The Curious Cottabus was a strange creature residing in the Gillikin Country of Land of Oz. It had an insatiable desire to get its questions answered. Pompadore of Pumperdink and Kabumpo encountered the Cottabus during their journey to find the Proper Princess. It demanded they answer 50 questions, some of which seemed mysterious or irrelevant. When they left, leaving some of his questions unanswered, the Cottabus followed, later helping them out of a scrape by telling them how to escape from the city of Rith Metic after they had answered all its questions.