Galeb duhr

Galeb duhr (gay-leb DOR ) were magical creatures of stone that appeared almost like animated boulders, with the power to control the rocks around them.

Description
When galeb duhr were not moving, they could choose to appear exactly like a boulder, but when they opened their eyes or moved, one could see that they had dark, foreboding eyes,  a wide mouth,  and two appendages that acted as both hands and feet.

Galeb duhr ranged in size from four feet (one meter) in height to as large as sixteen feet (five meters).

They were very slow-moving creatures with a steady gait. It was not possible for them to hold anything in their "hands" while walking, but if they were "sitting" they could manipulate objects with their hands with surprising dexterity.

Personality
Galeb duhr were slow to think and slow to act, yet they were very intelligent creatures. They tended to be very territorial and rarely shared knowledge of their rocky homes with strangers. To question them about such knowledge would likely irritate them. In truth, they did in fact know just about anything one might want to know about their mountain homes.

Galeb duhr felt a responsibility to "tend" the smaller boulders and rocks around them, much like a treant tended trees.

Abilities
Similar to how treants had an innate power over trees, so galeb duhr had control over the stone around them. They could magically move earth, shape stone, create openings in stone, and turn rocks into mud. They could also create a wall of stone with their magic. Beyond these powers, they could also animate a number of boulders around them.

A galeb duhr could sense motions through the ground of approaching creatures or objects.

Biology
Like other elemental creatures, Galeb duhr neither slept nor breathed. Some reported that galeb duhr ate rock, preferring granite and not liking the taste of sedimentary rock, and that they only needed to eat once every two or three months. This was in fact not true. Galeb duhr gained nutrients simply from being in contact with their rocky environment. They grew from drawing sustenance from the element earth much like a plant grows by drawing sustenance in some sense from the sun.

Because of this source of sustenance for a galeb duhr, a galeb duhr removed from a stony, mountainous environmnet would grow weaker and eventually die. An exceptionally weakened galeb duhr would begin to lose its powers of other stones. A dead galeb duhr was nothing more than a normal boulder.

It was a mystery to most how galeb duhr reproduced. Some suggested that they could only originate on the Elemental Plane of Earth and travel to the Prime Material Plane. However, smaller galeb duhr had been observed, which were assumed to be young ones.

Combat
While they had no natural enemies, sometimes creatures would try to steal gems from the galeb duhr, and sometimes intruders would disturb the galeb duhr's rocks&mdash;to their own peril.

A galeb duhr would typically avoid combat by vanishing into the ground by burrowing or through magic, or by simply not moving and appearing just like its surrounding rock. If annoyed by an intruder, however, a galeb duhr could be a powerful opponent, and would not hesitate to fight using its powerful control of the element of earth. They could also pummel an enemy with their rocky appendages, or roll at them.

Society
Many galeb duhr lived on the Plane of Earth. Those on the Material Plane became permanently bound to it, so that they would not return to the Plane of Earth should they die. On the Material Plane, they could be found in any mountainous, rocky terrain or in caves underground.

They were relatively solitary, living either alone or with only a few of their own kind, called a "tumble". They would not even live with earth elementals.

Galeb duhr were known to live in the Alimir Mountains, the Tannath Mountains, and in virtually all of the mountains of the Savage Frontier.

Galeb duhr seemed to enjoy collecting gems. Some claimed that they could be found with magic potions, but these most likely were left behind by those who had tried to attack the galeb duhr to steal their gems and failed. Besides the gems they kept for themselves, galeb duhr were likely to know the locations of veins of precious metal, ores, and other gems. They rarely gave up this knowledge, however.

Galeb duhr loved to make music, but their music was hard for most humanoids to hear, because the tones were so low. The subsonic melodies could be felt through the ground for many miles. These vibrations tended to make horses nervous. They would sit in small groups harmonizing with their gravelly voices. The music was resonant and often viscerally sad. Some sages believed that their was a magic in their songs that could prevent or cause earthquakes. Others speculated that low, rumbling sounds were not songs at all but rather warnings to other galeb duhr.

Besides singing, galeb duhr spent a lot of time simply sitting.

Language
Galeb duhr spoke Terran, and some were reported to speak Giant and Dwarven.

History
Some scholars, particularly those living after the Spellplague, theorized that the galeb duhr were once dwarves enslaved to giants and titans, some of which eventually escaped this enslavement.

There seems little support for this theory, however, and most scholars believed that the galeb duhr were native to the Plane of Earth. Many galeb duhr were magically called to the Material Plane by spellcasters (most often wizards and druids) due to their talents as guardians, while others would form naturally in places where the Plane of Earth touched the Material Plane.

In 1085 DR, the galeb duhr of Tannath and Undergoth erected the great Watchwall of Aglarond.

In 1370 DR, the treants of Turlang and a large number of galeb duhr caused a great landslide to block Turnstone Pass.

Notable Galeb Duhrs
Hourm was a friendly galeb duhr living in Gravenhollow in the late 15th century DR.

Appearances

 * Out of the Abyss
 * Reclaiming Blingdenstone