Grimlock (Dungeons & Dragons)

Nofootnotes|date=February 2008
Infobox D&D creature
name=Grimlock
alignment=
type=Monstrous humanoid
subtype=
source=
first=
mythical=
based=
wizards_image_URL=http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG141.jpg
OGL_stats_URL=http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/monstersG.html#grimlock

Grimlocks are a fictional race of monstrous humanoids that live in the Underdark, a vast interconnected system of caves underneath various "Dungeons & Dragons" campaign settings.

Publication history

The grimlock was introduced to the D&D game in the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)

The grimlock first appears in the first edition "Fiend Folio" (1981). [Turnbull, Don, ed. "Fiend Folio" (TSR, 1981)]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

The grimlock appears first in in the "Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix" (1992). [Williams, Skip, et al. "Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix" (TSR, 1992)] and is reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993). [Stewart, Doug, ed. "Monstrous Manual" (TSR, 1993)]

The grimlock is detailed further in the mind flayer sourcebook, the "Illithiad" (1998). [Cordell, Bruce R. "The Illithiad" (TSR, 1998)]

The grimlock's role in the Underdark of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting was detailed in "Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark" (1999). [Boyd, Eric L. "Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark" (TSR, 1999)]

The grimlock was one of the humanoid races presented as player character races in "Dragon" #265 (November 1999). [Brown, Lloyd III. "Primitive PC's." "Dragon" #265 (TSR, 1999)]

An adventure in "Dungeon" #81 (July 2000) included a grimlock-derro conjoin.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)

The grimlock appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000). [Cook, Monte, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams. "Monster Manual" (Wizards of the Coast, 2000)]

An adventure in "Dungeon" #96 (January 2003) included the grimlock child.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003-2007)

The grimlock appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003).

The grimlock is again presented as a player character race, for the Forgotten Realms setting, in "Underdark" (2003). [Cordell, Bruce R, Gwendolyn FM Kestrel, and Jeff Quick. "Underdark" (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)]

The voidmind grimlock appears in "Monster Manual III" (2004). [Burlew, Rich, "et al". "Monster Manual III" (Wizards of the Coast, 2004)]

The grimlock was detailed in "Dragon" #327 (May 2005), in the "Ecology of the Grimlock". [Hart, Mark A. "Ecology of the Grimlock." "Dragon" #327 (Paizo Publishing, 2005)]

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)

The grimlock appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), including the grimlock minion, the grimlock follower, the grimlock ambusher, and the grimlock berserker. [Mearls, Mike, Stephen Schubert, and James Wyatt. "Monster Manual" (Wizards of the Coast, 2008)]

Physical description

Millennia of living in darkness have left the entire species blindFact|date=October 2007. Grimlocks are humanoid creatures and have slightly scaled, gray skin that is usually scarred from hunts through constricted passageways. Perhaps the most striking feature of a grimlock is the complete absence of eyes or eye sockets. Blank skin stretches across the upper face, giving grimlocks a shadowed, masked visage. The average height for a grimlock, male or female, is five to five and a half feet. The average weight is around 180 pounds.

ociety

Grimlocks prefer to keep to themselves, but their isolation is often disrupted when mind flayers raid their packs looking for slave fodder or, as more often is the case, their mushroom fields are razed and their water cisterns are drained by drow. This leaves the grimlocks starving and desperate, and they are forced to raid surface communities in order to survive. For this reason, grimlocks are hated by surface dwellersFact|date=October 2007.

Grimlocks tend to have intense distrust toward any race other than their own. They quite reasonably act xenophobically to other races, as they are fed on by mind flayers, enslaved by both drow and mind flayers alike, and subjected to extreme depravity by aboleths.

Language

The language of the grimlocks is a dialect of Terran and Undercommon. Some choose to learn Abyssal and other evil tongues in order to gain power for themselves by making sinister deals.

Grimlocks in various campaign settings

Grimlocks in the "Forgotten Realms"

In the "Forgotten Realms" setting, grimlocks are the descendants of humans of Uthgardt ancestry from the Golden Eagle and Red Pony tribes. Long ago, in 576 DR (the Year of the Sunless Passage), these barbarian tribes vanished into the Underdark by way of a passage that leads down from beneath One Stone, the Uthgardt ancestor mound located in the easternmost Moonwood. After years of wandering in the lightless passages of the Underdark, these barbarians evolved to the current grimlocks. They still retain twisted vestiges of their ancient traditions, including a depraved form of ancestor worship that involves consumption of the aged and weak while they still live.

In the Underdark of Faerûn, some groups of grimlocks worship individual medusae, considering them as minor deities. The power of a medusa's gaze is beyond the grimlock's ability to comprehend (as they are blind), so it seems divine to them. More enlightened grimlocks, however, tend to worship Shar, the goddess of darkness.

Many wild grimlocks are born in an extended series of caves that they call the Fingerhome. The caverns of the Fingerhome extend throughout the upper, middle, and lower Underdark.

One tribe of grimlocks resides in the Cavern of Cloven Heads, a small cave that five thousand years prior was the site of a battle between a rear guard of dwarves of Clan Black Axe and a group of drow refugees led by Menzoberra the Kinless (the Lolthite priestess who founded Menzoberranzan). This tribe abandoned their nomadic ways and settled the surrounding caverns. Within the Cavern of Cloven Heads lies a monstrous boulder engraved with runes. Surrounding the boulder are the riven skulls of hundreds of drow. This discovery matched fragmentary legends regarding the grimlocks' lost ancestor mound, so they now revere this mound as such. (This mound is actually an ancient dwarven cairn of the Black Axe Clan. The inscriptions on the boulder are Dethek runes that relate the legend of the "Brave Beards." The rock itself lies atop the spot where the last defender of the dwarven rear guard, Dorn Black Axe, literally sank into the floor of the cavern.)

Grimlocks in "Greyhawk"

Grimlocks have been depicted in the "World of Greyhawk" campaign setting as worshippers of Erythnul, though it is unknown if this is typical.

References

External links

Official sources:
*“ [http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/mc/mc20010829h Mintiper’s Chapbook, Part 8: Grandfather Tree] ” by Eric L. Boyd at "Wizards.com"
*“ [http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/mc/mc20020130a Mintiper’s Chapbook, Part 10: Chronicler’s Compendium] ” by Eric L. Boyd at "Wizards.com"
* [http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ud_gallery/52107_CN.jpgGrimlock image (second from left), illustrated by Brom]