The Ultra Gorgon

I wrote the following down back in 2019 as an idea for either a D&D monster or possibly as a monster I could use in my fantasy writing.


The Ultra Gorgon (For Lack of a Better Name)

If I come up with a better name for this entity I will update this post later. I feel "Gorgon" doesn't really suit what this entity actually does.

An immortal entity that can inhabit non-living objects, sometimes staying dormant or hidden for hundreds of years.

The Ultra Gorgon is an unique creature, possessing no physical form of its own, but instead transferring its spiritual essence from one object to the next at will. It cannot possess the body of any living or undead creature and may only inhabit objects. Since some objects cannot move it is limited to whatever motions an object can do. Due to this limitation it could inhabit a magical sword or similar object, thus taking on the appearance of a talking sentient magical sword, but would be unable to walk or otherwise move while inhabiting a sword.

The Ultra Gorgon's favourite things to inhabit is puppets, the bigger the better. When possible it will inhabit the form of a smaller puppet and use it to build a bigger puppet, building larger consecutive bodies until it can build more impressive bodies like that of a dragon or demon. It will stash away old puppets in caves and dungeons and hidden places for future use, in case its main collection of puppets are ever destroyed and it needs a spare.

Being a highly intelligent immortal entity the Ultra Gorgon's motivations are complex. It doesn't require food or creature comforts. Weather means little to it, unless the weather is somehow damaging its collection of puppets. As such it is motivated more by magical or spiritual goals, and has little use for material wealth except as a means of making more puppets.

The Ultra Gorgon is not evil, per se, although it is capable of evil acts. It is a very selfish and fickle creature. Good acts are also possible, but rare as it odd for it to do anything unless it benefits itself somehow. If it recognizes an act as possessing a spiritual side to it then it will sometimes aid someone, just so it can claim to have "done a good deed for the day".

(Despite being unscrupulous the Ultra Gorgon is surprisingly spiritual about its existence.)

Other creatures usually steer clear of the Ultra Gorgon. Being able to possess any object means that if a creature annoys the Ultra Gorgon then its wrath is indeed powerful. It can, at will, possess the ground beneath a person's feet and cause an earthquake. It can topple trees, strangle creatures with rope or chains and similar means.

As a magic user the Ultra Gorgon also has an impressive knowledge of all magic, both clerical and mystical. It can cast almost any spell it wishes, including almost any spell it has knowledge of. Even if limited by its choice of physical forms, it can use magic to accomplish a variety of goals. Eg. Building an army of animated objects.

It can even cast the Wish spell, but rarely does so as it considers it to be cheating and is wary of using the Wish spell because of its ability to change reality. Thus even if it agreed to grant someone a wish, it might refuse to grant any wish that would warp reality and have dire consequences.

It might also believe, on a religious level, that using Wish magic is bad karma and will lead to bad luck in the future.

Its motivations are yet to be determined.

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I am not sure I will ever use this for any future stories or for D&D, but it is an interesting concept of a creature which is not wholly evil, but could fulfill a pseudo-villain role. The heroes might think it is a villain type entity, but later discover it is merely selfish.

Clearly if it is to fulfill any role in a future D&D game or story I will need to consider what motivations it has beyond its own survival. If it simply craved privacy it could inhabit a mountain in a region without people, but if it is to interact with people then it needs to have motivations that would cause it to be close to civilization.

It could even be something simple like "Where did I come from?" and thus it could be looking for ancient lore in an effort to find out where it originated.

If it is casting clerical magic then it should also have a particular faith. Or it could be druidic magic. To be determined.