Negative Quasielemental

Beyond the four basic elements and the paraelemental planes born where they touch, each element also borders both energy planes, positive and negative, forming eight quasi-planes with their own natives, the quasielementals. Scholars argue over why these beings are generally weaker than elementals or paraelementals; most think the quasi-planes are simply the least basic layer of the inner cosmos, so they produce weaker beings. They are still formidable, especially at home.

The negative kinds are natives of Vacuum, Salt, Dust and Ash, where Negative Energy meets Fire, Earth, Water and Air. Many see them as the unraveling of the four elements. Hitting any of the four requires a weapon of +1 or better, and each comes in 6, 9 or 12 Hit Die sizes; their touch or blow adds 1 point per Hit Die to its base damage.

A heap of cinders and soot that drifts across its lifeless plane, the ash quasielemental stands for energy burned out. It shapes itself crudely, into a man, a snake or other forms. It seldom bothers to attack, since it constantly drinks warmth: everyone within 30 feet automatically takes 1d6 damage each round, with no attack roll and no save. Creatures of cold, like frost salamanders, white dragons and the undead, are unharmed, but being cold-blooded is no protection. It can instead narrow the drain into a cone that reaches 60 feet and spreads to 30 feet across, dealing 2d6 per round and snuffing ordinary flames like torches and campfires. Its touch does 1d6 plus 1 per Hit Die, in addition to the aura.

Cold cannot hurt it, but it can hold only so much heat, so fire does double damage, and if fire destroys it, it bursts for 1d4 per Hit Die on everyone within 30 feet. Fire's plane would kill it, and most others are either too warm or offer no heat to drain, so it stays home. A cinder fortress there houses a council of clever elders scheming against Fire through proxies, convinced that when Fire finally dies only cold ash will remain. These beings arise spontaneously from the plane's ash, not by birth, and the tale that they are undead fire elementals is nonsense.

Where ash is the end of energy, dust is the end of matter. This billowing cloud, dotted with small whirling knots that look like eyes, loves to grind objects to nothing, especially crafted ones. Its pseudopod strikes for 1d6 plus 1 per Hit Die. On a natural 19 or 20 it engulfs a Small or Medium foe, one at a time; the victim can do nothing and takes 2d6 per round as its body dissolves into the swirl, until death completes the process. Only killing the creature frees a captive. It can also become a whirling storm 40 feet in radius: those inside save vs. rod, staff or wand or go blind for 1d10 rounds, and all take 1d2 per Hit Die from the battering regardless.

Not truly evil, but vengeful, it hunts down anyone who wrongs it. Dust quasielementals roam in leaderless mobs, and if summoned elsewhere they make no effort to return, content to destroy wherever they are. Born wherever great ruin happens, they create more of their own kind through the havoc they cause, so avoiding them is wisest.

Usually shaped like a big white lizard crusted with rime, the salt quasielemental absorbs moisture of every kind, rarer than the facets that share its plane. Its heavy fists hit for 1d8 plus 1 per Hit Die, but worse is its aura: anything containing water within 80 feet, including most animals, plants and water creatures, automatically takes 2d6 per round. It is immune to fire. Fully submerged, it dies explosively, and everyone within 30 feet faces an attack roll as if from the creature, taking 1d8 from salt shrapnel if hit. It can drain a facet, though a facet cannot drain it. Solitary and cautious of large bodies of water, it shuns the facets' war on Water. Rumor says some powerful wizards trap them in their labs to keep spellbooks and experiments dry.

Invisible, a vacuum quasielemental is a shapeless, hollow, rubbery skin that embodies the absence of everything, not just air. It rams for 1d4 plus 1 per Hit Die, and pulls in surrounding air as if a constant gust of wind blew toward it within 60 feet; air-breathers there automatically lose 1d4 per round as the breath is torn from them, though not in airless places. In an enclosed space it can turn a 60-foot cube into airless void in one round, holding the vacuum for 10 rounds before resting an hour. An air spell, gust of wind for example, from a priest or wizard whose level exceeds its Hit Dice kills it on a failed save vs. death magic.

Oddly sociable, they gather in small groups to talk, yet attack outsiders on their plane, and dislike leaving home because using their absorption tires them. No one knows what sustains them, perhaps the air they swallow, perhaps nothing at all, like the egarus fungi of their plane.