Natural geologic formations include veins and entire strata of fossil-rich rock. Where this fossiliferous rock is exposed, as where it is penetrated by natural caverns or dug tunnels, there is a constant dry patter, the constant sound of little critters newly generated falling from the rock face and scurrying away. Snail-shelled frogs and six-legged fish may be generated and shed by one rock, all quickly scurrying off into the crevasses to avoid being snapped up by the spine-snakes and scorpions spawned by another fossil-rock.
Examination of the fossiliferous rock will reveal what sorts of critters that particular rock generates, or at least their general "theme." Each rock has its own specialty, but may occasionally generate surprises.
Most rocks birth new fossil critters start life as highly emaciated, skeletal things, although a few spawn full-grown creatures, abet hungry. In any case, food and drink soon plump them up. After a few meals and some rest, the newly formed organisms adapt to free-living, much as their more mundane cousins, save that most retain some "thematic" features referencing their geologic origin.
Fossil-born creatures can breed either with their own kind or with their normal relatives. Their defendants have an equal chance of resembling either parent, or may be striated with stripes of one ancestry imposed upon the other. Where the parents are of the same type, that is to say, rock-born or of mundane flesh, but have some ancestry of the other sort, there is always the possibility of some throwback trait, either a minor feature, like a "faerie mark," or a complete regression to the "lost" type.
SEE also Acarus crossii, a real-world example of what were thought to be critters spontaneously generated from distilled water, powdered flint, carbonate of potassa and electricity "through the intervention of a porous stone;" I think it safe to assume that Mr. Cross's "porous stone" was a chunk of birthing rock.
Installation in a deep cellar or against other bedrock is recommended to speed this settling in process. The larger the rock, the more likely the transplant is to succeed; mere panels will fail to generate much, if anything, while blocks of multiple tonnage have a good chance of transplanting successfully.
The first generation of reptiles birthed by the fossil-rich rock is all scaled with nodules of greenish flint. This gives them an effective stony armor. A curious result of the flint studding is that it can generate sparks when struck by or moved harshly across an appropriate material. Some of the critters have learned to make use of this feature.
Sample Young of the Flint-Mother Stone are not listed here; use reptiles of any sort, including real or realistic reptiles, fabulous "reptile-upholstered" beasts such as the canine-o-saurians (dog-shaped, warm-blooded reptiles, some sorts having eagle beaks and frills), and dinosaurs. It is recommended that dinosaurs be disguised as "dragon-lizards," the dumb brute distant cousins of the more common sorts of lizard-shaped Dragons, with fantasy qualities such as "decorative" coloring or patterns, extra limbs, flint-sparked fire breath, or other special qualities.
Where the bones surface, they quickly emerge, fleshed in translucent amber-obsidian. Their forms are diverse and weird, as though whistled up by the demented pipings of priests in the thrall of narcotic-hazed visions.
Even when but newly formed, these stone-fleshed creatures hunger for the taste of blood and sinew; they are ravenous carnivores of insatiable appetite.
The reason for their great hunger for mortal flesh is simple; they require mundane flesh to form their eggs. These eggs, while shelled in amber-obsidian drawn from their parents' own flesh, are in their interiors of common flesh most mortal. Curiously, these young are not such beasts of nightmare as are their parents, but rather, the young resemble those creatures their parents ate, those creatures of whose flesh they were formed. Despite resembling not their parents but rather their parents' prey, these young are cared for as tenderly as young could be; apparently, even such nightmare creatures as the weird amber-obsidian beasts have hearts as tender as any parent's.
More important than these other crystals, those of armor and blade, is the great carbuncle-stone set in each beast's forehead. This is its seat of power. In some, it is simply a wee headlamp, lighting its way through the depths of the underworld. In others, it is a stone of power. These may be able to hurl a fireball, or aim a blast of ruby-red laser light, or launch a lightening strike.
(These greater powers seem to require the beast to eat a diet of precious stones; the more valuable the stone, the greater the damage done, up to a value equal to the beast's own hit points. It takes one hour for the beast to metabolize a gem. It can hold as many strikes as it has hit dice.)
When these ruby-crystal studded beasts are slain, all but one of their crystals loose a fraction of their fire and of their hardness. Still, even spinel-stones, which they remain, are valued semi-precious stones. The one great stone set in the forehead of each beast remains a precious carbuncle. These carbuncle stones are sought out by alchemists and sorcerers, for, having been part of a living beast, they are very susceptible to holding life. Such carbuncle may be used to hold a spirit, binding it in to an enchanted item, or be used to animate a pseudo-living construct, such as a golem or a clockwork beast.
Armadillo-kiwi
Dragons, pelted in plush and ornamented with feathered crests
Furred snakes, whether feline-headed or ferret-headed, but with feathered crests, possibly bird legs, perhaps feathered wings.
Griffons
Hawk-headed wombats
Serpent-headed weasels
Reremice and other bat-birds having four legs as well as a pair of wings, webbed or feathered - or both; their diets are as diverse as the kingdoms of bat and bird combined
Vulture-headed hyenas
Wolf-headed storks
Wyrms, pelted in plush and ornamented with feathered crests
The vast majority of sponge-stone formations and their progeny are perfectly harmless. Some are able to defend themselves with stings, some mild, some quite venomous, but even these are generally benign if left unmolested.
Ore sponge stone incorporates a significant amount of metal in its formation. Perhaps in response to avarice on the part of Deeps-dwelling miners, these metallic formations often develop electrical defenses. Sometimes this affinity to electricity is passed on to their progeny, in the form of organs of electrical generation rather more powerful than the common electric eel. These organs may be of ordinary tissue or they, like the metallic sponges that bore them, may incorporate metal, such as bronze headplates or iron horns.
In addition to anemone-like polyps, the sponge stone generates other organic life, including animals and plants, vegimals and organisms less easily defined. Most resemble aquatic invertebrates of diverse sorts, but are adapted to land.
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