Dragon	-	Monsters	-	Dragon #97
-	-	Notes	-	-

?The gorgon,? Elminster
t o l d   m e   s e v e r e l y ,   ? i s   b e s t
avoided.?

I   n o d d e d .   A n d   w a i t e d .
H e   e y e d   m e   f o r   t w o   o r   t h r e e
p u f f s   o f   h i s   p i p e ,   a n d   t h e n
s i g h e d .   ? I   e x p e c t   y o u   w i l l
h e e d   t h a t   a d v i c e   ?   a n d , ?   h e
a d d e d   w i t h   a   w r y   s m i l e ,   ? I .
a l s o   e x p e c t   y o u   w i l l   w a n t   a n
e x p l a n a t i o n . ?

? O h ,   y e s , ? I responded.
?And who better to provide
that explanation than yourself??

?Very well,? said the
sage, satisfied that I had
played my part by showing
the proper respect for him
and his knowledge. ?I will
tell you what I know, and
what I have heard, about
the gorgon. The folk where
I grew up called it the ?stone
bull.? They killed one by
loosing a rust monster upon
it and thus forcing it into a
dead-end cavern, and then
unleashing several volleys of
arrows ? but several members of the hunting party
did not return to share in
the glory of their accomplishment. I know of no
tales about the gorgon that
have a happy ending.?

?Indeed,? I chimed in.
?Still, there are a lot of
unanswered questions about
the beast.?

?Aye,? Elminster agreed. ?I have with
me an excerpt from a traveller?s diary, and
the researches of several colleagues of mine,
notably Asheyron of Arabel, who possesses
an amulet that prevents petrification. He
tells me, by the way, that a gorgon?s breath
smells like stewed cabbage.?

The excerpt is reproduced below, followed by footnotes that sum up what Elminster had to say about Asheyron?s research
(and that of Elephras of Melvaunt and
Kiiragar of Port Llast). From the way he
expressed himself, it is obvious that Elminster hates gorgons; in fact, he revealed that
he once lost a pet dog to one. I asked him
what he would do if he met a gorgon, and
he indicated a piece of jewelry around his
neck, half-hidden by his beard. ?This is a
thing of magic ? a necklace of missiles,? he
said. ?This big bauble near the center is my
gorgon-killer.?

F r o m   t h e   d i a r i e s   o f   t h e   a d v e n t u r e r   a n d
n a t u r a l i s t   D j a r i l   P h y l a p u r :
The gorgon is a bull-like creature greatly
feared by travellers in the wilderness hereabout, because of its fearsome breath. Four
times each day a gorgon can turn creatures
to stone by its breath, using this attack
whenever it meets creatures it senses to be
dangerous, such as man.1 Certain beasts
(notably the xorn, pech, piercer, rust mon
ster, earth elemental, and
the gorgon itself) are known
to be immune to this effect,
and other such immunities
doubtless remain to be
discovered. Gorgons will
ignore an apparently petrified victim, instinctively
realizing that it is no longer
dangerous. Some have been
known to escape the creature by feigning death ?
but just as many others
have tried this tactic and
failed, because they were
unable to keep completely
still, and their deception
was found out. Even the
mere blink of an eye at the
wrong time will alert the
gorgon to the fact that its
quarry is still alive ? for
the moment.

Gorgons are omnivorous,
subsisting on carrion, vegetable material of all types,
and small creatures which
they gore or trample but do
not petrify, seeing them as
food and not potential adversaries. A lone, unarmed
or weak human or humanoid would be considered
food, and attacked as such;
a creature that is petrified is
a meal forever lost.

The breathing of the
petrifying vapors is entirely a voluntary act,
these vapors being produced by and stored
in an internal organ opening into the roof of
the mouth. The corpse of  a  gorgon is often
still dangerous for hours after the beast?s
death, as a result of the slow seepage of this
gas from the still-active organ, or the sudden explosion of a full cloud of gas that will
envelop anyone or anything that disturbs
the body. After this seepage has run its
course, the gas-producing mechanism
within the gorgon?s body is inert and useless, so no one has succeeded in storing or
synthesizing this gas, and its nature and
method of manufacture remain a mystery.

Gorgons are always in an irritable mood,
a n d   q u i c k   t o   a t t a c k .2 They will kill prey
whenever it is encountered (even if their
appetites are presently sated, in which case
they may return to devour the prey at a
later time). They lair in wilderness caverns,
canyons, or ?badland? areas, and there
they keep treasure acquired from prey. The
spoils found in a gorgon lair will be chiefly
coinage and other metallic treasure, which
is useful to distract the attention of wouldbe gorgon-killers (including rust monsters)
that might stumble upon such a hoard.

The skin of a gorgon is covered with
close-fitting, irregularly shaped metal
scales. The scales are actually composed of
impure iron; in order to maintain their
strength and durability, a gorgon must
derive substantial amounts of iron from its
diet, chiefly from green plants and the blood
of mammals. The gorgon cannot consume
actual metal, in either raw or relined form
(such as a suit of armor), and accumulates
such metal as part of its ?treasure,? as
described above.

The scales are coated with a waxy secretion that is constantly drying out and being
worn away, and at the same time is continually replenished by the beast?s internal
processes (exuding from the cartilaginous
seams between the scales). This coating
keeps a gorgon?s scales from rusting due to
rain or dampness, and ? coupled with the
irregular shapes and curves of the scales ?
makes a gorgon difficult to grapple, and
causes many blows to glance off its hide.
The plates are rather soft (being easily
marked by weapon-blows, even if those
blows do not actually harm the creature),
but are both thick and durable; they will not
crack under crushing blows. The scales are
useful as a source of iron for smelting (although other, better sources are usually
available), but cannot be used directly for
protection ? for example, as bucklers ?
because they are too small and too soft. A
gorgon plate of average size might bring a
price of 10 copper pieces, or perhaps more
if it is sold in an area where metal is scarce
and in great demand.

The creature most feared by the gorgon is
the rust monster, and gorgons rarely delve
deeply into subterranean areas as a result.
Rust monsters are themselves well armored
against a gorgon?s hooves and horns, and
view gorgon scales as a desirable and substantial meal. At the touch of their antennae, a scale will rust and fall off 3, and
although a biting, kicking gorgon will rarely
let a rust monster munch happily upon the
result (usually biting off its antennae or
overturning the rust monster with a horn
and then running away), the damage is then
done. For their part, rust monsters can
move more rapidly than gorgons can, and
will pursue one, or even a group of gorgons,
fearlessly.

Gorgons often hunt 5 together in small
bands (of two mated 6 pairs, three males plus
a female that one or all of them are courting, four or fewer young males, and so on).

They wander a wide range, and typically
know of most caverns (potential lairs)
within a sixty-mile radius. If large numbers
of human, demi-human, or humanoid
creatures begin to move into a gorgoninhabited area, solitary gorgons and isolated
pairs not raising young will gather in the
more inaccessible and labyrinthine caverns
for mutual protection.

Notes

1. The breath weapon of a gorgon consists of a truncated cone-shaped cloud of
visible, misty grey-green vapors. For reasons not fully understood, this cloud exists
simultaneously on the Astral, Ethereal, and
Prime Material Planes, and has the same
effect upon creatures in any of those environments that are within the area the cloud
occupies. Any creature enveloped by the
cloud of vapors (which billows out with
some force to fill a conical area, ½" wide at
the gorgon?s maw to a maximum diameter
of 2" and a maximum length of 6?, within 2
segments) must save versus petrification to
avoid being turned to stone (which takes
effect in 1-4 segments thereafter, and is
permanent unless somehow counteracted at
a later time). The vapors hang in the air
throughout the round after the round in
which they were expelled, clearly visible,
and are effective until the end of this second
round, whereupon they will have dissipated
sufficiently to lose their petrifying power.
Gorgon breath does not work underwater,
and will be harmlessly destroyed by the
whirlwind of an air elemental, a wind
walker, or similar force of moving air. A
g u s t   o f   w i n d   spell or similar effect will
merely shift an intact breath cloud from 1"
to 6" in the direction of the gust. A creature
who has successfully saved versus a cloud of
vapors can remain in, re-enter, or move
through its confines without fear of petrification ? but any creature entering a particular gorgon-breath cloud must make a save;
i.e., if characters are battling a gorgon who
breathes in four successive rounds, they
must save four times, even if the clouds are
all breathed in the same area and the characters do not change their locations. If the
breath weapons of two or more gorgons
overlap, however, a creature within their
confines need make only one save, not two
or more.

A spell caster employing a statue spell
prior to encountering breath vapors is immune to petrification while in statue form,
as is a druid within a tree, and any character(s) in an extra-dimensional space created
by a  rope trick, portable hole,  or similar
magic.

Petrified creatures are immobile and have
no sense of the passage of time, nor awareness of their surroundings (they are effectively deaf, dumb, and blind, but still
technically alive). Some soon become insane; most sleep, retreating from conscious
awareness into an endless dream-world.
They may be conversed with by means of
stone tell,  or mentally communicated with
by  ESP  or  telepathy  magic and similar
p s i o n i c   p o w e r s .   A   s t o n e   t o   f l e s h   s p e l l   w i l l
f r e e   a   p e t r i f i e d   c r e a t u r e ,   b u t   dispel magic
w i l l   n o t .   ? S t o n e d ?   c r e a t u r e s   a r e   i m m u n e   t o
a l l   i l l u s i o n   a n d   v i s i o n - r e l a t e d   m a g i c s   ( e . g . ,
demi-shadow monsters),  and cannot be
affected by fire, electricity, any death magic,
or spoken  power words  ? but a  dig, shatter,  or  disintegrate  spell will destroy such a
creature instantly.

2. In battle, gorgons breathe, gore with
horns, strike with hooves, or bite ? listed
in order of preference; only one type of
attack is possible per round.

Goring (or ripping and slashing) with
horns does 2-12 hit points of damage (-1 per
die of damage if the target is bearing a
shield or wearing plate mail in such a location or manner as to lessen the strike). On a
natural ?to hit? roll of 20, a gorgon has
impaled a victim with its horns; the character takes maximum damage (12 hp) on the
round in which impaling occurs, and may
(50% chance) remain impaled for one
round afterward, taking another 2-8 points
of damage if this is the case. (A gorgon can
mount another attack in the round during
which a victim remains impaled, but obviously this cannot be an attack with the
horns.)

Gorgons can readily stand and walk
about on their hind legs as well as on all
fours (movement rate is the same in either
stance), and can rise up on their hind legs
to lash out with their front hooves. In most
cases (75% of the time), the gorgon will
only strike with one front hoof, using the
other foreleg for balance. Its hooves do 2-8
points of damage apiece so that a creature
that is trampled may suffer as much as 8-32
(2-8 times 4) points of damage if all four
hooves hit. The gorgon?s rear hooves can
lash out just as their front ones do, but the
creature will only use this attack form if it is
assaulted from behind ? and obviously it
cannot lash out with front hooves and rear
hooves both in the same round.

A gorgon rarely bites in battle unless its
breath weapon is expended (or the beast has
chosen not to use it) and its horns are gone
or encumbered (usually by another, impaled
creature). A gorgon bite does 1-3 points of
damage; this attack mode is often employed
to finish off a victim that has been incapaci
<finish the text here>

-
 

3. The attack of a rust monster upon a
gorgon only affects the one or two body
plates that are touched by the rust monster's
antennae; the non-metallic, cartilage-like
seams between plates prevent the rusting
effect from traveling any farther than the
plate(s) it actually hits. A rusted, corroded
plate will immediately (in the same round)
detach from the skin underneath and fall
off. A gorgon cannot re-grow or otherwise
replace body plates that fall off (due to
rusting or any other effect). A young gorgon?s plates will grow in area and thickness
as the creature matures, but will always be
the ?original equipment?; i.e., there is no
moulting or shedding process involved
The repeated loss of body plates can
render a gorgon more vulnerable to physical
attacks; whenever 20% or more of the
surface area of a gorgon?s body is devoid of
metal plates, there is a chance equal to that
percentage that a strike against the gorgon?s
body will be made against AC 8 (the unprotected area) instead of AC 2 (the creature?s
normal armor class).

4. A gorgon can see in normal light as
well as a man does, and simultaneously use
normal vision out to a 6" distance on the
Astral and Ethereal Planes. It has infravision out to a range of 8", on the Prime Material Plane only. A gorgon can smell most
creatures  within  3?, and will always try to
confront (or in some way react to) a creature it detects by smell ? whether it is a
potential meal, a strong adversary who
must be fought off or killed, or a rust monster, which must be led to another source of
metal and then fled from as fast as possible.

5. Male and female gorgons are identical
in size and powers and are externally indistinguishable (except to other gorgons). A
mated pair will stay together for 2-6 years
and will reproduce approximately once a
year (more often if food is plentiful, less
often if it is not). The female will bear 1-3
offspring 6-8 months after mating, and will
keep to the lair (her mate hunting for her)
from the fourth month of pregnancy until
she gives birth. A newborn gorgon is able to
move and attack for itself at one month of
age; young are size S, have 3 hit dice, can
breathe a half-normal-size cloud of vapors
twice per day, and do half normal damage
on all physical attacks. At 3 months of age a
young gorgon has grown to size M and 5 hit
dice, and can use its breath weapon (still a
half-sized cloud) three times per day. A
gorgon reaches full adult size and powers
within 5-7 months after being born. It will
achieve maturity (the ability to mate) at the
age of two years, at which time it will leave
its parents? lair (if it has not done so already). Very rarely, a gorgon will mate with
a chimera to produce a gorgimera (see
Monster Manual II and DRAGON® issue
#94), but the two creatures will not habitually consort together for any length of time.

<Pareto principle: there is a mistake in the numbering of this article. I am only doing content right now. Correcting the articles is the 2nd step.>

LETTERS

A gorgon and its gas
-
Dear Dragon:
Mr. Greenwood’s article, “The ecology of the
gorgon” (issue #97), is excellent. I have, however,
noticed one minor error. It says, on page
26, that “Gorgons often hunt together in small
bands of two mated pairs, . . .” The word
“hunt” is footnoted with a 5 and “mated” with a
6. But there is no footnote numbered 6, and
number 5 appears to refer to “mated.” What was
the footnote (if any) referring to “hunt”?

Kirk Schmidt
Seven Lakes, N. C.
(Dragon #99)
 

When we edited the manuscript, our intent was
to avoid the rather unsightly use of footnote
numbers twice in the same sentence. We accomplished
that, in part, by consolidating the information
for notes 5 and 6 into one note, which
appears as number 5. (In other words, nothing is
missing.) But, obviously, we forgot to remove the
5 and change the 6 into a 5 in the text. Sorry for
the oversight. 

— KM
(Dragon #99)
 

Dear Dragon:
In “Ecology of the gorgon,” concerning the gas
that a gorgon breathes out in an attack, do you
have to breathe in the gas or does it just have to
touch you to take effect? With the young’s gas, do
you receive a bonus to your saving throw or is it
just as powerful as the adult’s?

Dan Daley
St. Clairsville, Ohio
(Dragon #99)
 

The article is pretty clear on the first point:
“Any creature enveloped by the cloud of vapors”
(page 26) can be petrified. Holding your breath
does no good. And the second question is answered
indirectly; if a bonus to the saving throw
was allowed, that would have been mentioned. A
young gorgon’s breath-weapon cloud is half the
size of an adult’s, but the chance of petrification
for someone caught in it is the same. 

— KM
(Dragon #99)