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Average size
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4' tall, 9' long
121 cm tall, 274 cm long |
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Average weight
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3,300 lbs
1500 kg |
Type
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Aquatic
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Spawning Myth
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When one resists a sudden food craving
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Notable Individuals
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Summary
Mephitoads are unintelligent creatures that eat just about anything. Their secretions are more or less toxic depending on their diet.
Physiology
Mephitoads - sometimes called "slugpuppies" - are walrus-sized amphibians. They have four eyes, long floppy ears, and occasionally have two or more chin barbels. Their hind legs are vestigial, and they instead move on a strong, mucus-secreting tail. The mucus is toxic to ingest to most creatures, and is at best unpalatable to everyone else.
Their organs are specialized to process their highly varied, excessive, and often toxic diet. These toxins are filtered into a gland that then excretes them through the creature's mucus. As such, a mephitoad may be more or less toxic depending on what it's been eating.
Their innards are also remarkably strong and flexible, allowing the animal to consume large, sharp, pointy, or otherwise inedible objects.
Their hide is rubbery and wet. They come in a variety of colors and patterns, from drab and swampy hues to garish palettes that warn nicely of the creature's toxicity.
Habitat
Mephitoads live in swamps and bogs outside Nodd proper, though sometimes occupy sewers within the city. They are also kept on the House of Viviria’s campus grounds, where they’re revered.
Reproduction
Mephitoads are biologically hermaphrodites, and exchange genetic material by intertwining tentacle-like reproductive organs that emerge from a cloaca. The phallus itself has no opening, and instead the fluids ooze from tiny pores all along the organ's length. After copulation, the fluid-slathered organs unwind from one another and retract back into the creature's uterus, where eggs will be fertilized.
The round, greenish-yellow eggs are cared for by the single parent, who will then watch after the "pups" after they're hatched.
Behavior
Mephitoads aren't particularly intelligent, and essentially exist to consume garbage.
Mephitoads do not seem to possess any cognitive impulse to stop eating. It is not uncommon to see one that has recently stumbled upon a smörgåsbord and immobilized itself - in which case it will only resume eating once it can move again.
Diet
Mephitoads do not seek out any particular food source, and instead tend to eat anything that catches their attention.
Common Uses
Mephitoads are difficult to own, as they're known to consume furniture and owner alike. However, they are Viviria’s beloved symbol, and are kept as pets on the campus grounds.
Image Gallery
A mephitoad makes a meal of an outsider in the Grotmire¹
