Grim Hollow Monster Grimoire: Blight Elementals

"In Places where the land is twisted from its natural state, elementals can be affected. Their poison spreads quickly, creating more of their kind, until the blight covers everything."

Blight Elementals are a severe threat to the world, similar to how the Weeping Pox ravaged the humanoids of Etharis, any great magical disease can corrupt elemental nesting places, producing these malign elementals. They tend to seek to spread their disease in a much more prolific display than their normal counterparts. Most elementals seek to spread their element, Earth seeks to sit still, Fire seeks to spread, Wind seeks to fly, and Water seeks to flow. This isn’t normally a problem as these elementals are normally just forces of nature, they don’t harm indiscriminately and if you know how to behave around them, you shouldn’t be in danger. Though a Fire Elemental is likely to cause danger.

Blight Elementals, on the other hand, are more intelligent than their counterparts, and their instincts are turned against them. The Monster Grimoire states that optionally they may produce more Blight Elementals from the corpses of their victims, however, I believe a simple solution is just to state that they are corrupted elementals. They come from corrupted well-springs of Primordial power and natural strength. A Natural Spring would likely have many Water Elementals in it, and if such a spring were corrupted, not only would the elementals in it become corrupted, but any elementals forming in the spring would start that way. This means that any magical effect in the world that is “blighted” could easily produce these elementals, but it’s not a common occurrence.

Blightwind. The Blightwind is a corrupted Air Elemental. Its birth comes from storms turning rancid with foul energy. If the Blood Rain spell is cast, this is likely where this elemental comes from. There is also the likelihood that this creature comes into existence when some powerful creature controls the world around it in a “devastation” style manner. The Beast is one such entity, but any creature of sufficient strength to bend the elements to their will and that is corrupt in form could cause this. High level Necromancy may also cause this to happen. In any case, Blightwinds don’t have the capacity to spread easily because they need to corrupt other Air spirits to their will, which isn’t easy to do considering how they follow storms. Air Elementals follow clouds seeking to enjoy the air, but a Blightwind would also do so, this can lead to Acid Rain, Corruptive Lightning Strikes that can produce Forgeblights, and possibly diseased air beneath these stormy events. Some common effects to use:

Acid Rain. A creature that spends 1 minute in Acid Rain takes 5 (2d4) Acid damage. For NPC’s this is 1 Acid damage but they may also fall unconscious due to shock or they may have 3 Levels of Exhaustion due to the Acid burns.

Green Lightning. Creatures wearing metal or in high locations have a 5% chance of being struck by lightning, increase this chance to 15% if they are wearing something which could be considered a “lightning rod”. Objects also share this chance. When the lightning strikes, a creature must make a DC20 Dexterity Saving throw, taking 16 (3d10) Lightning damage on a failure and make a DC13 Constitution saving throw or become Poisoned for 1 Hour. An NPC has a 90% chance of surviving the lightning strike initially, but may die from their wounds if they aren’t treated properly.

Diseased Air. Spores of green float gently down like snow to the ground. A creature that breathes this air without proper protection (a cloth mask, for example) must make a DC11 Constitution saving throw or become Poisoned for 1 Minute. While Poisoned in this way, they take 1d4 Poison damage at the end of each of their turns. They may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns after taking the damage, ending the effect on themselves on a success. NPC’s instead gain exhaustion from failing this, if they gain the 6th Level of exhaustion, they instead begin making Death Saving Throws at the end of each day and remain unconscious.

Bogfoul. The Bogfoul is a corrupted Water Elemental. It’s birth comes from foul waters corrupting its’ places of stay. If a Water Elemental stays at least an hour in such a water source, it must make a DC15 Constitution Saving Throw, on a failure, it becomes a Bogfoul. The corruption of the water is also unnatural, as Water Elementals can usually travel through dirty and foul waters normally. But in this case, the water has been magically corrupted by some force. A Magic Item producing disease thrown into a spring, a Blightscale Dragon’s Regional Effects, and any other supernatural fouling of water can cause this. Such as a Wastrilith. Use the following effect to represent this fouling of the water, or if a Legendary Creature is corrupting the water, use that effect instead:

Foul Waters. A creature that drinks this water must succeed on a DC14 Constitution Saving Throw 10 minutes later or become Poisoned. A Poisoned creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of every hour, ending the effect on itself on a success. A creature that succeeds on a DC14 Wisdom (Medicine) check or a DC15 Wisdom (Herbalism Kit) check can cure this with 10 minutes of effort. This poisoning can cause Diarrhea, vomiting, and weakness in NPC’s. Especially poisoned water may cause 1d4 Poison damage at the end of each hour, to both NPC’s and PC’s.

Deathmoss. The Deathmoss is a corrupted Earth Elemental. Earth Elementals typically settle down in areas of great natural power in the earth. They are the least likely to move and the least likely to part from these places. These places include Leyline Junctions, Druidic Groves, and areas suffused with Primordial Magic from Citrolach. As such, corrupting them is a matter of them staying too long in a location, and not offending their sensibilities enough for them to attack such a corruptor in the process. It’s False Appearance trait (It appears to be a large moss-covered rock) suggests that these elementals were once just sitting around in an area. The corruption is held together by plants, so it’s likely that these elementals may be corrupted when Druids (Such as the Circle of Mutation) cause changes in the environment. Deathmoss can form when a Blightscale Dragon corrupts an area and the plants on the Deathmoss drive it into this corruption, or when an evil Primordial magic user corrupts the area around them for their own purposes. Due to their sedentary nature remaining, it’s likely that the effects of the Natural zone of power are what are changed or destroyed, so they don’t have a lot of effect on the environment around them. But woe be to anybody that would attempt to intrude upon their resting places.

Forgeblight. The Forgeblight is a corrupted Fire Elemental. This elemental is the most dangerous of the corrupted elementals. Fire Elementals typically form in areas of extremely high temperatures, such as a raging inferno, volcanic activity, or when some supernatural creature creates flames of extreme proportion. Fire Elementals are the least numerous of the elementals due to their lack of element to form in normally. So, this means that Forgeblights are limited in their capacity to form as well. Forgeblights can form when volcanic activity occurs over corrupted ground, such as Unholy Ground, or when lightning strikes and creates a large enough inferno to create one from a Blightwind Storm. A way to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand is that when Fire damage has been dealt to a corrupted substance equal to a Forgeblights maximum Hit Points, a Forgeblight forms. The damage must have been dealt in the same 10-foot cube to count though. So it may be easy for a Fireball wielding wizard to torch up corrupted wood and create quite a few Forgeblights if they’re stupid. Forgeblights also present a major issue regarding the environmental devastation they can cause:

Blight Ash. Unlike normal ash, blighted ash isn’t full of nutrients good for rebuilding a forest. Blight ash prevents growth for up to a year where it is. In the air, breathing it in can cause major health issues. A creature that breaths this air for an hour or more takes 1d4 Poison damage and must succeed on a DC14 Constitution saving throw or become Poisoned for 10 minutes. If they stir up the ash in an area and breath it in, this also occurs.

Blight Smoke. A creature that starts it’s turn breathing in the smoke made by a Forgeblight must make a DC14 Constitution saving throw or become Poisoned until the start of its’ next turn. While Poisoned in this way, it is also Incapacitated as it coughs violently. A creature that spends more than a minute poisoned in this way takes 21 (6d6) Poison damage. NPC’s fall unconscious after a minute of heavy smoke exposure and die within 1d4 Hours unless they are healed by magic and cured of poison. If they aren’t cured of poison, they still die.

Stories involving Blight Elementals.

Blightscale Dragon. The Blightscale dragon is a cursed dragon of great strength, if its’ regional effects are there, it means that hunters failed to capture this cursed creature and its’ now taken up residence nearby. The signs are all there, the winds are foul, plant-life within the area is decaying and dying, and animals have started fleeing, causing issues with hunters in the area. There’s also been no signs of the druids in the forest, they’ve disappeared for the last month, nobody’s heard from them. The Dragon’s very presence as a disease spreader has created these issues, including the Carrion eaters that follow in its’ wake that are immune to it’s disease. Who knows how long it is before the dragon decides to pay the local city a visit?

Corrupted Waters. The waters flowing down the river have recently turned foul, nobody can drink them without having severe issues. The village nearby is struggling to find a new water source, and it’s running out of time as people become sickly. Up the river the lake has become corrupted by some force, find out what it is corrupting the waters at the lake.

Necromantic Experiments. A powerful wizard has taken to trapping elementals in an attempt to control them, permanently, they’ve come across a way to make their elementals under their control, but they’ve become corrupted. Now, the wizard is using them to steal and destroy their aggressors nearby, it’s up to you to stop him.

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