Living Soot

Large elemental, neutral

Armor Class 15
Hit Points 142 (15d10 + 60)
Speed 0 ft., fly 50 ft. (hover)

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
15 (+2)	20 (+5)	19 (+4)	6 (–2)	10 (+0)	8 (–1)

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities fire, poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Auran, Ignan, Terran
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Brittle. If the living soot takes cold damage, it partially freezes; its speed is reduced by 10 feet and its AC is reduced by 2 until the end of its next turn.
• Choking Air Form. The living soot can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there, and it can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing. In addition, when a creature starts its turn in the same space as the living soot, the creature must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) poison damage and be unable to breathe until it starts its turn outside the soot’s space.
• Elemental Nature. The living soot doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.
• False Appearance. While the living soot remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a tangled mass of blackened, dusty webbing.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The elemental makes two Slam attacks, or it makes one Slam attack and one Constrict attack.
• Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
• Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the living soot can’t Constrict another target.
• Engulfing Sootstorm (Recharge 4–6). The living soot spins violently in place, spreading out tendrils of thick, poisonous ash. Each creature within 20 feet of it must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 21 (6d6) poison damage and its speed is halved. On a success, a creature takes half the damage and its speed isn’t reduced. The speed reduction lasts until a creature spends an action cleaning off the ash.

ABOUT

A mass of black webs rises from the corner of the burnt-out room and hovers overhead, dripping ash from thick tendrils.

Though they resemble sentient spider webs, these nightmarish elementals are actually products of planar collisions between the Planes of Air, Earth, and Fire.

Volatile Bindings. Living embodiments of the natural phenomenon known as a soot tag, living soot elementals occur when earth elementals collide, producing crude oils that fire elementals eagerly burn and air elementals fan ablaze. Living soot emerges from these clashes with similar aspects that embody and compel its elemental brethren. Deceptively heavy and with a compulsion to spread, they send out parts of themselves to suffocate anything in reach with toxic tendrils of ash.

Summoned Through Tragedy. Living soot elementals are commonly brought onto the Material Plane when supernatural fires ravage cities or forests and when would-be elementalists miscast arcane experiments. Once present creatures are overwhelmed, living soot elementals proceed to coat every nearby surface in soot and ash. If any fire elementals are present, living soot follow in their fiery wakes, wreaking havoc upon any surviving creatures or still-standing structures.

Hydrophobic. Living soot elementals are diametrically opposed to water elementals and everything else hailing from the Plane of Water. Ice elementals are deadly to living soot, as are any other creatures with mastery over the powers of ice and winter magic.