Krag

A priest sworn to one element or para-element who perishes inside its direct opposite may, from the sheer anguish of being slain by the force he fought all his life, return as a krag. The lords of that hostile element promptly bind the new undead to their service.

Some elements lack an opposite. The rule of thumb: elements that can wipe out or change each other are enemies, and enmity is mutual, so fire and water oppose each other. Among the eight, water has the longest list of rivals.

A krag resembles its living self overlaid with the look of the element that killed it. A silt-krag's hide is parched leather, with suffocating dust always trickling from its face; one slain by magma is a running mass of melted stone.

Krags fight with claws or weapons, but their signature is an elemental transfusion delivered by a bite for 2d6. Unless the victim saves vs. death, his blood starts changing into the krag's element, costing 1d4 more damage each round. Death brings a 45% chance of rising as a kragling within 1d4 days. The transfusion counts as poison or disease, so cure disease, or even sweet water, stops it at once.

A krag is wholly immune to its element. Twice a day it can shape up to 1 cubic foot of it per Hit Die, usually in one of these ways:

Magma jet: an 11-foot cone (1 foot across at the krag, 11 feet across at its far end) for 11d6, then 10d6 the next round, 9d6 the round after, and so on until the target burns away or the rock is removed or quenched; save vs. breath weapon for half. Flame strike: a mouth-born gout of elemental fire filling a cone of the same dimensions for 11d6. Sun beam: a 22-foot straight line from the hand; save vs. breath weapon or take 11d6 (half on a save), possibly igniting flammables. Lightning bolt: rain krags' favorite, identical to the spell at 11d6, half on a save. Shower of stone: earth krags hurl rock at everything within 11 feet of a point for 11d6, save vs. breath weapon for half. Cyclone: air krags whip up an 11-foot-radius storm that can hit fliers, dealing 11d6, halved by a breath weapon save. Silt storm: silt krags favor guile, wrapping prey in a 22-foot-diameter storm that gives -2 to attacks, damage, saves and initiative, then attacking in the murk. Water jet: water krags fill the lungs of up to 11 victims, who save vs. death magic or drown after Constitution/3 rounds (round up), unless saved by cure spells or magic that removes water.

Attacks of the krag's original element deal double damage, so a silt krag that once served water suffers double from water spells. Priests of its new master turn it at +2 but can never command it; priests of its former power suffer -2.

Psionically it commands telekinesis, ballistic attack, animate shadow and animate object, and in clairsentience clairvoyance, clairaudience, radial navigation, know location, know direction, feel sound, feel light, danger sense, combat mind and all-round vision.

Bound to the spot where it died, a krag lingers solely to hurt trespassers. Most try to raise an army of kraglings for company, above all from creatures of the race they belonged to in life.

They are uncommon on the desert world, commoner near the silt sea, and found anywhere an element is under threat from its rival and priests go out to protect their patron.