ‘its huge mouth, almost big enough to swallow you whole, snaps at you’. That’s about as close to a hint as I would give.

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

MM states because of a giant lizard's large maws they are able to engulf prey any to hit roll of 20 means double damage as both jaws snap on its prey