Gorgon
Species | beast |
No. Appearing | 1–4 |
Behaviour | solitary |
Range | barrens, taiga, Tartarus |
Size | 10 ft. at shoulder |
Weight | 9,025 lbs. |
Intelligence | 1 |
Armour Class | 2 |
Hit Dice | 8 |
Action Points | 6 |
Max. Stride | 20 |
THAC0 | 14 |
Hp/Die | d4+2d6 |
Attack Forms | horn/horn |
Damage | 3–30/3–30 |
Special Attacks | breath weapon, charging, petrification, trampling |
Gorgon is a name that has been intermingled with numerous creatures including medusae and winged creatures such as manticores and griffons. This is in part due to the use of the term by the Ancient Greeks, notably Hesiod, and goblinish scholars who identified the "gorgon" as an enormous hybrid of a Auroch bovine and a giant boar, with characteristics of both. It is this latter creature that this page describes; Greek legends of the gorgon are rightly applied to medusae. The Asian gorgon dwells upon the vast grasslands and northern forests of central Asia, and is very rarely seen west of the Ural Mountains.
The gorgon is a solitary beast upon the Prime Material, having broken free of the plane of Tartarus or deliberately set loose. Expectedly, finding itself at some random place upon the boundless expanse of the taiga or the plain, the beast will wander for months or even years in the wilderness. Once it finds a settlement, however, the beast will rampage, senselessly destroying all that it sees. This usually ends in a search for the beast and its destruction; the killing of gorgons has been cast as a central theme in many goblin and hobgoblin myths and depictions of heroes.
Advantages
Gorgons are able to move fast and will charge from up to 20 hexes away. When hitting with a charge, they are able to strike two opponents side by side, being able to cause double-damage with either their left or right horn. Their enormous size is formidable, so that they will trample following a charge for 3-12 additional damage, complimenting the incidental damage they cause.
The beast is also able to breathe an intensely noxious gas, which will emerge as a 20 ft. diameter cloud from both of the gorgon's nostrils. Those
Gorgons ore bull-like creatures covered with thick metal scales. They prefer the fastness of a wilderness or dreary coverns for habitation. A gorgon is able to breathe out a cloud of noxious vapors which will turn any creature to stone unless they make the appropriate saving throw. The breath shoots forth in truncated cone-shape, %" diameter at the beosts' mouth, 6" in length, to an end diameter of 2". A gorgon is able to use such breath up to 4 times per day. Gorgons will always use this attack form in preference to other sorts of attack. The awareness of gorgons extends into the astral and ethereal planes. So do the effects of their breoth weapon.
See Bestiary