Horgar

Greyhawk Creature

Horgar
A horgar, as depicted in Monstrous Compendium: Greyhawk Adventures Appendix (1992).
General information
Alignment:	Neutral
Type:	Elemental

The horgar are a species of gargantuan slug like elementals living deep underground in the bedrock of the world.

Ecology

The horgar are a vital part of the ecology of the Underdark. The by-products of the stone-eaters are breathable gases, acids, and numerous mineral deposits. Without the horgar's tunnelling , life would not be possible in the Underdark. For all the aeons that the horgar have been tunnelling in the Underdark, thousands of miles of tunnels and caverns are left behind. A number of natural conditions, such as running water, have eroded most of them, giving them a more natural look. These caverns are now the homes to many species.

Environment

Horgar live in the deep, hard-rock regions of the earth. On rare occasions they can be found closer to the surface or in softer rock. They do not have any society of their own, but they have affected many other societies. The name horgar is dwarvish, while the gnomes call them storgin; both names translate loosely to stone-eater.

Society

Some of the more primitive races of the Underdark worship the horgar as gods. Others, such as the dwarves, duergar, drow, gnomes, and deep gnomes use them as work beasts. The horgar are kept in reinforced, glass-lined pits. They can be driven by slipping thin, glass-sheathed spears between the plates of their skin. This causes no damage, but irritates them and make them move away from that side. The handler, called horgarin in dwarvish, must be skilled and quick to avoid having his spear snapped by the sliding plates of the skin. The dwarves have a saying, "as unlucky as a horgarin without a spear". Every 500 years, a horgar splits off small parts of itself in a deep, hidden cave with only a single entrance.

Typical physical characteristics

This gargantuan creature eats its way through solid rock, thus creating tunnels, passageways and caverns wherever it goes. When stationary, a horgar resembles a cooling pool of lava . In motion it looks like a gargantuan basalt coloured slug. It resembles an oblong chunk with a thick skin of true stone (up to five feet thick in an adult). Tremendous cracks in the skin divide it into large plates that shift and slide when the horgar is moving. The only exposed part is the head, located at one end of the oblong, which is just a clump of softer looking stone.

The horgar exudes a super-heated acid like smell that it secretes from between its rock plates, kind of like ammonia. These vapours make other creatures' eyes water and irritate their mouths and nasal passages. The only sounds it makes are the grinding of its skin against the tunnel walls and the hiss of acid and heat melting rock.

Alignment

Horgar are nonaggressive unintelligent creatures.

Publishing History

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References

Bibliography

• Boucher, Grant, , William W. Connors, Skip Williams, et al. MC5 Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1990. Item code TSR2107.

  Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image
Horgar	Monster		From the Ashes: Atlas of the Flanaess	57
Horgar	Monster		From the Ashes: References Card	#12
Horgar	Monster		MC5 Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix	Insert (Horgar), Encounter Tables