Gargoyle

Grotesque and hellish reptilians with bat-like traits, these creatures descend straight from nightmares. Oddly resembling humans in body shape, these figures are covered in small but abundant scales which are smooth to the touch. They come in several different colors, always being a solid. Gargoyles can be anywhere from black, to crimson, to even a dark, yellowish green. Bat wings sprout from their back in a large manner, their wingspan being ten feet across when fully expanded. Gargoyles stand at roughly five foot tall when standing fully upright on their legs, which bare claws almost like a canine on each toe where a nail would normally be. Their hands bare the same claws in the place of nails, these nails being thick and sharp, difficult to break. Gargoyles have a long reptilian tail as well, the tip reaching down to their ankles. Their eyes are either bright candy apple red, or milky white, with no pupil in sight, nor whites of the eye. These monstrous creatures have long, sharp canines in their mouth much like a bat, along with sensitive bat-like ears, which boast acute hearing.

While demonic and unsettling in appearance, these creatures have the ability to turn into pure stone. Often perching on high pedestals, they turn completely solid when in waiting. They appear to be inanimate in this stage, physically the same as their fleshy form, however are completely aware of their surroundings whilst stone. Gargoyles can defend themselves in this form, capable of moving and even partial flight, albeit significantly slower than in their other form. They often turn to stone in order to trick their victims into thinking they’re inanimate. They are lanky and move with harsh, heavy steps that take much more effort than any normal creature. Gargoyles are easy to combat in this state if one had a blunt enough weapon, as it is meant more for defense.

Distribution

Gargoyles are rare and are often only heard of in legends, or in fables that parents tell their children at night to give them a good scare. These creatures are often only seen guarding something of great importance within castles of old. Their masters may be long gone, but they still serve to protect like obedient dogs.

Habitat

Sitting atop of pedestals in long forgotten ruins, gargoyles wait for their long gone masters to return. Or, they simply guard whatever they have been made to protect.

Diet

Gargoyles do not need to eat as long as they remain in their stone form, however out of it they may feast onto any form of flesh. Preferably the meat of those they have slain, human or beast. They are carnivorous, and cannot eat any sort of leafy green, making Sinnehliv distasteful.

Relations

These creatures are hostile and aggressive to all who are not their masters. While they will prey on the unsuspecting by pretending they are inanimate, once they are found out for their true heinous nature they will not stop until everything threatening it or its territory is dead. They are surprisingly intelligent enough to feel emotions of not only other gargoyles, but any living creature, communicating through screech like noises with others of their species. Gargoyles also can perceive the emotions of humanoid creatures through their body language and tone, able to tell when they’re scared, threatened, or otherwise.

Mechanics

• Gargoyles are able to switch between a form of stone and that of its reptilian like one whenever they please, however the transition takes [3 emotes] to process the transition to or from stone.
• Aggressive and territorial, yet intelligent, capable of feeling emotion.
• Weak to anything holy, Celedium is extra effective against them, while regular Silver or Gold is just the same to it as gold. While in their stone form, blunt weapons are the most effective.
• Able to spew scorching hot fire from their jaws, capable of inflicting second degree burns on bare flesh.
• They boast strong limbs with long, sharp claws able to easily slice as if they were made of sharp steel. Their jaws being strong and capable of breaking bone, their teeth just as sharp as their claws.
• Acute and sensitive hearing makes it so that they are weaker to sound when not made out of stone.

Material Properties

• The eternally-beating heart of the gargoyle can be used as a substitute for golem core's, allowing enhanced intelligence at the cost of making the golem more "Human", and able to feel pain and die, as it magically creates blood vessels and nerves within them, following the same rules of the body.

Alchemical Properties

• The scales can be crushed down into a fine powder and then used in an alchemical to turn things to stone, giving it the same rough structure and solid state. However it must be used with other alchemicals and cannot be used on its own, requiring a base.
• They have a gland that can be collected carefully from just above its stomach. This gland has a very flammable chemical that once lit creates that scorching hot fire the gargoyle spews.
• The gland is also very flame resistant and these properties can be used if mixed with the right ingredients.

The World of Aethius • The Multiverse of Aethier