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Number Appearing: 1
Alignment: Any Evil
Languages: Lingua Franca plus 1d3 local Monster tongues
Treasure: Equipment, clothing and money taken from their victims
Gorgons are putrid creatures, humanoids with scaled bodies and long, flashing claws of metal, usually naturally-occurring bronze. Their hair is a nest of writhing serpents and their faces are so hideous that it is said that gazing upon one will cause one to turn to stone. Sadly, this is one folk tale that is entire true.
Gorgon
HD 3
AR 2
Atk Claws or Weapon (1d6+1/1d6+1)
Mor 13
Saves 10 or less
Immune to Petrification, Poison damage
Petrifying Appearance: If a creature sees a Gorgon's face, that creature must save. On a failed save, that creature is petrified and turns to stone.
Toxic Blood: If a creature ingests or injects a Gorgon's blood, that creature must save or die.
Anti-Petrification Venom: Gorgon venom can be used to reverse the effects of petrification. If exposed to a Gorgon's venom, you become immune to petrification for 1 hour.
Curse of Stone: When a Gorgon dies, there is a X-in-10 chance that any creature she has petrified, where X equals that creature's HD, transforms back into flesh.
Tactics:
- Don't be scared
- Let your 'Petrifying Appearance' do most of the work
- Flee if faced with real danger
Gorgons tend to be reclusive brings, dwelling in isolated areas. They hate when their solitude is intruded upon and tend to respond with hissing snakes and bared claws. As they are extremely dangerous however, this rarely happens. Occasionally a fool-hardy band of Cultists or criminals will attempt to recruit a Gorgon to aid them in their wicked schemes. This rarely ends well.
Gorgons can leave their lair for many reasons, but generally they will only leave for a few reasons.
Why did the Gorgon leave her lair?
1d4
1- She seeks a companion. This companion must be evil, or at least willing to tolerate her wickedness and savagery.
2- Rare foods. Gorgons generally only eat raw meat, but a Gorgon who has eaten food stolen from their victims may develop a craving for such delicacies as "bread" or "cheese".
3- Rare meats. Gorgons prefer meat, but eating the same type over and over gets boring, especially when you don't cook it. The Gorgon wants a Rare type of meat, one she doesn't usually eat.
4- Manufactured goods. Gorgons often pride themselves on living in a "natural", ie savage way. But some Gorgons have grown used to the comforts of civilization and desire such things as furniture, rugs or decorations.
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Gardens of Stone:
When not hunting, Gorgons spend their time decorating their gardens. A Gorgon's garden is composed of all of the creatures she has petrified. These statues will be pain-stakingly lugged into place, adorned with looted clothing or armor and plants may be cultivated to grow around them in an artistic manner.
Gorgons measure each other's strength and status by the size of their gardens. They quietly compete with each other to have the most elaborate and impressive gardens. The criteria by which a garden is judged impressive varies among Gorgons depending on region.
What does this Gorgon consider the most important criteria for a garden to have?
1d6
1- The number of statues
2- The realism of their poses
3- The variety of poses
4- The variety of petrified creatures
5- The artistic arrangement of the statues
6- The decoration of the statues
What does this Gorgon do to customize her garden?
1d4
1- She arranges the statues as if to tell a story
2- She strips all the statues of their clothing. Their non-petrified clothing and armor is stacked somewhere in her lair
3- She cultivates flowers, so they wrap her statues in living color.
4- She specifically neglects her statues to give them a unique "weathered" look.
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Blood and Venom:
Part of the reason Gorgons prefer solitude is that they know their bodies can contain many useful ingredients and so often, when visitors come a-calling, they come with the intention of destroying the Gorgon or stealing some of her blood or venom. For such an insult, the Gorgon is more than willing to destroy the interlopers in question.
Gorgon blood is well known to Alchemists and Adventurers as a potent toxin. Consuming it slays almost all creatures. It is also a key ingredient in many poisonous cocktails or anti-venoms.
Gorgon venom, by contrast, is much more helpful, able to reverse the effect of petrification. This is how Gorgons usually feed- they transform parts of a creature back into flesh and slowly eat those parts. This is why a Gorgon's lair will often be filled with armless or one-legged statues. Gorgons often eat a statue's limbs one at a time, then they bite the torso, to transform the rest of the statue into flesh. This leaves a creature with no limbs, utterly helpless before the Gorgon. Gorgons often eat their prey alive at this point- or at least, until the poor creature bleeds to death or dies of shock.
Treasures of the Gorgon:
Roll once on the Trade Goods, then once on the Magic Items table, then roll on the 'Unusual Statue' table until you have a result of 12 or more.
Trade Goods:
1d12
1- Sacks of coins. You find 1d3 [1= 1d10 sacks of copper coins; 2= 1d6 sacks of silver coins; 3= 1d3 sacks of gold coins.] Each sack contains 1d20 coins.
2- 1d20+5 sets of fine clothes
3- 1d10 barrels of grain.
4- 1d8 smoked hams.
4- 1d6+2 wheels of cheese.
5- A mostly functional wagon.
6- A block of salt.
7- 1d3 casks of wine.
8- 1d4 bolts of cloth.
9- 1d6 bundles of wheat.
10- 1d4 bundles of dried pipeweed.
11- 1d6 barrels of pickled vegetables.
12- 1d3 bundles of jerky.
Magic Items:
1d6
1- 1d6 scrolls.
2- 1d6+1 potions.
3- A Wizard Weapon.
4- A magic food item.
5- A work of Artifice.
6- A magic item.
Unusual Statues:
The Gorgon's garden contains 1d20+2 humanoids, 2d20 animals and 1d10+1 domesticated animals (dogs, horses, pigs). It also contains...
1d20
1- 1d6 adventurers.
2- 1d4 Doom Eyes.
3- 1d4 Mimics, each one transformed into something useful (such as a chair, table, treasure chest). There is a 2-in-6 chance that one Mimic is mid-transformation when it was petrified, allowing the party to see what they are.
4- One of the Fair Folk.
5- 1d20+10 Chaotic Monsters. This garden contains 1d6 [1= Garrols; 2= Kobolds; 3= Goblins; 4= Gralei; 5= Quaggoths; 6= Clowns.]
6- A Wizard. There is a 1-in-10 chance he is a Lich. If not, he has 1d6 levels in Wizard.
7- A Vampire. There is a 2-in-6 chance that the Vampire looks just like a normal person, otherwise it is obviously a Vampire.
8- A big animal. Something impressive but dangerous, such as 1d6 [1= An Elephant; 2= A Giant Wolf; 3= A huge bear; 4= A Lion; 5= A water buffalo; 6= A wild boar.]
9- 1d20 Wolves.
10- 1d3 Giant Spiders.
11- A Handsome Man and his servants.
12- A Durama and his servants.
13- A Prophet of (a) God. He bears one of the Secret Names of God. He is also on a divine mission.
14- A seer who saw this coming, guarded a message into her flesh
15- An Outsider. The Outsider long ago abandoned this shell, so instead of transforming back, you will be left with a magical statue that could be modified by an Artificer or broken down into magical grist, which could be used to craft a magic item. It would also be valuable to a Sage or Wizard.
16- A Genie of a random type. The Genie is a 1d4 [1= Deep Janeen; 2= Efreet; 3= Djinn; 4= Marid.]
17- A Sphinx.
18- A Coatl.
19- A Giant. The Giant is a 1d6 [1= Hill Giant; 2= Frost Giant; 3= Fire Giant; 4= Iron Giant; 5= Cloud Giant; 6= Fomorian]
20- A Dragon.
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The Curse of Stone:
There are two cures for the petrification a Gorgon causes, both well-known. The first is their venom- if applied to a petrified creature, that creature will immediately revert back to flesh. However, there is a second, much more dangerous cure. If a Gorgon is killed, there is a chance that the creatures she has petrified will transform back into flesh. The chance of this occurring seems to mostly relate to the strength of the creature who was petrified, with powerful creatures easily able to revert back, while less potent creatures cannot revert back on their own. For this reason, local peoples will often protect Gorgons and discourage their slaying, especially if some sort of dangerous creature wandered into her garden and was turned to stone.
Plot Hooks:
1d8
1- The children of the village have found a cool new garden out by the woods, and though the grown-ups told them not to go there, they didn't listen. When they saw the scaly lady, they ran away. But little Kiki got left behind! Go rescue him! Also, they don't want you to go tell their parents.
2- An Alchemist wants a drop of Gorgon's blood for an experiment he's working on. Go get some for him. He would prefer you don't kill the Gorgon, but he isn't that picky.
3- An Alchemist wants you to go check on the last group of adventurers he sent to investigate a Gorgon's lair. They never returned for the other half of their money. He wants what they were supposed to get for him or a refund.
4- A group of adventurers are going to try and kill a Gorgon, who is said to have a pile of magic swords in her lair. The only problem is that Erkath, the Pale Terror, a Dragon that terrorized the land a generation ago flew into the Gorgon's garden about five years ago and was petrified. Everyone is 100% confident that if the Gorgon is killed, he will return and terrorize the land once more. Stop those fool-hardy adventurers before they do more harm than good.
5- A Durama who is fascinated by all things gross and unpleasant has heard that Gorgons are spectacularly ugly. He wants to look one in the face, without turning to stone. Find him a way to do that and he will reward you.
6- A community that does not believe in capital punishment wants to get rid of a vicious criminal who wronged them. Escort him to the Gorgon's garden and let him be petrified. Make sure he doesn't escape or hurt anyone along the way.
7- A Gorgon recently petrified someone very important and/or rich. His family would like you to recover the statue of him so they can de-petrify him.
8- An adventurer who narrowly evaded a Gorgon's petrifying face discovered she has a veritable horde stashed in her lair. He wants to go rob her, but not end up decorating her garden or being eaten. He has recruited you to help, but he secretly plans on using you as a distraction.
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