Galeb Duhr

(From 5th Edition Monster Manual - 1994):

The galeb duhr is a boulder-like creature with stumpy appendages that act as arms and legs. It has the ability to animate the rocks and boulders around it, and is thus usually encountered in rocky terrain.

Powerful magic allows a spellcaster to summon a galeb duhr from the Plane of Earth. Some galeb duhr also form naturally in places touched by that plane. The galeb duhr is imbued with greater intelligence than most elementals, allowing it to better assess threats and to communicate with creatures entering its guarded area.

Stone Guardian. A galeb duhr doesn’t age or require sustenance, making it an excellent sentinel. A powerful druid might charge a galeb duhr with protecting a stone circle or sacred hilltop. Another galeb duhr might be created to guard an underground tomb or a wizard’s tower. When it chooses to, the galeb duhr can make itself look like an ordinary boulder, remaining perfectly still for years at a time.

A galeb duhr is permanently bound to the Material Plane, so that when it dies, it doesn’t return to the Plane of Earth. It has an excellent memory and is more than happy to share information regarding its environment with creatures it doesn’t regard as threats.

Stone Connection. A galeb duhr can become one with the earth around it, allowing it to imbue nearby rocks and boulders with a semblance of life. The galeb duhr uses its animated boulders to frighten away interlopers and defend whatever it has been charged to protect. When it needs to move close to those intruders, it presses its limbs tight to its body and rolls forward at a furious pace.

(From 3rd Edition Monster Manual II - 2002):

Galeb duhrs are among the oddest creatures that an adventurer can encounter, but they are seldom dangerous. They live only in the mountains and seldom, if ever, venture onto other terrain. It is not known whether galeb duhrs can reproduce on the Material Plane, or whether the ones found there have all come from the Elemental Plane of Earth. 

To all appearances a galeb duhr is a living boulder with two dark, brooding eyes, a mouth, and rough-hewn appendages that serve as hands and feet. The typical galeb duhr stands about 4 feet tall, though advanced versions can reach heights of up to 16 feet.

When sitting perfectly still (an activity that occupies much of its time), a galeb duhr is nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding stone—so much so that many travelers walk right past one without realizing it. Galeb duhrs do love to sing, however, and occasionally their deep, resonant, slow, and often palpably sad songs reveal their presence. The frequency of much of their singing falls below the range of human hearing, but the subsonic tones can be felt through the ground for many miles and tend to make horses nervous. 

As one might imagine, galeb duhrs are slow-moving, slow to anger, slow to action, and always take the long view. They have no known enemies except time. Now and then reckless monsters or adventurers attack them, hoping to acquire either gems or information about where to find rich veins of gold or other precious ore. Such attempts are generally doomed before they even begin. Galeb duhrs do know all there is to know about their mountain homes, both aboveground and below, but forcing them to give up those details is difficult in the extreme. 

To further complicate matters, galeb duhrs are quite territorial, even to the point of feeling protective about rocks and boulders, in much the same way that a treant feels responsible for the forest in which it lives. Anyone damaging, destroying, or even mining the mountains near a galeb duhr’s home often discovers some very staunch opposition. 

Combat: Galeb duhrs are usually solitary creatures, though they occasionally live with a few of their own kind. When approached, a galeb duhr can easily make it itself unnoticed. When irritated into combat, however, it attacks with its slams. 

Spell-Like Abilities: At will—animate objects (stone only), stone shape; 1/day—move earth, passwall, transmute rock to mud, wall of stone. Caster level 20th; save DC 11 + spell level. 

Elemental Traits (Ex): A galeb duhr is immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, and stunning. It is not subject to critical hits or flanking, and it cannot be raised or resurrected. The creature also has darkvision (60- foot range). 

Freeze (Ex): A galeb duhr can hold itself so still that it appears to be a boulder. An observer must succeed at a Spot check (DC 30) to notice that it is really alive. 

Tremorsense (Ex): A galeb duhr can automatically sense the location of anything within 300 feet that is in contact with the ground.

(From 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual - 1993):

The galeb duhr is a curious boulder-like creature with appendages that act as hands and feet. These intelligent beings are very large and slow-moving. They live in rocky or mountainous areas where they can feel the earth power and control the rocks around them.

A typical galeb duhr is from 8 to 12 feet tall. When not moving it looks like part of the terrain it lives in.

Combat: Galeb duhr are fairly solitary creatures, preferring to live with a few of their own kind, and none of any other kind, including earth elementals. When approached, a galeb duhr is liable to avoid the encounter by disappearing into the ground. If chased or otherwise irritated, however, a galeb duhr does not hesitate to fight the intruder.

Galeb duhr can cast the following spells as 20th-level mages, once per day: move earth, stone shape, passwall, transmute rock to mud, and wall of stone. They can cast stone shape at will.

They can animate 1-2 boulders within 60 yards of them (AC 0; MV 3; HD 9; Dam 4d6) as a treant controls trees. Galeb duhr suffer double damage from cold-based attacks and save with a -4 penalty against these attacks. They are not harmed by lightning or normal fire, but suffer full damage from magical fire (though they save with a +4 bonus against fire attacks).

Habitat/Society: Galeb duhr, thought to be native to the elemental plane of Earth, are sometimes encountered in small family groups in mountainous regions of the Prime Material plane. It is not known how (or whether) galeb duhr reproduce, but “young” galeb duhr have occasionally been reported — those specimens encountered being a smaller size than normal.

While galeb duhr seem to have no visible culture above ground, they are known to collect gems, which they find through their passwall ability. They sometimes have small magical items in their possession, evidently taken from those who attacked them to take their gems.

The “music” of the galeb duhr often provides the first evidence that these creatures are near — and usually the only evidence, as the unsociable galeb duhr are quick to pass into the ground when they feel the vibrations of approaching visitors.

Sitting together in groups, the galeb duhr harmonize their gravelly voices into eldritch tunes; some sages speculate that these melodies can cause or prevent earthquakes. Others argue that the low rumbling produced by these creatures is a form of warning to others in the group, but there is no conclusive evidence either way.

Ecology: Galeb duhr have no natural enemies, other than those who crave the gems they collect. Galeb duhr eat rock, preferring granite to other types, and disdaining any sedimentary type. The rocks they eat become part of the huge creatures; such a meal need take place only once every two or three months.

Besides the gems that they carry with them, galeb duhr are likely to know where many other gems are, as well as veins of precious metals, such as gold, silver, and platinum, though galeb duhr seem to have no interest in these minerals for themselves. A few powerful mages have been able to bargain with the galeb duhr for this information. This is a difficult agreement to consummate, for the galeb duhr are valiant fighters, and usually have no difficulty in escaping from any harm if they are inclined to do so. Further, the galeb duhr are territorial, and would be irritated at any attempt to make use of this knowledge in their vicinity.

In some strange way, galeb duhr feel responsible for the smaller rocks and boulders around them, in much the same way that a treant feels responsible for trees in its neighborhood. A traveler who disturbs the area near a galeb duhr does so at his own peril.