Ecology of a Bag of Devouring
I was lying on the ground, staring up into the clear blue sky, trying to catch my breath. On the ground next to me was Etan, also on his back, rubbing his arm as if to make sure it was still there. Between us lay a seemingly regular-looking bag, the front flap slightly open.
“What the hell was that?” asked Etan, not quite convinced that his arm was still attached to his body. “The bloody bag tried to eat me!”
I sat up and stared at the bag. It looked more like a satchel, with a leather strap affixed to it so one could wear it over their shoulder. It seemed harmless enough, but a slow dread was coming over me as a tingling in my brain made me realize I had heard of such items before.
Etan stood up, walked over to the bag, and kicked it, first gingerly, and once he realized it wasn’t going to strike back, he kicked it again, this time sending it skittering across the ground. “Is it a mimic? I bet it’s a mimic. I’ve heard of those things. Nasty creatures they are.” He kicked the bag one final time. “Is it dead or just asleep? We should light it on fire. That will show it.” His voice had become shrill from a combination of confusion and fear.
“It’s not a mimic,” I stated. “And setting it on fire isn’t going to do anything to it.” (1) I walked over the bag and bent down to pick it up as Etan looked on in dismay. He backed away slowly as I picked it up by the strap and dusted it off.
“Well, then we should dip it in acid or throw it into the Great Sea,” Etan said, now a safe distance from me. Seeing that the bag was not trying to eat me, his voice returned to normal, but he did not come any closer. “What is it then?” he asked.
“I think we have found ourselves what is known as a bag of devouring,” I said. I opened the flap and looked inside, much to the horror of Etan. I’m not sure if I expected to see giant teeth, a huge rolling tongue, or perhaps a small pile of gold, but instead, I found myself looking into an empty bag.
“It’s an apt name, but what is it?” Etan asked again, still keeping his distance from me and the bag, even though I had closed the flap and set it back onto the ground. “If you hadn’t here to pull me out, I would have died!”(2)
“Yes, you would have…in about six more seconds.” I thought back to my time at the college, trying to dig up the lore from my Wondrous Items of the Arcane seminar. “Well, first off, the bag isn’t the monster. It’s the monster’s mouth.” I watched Etan shudder slightly. “Mouth isn’t the right term, though. My professor called it the creature’s orifice since it could not only eat things but also spit items out. I’m not sure that makes it any better.”
“It really doesn’t," he said. “But I don’t get it. Where is this monster? What is this monster?” The shrill tone was creeping its way back into his voice.
I closed my eyes, picturing old professor Gilbrist in front of his desk, lecturing us on the dangers of the bag. “No one knows for sure. All I remember them telling us was that it was an extradimensional creature. A massive extradimensional creature.”
“Extradimensional? I don’t have a clue what that means,” said Etan, looking confused and scared now.
“I’m not sure I know either. I seem to remember a professor saying it was the space between spaces.” (3)I said, trying in vain to remember more. “I usually slept in during my Studies in the Planes, Demi-planes, and Dimensions. It was either mind-numbingly boring or so confusing it made my head hurt. But we are getting off track.”
Etan just stared at me. He gave a slight shake of the head and snapped back to reality. “Yeah, ok, you’re right. So when you say massive, do you mean like astral dreadnought massive?”
“That sounds about right,” I said, not being able to think of another creature. “Let’s just call it the Devourer. The lore says that a Devourer could have up to sixty mouths in existence at one time.”
“Don’t you mean orifices?” Etan deadpanned. “So one Devourer would have sixty of these things out in the multiverse, either eating things or shitting them out?”
“Yes, and that brings up another good point,” I said, remembering now how excited Professor Gilbrist was during this lecture. “The Devourer can digest flesh and all other organic materials easily. Other items can take longer. (4) You can put stuff into the bag, and it will you’ll be able to see it plain as day as if you have put it into a normal bag.” I paused for a moment. “Getting it out of the bag is a different story.”
Etan looked down at his hand, obviously remembering what had happened the last time he reached into the bag. “I don’t understand, though. I had put coins into the bag earlier and pulled them out with no problem yesterday. Was it not hungry then?”
“If I remember correctly, the Devourer will only try to eat you about half the time. Why, I don’t think anyone knows. Maybe you’re right though, it just may not be hungry”.(5) Another tidbit of information rose to the surface of my brain. “Experiments have shown that anything placed in the bag will disappear in approximately a day, never to be seen from again. There have reported that bags have vomited, for lack of a better word, out random items every so often.”(6)
“Well, this is all quite fascinating,” Etan said sarcastically, “but now I’m out a few gold pieces and need to get a new bag. I’m sure as hell not using a bag that wants to eat me.”
“Here,” I said, tossing him my satchel after emptying its meager contents. I walked over to the bag, grabbed it, and opened it up.
“What the hell are you doing?” Etan cried, backing away from me.
"Keeping it,” I said as I gave the bag a quick, hard shake, turning it inside out. “It’s perfectly fine to use now,” I said, feeling fairly confident that I remembered my lessons correctly as I dropped my stuff into it. (7) “It’s harmless this way. You never know when something like this could come in handy".
Etan kept his distance, warily shaking his head. “You’re insane. Make sure you keep it away from me.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Meh.” I looked down at the inside-out bag hanging over my shoulder. “I like it, and besides, it goes with my outfit.”
Most magic items are objects of extraordinary partisanship. Due to careful crafting and magical reinforcement, a magic item is at least as durable as a nonmagical item of its kind. Most magic items, other than potions and scrolls, have resistance to all damage. Artifacts are practically indestructible, requiring extraordinary measures to destroy. (DMG, pg. 141)
A creature inside the bag can use its action to try to escape with a successful DC 15 Strength check, which our friend Etan was obviously successful in making. Another creature can use its action to reach into the bag to pull a creature out, doing so with a successful DC 20 Strength check - provided it isn't pulled inside the bag first. (DMG, pg. 153)
An extradimensional space (aka an extraplanar space) is outside other planes. Therefore, if you’re on the Material Plane and your foe is in an extradimensional space, the two of you aren’t on the same plane of existence. (Sage Advice)
Some substances take longer than others to digest. Flesh, leather, and parchment dissolve almost immediately. Wood and bone last a little longer. Metals and gems take months to break down. Even magical items eventually succumb. (Dragon Magazine #271, May 2000)
Don’t put your hand in there! When a creature reaches inside it, there is a 50 percent chance that you’ll be pulled into the bag. Nothing good comes from that. (DMG, pg. 153)
Per 5th edition rules, the bag swallows any objects inside it and spits them into another plane of existence. Combine this with the idea that a Devourer can have up to sixty orifices posing as bags, and it can be argued that what one ‘mouth’ swallows, another will spit out.
Turning a bag of devouring inside out renders it useless. (DMG, pg. 153)
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