Sislan

From the journal of Rel Emandhun, titled A Long Way Down:

“Everpresent but invisible, the air around us sustains, but when angered, it can destroy. The air is unpredictable and everchanging, never wholly friend nor foe. In my years on the plane of Air, the Breeze Realm, I encountered a thing - a beast - which embodied this dichotomy in full.

“At the time, I was living in a floating city named Ur Mar Nidas, ruled by the Blameless Court, also known as... ”

[three pages later]

“ ... there, finding myself in the presence of a creature that towered over me. At the time, however, I was not sure that a creature it truly was, for it appeared to be nothing but a shimmering in the air - a queer whirlwind, perhaps. Only when I saw that it approached me, and even altered its course to get at me, did I realize it to be a thinking being.

“I knew it was no common air elemental because Huvaard's ward was effective in keeping them at bay, yet I had no idea what this apparition could possibly be. Once it stopped within twenty paces I could see it more clearly. A whirlwind it truly was, though it extended three appendages of solid, wispy air from its otherwise churning form. At its cloudy center, a single eye looked out at me, conveying no expression that I could understand.

“I attempted to communicate with the mysterious creature, but to no avail, or so I believe. If it did understand me, it refused to reply. Instead, it attacked me with whipping, spinning tendrils that buffeted me and swept me of the platform upon which I stood.

“So I fell and fell. The creature - and indeed, the city - was soon out of sight. You see, falling on the plane of Air is an experience which... ”

Combat: A sislan spins rapidly enough to be a real terror in combat. It makes three attacks per round as its rotating limbs buffet and pummel the victim, each inflicting 1d6 points of damage. If all three attacks strike the sislan's opponent, the sod must make a saving throw versus paralyzation or be stunned for 1d3 rounds, unable to act.

The creature can also forego its pummeling attacks and instead attempt to grasp a foe. If successful, the sislan inflicts no damage on the victim, but pulls him into its swirling body, where he can take no action. The trapped berk is held until the sislan is slain or an outside force acts to help him.

Unfortunately, there ain't much an onlooker can do. A control winds, gust of wind or control weather spell - or the intervention or another creature of elemental air - gives the captive a chance to leap out of the sislan's clutches. Bigby's grasping hand, telekinesis, or similar magic could probably pull him out. But no direct physical action'll do the trick, and anyone who makes such an attempt is subject to three automatic strikes from the sislan.

Because of its whirling nature, the sislan also gains a +3 bonus to its attack roll when pummeling or grasping a stationary (non-flying) foe. Sislan can be struck only by weapons of +1 or greater enchantment. They're immune to non-gaseous poison, petrification, paralization, heat, and cold. They suffer only half damage from electrical attacks, but any kind of gas other than pure air (including a stinking cloud, death fog, or even a great deal of smoke) inflicts 3d6 points of damage to a sislan and forces it to make a morale check at -4. If it fails the roll, the creature flees to avoid the impure gas.

Habitat/Society: If the latest chant is correct, sislan congregate in groups of three, each having authority over the other two in specific areas. Thus, the creatures form a complicated triumvirate. In these groups they wander the Elemental Plane of Air, never straying near portals or vortices.

It's difficult, at best, to discern the motivations of the sislan. One theory holds that they dislike alien intruders and act - subtly or overtly - to rid Air of planewalkers and would-be settlers. If that's true, the elitist sislan have a great deal of work ahead of them, for of all the Inner Planes, Air's the one most overrun with outsiders.

Despite their apparent hatred for non-natives, the sislan also seem to despise ildriss, the air elemental grues. They attack these evil wind terrors on sight.

Ecology: The mysterious sislan roam the Elemental Plane of Air, never leaving it. Chant is they couldn't exist anywhere else. Some graybeards suggest that sislan are really the spirits of slain air elementals, while others think that they're an even more fundamental embodiment of the plane than elementals. The real dark? No one knows for sure.

Unlike the elementals of its home plane, a sislan isn't composed entirely of air. Its thick mass also contains tiny particles of viscous liquid, though a casual observer wouldn't easily notice them. Nevertheless, a thin, waxy coating usually appears on objects that a sislan has passed by or over, and when one of the creatures dies, it leaves behind a dollop of clear, syrupy muck. This ichor dries quickly, hardening with great strength: some cutters gather and treat the stuff so it can be stored and then used as a powerful adhesive. One blood even discovered that skilled alchemists can use the substance to create longlasting potions of flight or levitation.