Gorgon

A gorgon was a large magical beast that resembled a bull covered in dusky metallic scales.

Biology
The petrifying green vapor that gorgons exude somehow exists simultaneously on the material, astral, and ethereal planes. When exuded by a young gorgon, the size of this cloud is only half that of their adult counterparts.

The vapor is produced and stored in an internal organ that opens into the roof of their mouth. This organ will continue to function hours after a gorgon is killed. Scholars have yet to uncover how it functions. However, it was known that these vapors had no effect underwater and that they could easily be dissipated by an air elemental or similar force of moving air, such as by the spell gust of wind.

The irregularly shaped scales that cover a gorgon are composed of impure iron and coated in a waxy substance that helps to prevent them from rusting. This substance is perpetually exuded from cartilaginous seams between the scales. If a scale somehow succumbs to intense rusting it will fall off the body - this leaves the gorgon vulnerable, since they are incapable of growing new ones.

Behavior
Gorgons were very aggressive creatures that attacked intruders on sight, attempting to trample or gore them or by breathing out a cone of green vapor that turned them into stone. There was no way to calm them as they were impossible to domesticate. They were also unable to swim. Once a potential threat was petrified a gorgon would instinctively ignore the body.

Diet
Gorgons are omnivores and required a lot of iron in their diet, often obtained from blood and green vegetation, to maintain the durability of their scales.

Gorgons loved to eat fish. The Cormanthor gorgons flocked to the banks of River Ashaba and Elvenflow each spring when they flooded, so that they could collect the fish that were stranded there. Once the supply was depleted, a few of the gorgons were tempted to venture into the river to get more. Some of them fell in as a result, but their special ability could save them (see Species, Cormanthor below).

They were also known to have a fondness for deer and elk.

Cormanthor
The Cormanthor gorgons had a special ability some said was granted by the deities of the Hexad. If they slipped into the river, they turned to stone and were saved from drowning because they no longer needed oxygen or food. Sometimes, these petrified gorgons might be washed onto the shore by a strong current and the sun would warm them, causing them to be restored to their normal form. It was not unknown for fishermen to pull the petrified gorgons out of the river, thinking them to be statues.

Uses
The blood of a gorgon was a magical component used in masonry to prevent magical travel through walls. When one drop of blood was mixed with a pint of water during the mixture of stucco or mortar and applied with no unaffected areas larger than a man's head, it would prevent astral and ethereal travel through walls.

Drow in Old Shanatar used gorgon blood as an ingredient in forging gorgon plate mail, an armor said to be capable of protecting them against the sun's harmful affects.

Their metallic scales could be used to make ink for scrolls of protection from petrification or fashioned into a set of scale mail that protected against petrification effects.

Notable Gorgons

 * The Gorgotaur, a tauric gorgon who led the Cult of the Labyrinth dedicated to the demon lord Baphomet

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Dungeon #28: "The Pipes of Doom" • Dungeon #38: "A Blight on the Land" • Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage • Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus


 * Video Games:
 * Neverwinter


 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * Black Heart of Vengeance • The Ark of the Mountains • Pools of Cerulean