Eston was the site of countless wonders this last weekend, as the city celebrated the opening of the House of Cannith. This pavilion is the work of an alliance of families from across Metrol, all of whom carry the remarkable Dragon Mark of Making. The festival displayed creations of each of these families, but the most remarkable of all was crafted by the greatest artisans of the families working together—the Grand Gorgon, a massive bull formed of steel and bronze that moves as if it were a creature of flesh and blood, belching gouts of green steam. While each family played their part, all agreed that Castal Harn was the innovator whose vision brought the Gorgon to life. Castal was unable to appear at the festival, but his contributions were commemorated with a wondrously detailed statue. It seems these Cannith artisans are as adept at shaping stone as they are at working steel!
From The Korranberg Chronicle article “A Festival of Steel”
The gorgon has been with D&D since the first Monster Manual, one of the examples of a creature that draws on the name of a mythological creature from our world without making much effort to accurately reflect the source material. Rather than being relatives of Medusa, D&D’s gorgons were bulls with steel scales that breathed petrifying fumes. In Eberron, House Cannith used the gorgon as its symbol, because steel bull, but there was never any actual connection between the creature and the house. Enter the 2025 Monster Manual. A number of old monsters received small but significant changes in the new edition, and the gorgon is one of them. It now has the construct creature type; gorgons aren’t found in nature, but are “created by magic-users to serve as guardians.” There’s been a number of changes to creature types that I’m definitely going to ignore in my campaigns, but I love this particular change for Eberron. It’s an opportunity to tie the gorgon closely to House Cannith and the industry of artifice, rather than just being a random monstrosity. So here’s my story for the revised construct gorgon.
The Gorgon of Eston
When dragonmarks first manifested in Khorvaire, each one appeared in a particular region… but they weren’t limited to a single bloodline. The Mark of Making appeared on multiple families in the realm then known as Metrol. The Vowns were based in Eston; the Harns in what is now Making; the Jurans were a nomadic clan. Along with the other Making bloodlines, these families slowly discovered the powers of their mark as the numbers of marked heirs grew. Most of these families were already known for some form of craftwork, and the mark enhanced their gifts with artifice and industry. Over time, the leaders of these families debated whether they should join together. As part of this process, artisans from each house came together to work on a number of projects, seeing what they could accomplish when they combined their skills. The Gorgon of Eston was the a dramatic result of this process: the most sophisticated construct ever constructed by humans of Khorvaire. Previous human artificers had worked with homunculi, but such constructs required an ongoing bond to their creator. The Gorgon is self-sustaining and independent, even capable of making simple decisions in pursuit of the directions given by its creators. To the houses, it was the first child of their union. The Gorgon led the parade in the festivals in Eston, and stood in the square outside Cannith Hall bellowing the hour. The Gorgon was considered a wonder of the age, and the allied families took it as the sigil of their new house; when the Twelve came together, House Sivis suggested that all of the Dragonmarked Houses follow this example. But for Cannith, the gorgon isn’t just a beast; it’s a symbol of their house and its power.
Over the course of centuries, Cannith made many gorgons. As the house spread, most forgeholds had a gorgon standing in their atrium, serving both as a symbol of the house and a guardian of the forge. But while they were once found across Khorvaire, the gorgons were the first constructs made by House Cannith and had many flaws. Those old models slowly leak petrifying gas, which can build up to dangerous concentrations if the construct is kept in an enclosed space. The rudimentary sentience of the gorgon had flaws; random individuals could be identified as threats, and a handful of gorgons went berserk. They were occasionally sold as weapons of war, but while a gorgon is a terrifying spectacle, they aren’t especially practical as war machines. And the process of creating a gorgon was time consuming, expensive, and dangerous. Today, there are still a few gorgons on active duty, but most have been mothballed or set guarding obscure vaults; while the original Grand Gorgon can be seen in the Clockwork Menagerie of Eston, what stands outside the Cannith Enclave today is a SCULPTURE of a gorgon… while the Cannith enclave in Korth has a BRAZEN GORGON, described later in this article.
Why petrification? Why did the creators choose to imbue the gorgon with petrification? Why didn’t they have it breathe fire, or emit busts of force? In my Eberron, the petrifying breath of the gorgon was an unexpected benefit. Gorgons were developed over a thousand years ago, before the rise of House Tharashk and modern techniques for finding and refining dragonshards. The arcane power source of the gorgon slowly produces a substance called stone mist. Normally this is produced in trace quantities that harmlessly disperse in the air—much like the poisonous fumes produced by the combustion engines of automobiles. But like carbon monoxide, in an sealed space stone mist can build up over time—and once it reaches a high level of concentration, it petrifies organic creatures. After an unexpected accident revealed the danger posed by the stone mist, the Jurans came up with a solution. Instead of continuously releasing low levels of gas, the gorgon would build up containment in a chamber within its body—and when the chamber reached capacity, expel it in a direction where no one would be harmed, usually venting it toward the sky. It was later in the process that the Vown magewrights suggested that this venting could be used as an offensive weapon. While they COULD have equipped it with the ability to breathe fire, the Vowns observed that the petrifying breath only affected organic creatures and carried no risk of collateral property damage. On top of that, it was technically nonlethal… although Greater Restoration isn’t a trivial thing in 998 YK and was surely even harder to come by in the days before Galifar. So the Gorgon engineers didn’t originally intend to build a creature with petrifying breath; they meant to build an imposing iron bull, and it was only over the course of development that they discovered its potential for petrification.
Stone Mist? If you embrace this story, it means that House Cannith has had the ability to produce a petrifying mist for centuries. To which I say… why not? Among other things, canonically House Kundarak uses petrification as a form of imprisonment in Dreadhold. The Mror Holds aren’t known for their arcanists (though the present warden of Dreadhold IS a legendary abjurer) so… who petrifies these people? Why, stone mist provided by House Cannith! The thing about stone mist is that it’s not a very practical tool in most cases. The mist produced by the arcane process is thin and diffuse—generally harmless. The engine that allows a gorgon to concentrate the mist into a weapon is a large component within its body; it’s not like a small bottle of mist would accomplish the task. So looking to Dreadhold—and other prisons in Khorvaire that maintain stone wards—petrification is actually accomplished using a Mist Chamber. The victim is placed in a sealed room and held until the mist builds up to a sufficient level to cause petrification. This is a slow process, and typically the victim is rendered unconscious so they don’t have to experience the unbearable tension of waiting for the mist to reach effective concentration, then slowly feeling your flesh transform.
So, Cannith has long had the ability to induce petrification. Aside from serving as a form of imprisonment, it is also something that’s been used throughout the history of the house to preserve individuals. A number of Cannith forgeholds have their own stone wards containing such “sleeper statues.” Some of the people in these wards resorted to petrification in the hopes that the future will have a way to cure an affliction that couldn’t be countered in their own time. Others nearing the end of life hope that the future will have a way to defeat death itself; “Restore me when you can transfer my consciousness into a construct body.” A few remarkable individuals chose to be petrified in the belief that their knowledge or skills could play a critical role in the future. And just in the last century, a number of wealthy individuals chose to “sit out” the Last War, and a few of them are now being restored; consider Today in Eberron’s story of Hale Davon, the Pastry King of Wroat.
Today in Eberron, 12/18/998: Aurum concordian Hale Davon, the “Pastry King of Wroat,” was voluntarily petrified in 900 YK to wait out the Last War. Today Davon was restored, and he’s seeking a group of capable adventurers to find his missing possessions and help reestablish his connections.
Throughout history, Cannith has experimented with other ways of weaponizing stone mist. They’ve experimented with devices that are essentially small bags of holding filled with concentrated mist. In general, these haven’t proven to be effective on a large scale. The gas disperses quickly and as a gas, it can also blow in the wrong direction based on wind. So it hasn’t played a major role in warfare, but there are still a few sites where mist weapons were deployed—battlefields with dozens or even hundreds of soldiers trapped in stone.
What about the BRAZEN GORGON?
Throughout much of the Last War, Karrnath was the nation that was least dependent on House Cannith for its weaponry. Karrnath had its own strong tradition of forging weapons of war, and its use of undead soldiers meant it had little need of Cannith warforged. When Zorlan d’Cannith became Lord Seneschal of Cannith operations in Karrnath, he was determined to shift that balance—to show Regent Moranna that cooperation between Karrnath and Cannith could produce deadly wonders. Moranna was receptive to the idea, as she was actively seeking to reduce her army’s dependence on the undead. As his proof of concept, Zorlan presented Moranna with the first brazen gorgon. More durable and deadly than the stone mist gorgon, the brazen gorgon—which soon became known as “The Zorlon”—radiates deadly heat and can overrun squads of infantry with ease. Moranna was impressed, and over the next decade Zorlan led the development of many weapons for Karrnath. The brazen gorgon was never widespread, but a few score were spread out among Karrnathi forces, and Cannith enclaves in Karrnath often have a brazen gorgon as a symbol and guardian. Zorlan himself uses a brazen gorgon as his personal crest—a gorgon’s head wreathed in flames.
The “Zorlon” brazen gorgons have a few features that are worth noting. The Zorlon can activate or deactivate its flame aura as a bonus action; when a Zorlon is stationed in the lobby of a Cannith enclave, they don’t want it incinerating the customers. In addition, the so called “flame aura” of the Zorlan isn’t actually mundane fire. The rules for the Flame Aura say that it damages each CREATURE within 5 feet of the gorgon, but make no mention of igniting flammable objects, as many fire spells do; again, this is important for a construct that may be stationed in a forgehold! The Zorlon radiates a field of energy that causes fire damage to creatures, but doesn’t set buildings on fire. The Zorlon grapples using two prehensile tentacles that it can extend from its lower neck; it can also use the tentacles to manipulate objects. However, brazen gorgons only possess limited sentience, similar to warforged titans; they can follow orders and make simple decisions, but they don’t have the intelligence and personality of a warforged.
What does this mean for you?
Gorgons are typically tied to House Cannith. The base design is somewhat obsolete today; they aren’t as reliable as warforged or warforged titans. But a Cannith enclave may still have a guardian gorgon. In general, however, they are obsolete—but still durable. So gorgons can be found guarding abandoned forgeholds, isolated Cannith vaults, and hidden enclaves long forgotten by the modern Cannith heirs. They can also potentially be found as surplus—a gorgon that was thrown on the scrap heap centuries ago, only to be recovered and reactivated by the villains of your story. In these cases I would be sure to emphasize that the gorgon is OLD and decrepit. This doesn’t have to affect its statistics, but it should feel like something that ought to be in a museum. And speaking of museums, the original Great Gorgon is still there in the Clockwork Menagerie of Eston; there could be some sort of National Treasure story where the original founders of the house hid a vital clue in the heart of the first gorgon!
Aside from gorgons themselves, stone mist provides possibilities for a number of interesting stories. In addition to explaining how Kundarak petrifies the prisoners at Dreadhold, it introduces the potential for Cannith to have vaults of people who chose voluntary petrification—people like Hale Davon. Perhaps a Cannith heir wants to send adventurers into the Mournland to recover statues from a stone ward in the Mournland; could Starrin d’Cannith have petrified himself before the Mourning struck? Beyond this, having adventurers find a statue in a ruin—perhaps with a note promising a reward if they restore the figure to flesh—can have all sorts of outcomes. Is this a good person who will indeed reward them and serve as a valuable patron going forward? Or were they a terrible villain who chose to throw themselves into the future in order to enact a grand scheme? Beyond this, Cannith could still be working at weaponizing the mist to create weapons of mass petrification; the house could send a team into Cazhaak Draal to try to steal secrets of the medusas or an artifact tied to Orlassk!
Meanwhile, brazen gorgons can be found in Karrnath. In addition to be used as weapons of war, many city watches in Karrnathi cities have a brazen gorgon in reserve for deadly crowd control duty. They can be found guarding Cannith enclaves and vaults, and it’s also possible someone could get control of one as a surplus weapon.
But wait, why do gorgons contain actual bull skeletons?
So, the default lore in the new Monster Manual says “The process for creating a gorgon is labor intensive and dangerous, with one method requiring the skeleton of a bull, the blood of a medusa, and the brain of a basilisk fused into a frame of ensorcelled iron.” First of all, the lore in the Monster Manuals is always a foundation that can and should be altered to fit a particular setting or story. But beyond that, even in this default lore, it says that this is ONE POSSIBLE WAY to create a gorgon. In the example I’ve given here, the gorgon is made from inorganic material; the original Cannith founders didn’t use ANY of those components to create it. With that said, I think it could be very interesting if Zorlan d’Cannith trying to build a better version of the original gorgon fueled by medusa blood—and meanwhile, a truly half-steel half-organic gorgon sounds like something you might find in Mordain’s Forest of Flesh!.
That’s all for now. Thanks as always to my Patreon supporters for making these articles possible! If you’ve been considering becoming a patron, now is a good time: for the next few days, patrons are helping me finalize the topics of my next Eberron book. Follow the link if you’d like to take part!
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