long story short I’m thinking of running an encounter with a xorn or xorns plural. Additionally I just read a d&d beyond article about them
Questions for the group
1) do you have them talk. I have never thought of having them communicate
2) I’ve always thought of them as hostile creatures like a rust monster where they want your treasure?
The old early art has a wizard blasting 1
Never heard of them teaming with genies (dao)
I’m picturing now maybe having the party hear voices (unintelligible) and when they get to the room there’s a wall that’s partially caved in with some gems in it and then the xorns attack as they appeared as boulders?
The party hearing voices in the rock is a great way to handle them. Xorn are intelligent and speak terran, which is sensed as tremors and groans in the ground. These serve as warnings for others to stay away, even if those others do not understand the intent.
Xorn dwell in the deep bedrock, moving fluidly through an endless ocean of stone. They see themselves as guardians of the living mantle that rise up through old fault lines, and gem caverns where Xorn may harvest mineral veins and crystal geodes. A process that grinds hard minerals down into slag to be returned to elemental magma from which it came.
Ancient stone ruins and buried gem hoards are also ready to flow back into the mantle and the Xorn will eagerly devour them. Unfortunately, this can bring Xorn into conflict with mortals, as the Xorn view intruding mortals as stealing what rightfully belongs to the elemental earth.
Xorn see through stone by tremor and resonance. Every footstep, hammer strike, and heartbeat sends ripples into the earth around them, the clank of steel armour, the echo of a coin and the ring of metal against rock is a beacon that they read in the weight and rhythm of vibration
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Xorn do not willingly surface, instead they use tremorsense to detect intruders while gliding silently beneath them. Naturally they are attracted to adventurers clad in heavy metal armour or carrying quantities of mineral wealth. Once in position Xorn use Earth Glide to rise directly beneath their chosen target, an explosive attack where the ground heaves, stone shards spray, and its triple jaws clamp around the victim, dragging it back into the ground.
Older and more powerful Xorn develop great cunning as they circle using ground surges to knock enemies prone, directed tremors to create distractions or dislodge rock, and undermining sections of ground so it collapses into deep pits.
Motivation: Xorn see themselves as caretakers and guardians of the Living Bedrock, the mantle of stone that lies deep beneath the ground. Their purpose is to grind hard cold rock down and return raw minerals to the magma below. They collapse unstable chambers, fuse tunnels, seal cracks and maintain the elemental life that surrounds them.
Ecological Relationships: Xorn react positively to Duergar, Galeb Duhr, and Earth Elementals, including druids in elemental form. They are hostile to Dao, who have enslaved Xorn in the past and with Purple Worms who they consider destructive mindless pests.