A Few Etchings
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GargoylesGrotesquesAnimate Masonry...Hardly an uncommon sight, Their means of creation are as varied as their shapes, sizes, and the purposes they serve. For one that was crafted with or at the very least given their free will, Their safety lies in their origins remaining shrouded along side the weaknesses therein.
... The best lies hold a touch of truth
-"... Hello."
Traits
Stone Body
Polished and soft with the texture of fine sand, The creature was formed within sparkling stone as a mimicry of flesh and bone. It's craft was unnatural, The details far too precise and movements casually organic to have simply been carved and forced into sorcery fueled movement. There was life beneath that rock
Being cast in heavy Black Granite affords the creature certain Advantages...
-High resistance to slash or piercing damage-Invulnerability to short term exposure of high heat such as open flames, furnaces, or brands
... some Disadvantages...-Impact damage is much more grievous as it can crack or even shatter his sculpted form-Long term exposure to heat stress and weaken the Granite while Temperature shock could cause significant injury. He has more reasons than this to not take a molten Slag bath
... and Aspects that fall in between.
Weapons and Defenses
Claws and Teeth-Soft as Granite is, it can carry a potent edge when carved and sharpened under careful hands. Though nigh-on impossible for the creature to manage this on his own, he does not intend to stay on his own.Granite Wings-Long enough and then some to support flight, no amount of flapping will ever get this creature off the ground. With feathers of granite, they were more suited for to be thrown as weapons or closed together as though a singular shield. Almost regrettably, Their single most common role is merely to provide additional support, with ends that touch against the ground in the face of sunlight.
Mortality
At what point does a stone stop living. When you shatter it? When the pebbles break into sand and scatters into dust?
Does he have a heart? Some diamond hidden beneath his Rocky hide that is the center of the creature's life? If he reduced to rubble, will he ever stay that way? These are questions he will never answer and those that learn will have earned his malicious attentions. **
Sunlight
... Of Boons and Banes
To be bound by you own skin, frozen live and aware until the coming of night would finally set you free. Surely this was an experience one would avoid at all costs and it would come to no surprise that the creature will speak of the daylight as though a curse. Hidden would be his dependence on time spent in his Statued state to sustain the animation of his form and repair or at least regrow damage and injury.
Life comes at a cost. All things must eat to survive and grow, after all
-Movement: The forces that swim among his skin are simple in their needs and generous in symbiosis. So long as they are fed, the creature's actions and movements remain unhindered. Too long starved of sunlight and their influence will slow, the creature's body will stiffen and return to naught more than the rock he had been caste in. Where easily avoided with a day's rest, The vulnerability that comes with being unable to move is what the creature scorns.
-Healing or Growth: As much as a necessity as an inconvenience, The creature's body will slowly accrue new layers of the granite beneath. Grown in the pattern of small nodules and crags all over his form, The creature must take time after each day spent frozen to carve off and polish these areas if he is to maintain his current appearance. If the creature has a natural shape or if the crags would merely grow and overtake his body with a bolder given time is unknown at this point and given the effort this creature takes, he has no care to experiment on it. -
History: Knowledge is power, The creature knew this well enough to keep
his tongue reigned in in regards to his personal past. Who he was would have to be
less important than what he did. Still, no sane man makes deals with a shadow and
so the Where's and Why's are not entirely out of sight. By his own admission, He'd
come from the north, far enough that the land had been swallowed and cracked open
by the glaciers. Where the sea would snake in for miles in the warm months. The Fjord-lands. **Personality: An oddly human creature, given his form and shape.
Though usually calmed as though the concept of wasted time was completely alien to him,
the creature was prone to just as much variety of emotion as any flesh and blood being,
if not greater than some at times. For all his patience, the creature was equally as indulgent,
adventurous, or even confrontational when the mood strikes. With a craving for Succulent food
and Intoxicants both smoked or drank,one could be forgiven for questioning how a stone gets stoned.
Profession: Far from home and so much more comfortable for it. The Tether has
proven to be every bit as ripe a ground for his own indulgent nature to flourish so long as he
keeps the Trade flowing. Fuels and metals hewn from the mines beneath the ice. Riches of
resources that would do the workers little good if they could not get it shipped and sold in
exchange for food, equipment, and... labor. For now, the Creature was only one of many
liaisons to parts of the world with deep pockets and expensive interests. Least.. So long as
one could take his word on it. **Cravings: What is life without art?
Without substance? Indulgent he may be, but mindlessly so? To not have a project would
surely be the death of him and there are few more extravagant materials to shape, use, and
display than a life.
Terrors:
Thalassophobia- There's a reason the Grotesque sails among the clouds.
