Black Cloud of Vengeance

A Black Cloud is a thinking thunderhead that drifts against the wind when it likes. Red lightning flares in its churning heart, thunder rides the gusts before it, and its winds carry soot and ash that blacken land and air. Nearer, the gale also hurls up the sand along its path, roaring like the worst desert sandstorm. At that point the only hope is that it veers away.

Its arrival is unmistakable: hot, hard winds, a darkening sky and the smell of fire. When it reaches its target or a foolish hero challenges it, the Cloud unleashes everything. Its winds, strong enough to level buildings, grow fiercer as the Cloud grows, dealing up to 6d10.

The fires it brings are deadlier still. Unlike the wind they spread, and they keep burning, fanned by its gusts, after it moves on. Victims caught in the flames take up to 7d10, or half that if they save vs. breath weapon.

Though vanishingly rare, the Clouds feature in the tales of every desert people. Many think there is only one; sages insist there are several. They blend air and fire and are older than the memories of the eldest elves. Some say they are relics of magic loosed in the world's first days, before mortals learned the first lawgiver's code; others claim Fate sends them to punish lawbreakers. Whether they are truly alive, though plainly sentient, no one knows or will say. They may be the lawgiver's tools or simply wandering free spirits.

They feed on destruction, mostly of cities and large desert camps, leaving charred husks behind; some could cover a whole city. Yet they shun places frequented by genies and cities that honor the enlightened gods with mosques, and seem to sense when a city lacks both, then destroy it with relish. Perhaps they fear those powers. Either way, the Clouds keep people pious.