Elemental Vermin

At home these elemental creatures are mere nuisances, but loose on the material world they cause real trouble. All four kinds are roughly humanoid. They speak no language, and their dim minds make telepathy a waste of effort.

They came through assorted gates and turn up wherever genies and elementals spend time, settling where their element abounds: dusters nest up high, crawlers burrow, flamelings lurk in fires and furnaces, and spitters live in wells and rivers. On their own planes they are harmless scavengers, but here they harm their surroundings and can be dangerous, craving the luxuries people prize, from perfume and gems to silk and wine.

They have no known uses. Their essence is too feeble for potion making, and nobody would buy a captured one except as some peculiar act of revenge.

Some kinds prefer to flee, but any of them fights stubbornly when cornered or disturbed while eating. Each has one special attack and one special defense.

This feeble air elemental is a type of dust devil, the same creature a priest calls with the 2nd-level dust devil spell. Picture a gray armadillo standing upright, with long ears, a lengthy snout and hands like a man's. It flies and turns invisible to get away rather than fight. When it does attack, with its beak, it usually whips up a whirlwind that blocks normal sight and snuffs small, open, nonmagical flames. Anyone in the dust cloud is blind as long as they remain in it and for a round afterward, at -4 to hit.

A mostly brown, feeble earth elemental, the crawler has nasty claws and a houndlike head topped by a crest, whose snout bears bristly feelers for groping through lightless tunnels and sniffing out tasty food. Short-tempered, it charges anything that bothers it, clawing and biting; when both front claws land, its hind claws rake as well.

This feeble fire elemental wields flame and resists heat. Its head is vaguely alligator-like, with bulging eyes set to face forward and a ridge of rigid sensory tentacles, and red, flamelike scales cover its body. It bites and swats with a clublike tail, and twice a round it can hurl tiny fireballs up to 10 feet. Each deals a mere 1 point of damage, yet sets flammable materials alight.

The water vermin has a frog's head, hands and feet, a mouth bristling with sharp teeth, and a greenish body covered in ridges and lumps. It bites, or once per round spits a pellet of water for 1d4 points of damage.