Harginn [Elemental Grue]

Called into the material world, a harginn usually looks like a man from the waist up, with nothing but flame below. It may also choose to be a bronze-skinned human, an ordinary bonfire, or a column of flame as tall as 8 feet. When its features can be made out, they wear a look of gloating malice. Its eyes glow black, and its body mixes blazing hues: orange with yellow, orange with scarlet, or crimson with a purplish blue.

A harginn is fast in every form. It attacks by blasting flame from its fingertips in a billowing gout that fills a space 6 feet long by 3 feet across, dealing 1d4+4 to all inside. It can use blink at will, exactly like the wizard spell, and never fails to do so in battle.

Some harginn, the pirate clans above all, carry weapons into melee, mostly long billhooks and cutlasses. Certain clans carry crossbows that shoot tiny burning bolts reeking of sulfur, which deal an extra 1d6 fire damage to creatures that fire can hurt.

Fire magic does nothing to it. Meteor swarm, fire shield, produce flame, fireball, chariot of fire, fire trap, pyrotechnics, flame strike, burning hands, fire charm, incendiary cloud, fire storm, flame arrow, produce fire, delayed blast fireball, fire seeds and spells like them all fail. Such magic simply unravels when a harginn comes within 20 feet, permanent or not, while magical items keep working.

Harginn are sorted into guilds in a loose pecking order; senior guilds command junior ones, which do not always obey, and mutinies are frequent. Most guilds are divided by task and sex. Females hunt, weave, gather, herd and scout in their own guilds, while males have guilds of priests, cooks, scribes, soldiers and farmers. Either sex may belong to the pariah guild, which burns refuse, hauls water and does other unpleasant chores.

A few clans crew vessels taken from the efreet, the females fishing and the males serving as crew and marines. These pirates are the most sophisticated harginn and also the most hated by the plane's other races, for they are cutthroats who peddle prisoners in the slave markets of the City of Brass. The efreet put up with them as handy slavers and scavengers but send occasional punitive fleets when they grow too bold. Some races pay the pirates tribute to be left alone; the azer pay promptly, so no merchant on the burning seas sails more safely than an azer trader.

Most harginn serve the efreet as lackeys, though small bands roam the seas of flame on their own. They get along poorly with nearly everything else on the plane of fire, their efreet masters included, and wander as nomads everywhere but the efreet's great city.