In both martial displays and in real battles against fly-
ing threats such as manticores, harpies, and outlaw wiz-
ards, the griffon riders actually leap off their mounts into
the open air! For a breath-stealing moment, they fall like
stones, closing in on their targets at incredible speed.
Their opponents rarely see the death blow, distracted
as they are by other mounted griffon riders. When they
are past the danger, the free-falling riders then suddenly
halt in the air, drifting like feathers until their griffon
companions swoop in and they regain their saddles.
Working in concert with one another in this fashion,
members of the Griffon Cavalry can rapidly eliminate
any threat to the city- and even catch the body of the
offender before it hits the rooftops below.
Riders of the Griffon Cavalry are trained to stay above
the rooftops, not because they fear crashing into towers
and weather vanes, but because the smell of so much
horsefiesh in the streets below can sometimes drive
their griffons into a frenzy.
THE WALKING STATUES ~~~-
Over a century ago, just one of these eight behemoth
statues stood visible at the northern foot of Mount Wa-
terdeep, on a bluff called Gull Leap. Ninety feet tall, it
resembled a bald human staring out to sea. Later events
{discussed below) caused it to be transformed into the
statue known today as the Sahuagin Humbled.
When the Spellplague gripped Waterdeep in 1385
DR, six more walking statues suddenly appeared in the
THe Goo CATCHER LOOMING 1N THE BACKGROUND
city, wandering to wreak havoc even as the Sahuagin
Humbled remained motionless. The authorities and citi-
zens of Waterdeep succeeded in stopping th rec of these
new statues, breaking the Swordmaiden and the Hawk
Man, and sinking the God Catcher into the street up to
its waist. Then all the statues mysteriously stopped their
rampage just as quickly as they had begun it. Tsarra
Chaadren, the Blackstaff at the time, couldn't command
them to return to their former hiding places on the
Ethereal Plane. Consequently, the city repaired itself
and built up around them. Much later, in 1479 DR, theeighth statue-the Griffon-emerged from the Ethereal
Plane to defend Ahghairon's Tower against intrusion.
It roosted there for a time before flying to its current
position near Peaktop Aerie on Mount Waterdeep. Once
more, this activity seemed to be outside the Blackstaff's
control. Thankfully, all the walkfog statues have been
dormant for well over a decade now, serving only as
beautiful, cyclopean reminders of Waterdeep's might.THE GOD CATCHER
This is perhaps the most famous walking statue in the
city, thanks to its dramatic pose, its nearness to the
Market, and the self-evident magic of its existence. The
statue is of a well-muscled but impassive male human
with its left leg sunk to the hip in the street, the result of
a spell cast by the Blackstaff at the time of its rampage.
Its left hand and right foot press against the ground as
if it is trying to pull itself out. Jts right arm is raised sky-