The legendary tarrasque is possibly the most dreaded monster of the Material Plane. It is widely believed that only one of these creatures exists, though no one can predict where and when it will strike.

A scaly biped, the tarrasque is fifty feet tall and seventy feet long, weighing hundreds of tons. It carries itself like a bird of prey, leaning forward and using its powerful lashing tail for balance. Its cavernous maw yawns wide enough to swallow all but the largest creatures, and so great is its hunger that it can devour the populations of whole towns.

Legendary Destruction

The destructive potential of the tarrasque is so vast that some cultures incorporate the monster into religious doctrine, weaving its sporadic appearance into stories of divine judgment and wrath.

Legends tell how the tarrasque slumbers in its secret lair beneath the earth, remaining in a dormant state for decades or centuries. When it awakens in answer to some inscrutable cosmic call, it rises from the depths to obliterate everything in its path.

Tarrasque

The Shape of Calamity

Among the most devastating creatures in existence, the tarrasque is an engine of catastrophe and a ruiner of nations. A terror of massive size and overwhelming might, this primeval destroyer survives from the earliest epochs of the Material Plane, when it served as a weapon of immortal forces. Since then, the tarrasque has slumbered in secret, rising every few ages to usher in eras of destruction.

The tarrasque is a bipedal, prehistoric Monstrosity that stands over seventy feet tall. Bristling with horns and spikes, its spiny carapace deflects harm and can reflect magical attacks.

The tarrasque is a creature of tireless rage. It lashes out at any creature that catches its attention, thrashing with claws and its mighty tail while swallowing smaller beings whole. It seems to take instinctual offense at the works of lesser beings, venting its rage at buildings, bridges, ships, and monuments. The larger a structure or foe is, the greater the tarrasque's wrath.

It is a mystery what—if anything—calms the tarrasque, but eventually it returns to its slumber, leaving the world irrevocably changed. While the tarrasque might be halted by incredible opposition, its threat can never be wiped from the multiverse. Whenever the tarrasque is defeated, another tarrasque awakes somewhere else on the Material Plane.

Few things survive the tarrasque's rampages, and reports of the monster's devastation are often contradictory, incomplete, or beyond belief. In cases where it leaves no survivors, its calamities might initially be blamed on evil dragons or magical disasters, but the tarrasque frequently leaves behind some unmistakable indication of its passage. Roll on or choose a result from the Tarrasque Evidence table to inspire what marks the monster's rampages.