The Dodo | 5E 2014

Notes from the writer: The dodo was an essential inclusion in Book of Extinction, our monster manual of extinct animals reimagined as monsters with 5th edition mechanics. Every monster in the book is presented alongside the true history of its dying out on planet earth.

Raphus cucullatus
Didus ineptus
Griffeendt
Kermis goose

s extinction stories go, the dodo’s is ridiculous. The species’ only population existed on coastal regions of the uninhabited island of Mauritius, middle island of a range of three called the Mascarenes, in the Indian Ocean just west of Madagascar. A lack of natural predators allowed the dodo to become huge, flightless, and slow, with a deformed beak best suited to fighting other dodos for fallen fruit. The Portuguese called Mauritius Cerne (or Swan) Island, possibly because of the dodo. It was discovered by Dutch sailors in 1598, for whom a forty-pound flightless pigeon without the instinct to run away was a stew waiting to happen. However, the sailors seemed to regret making those stews because they swiftly named the bird walghvogel (“disgusting bird”). By the time Dutch settlers arrived on Mauritius in 1640, the dodo was practically extinct; introduced predators like rats,
cats, pigs and monkeys did the rest by 1681.

The dodo went extinct too fast for a solid body of evidence to be created about it; most of what we know about the bird is romanticized, conjectured, or a near miss. We know from the stews that dodos swallowed stones to aid in digestion. Almost all of the skeletal evidence of dodos was discovered in a Mauritian swamp called Mare aux Songes; this paleontological goldmine was nearly paved over by development for the Mauritius International Airport, and is now only a kilometer or two from the runway. The airport had the good sense to erect a memorial to Mare aux Songes and the dodo, but it’s in the wrong spot. Later authors may have used the name “dodo” to refer to the Mauritius red rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia), making their evidence suspect; the Mauritius red rail was itself extinct in 1693. There is even record of a mysterious “white dodo” on the neighboring island of Réunion, though written accounts of that species could just have easily referred to a white ibis or a bird that never existed at all. Many museums exhibit “stuffed” dodos; all are fakes made from the feathers of other birds, most of the oldest and best having been made by the Rowland Ward Corporation in Piccadilly, London.

There’s a lot of poetry, good and bad, about the dodo. Sir Thomas Herbert’s 1634 account is the most prosaic:

…Her eyes are small and like to Diamonds, round and rowling; her clothing downy feathers, her traine three small plumes, short and inproportionable, her legs suiting to her body, her pounces sharp, her appetite strong and greedy.

It’s a funny-looking bird with a funny-sounding name that never knew what hit it. There isn’t a more fitting icon of extinction.

Dödó

Medium beast, chaotic neutral
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 88 (16d8 + 16)
Speed 30 ft.

STR: 10 (+0), DEX: 10 (+0), CON: 10 (+0)
INT: 3 (-4), WIS: 10 (+0), CHA: 5 (-3)

Damage Immunities psychic
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, stunned
Senses passive Perception 11
Languages Common, Sylvan

Stupefying Gaze. When a creature that can see the dodo’s eyes starts its turn within 30 feet of the dödó, the dödó can force it to make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw if the dödó isn’t incapacitated and can see the creature.

On a failed save, the creature’s thoughts become muddled and it has disadvantage on its next attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. If the saving throw against Stupefying Gaze fails by 5 or more, the creature is instead subjected to the confusion spell for 1 minute (no concentration required by the dödó). While confused in this way, the creature is immune to the dödó ’s Stupefying Gaze.

Unless surprised, a creature can avert its eyes to avoid the saving throw at the start of its turn. If the creature does so, it can’t see the dodo until the start of its next turn, when it can avert its eyes again. If the creature looks at the dödó in the meantime, it must immediately make the save.

Actions
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d10 + 2) piercing damage.
Galumph! The dödó speaks a frabjous, uffish word. Each creature within 60 feet of the dödó that can hear it must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. A creature takes 15 (2d10 + 4) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

---