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Also Known As: Stone Demon, Gargoyle
Description: Rock demons are humanoid creatures made out of stone, but size and appearance varies considerably from one creature to the next, as does the specific type of stone they’re made from. They range from crude, primitive figures to elaborately carved gargoyles and statues.
BMA Classification: Rock demons are classified as monsters by the Bureau of Monster Affairs. While they are not naturally hostile to humans–and in fact don’t even seem to notice humans for the most part–they are very dangerous to anyone who gets between them and a “treasure” that has caught their attention.
Powers: Rock demons do not have any special powers, but are typically very strong and, being made of stone, rather difficult to destroy.
Vulnerabilities: Gunfire will damage a rock demon, but disabling a creature with bullets typically requires large-caliber bullets and sustained fire. Most hand-held weapons cause minimal damage to rock demons, with picks and other tools specifically designed to break up rocks being a notable exception. Explosives, military-grade weaponry, and heavy construction equipment, if they are available and can be deployed without endangering civilians or causing excessive property damage, are much more efficient methods of dealing with rock demons.
Biology and Habitat: While the bodies that rock demons inhabit are carved by human hands, they have never been encountered in the role of magical servant. This suggests that, unlike golems and other similar constructs, rock demons are not animated through human action. The most widely-accepted theory is that the animation process occurs when a statue is possessed by an extra-dimensional entity.
Once animated, a rock demon’s only goal appears to be the accumulation of metallic objects, bits of colored glass, and other shiny objects. Some of this treasure is used to decorated the rock demon’s body, while the rest is hoarded in whatever lair the rock creature has chosen to inhabit. Accumulating and protecting its hoard seems to be the rock demon’s only drive, though they do exhibit basic survival instincts. Rock demons do not exhibit any outward signs of higher intelligence.
Sightings:
- In 1973, 17 examples of Akkadian sculpture housed in the Kelsey Museum in Ann Arbor Michigan came to life spontaneously and began warring over various artifacts, causing several million in property damage. The rock demons were eventually herded into a truck and destroyed with a car compactor.
- In 1985, a rock demon inhabiting a Bob’s Big Boy terrorized the area around Cadillac, Michigan for nearly three weeks until local M-Forcers managed to destroy it with a wrecking ball.
- In 2011, a statue of Bruce Willis (as Emmett Smith from the movie In Country) in Paducah, Kentucky was inhabited by a rock demon. During a battle that involving multiple M-Force offices, including the one from nearby Fort Campbell army base, the creature sank to the bottom of the Ohio River and apparently made its getaway. The statue has yet to resurface.
Additional Information: Contrary to rumors, none of the statues in the garden at M-Force National Headquarters have ever become animate in any way. Tales of “The Great Pawtucket Garden Gnome Uprising” are likewise apocryphal.
Body: 16*
Brain: 3
Nerve: 0*
Job: Mindless Collector (12)
Gimmick: Made of Rock (12*);
Weakness: Made of Rock (12*); Shiny Objects (16)
Skills: None
Armor Rating: 6*–Items specifically designed to break rock ignore the creature’s Armor Rating.
Damage Bonus: +6
HP: 60*
Yum Yums: 0
*These stats are for a typical rock demon of roughly human size. Rock demons inhabiting larger or smaller statues will have higher or lower stats, all based on the creature’s Gimmick Number: Body= Gimmick +4; “Made of Rock” Weakness = Gimmick; Armor Rating and Damage Bonus = Gimmick/2; HP= Gimmick x 5.
