Gargantuan elemental, chaotic neutral
Armor Class 15
Hit Points 217 (15d20 +60)
Speed 30 ft., fly 90 ft. (hover)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 (+4) | 20 (+5) | 18 (+4) | 6 (-2) | 10 (+0) | 8 (-1) |
Damage Resistances acid, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Aquan, Auran
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)
Fluid Form: The elemental can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there. It can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Protection from Missiles: All missile attacks against the tempest elemental have disadvantage.
Thuderstorm: The elemental can launch once per round a lighting bolt against a target that inflict 15d6 dice lightning damage.
Innate Spellcasting. The tempest elemental’s innate spellcasting ability is Constitution (spell save DC 16, +7 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: gust of wind, wind wall
Actions
- Multiattack: The elemental makes two slam attacks.
- Slam: Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 30 ft., any target in a 20 ft square. Hit: 23 (4d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage plus chill touch.
- Whirlwind (Recharge 5-6): Each creature within 30 feet of the elemental’s space must make a DC 16 Strength saving throw. On a failure, a target takes 15 (6d8 + 4) bludgeoning and piercing damage and is flung up 30 feet away form the elemental in a random direction and is knocked prone. It takes a full round to create the whirlwind.
DESCRIPTION
The tempest is a living storm which appears as a dark storm cloud of comparatively small size. Human or bestial features can often be seen in the roiling vapors of the tempest. Silver veins extend across the creature and carry the electrical impulses that maintain the storm’s energy. Tempests have no language that humans may learn.
They can communicate with air and water elementals and their kin, and genies, through subtle wind buffets and spatterings of precipitation. A few, perhaps 10%, have learned to speak a few words of Common. Their voices are very soft and sibilant, with a hint of malice behind the words.
HABITAT / SOCIETY
There is much speculation about the origin of these beings, who are apparently related to elementals and to genie-kind. Tempests are composed of all four basic elements, fire, earth, air, and water; fire in the form of lightning, earth in their silver “circulatory system,” air in their winds, and water in the form of rain.
They may be summoned accidentally when a spellcaster tries to summon an elemental, especially one of air or water. At the DMs option, when a summoning is interfered with, the caster may be given a 10% to 50% chance to summon a tempest.
These beings may also be attracted by a weather summoning spell, with a 1% (non-cumulative) chance of appearing each time a spell is cast.
Some sages believe these creatures are jann that have been injured in some way and cannot retain human form. Whatever their origin, they do breed and reproduce as storms. Though “male” and “female” do not truly describe the different types of tempests, there are two genders.
When living storms of different genders meet, they have a brief, tempestuous affair, causing a great conflagration that may last more than a week. Hurricanes or tornadoes are produced irregularly from the mass, to wreak havoc upon the surrounding area.
When the storm finally breaks, the two tempests leave the area, and the residue they leave behind forms 1d4 infant tempests.
These infant storms, sometimes referred to as tantrums, often travel together until they reach maturity, one year after birth. The young storms have 6 Hit Dice each, and can use only the gust of wind power, besides producing rain. Most tempests quite naturally seem to have very stormy dispositions.
Their hunger for animal life goes beyond their need for the moisture contained in animal bodies. Some sages speculate that their physical form. or possibly some event in their history, causes them to hate animal life.
It is quite possible that the electrical impulses produced by animal brains cause pain to the tempest. Tempests may be related to skriaxits, the living sandstorms of some worlds’ deserts. No tempest has ever been known to encounter a skriaxit, and their relationship and possible interactions are completely unknown.
ECOLOGY
Tempests feed on the moisture found in animal bodies. Though unable to cause harm to living creatures by draining their moisture, they hover close to the ground after a battle to suck the water from dead opponents, as well as any water they may have precipitated during the battle.
They are sometimes found scavenging after great battles between humans. By removing water from a corpse, they render it inviable to return to life via a raise dead spell, though resurrection and other spells work normally.
When a tempest is killed, a silver residue rains down from its form. If carefully gathered. this residue provides a mass of magical imbued silver equivalent to 3d6 silver pieces. Though valuable as a precious metal, the silver can also be used as a component in making a wand of lightning or casting a weather-related spell.
Bits of the silver are also useful for making other weather or elemental related magical items. Genies and elementals are enemies of tempests; they often attack them, and tempests respond in like manner. However, some genies, especially djinni and marids, keep tempests as pets, training them as guards and to attack.
Tempests can be quite devastating to a local ecology if annoyed, and can cause great damage with wind, rain, and other attack forms. Living storms are never found inside buildings or underground.