We started there, a mote from the heavens; we’ll return there—if the sky will have us.
—Archdruid Naqua of Tellwood

A bit of intrigue is just what your party’s stroll through the wilds requires. Today, Prepared! brings you a bit of the sky with this elementally imbued scene.

Clouds Come Down

The road vanishes now and again, but, for the most part, guides you onward. It is not a bad day for travel, but it is also not a bad day to be a gnat—gathered swarms of biting dots surround you. The clouds are thin and wispy; they seem a god’s afterthought.

After you turn a bend in your mostly reliable road, you bear witness to a strange sight a hundred feet ahead: a cloud is falling heavily from the sky. It lands on the soft grass—such that the air from its descent flutters your clothing and hair. A cloud has come down in front of you.

Though they don’t yet know it, the adventurers now stand a hundred feet from an air elemental. Observing it from this distance provides no further information. The following information should be freely provided as the party investigates:

• The cloud is an air elemental (a faint visage appears in the floating mass).
• It has sustained some injuries (the elemental has a bright streak of bilious green smoke running through it).
• The elemental is being prevented from returning to its home plane by its injury (it is likely that it is too injured to return home).
• Physical contact will result in the air elemental attempting an attack. It will not sustain its attacks, though, and combat is not initiated (a great cloudy fist swings towards you—the creature does not attempt a second attack).
• The party may kill the creature at any time. (Defenseless, your attacks overwhelm the elemental and it dissipates.)

Use the following information as the adventurers determine how to react to the elemental:

• The elemental is being prevented from returning to its home plane by its injury.
• The green smoke is poison gas from a green dragon. Identifying this requires a DC 14 Intelligence/Lore-based check.
• Healing the elemental requires a spellcaster to expend (without casting) one abjuration- or divination-based spell. Discovering this fact is a DC 14 Intelligence/Lore-based check or a DC 14 Wisdom/Healing check.

If the adventurers successfully heal the elemental, read the following:

The creature swirls up to its full height, launching dust and debris into your faces. It hovers a moment then dissipates into a faint blue haze. A small orb now sits where the elemental fell; mist swirls constantly over its surface. The elemental has left a token of thanks.

The orb is a minor magical treasure. Its possessor receives a +1 on any rolls to resist forced movement.

You can get Prepared! now at the Kobold Store and Amazon.