The inanimate gargoyles that perch atop great buildings are inspired by these malevolent creatures of elemental earth that resemble grotesque, fiendish statues. A gargoyle lurks among masonry and ruins, as still as any stone sculpture, and delights in the terror it creates when it breaks from its suspended pose, as well as the pain it inflicts on its victims.

Animate Stone

Gargoyles cling to rocky cliffs and mountains, or roost on ledges in underground caves. They haunt city rooftops, perching vulture-like among the high stone arches and buttresses of castles and cathedrals, and they can hold themselves so still that they appear inanimate. Able to maintain this state for years, a gargoyle makes an ideal sentry.

Deadly Reputation

Gargoyles have a reputation for cruelty. Statues carved into the likenesses of gargoyles appear in the architecture of countless cultures to frighten away trespassers. Although such sculptures are only decorative, real gargoyles can hide among them to ambush unsuspecting victims. A gargoyle might alleviate the tedium of its watch by catching and tormenting birds or rodents, but its long wait only increases its craving for harming sentient creatures.

Cruel Servants

Gargoyles are easily inspired by the cunning of an intelligent master. They enjoy simple tasks such as guarding a master's home, torturing and killing interlopers, and anything else that involves minimum effort and maximum pain and carnage.

Gargoyles sometimes serve demons for their propensity for wanton chaos and destruction. Powerful spellcasters can also easily enlist gargoyle guardians to keep watch over their gates and walls. Gargoyles have the patience and fortitude of stone, and will serve even the cruelest master for years without complaint.

Elemental Nature

A gargoyle doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.

Shards of Elemental Evil

As Ogrémoch, the evil Prince of Elemental Earth, treads his stony realm, it leaves shards of broken rock in his wake. Imbued with slivers of sentience, these shards thrum with the essence of the elemental prince, growing over long years into vaguely humanoid rock formations that resolve at last into the hard, cruel shapes of gargoyles.

Ogrémoch doesn't create gargoyles deliberately, but they are a physical manifestation of his evil. Gargoyles are mockeries of the elemental air that Ogrémoch despises. They are heavy creatures of living stone, yet capable of flight. Like their creator, they possess a fundamental hatred for beings of elemental air, aarakocra in particular, and relish every opportunity to destroy such creatures.

On their home plane, gargoyles carve out earth motes that Ogrémoch hurtles into Aaqa, the domain of the aarakocra and the benevolent Wind Dukes the bird folk serve in the Elemental Plane of Air.

Gargoyle

Sculpted Sentinel Hidden in Plain Sight

Gargoyles are sculptures inhabited by elemental spirits. Wings and magic allow their heavy stone bodies to fly, and they often perch where they can blend in amid ornate architecture, rock formations, or mundane statues. Gargoyles usually serve the magic-users who conjured them into their bodies, but if left to their own devices, they might play cruel pranks and steal treasures to hoard in lofty lairs.

Gargoyles have a variety of appearances. Roll on or choose a result from the Gargoyle Sculptures table to inspire how a gargoyle looks.

Gargoyle Ambushes

Gargoyles seek to ambush foes or creatures that trespass on their territories. With no biological needs and supernatural patience, these monsters might wait unmoving for months, revealing themselves only when conditions are perfect to attack. They tend to lurk where statuary seems commonplace or where terrain obscures the shape and color of their bodies. Roll on or choose a result from the Gargoyle Camouflage table to inspire where a gargoyle sets up an ambush.

Where evil passes in the Elemental Plane of Earth, it stains the rock and spoils the soil. Malice vanishes amid other elements, but in the dismal dark, the wicked shape it into nightmares.

Demonic-looking winged humanoid monsters with gray stone-like skin

Gargoyles are demonic-looking winged humanoid monsters with gray stone-like skin. They are often mistaken for winged stone statues, for they can remain still indefinitely without moving. Gargoyles use this disguise to ambush their foes, surprising on 1-4 on 1d6 if their foes do not otherwise suspect them. They are cruel monsters, inflicting pain on other creatures for the sole purpose of enjoyment. Gargoyles require no food, water, or air. Due to their highly magical nature, they can only be harmed by magical weapons.

Magical monsters that look like hideous, horned, winged statues. Semi-intelligent and possessed of a great cunning.

Demonic-looking winged humanoid monsters with gray stone-like skin

Gargoyles are cruel creatures, 90% likely to attack any living creature they encounter. When attacking a gargoyle will employ two clawed hands, a single horn projecting from the centre of its forehead and a bite. They are usually encountered in ruins and underground caverns.