Spirit of the Land

A spirit of the land lives within a natural feature of the desert world: a peak, hill or rock outcrop, a hot spring, a dry riverbed, a wind or a stretch of sky. It is almost never seen. When it does take shape, it rises from its home as a huge elemental made of that terrain: a craggy stone giant, a pillar of steaming water, an invisible genie-like being of wind. It speaks only with druids and clerics, though it can use the tongue of any creature living in its feature.

In its normal immaterial state a spirit is utterly immune to magic, psionics and physical harm; only total destruction of its feature can hurt it. It works through the druid guarding that feature and seldom manifests while one is present, doing so only when the feature itself is truly endangered. An oasis is fragile, a desert vast, and a valley wind is threatened only if the valley is filled or its mountains razed, so the DM must judge what is really at risk. Even then, the chance of manifesting is 10% at most, reached only under widespread, ongoing damage.

A manifested spirit punches twice per round for 4d8 each. It strikes from ambush where terrain allows, erupting from sand behind a foe, diving from above, or surging out of an oasis, usually giving -4 to opponents' surprise. Play it with full intelligence. It wields all spells of its sphere (air, earth, fire or water) as innate powers with initiative factor 2, no components and no disruption from damage, and has 65% magic resistance, except none against its opposing sphere (earth for air, water for fire, and so on). It cannot truly be killed: at 0 hit points it reverts to immaterial form, cannot manifest for a full day, then returns fully restored, and its druid gets no spells above 2nd level that day.

Air spirits haunt skies, named winds and canyon breezes, and stir only for extreme harm, such as dust hiding the sky for months or years, the slaughter of all local fliers, or the sealing of a canyon mouth. One can gate in a hurricane lasting up to an hour that knocks down anything smaller than gargantuan and can sweep off M-sized or smaller creatures, and it gains +2 to attack and damage against foes touching only air. It always first calls its druid by a whispering wind that only the druid hears.

Earth spirits may be the strongest, since earth is everywhere; quarrying an outcrop or repeated earthquake spells on a mountain might rouse one. It can gate in earth as a toppling wall dealing 10d6 to a man-sized foe, with a 50% chance of burying it, and cast earthquake in a 100-foot radius centered on the despoilers, whose victims may fall into cracks and be crushed (1 in 4 for small, 1 in 6 for man-sized, 1 in 8 for large). It sends messages through a burrowing animal or, in dire need, faint tremors only its druid understands.

Fire spirits are easiest to threaten, as their features burn out; one whose grassland burns may become a spirit of hot wind or smoke. It can gate in a wall of fire as a 20th-level druid that chases its target for the full duration, climbing up to 100 feet after fliers but never crossing water or harming anyone fully buried in earth. Its hot sulfur wind has no force, but victims must save vs. poison each round or choke, and each round of exposure dehydrates like a day without water, no save; a creature that needs no air (say, wearing a necklace of adaptation) avoids only the choking. It talks to its druid through a variant of fire charm, making a campfire dance into images, or through smoke or glints of sunlight.

Water spirits are vital yet fragile; nearly every forest of a forested ridge has one living in its sap. Even a forest fire rouses one only if the whole forest is doomed, and a dried oasis whose spring survives does not alarm it. They are the weakest fighters, confined to their element. In a forest one animates a tree (AC 6, using the spirit's hit points and attack score) that strikes twice a round for 4d8, or holds a foe with entangle while a tree lumbers over to batter him. A spring or oasis spirit needs both watery arms to hit to drag a victim under to drown, escaped with a bend bars roll. It speaks through swirling patterns in its pool.

These spirits inhabit almost every landform of the desert world. Each is solitary and cares only for its own feature, but it shares that home peacefully; one hot spring may hold both a fire and a water spirit despite their opposed natures.

Spirits either stand outside nature or are nature itself, depending on one's view. Druids revere them, common folk respect them, and life-draining wizards ignore or abuse them. They need no worship. When its feature is destroyed a spirit dies or returns to its elemental plane; no druid knows which, nor where they came from. Many believe the world was once so alive that the spirits may have created life itself.