1. ./gradlew assemble
2. Run the project
3. Observe crash on call to JniTestLib.test() but not on JniTest.test()

You can unzip testlib/build/outputs/aar/testlib-debug.aar, observe no libtest.so present, but that the build generated libtest.so as seen by its presence in testlib/build/intermediates/binaries/debug/lib/$ARCH. Shouldn't it be in the AAR?

According to http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/gradle-experimental, "There’s no support for NDK-only modules. The only supported project types are hybrid app projects and hybrid Library Projects.", so I think library projects with JNI modules are supported. (I'm not sure what an NDK-only module would be, maybe something based off of an older NDK project based around .mk files?)