Tome Guardian [Fire Kin]

This being of the plane of fire, sometimes misheard as a 'tomb guardian', is summoned to the material world by magic to protect something. Usually it is bound to a magical book, hence its name, but it may guard another object instead, and that object can also carry a symbol or glyph. Unconfirmed tales speak of several guardians bound to one item. Tome guardians have never tried to talk to anyone, though they apparently understand spoken Common and maybe other languages.

Once bound, the guardian wraps around and seems to merge with its object, becoming invisible. The object gives off a faint dweomer and a little warmth, and infravision reveals the creature's presence.

It stays hidden until someone touches its charge or attacks the guardian or the object. It always strikes at bookworms and anything else trying to eat or damage its charge, but never harms the master for whom it stands guard.

Its favored weapon is the fireburst, a needle-thin, white-hot flame usable three times a day, once per round against a single target. It never misses, passing straight through armor, clothing or a weapon to hit anyone who touches or strikes the guardian or its object. It can even ride back along any psychic assault or bid for mental contact, whether by spell, item or innate power, to strike whoever made it. The flame inflicts 6d4 internal damage, with no saving throw allowed, to anything not immune to heat or fire. A human, demihuman or humanoid who survives must save vs. poison at -3 or fall unconscious for 1d4+1 turns from the shock of blood briefly boiling. It produces no stray heat or flame, so neither the guarded item nor anyone else is harmed; if two people grab the object at once and one is targeted, the other feels nothing.

When it cannot use a fireburst, it swipes with a fiery tendril for just 1d4 points of damage, setting flammables alight unless they save vs. magical fire. Being weak, this is its last resort.

A tome guardian soaks up fire or electrical energy aimed at it, and because it envelops its object, at the object as well, whether from natural flames or spells like lightning bolt and fireball. It gains hit points equal to the damage an unprotected creature would take, first healing itself and then holding the excess as temporary hit points for 24 hours, any or all of which it can add to its firebursts' damage. Pure heat, such as heat metal, it simply absorbs. Fire elementals, salamanders, will o' wisps and xag-ya cannot harm it and it cannot harm them, though it can absorb and redirect their energies; now and then it has teamed up with such creatures for mutual protection.

Cold deals it double damage, though water does not. While guarding, it hardens into a stiff shell so blows cannot damage the item while the guardian lives, but every such blow deals it maximum damage; in free form it takes normal damage. Most spells affect it normally, but fire, electricity and heat aid it, and enchantment/charm magic such as suggestion, sleep and maze fails, though geas works. Door spells such as dimension door and phase door have no effect and count as attacks. It cannot be psionically dominated, and any use of ESP or similar mind-touching magic to attack, control or alter it provokes an attack, possibly a fireburst along that link.

Dispel magic can drive it from its object if it fails a save vs. spell; this is the only way to remove it, even for the one who bound it, and it is visible as it leaves, even in darkness.

Its life on the plane of fire is a mystery, but on the material world it gets along fairly well with most fire creatures. Only fire elementals of exactly this kind are ever called for the task, so whether a weaker form exists, such as the lesser elemental of the fiery protector spell, or whether they mature into something else, is unknown.

A mage calls one with ensnarement, or with sending or demand if its personal name is known, and compels it with binding. The mage must be able to see the object and point it out aloud. For their own reasons tome guardians do not mind this duty and are not hostile unless attacked. Each guards one small, nonliving physical object under four cubic feet; if the object has separable parts, it guards only one, such as a sword or its scabbard but not both. A person can summon only one per 24 hours. Binding more than one to an item, if possible at all, requires extremely obscure lore.

A guardian summoned but not bound, or one driven from its object, takes its free form and lingers 2d20 turns before dwindling back to its home plane. During that time no one controls it, and it attacks anyone who attacks or tries to control it; otherwise it drifts toward large fires, from volcanoes and forest fires to forges, bonfires and lonely campfires.

Bound to a magic item, it may protect it or even be trained to fireburst when the item is used to attack; a guarded sword could thus deliver three firebursts a day on top of its other powers. If the item itself creates electricity or flame, as a ring of shocking grasp does, the guardian swallows that energy and the power fails, though the game master may let it boost the fireburst. Glyphs and symbols placed on the object leave the guardian untouched while working normally against anyone else. Fiery or electrical wards such as fire trap and explosive runes can be placed on the item, but the guardian drinks their energy during casting, so no protection results, and gains hit points for a day equal to the most damage those spells could have dealt.

Tome guardians live peaceably with guardian fiends, homunculi, guardian familiars and similar beings, and with other elemental fire beings. A xeg-yi and a tome guardian attack each other on sight. Otherwise, on the material world at least, they are quiet loners.

On the material world a tome guardian has no treasure beyond its charge and whatever happens to lie nearby. It collects nothing and hunts nothing. Sages agree its food must be fire, warmth and maybe light, possibly also drawing sustenance from the heat of creatures it burns.

A slain guardian vanishes in a gust of heat and a sprinkle of ash. The ash serves in smoke powder and oil of fiery burning, and presumably in other fire potions and items, and the heat of its death has been proposed for tempering a ring of fire resistance. Its fireburst might help awaken the flames of a flame tongue sword or similar item, but touching such an item to the guardian is risky, since the fireburst still strikes the wielder.

Binding a guardian into an item can also make that item magical. A few fireburst daggers exist this way. For each of the first three attacks a day, make an attack roll against AC 10, modified by nothing but Dexterity and magical bonuses; a hit sends a fireburst into the victim, while a miss does not use one up. After three hits the dagger's flame is spent until the following day, but it still works as an ordinary weapon of its kind.