Rock Man

A rock man is a 6-foot cone of stone, about 4 feet wide at its base, with a muscular build, fractured-granite skin from blue-gray to purple, and eyes like gold nuggets. Standing still, it passes for a stalagmite. The name covers both sexes. They speak Common and their own wordy language, which needs ten words for what others say in two, in slow, grinding voices.

Ponderous, a rock man always loses initiative in the first round and takes +2 on later initiative rolls. It scorns weapons and armor, striking with two fists at ogre-like 18/00 Strength for 1d8+6 each. In broken or mountain terrain foes suffer -4 on surprise (-2 if keeping careful watch); dwarves suffer no penalty. Fire cannot hurt it, while transmute rock to mud deals 3d8 damage. A slain one crumbles to rubble that hides its heart, a ruby worth 1d10x10 gp, and any rock man seeing such a gem attacks its holder at once.

Their motto is to take things slow, since the sun will keep rising. Living around six hundred years, they barely grasp hours or weeks and refuse to hurry unless shown real urgency. Passers-by are tolerated; would-be settlers, miners, and snoops are not. Groups of 2d20 live in natural caves and gullies under a council of 1d4+4 elders, spending decades carving their walls instead of making goods. Mates bond for life after a very long courtship, breed once a decade, and raise one child that takes 40 years to mature. Birthdays, weddings, and clan events can be celebrated for a week.

Alchemists and spellcasters prize the heart-rubies for crafting magical items. Unproven rumor says evil beings brew the gray sludge of rock man blood into a mortar that keeps brickwork from ever cracking.