Boulderborn

Earth elementals are plodding, stubborn creatures made of living stone or earth. When utterly still, they resemble a heap of stone or a small hill. When an earth elemental lumbers into action, its actual appearance can vary, although its statistics remain identical to other elementals of its size. Most earth elementals look like terrestrial animals made out of rock, earth, or even crystal, with glowing gemstones for eyes. Larger earth elementals often have a stony humanoid appearance. Bits of vegetation frequently grow in the soil that makes up parts of an earth elemental’s body.

Where the Plane of Earth borders the Plane of Water, a mixing of the fundamental elements occurs—it is in this borderland that the mud elementals dwell. Scorned by earth and water elementals, mud elementals usually look like vaguely recognizable blobs of mud in the shape of a Material Plane creature, whether a humanoid, an animal, or even an immense insect. The exact density of their muddy bodies varies—some might be composed of silty water, while others are thick, like river clay. Large and powerful mud elementals tend to have worm-like, reptilian, or frog-like forms.

Wysps are five races of tiny elemental beings. Aether wysps were the first wysps, born of the same convergence between ethereal and elemental that spawned the aether element. For a time, the first wysps roamed the Ethereal and Elemental Planes freely in symphonies led by exuberant wysp conductors, playing out the otherworldly music of their resonances, but soon the elemental lords discovered the value of wysps as minions, and bred them into new races to support their forces in battle. Today, most wysps do their best to support allies, even giving their lives for their masters. Free symphonies of wysps still exist on their home planes and the Material Plane, though the enslavement of their kind has made them shy.  Even in the harshest servitude, wysps retain their curious nature and intelligence. When free to act as they please, they are playful and carefree, with mild differences in personality between the elements. Earth wysps are guarded and slow to trust. Wysps happily offer their services to kind allies, though generally only elementally attuned creatures, kineticists, and spellcasters who summon elementals can make much use of a wysp’s assistance. A 7th-level spellcaster who has the Improved Familiar feat can gain a wysp as a familiar.  

WYSP CONDUCTOR  
These free-spirited leaders of wysp symphonies often have either the advanced simple template (with ranks in Perform) or levels in bard. Their resonance doesn’t stack with inspire courage, so wysp conductors often take archetypes that trade out inspire courage or grant elemental-themed powers. A few wysp conductors have class levels in kineticist, elemental bloodline sorcerer, or other elemental-themed classes.  

Scorpion-like crysmals originate in the deepest caverns of the Plane of Earth. On rare occasions, these strange creatures wind up on the Material Plane, usually in subterranean areas rich with natural gem and crystal formations. The crystalline planes of their bodies absorb and refract natural light, which some claim is the source of their supernatural powers. Singular in purpose, a crysmal seeks only to reproduce. It does so by gathering stone crystals and gemstones, fashioning them into a Tiny facsimile of its own body, and jolting the new creature to life with a burst of the crysmal’s own life energy. These newly created crysmals are known as shardlings (treat as a crysmal with the young creature simple template), and grow to adulthood after a few months of gorging on crystals and gemstones. To make a single shardling, a crysmal requires 1,000gp worth of crystals. Until it has enough material to reproduce, it stores these gems inside its body, and if slain, the gems are visible among the shards of the creature’s corpse. Because of this reproductive need for gemstones, crysmals are relentless in their pursuit of the treasures, valuing them much as other living creatures value infants of their own race. Crysmals do not recognize that other creatures treat gems as wealth, and attempt to seize gems carried by others whenever the opportunity arises. A crysmal normally uses its spell-like abilities to befuddle opponents, grabbing at pouches with gems when the bearer is distracted, and normally only resorts to physical violence once all other tactics fail.

Mephits are the servants of powerful elemental creatures. Key sites and locations on the elemental planes are full of mephits scurrying about on important errands or duties. Each mephit is associated with one element that defines its spells and abilities. Earth mephits are commonly found on the Plane of Earth. These mephits are plodding and humorless.

Untold ages ago, the pechs served forgotten masters in the deepest caverns of the world. In time, their masters moved on, leaving the pechs bereft of guidance. Some sought refuge in seemingly safer tunnels nearer the surface. The unspeakable horrors they encountered there transformed them into derros over the course of several generations. Those pechs that stayed close to their ancestral caverns survive to this day, though in such small numbers and in such isolation that few of the surface world know of their existence. Pechs are skilled miners and stonemasons, and are at times employed or enslaved as such by other subterranean races. They have learned to hide the entrances to their lairs most carefully, blending their narrow entranceways into the living rock such that they can only be seen from exactly the right angle. When interlopers do find a pech’s lair, they are met with open arms, friendly advice, and a firm insistence that the pech is to be left alone. The typical pech stands only 3-1/2 feet tall, but its dense flesh gives it a weight of 100 pounds.

Mephits are the servants of powerful elemental creatures. Key sites and locations on the elemental planes are full of mephits scurrying about on important errands or duties. Each mephit is associated with one element that defines its spells and abilities. Salt mephits are commonly found on the Plane of Earth. These mephits are cruel and aloof.

Stealthy and unpredictable, the sandman is a terror to all travelers in the desert, whether they be traders, messengers, or adventurers. When at rest, sandmen resemble ordinary piles of sand, blending in perfectly with barren surroundings or ancient tombs. They rely on their soporific powers in most situations, putting their enemies to sleep and killing their unconscious opponents or dragging them back to their summoner. Although they themselves are elementals, sandmen don’t typically associate with other elementals, seeing their unquestioning obedience as weak. Sandmen pride themselves as free thinkers, and when given a task by a summoner, often interpret the task as they see fit. Because of their arrogance, usually only the most confident or most desperate mages bother with sandmen. It is not uncommon for sandmen to voluntarily stay on the Material Plane, fiendishly playing with its inhabitants as they wreak silent havoc. A sandman takes the form of a rough humanoid about 6 feet tall. Its shape is never quite certain, and its animate muscles constantly shift and flex as it pummels its targets. Sandmen can manipulate their bodies in many ways, but prefer to keep their legs and feet in the form of dusty clouds of sand, so as to easily maneuver about in their preferred environments. Some of these creatures pride themselves on their ability to control their shapes. Just as a mortal artist might sculpt incredible works of art from stone with a chisel, so do these artist sandmen sculpt their own bodies into works of art. Some enjoy using this ability to reshape their appearance to mimic that of their conjurer or their enemies, allowing them an additional level of theatrics by either assuming a beautiful form or by allowing their form to melt away in a hideous manner. Given the combination of their quick imaginations and their natural penchant for cruelty, most sandmen tend to opt for the latter method of tormenting their foes.

Strange creatures as big around as they are tall, xorns have little interest in natives of the Material Plane— except for the gems and precious metals they might be carrying. Lurking beneath the surface for what might seem long stretches of time to humans, a xorn might wait months, even years, for the right treat to come along, assaulting the being carrying its favorite meal, such as a certain gemstone or the right sort of silver. Adventurers who frequent regions inhabited by xorns often carry with them small chunks of raw ore or relatively inexpensive gemstones or crystals to use as bribes. While the price of a gemstone or piece of metal is often in direct proportion to the object’s flavor and desirability as a meal, most xorns are quite gluttonous and prefer quantity over quality when it comes to food.
Treasure found carried by a xorn or stashed in its lair amounts to little more than snacks set aside for another day. An offering of a particularly delicious (and expensive) jewel or piece of precious metal can swiftly secure a xorn’s temporary allegiance. Since xorns can swim through solid rock with ease, they make excellent guides in underground regions. Xorns grow in size as they age. The youngest xorns are approximately 3 feet in size, and can be represented by applying the young simple template to the statistics presented here. The most commonly encountered xorns are about 5 feet tall (and wide), while the largest are 8 feet or more and weigh upward of 9,000 pounds. These elder xorns are giant advanced xorns, but some even greater xorns exist as well, with upward of 15 Hit Dice. Often, an elder xorn possesses class levels as well. These creatures are generally leaders, heroes, or even outcasts or villains in xorn society. A classed elder xorn typically has levels in barbarian or rogue. Xorns aren’t particularly religious, but those who do have deep faith are typically druids (though such xorns rarely, if ever, take animal companions, as such followers cannot follow through solid rock, and instead choose to take the Earth domain). Xorn bards and sorcerers are not unheard of either, with bards favoring Perform (sing) as their focus, and sorcerers almost invariably having the Elemental (earth) bloodline.

Capricious yet alluring, veelas are elemental spirits given shape. On the Elemental Planes, veelas revel in the unbridled energy of the elements from which they draw power. On the other planes, however, they lose some measure of the elemental energy saturating their forms. To compensate for this, they can siphon vitality from other living beings by engaging them in their ancient dances. Veelas typically do this with a creature’s permission, leaving partners exhilarated but exhausted. Only in the most dire circumstances does a veela use its dance as a weapon. Those few who can match these elemental spirits’ movements might earn a veela’s respect and compel it to share some of its beneficial magical powers.  A veela typically stands just under 6 feet tall and weighs approximately 140 pounds.

Shaitans are boastful and proud genies from the Plane of Earth with flesh of metal, gems, or stone. A shaitan stands about 11 feet tall and weighs roughly 5,000 pounds. Some shaitans are noble. Often called pashas, they have 18 Hit Dice and gain the spell-like ability earthquake, usable once per day, as well as the ability to grant up to three wishes per day (nongenies only). A noble shaitan’s caster level for its spell-like abilities is 18th. Noble shaitans are CR 13.

Crystal dragons are generally good-natured, though their incredible vanity sometimes causes them to seem aloof and cocky. Any perceived insult against its appearance is all but assured to send a crystal dragon into a rage—which is a problem, as most crystal dragons are prone to seeing insults even where none are intended. Crystal dragons prefer underground lairs, and often go for decades or even centuries without emerging from their extensive cavern lairs onto the surface world above. Crystal dragons tend to be exacting and even obsessive-compulsive, their personalities mirroring the precise and ordered nature of the facets of their scales. A crystal dragon’s lair is a well-ordered place—these dragons find the very idea of the classic sprawl of a dragon’s hoard to be shameful.

Natives of the endless caverns of the Plane of Earth, carnivorous crystals normally lead quiet existences, subsisting on minerals leeched from the surrounding rock. Living creatures, however, provide a veritable feast, as devouring the minerals in their bones and blood allows a crystal to reproduce in mere hours instead of years. Though lacking in anything that could be called intelligence, carnivorous crystals sense the living, and hunger for the sustenance trapped within their bodies. On the Plane of Earth and in the deepest caverns of the Material Plane, ancient carnivorous crystals grow without bounds, reaching incredible sizes.

Temperamental and prone to violent outbursts, magma dragons are regarded by most other dragons as dangerously insane—an assumption that, more often than not, proves correct. One can rarely predict a magma dragon’s state of mind until it either attacks or attempts to engage in conversation. For their part, magma dragons can justify all of their actions—they just rarely feel the need to do so.