Sislan

At first a sislan seems to be nothing but a shimmer or an odd little cyclone, and only when it changes course to pursue someone does it reveal itself as a thinking creature. Up close it is a tall, churning whirlwind with three limbs of dense, wispy air extending from its body and a single expressionless eye at its cloudy core. One planewalker who tried to speak with one got no answer except a flurry of whipping limbs that knocked him off his floating platform and into a long fall.

Its spinning limbs strike three times a round for 1d6 each. If all three hit the same target, that target must save vs. paralyzation or be stunned and helpless for 1d3 rounds.

Instead of pummeling, a sislan can try to grab a foe. A successful grasp does no harm but sucks the victim into the whirling body, where no action is possible until the sislan dies or outside help arrives. Physical rescue does not work, and anyone who tries suffers three automatic hits. Magic such as gust of wind, control winds or control weather, or aid from another air creature, gives the prisoner a chance to jump free, and telekinesis, grasping hand or similar spells could likely pull him out.

It gains +3 to attack rolls, pummeling or grasping, against anyone standing still rather than flying. Only +1 or better weapons can hit it. It is immune to heat, cold, paralyzation, petrification and poisons that are not gaseous, and electricity deals only half damage. Any gas but clean air, whether stinking cloud, death fog or heavy smoke, deals 3d6 damage and forces a morale check at -4, and a sislan that fails escapes the tainted air.

According to the latest rumor, sislan travel in threes, each one ruling its two partners in certain affairs, forming a tangled triumvirate. They roam the plane but keep clear of portals and vortices.

Their motives are murky. One theory says they resent outsiders and work, openly or quietly, to drive planewalkers and settlers out, which would be a huge task, since no Inner Plane draws more visitors. Oddly, they also loathe the evil air grues and attack them on sight.

Sislan never leave the Elemental Plane of Air and may be unable to survive anywhere else. Some sages call them the ghosts of dead air elementals, others an even purer expression of the plane. Nobody truly knows.

Unlike elementals, they are not pure air. Their mass holds tiny droplets of a thick liquid, and things they pass over often gain a thin waxy film. A slain sislan leaves a dollop of clear syrup that dries quickly into an extremely strong bond, and some collectors treat and store it as glue. Skilled alchemists can also use it to brew long-lasting potions of flying or levitation.