Subterranean Pets

Deep in the mines a pick will sometimes break into a nest that has turned to stone, and in the nest there is an egg, and the egg is not dead. What comes out of it has waited a long while and is in no hurry now. These are the miners' pets: slow, hard creatures that stand in front, and are struck, and do not much mind.

The worm and the grub are the humblest. Then come the rock troll, the earth sprite, and the gargoyle, which mends as stone does not. Of the balrog the miners say only that no nest they have opened held one.

Details

• With their young: Gravel Worm (tiny worm), Clay Grub (hatchling grub), Rock Troll (infant rock troll), Earth Sprite (infant earth sprite), Gargoyle (infant gargoyle), Balrog (balrog spawn).
• Their eggs are fossilized and are not found in common treasure: they are dug out of fossilized nests deep in the mines. A nest may hold any of the first five, and never a balrog.
• Born knowing: the worm, the grub and the gargoyle Resist Elements; the earth sprite Healing and Flying; the gargoyle Regeneration.
• Most of the tricks they can be taught are non-magical ones.