Chraal

When a particularly evil and hateful being perishes on either the Elemental Plane of Air or the Elemental Plane of Water, its life force is sometimes captured by the planar powers and coalesced into a chraal. The chraal retains no knowledge of its past life and exists as a radiant cloud of cold energy trapped inside a monstrous shell of hard, bluish-black ice.

Some spellcasters who specialize in summoning and controlling extraplanar servants bind chraals to them once they learn of the elemental’s existence. The chraals enjoy such excursions from their home plane, relishing any chance to inflict harm on the living. A chraal summoned and bound to a spellcaster’s service that is not given the opportunity to hunt and kill invariably tries to turn against its summoner.

Chraals are solitary creatures and do not intermingle or procreate. They do not generally attack one another and will sometimes combine their strength to defeat a common enemy before going their separate ways.

A chraal stands 8 feet tall. Its head rests atop two broad shoulders, and its thick arms end in wicked claws strong enough to crush stone. A chraal weighs between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds.

Chraals cannot speak or communicate in any way, but they have rudimentary intelligence and can be commanded to follow orders under the proper circumstances.

A chraal is a ruthless killer, relishing the shed blood of its enemies. It rarely retreats from a fight, attacking until it or its opponent is slain. A chraal nearly always begins a battle with its breath weapon. It focuses its attacks on any creature that exhibits signs that it might have fire (magic or otherwise) at its disposal. A chraal is too impatient to rely on its breath weapons for long, however. It would rather wade into melee, tearing its enemies to pieces with its sharp claws.

Breath Weapon (Su): 60-foot cone, 3/day, 6d6 cold, Reflex DC 19 half. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Death Throes (Ex): When killed, a chraal explodes in an immense blast of cold energy that deals 10 points of cold damage and 10 points of piercing damage to anything within 30 feet (Reflex DC 19 half). The save DC is Constitution-based.

Freeze (Ex): A chraal generates so much cold that its mere touch, including all its attacks, deals an additional +1d6 points of cold damage. Any metallic weapon a chraal might wield in combat also conducts this cold.

Deflecting Cold (Su): The magical cold radiance that shines from the cracks in a chraal’s black ice gives it a measure of defense, providing it with a +4 deflection bonus to Armor Class.

In the EBERRON campaign setting, chraals are native to the icy plane of Risia, which is coterminous with the Material Plane for one month every five years.