Tarrasque The tarrasque was the most terrible creature known to inhabit the Prime Material Plane . A full fifty feet tall and seventy feet long quadruped with a long tail , reflective carapace , and two large horns on its head , the tarrasque was created by the primordial s as a weapon of destruction during the Dawn War , with the purpose of undoing the stability instilled in the world by the god s so that the primordials could remake it . Fortunately , the primordials created only one tarrasque , which slumbered within the world ' s core . No one could predict when it would next awake . The tarrasque was irreversibly tied to the Prime by its nature . As a result , the most one could hope to do was put the creature to sleep within the core , holding it off for a while longer . However , ancient texts seemed to indicate that there might be a way to finally and ultimately deal with the creature , if one could somehow deceive it , luring it into another plane and sealing it there . Although the tarrasque was indisputably a force of pure destruction , it was not truly evil or even chaotic by nature , lacking the consciousness necessary for it to take a moral stance . As a result , it was merely neutral in alignment . Description . The tarrasque was an enormous abomination , roughly the size of an ancient dragon , with two long horns extending from its forehead , a thick carapace , mighty tail , and a wide , toothy mouth . The tarrasque also had two small eyes , but it did not rely on these for its primary method of sensory perception — if they were blinded or removed , it was effectively unhindered . The tarrasque was impossible to frighten or charm and had resistances to every kind of damage imaginable . It moved at a speed roughly half again that of a human , either while walking on the surface , climbing a height , or burrowing through the earth . Abilities . The tarrasque was an eating machine while awake , capable of swallowing creatures of roughly giant size whole . When roused , it would , by its design , eat quite literally the entire world , including plants and animals . Fortunately , it would only be active for a week or two before it returned to its slumber to sleep for five to twenty months , although , once every decade or so , the tarrasque would stay active for several months , after which it would sleep four to sixteen years , unless disturbed . Why it returned to slumber is unknown , though it seemed inevitable that at some point it would try and fulfill its purpose to destroy the world entirely . The tarrasque had many unusual abilities gifted to it by its creators . Among the most terrifying of these was its ability to ignore any natural resistances its victims had , cutting right through them with its deadly attacks . It also had the ability to dramatically hinder the ability of creatures within 200 feet of it to fly , reducing their speed substantially while also bringing them down to a maximum altitude of twenty feet , which put them within the beast ' s reach . Most dangerous of all , of course , was the tarrasque ’ s insatiable appetite . The tarrasque had the ability to instill nearby creatures with terrible fear , rendering them incapable of action . It was also immune to the ill effects of fire , poison , or disease . It was generally immensely difficult to injure . History . Although the primordials created the tarrasque , not many knew this . Most were wholly unaware of the tarrasque ' s existence and those that did know of it were unsure about its origins , which they surmised to be anything from its actual creation to it being the weapon of an ancient and evil cabal of wizard s . Most dismissed these theories , however , as unproven musings . More important was that the tarrasque rarely left evidence or witnesses , so dangerous was its nature . In the final years of the first Netheril empire , the creature ' s lair ( in what used to be southwest Anauroch ) was under heavy guard by Angardt barbarian s whose shaman ' s prophecies told of the beast ' s imminent awakening . In - 339 DR , adventurers hired by the archwizard Karsus came to cut out the tarrasque ' s pituitary gland , which was to be used as a spell component for the casting of " Karsus ' s Avatar " . A gold dragon named Dracolnobalen , who protected the Angardt tribe , provided the adventurers working for Karsus with a liquid that she claimed would keep the tarrasque from waking again once applied to its body . It seemed to have worked , since no gigantic , hungry monsters emerged from the " lair of the sleeping beast " since those adventurers ventured inside . Before the desert was restored to fertile land , the tarrasque ' s lair still existed and was known to those few who knew of its location as " The Secret Place in the Sands " . However , around 1358 DR , a mage summoned the tarrasque through a ritual that required the heads of five adult dragons to complete . Appendix . Background . The tarrasque ' s first appearance was in " Monster Manual II 1st edition " ( 1983 ) , page 117 .