Taking An Idea and Running With It: Cargoyles for Shadowfinder/Starfinder (Patreon)

On social media, Jason Tondro noted that he was reading a modern fantasy products, and read that there were creatures called 'cagoyles,' and he thought that was a brilliant way to adapt the gargoyle concept to a modern setting. Then, he discovered, actually the world was just gargoyle in a gothic font that caused him to misread it.

But Jacob Blackmon read that post, and decided to draw an actual 'cargoyle.' His adaptation of the idea that came from a misread was, I thought, brilliant. So I asked him if I could use it, and gained his permission. The, Jacob too the idea a step further, and drew a 'vanpire,' and shared it with me along with permission to use it as well.

I have my own "modern fantasy" play mode for Starfinder, called Shadowfinder, and I thought cargoyles and vanpires were perfect for it, so I began doing notes and background specific to Shadowfinder. The entry for the cargoyle is below, and I'll be doing vanpires soon. But as I developed that backstory I also came up with a kind of creepypasta-inspired fey called the 'dislimned,' which I shared with Jacob, who then drew them as well.

So, the idea goes from misreading to art to game notes back to art back to game notes. And, honestly, this kind of unplanned, organic growth is often one of the best ways for an idea to develop.

(Art by Jacob Blackmon)

Cargoyle (Expert)

CR 6

XP 2,400

CN Large monstrous humanoid (earth)

Init +2 (+7 in freeze); Senses blindsense (vibration) 30ft., darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +13

DEFENSE

HP 80

EAC 18; KAC 19

Fort +5; Ref +7; Will +11

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)

Melee claws +15 (1d6+11 S; critical demoralize)(bypasses DR/cold iron)

STATISTICS

Str +5; Dex +2; Con +3; Int +0; Wis +0; Cha +0

Skills Bluff +13, Disguise +18, Intimidate +18, Sleight of Hand +13, Stealth +18 (+23 if disguised using freeze)

Languages Aklo, Common, Terran

SQ Freeze

Freeze (Ex) A cargoyle can hold itself so still it appears to be an inanimate car. As a full action a cargoyle can use freeze to take 20 on its Stealth check to appear to be a car. The DC of their Disguise check is not altered by the severity of the features changed, or a car nt being of the monstrous humanoid creature type. A cargoyle’s Disguise ends if it moves or takes any physical action. A cargoyle normally uses freeze when resting, sleeping, or hunting prey. A cargoyle in freeze before a creature sees it or an encounter begins gains a +5 bonus to Stealth checks, and to Initiative checks.

Description

When the Shadoblast seeped into the normal world of Earth during World War I, stone creatures called gargoyles made the transition. They had ties to the land and the earth, and a power to have their form slowly change to match surrounding architecture, allowing them to freeze in place and appear to be statues. But in the battlefields of 20th century Russia there were far fewer statues than there were ruined and burned-out, wrecked vehicles. Over decades the gargoyles morphed not into local statues, but into the images of wrecked, abandoned, and rusting vehicles of war, and in time into more civilian cars. They further adapted to eat trash, junk, and weeds, and are normally able to survive on just what grows or is lying around in their lairs.

As time passed, these new ‘cargoyles’ spread across the world, finding themselves most comfortable in ruins, ghost towns, old battlefields, and abandoned or underpopulated sections of larger cities. They formed new clan structures, and become common elements of junkyards, abandoned factories and farmlands, and the worst parts of neighborhoods. In places where the Shadoblast overlaps with the Material World and creates demiplanes of endless ruins or shadow-towns that are empty reflections of Material locations, cargoyles sometimes cross back over or become trapped in the semi-real locations, sometimes permanently.

Though territorial and short-tempered, cargoyles came to see themselves as guardians and historians of the places they dwelled.. and of things they considered ‘native’ to those spaces. A cargoyle clan in a partially abandoned town that is facing hard economic times will be harsh to anyone who comes to tear down its homes or try to “renovate” the region, but protective of families who have lived there for generations. Cargoyles in a junkyard dislike customers coming to buy things from it, but are accepting of its owner, the cats and dogs that live there, and the homeless who sleep in the wrecked sheds and vans within it. Though cargoyles dislike associating with any not of their own clan, in rare cases they develop a friendly relationship with some local resident who seem aligned with their clan’s interests.

As defenders of forgotten, ruined, and abandoned places, cargoyles have come to recognize, and hate, two other groups of creatures hiding in the wreckage of humanity’s failures. The first are mockers, a strain of undead mimics of terrifying size, the most common and mobile of which are mockers that take the form of cargo vehicles and trucks known as ‘vanpires.’ The second are the ‘dislimned,’ a horrifying breed of fey who have been driven mad by being thrust into the poisoned, ravaged wilds of the modern world, and driven to live within cities. Dislimned take the approximate form of tall, narrow pieces of city infrastructure, such as streetlights, telephone poles, and sirens, but their shape would not fool anyone if not of their power to be overlooked by anyone not aware of their true nature.  

The ongoing conflict between cargoyles, mockers, and the dislimned are known as The Hollowgate Wars… but those few mortals that ever notice this battle of hidden supernatural forces. (More on vanpires and the dislimned soon!)

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