Earth Weird [Elemental Kin]

Kin to the water weird, the earth weird fills a similar role in the ecology of the plane of earth, and lately it has appeared more and more on the material world. Until it moves, it looks like nothing more than an oddly dry spot of soil on a path. Detect invisibility reveals that something is wrong there, but nothing more specific until the creature shows itself.

On the material world earth weirds are always hostile and quick to attack any living thing. When something alive comes within 10 feet, the weird spends two rounds shaping itself into a huge serpent of earth, then strikes at anything within its long 15-foot reach. Once a victim falls, the weird feeds on the remains as they rot inside its body.

Most attacks barely affect it. Nonmagical edged and blunt weapons deal just 1 point of damage per hit with no Strength bonus, and piercing weapons do nothing at all, since the soil flows around the wound and mends instantly. Magical weapons deal normal damage.

Water acts on it like a slow spell and lets ordinary slashing and bludgeoning weapons deal full damage, and a weird kept completely underwater for more than 10 rounds dissolves. Wind wall or control winds deals it 1d10 points of damage and makes it lose initiative for two rounds. At 0 hit points it is only disrupted, re-forming after four turns as a fresh foe; only reaching -10 hit points destroys it.

Spike growth or plant growth is among the best ways to stop one, since it needs an hour to work free of either. Passwall, move earth, and magic items meant for digging kill it outright.

Earth weirds are loners that guard their ground. They do not always fight one another, but they act threateningly until an intruding weird departs or starts a fight. They like dry spots, not only deserts but the drier parts of forests, especially along trails where wildlife and passing adventurers provide meals. Once a weird settles on a place it rarely moves.

No one knows what sustains an earth weird. The usual guess is that it feeds on its prey's bodies, perhaps on the blood seeping into its soil, which makes a dangerous enemy even stronger. Sages think a powerful mage summoned the first one to the material world and perhaps abandoned it; others may have arrived through rare dimensional vortices or been loosed by cruel tricksters and wicked people.

As outsiders, earth weirds struggle to fit into any ecosystem, yet they tend to dominate any landscape where they appear. Wizards prize earth-weird soil as a component for earth magic such as stone to mud, flesh to stone and passwall.