Cloud Elementals - The Storm is Coming

Elementals are a staple of fantasy fiction. Immense, hulking beings made of air, earth, fire, and water are such an immense visual. They dominate battlefields in tabletop roleplaying games and stories across the fantasy genre.

In my experience, it's common to see a lumbering form made of crumbling stones or a great whirlwind with a leering face. Elementals usually confine themselves to being made of just one element. Rarely are there elementals that are a mixture of one or more elements.

This is the third post featuring an elemental hybrid. Thus far they've all been themed on water, mixing with earth makes them vigilant sentinels on the sides of a river while mixing with fire creates volatile steam beings. Now we can consider what happens when elemental water is scooped up by the winds.

Cloud Elementals

Cloud elementals take as many shapes, and hold as many temperaments as the weather itself. Naturally able to fly despite their mass and size, the cloud elementals are bringers of change across whole swathes of countryside.

An old cloud elemental showing the extent of the storm within - Living Tempest by Campbell White

Their forms tower in size but vary heavily between different elementals. No two clouds are the same in the sky and cloud elementals show equal variety. Some appear as fluffy white plumes gathered in an uneven shape, floating onwards. Some charged with energy appear more as a swirling torrent or cone of wind full of grey wisps of water.

When they first form, cloud elementals are slow and very docile creatures. Whirls of humid air slowly gather into the recognisable shapes of clouds and whirlwinds. As they pass the windswept heaths they occur upon, they naturally humidify the air around them, bringing moisture back down to local plants. They follow the currents in the air and drift with the weather, aimless and solitary.

Cloud Elemental Stats generated with Homebrewery

As with clouds in the sky, cloud elementals are very short lived. Clouds are constantly gathering water that evaporates then rains back down to the earth. The lifespan of a cloud elemental is very similar, slowly amassing more water and ambient air into its growing form. This causes the wisps and plumes of a cloud elemental to darken. The winds that propel it up become fast, whistling as it goes, making its presence more known.
The longer lived the elemental is, the more crackling energy deep inside it comes out to show. Much like any reasonable creature, it begins to become aware of its own end. No longer content with itinerant wandering, bringing air and water to needy plants, the aged cloud elemental gives its last, gale force, breath suffused with lightning.

Weather the Weather, Whether you Like it or Not

The cloud elemental is a common wandering monster for the party to find. It can start as a glowing wisp in the air that wanders and drifts along. A quick swish of a melee weapon would easily disperse it into a puff of wet air. As it grows, the destructive power would only grow until it dissipates or is defeated. A stormy cloud elemental in a settlement would make for an excellent boss monster for a mid level party.

Now we want to hear from you. How would you use cloud elementals in a game you GM? What unlikely, tropical weather features would be absorbed by cloud elementals in other regions of your world. Let us know on our Discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.