Galeb Duhr

A galeb duhr is an 8- to 12-foot boulder with stubby limbs for hands and feet, indistinguishable from the landscape when still. These slow, intelligent beings feel the earth's power and command nearby stone.

Galeb duhr shun company and would sooner sink into the ground than meet strangers, but pester or chase one and it fights. Each can cast wall of stone, move earth, transmute rock to mud, passwall and stone shape once per day as a 20th-level mage, and stone shape at will besides. Much as a treant rouses trees, it can bring 1-2 boulders up to 60 yards away to life (4d6 damage, HD 9, AC 0, MV 3).

Cold is their bane: they save at -4 and take double damage. Lightning and ordinary fire do nothing to them, and against magical fire they save at +4 but take full damage.

Probably natives of the Elemental Plane of Earth, they live in small family groups in mountains and tolerate no other beings, earth elementals included. Their reproduction is a mystery, though undersized "young" have been reported. They show no surface culture but collect gems found with passwall, plus minor magic taken from those who came to rob them.

Their singing is usually the first and only clue they are near. Groups sit and blend gravelly voices into eerie harmonies, which some sages say can start or stop earthquakes and others think are just warnings to the group. At the tremor of approaching feet they slip into the earth.

Only gem-seekers threaten them. Every few months they eat rock, which becomes part of their bodies; granite is the favorite and sedimentary stone is scorned. They often know where gems and veins of gold, silver or platinum lie, caring nothing for the metals. A few strong mages have bargained for such secrets, a hard deal to strike with brave fighters who can escape at will, and they resent anyone mining near them. They feel responsible for nearby rocks and boulders, and disturbing them is risky.