Codex of the Troll Mystic: Elementals, Part 5 – Interactions with Solid Objects

 
In this installment of Khayd’haik the Troll Mystic’s series on elementals, he discusses how elementals can interact with solid objects, including traveling over or through them. While most of this discussion concerns earth-based solid objects, Khayd’haik also addresses interactions with ice-based solid objects.

Check out the introductory installment on elementals if you missed it or any previous installments.

Traveling On Solid Surfaces

All elementals can travel across horizontal solid surfaces, such as the ground or a floor. However, elementals that can fly will typically be able to cover a distance faster by flying rather than walking. If walking, an elemental’s movement depends on the shape it takes. An elemental in the shape of a human would walk about the same speed as the average human. If it formed longer legs it could walk faster. If it took the shape of a horse, it could move about as fast as a horse can gallop. A sizable elemental that took on a roughly spherical shape could roll down a grassy hill more quickly than it could walk or run down the hill in humanoid shape.

A shadow elemental in two-dimensional form can travel quickly across a solid surface, whether it be horizontal or vertical, provided the surface is not brilliantly lit. If the elemental can be seen, it may appear to be the shadow of a flying creature. A two-dimensional shadow elemental traveling across a partially lit or unlit solid surface can move as quickly as a wind elemental can fly through the air or a water elemental can swim in the water. A three-dimensional shadow elemental cannot traverse a vertical surface.

Other elemental types, including stone elementals, cannot travel along vertical surfaces without handholds or some way to grip the surface.

Moving or Damaging Solid Materials

Stone, wind and water elementals can move or damage solid objects, depending on the strength of the elemental and the weight or tensile strength of the object being moved or damaged. A stone elemental can move or damage earth-based solid objects more easily than can wind or water elementals. A water elemental can move or damage ice-based solid objects more easily than can wind or stone elementals.

Fire elementals cannot move solid objects, but can possibly melt or burn them, depending on the natures of the objects.

Shadow elementals in two-dimensional form cannot move solid objects or damage them in any way. In three dimensional form, shadow elementals can only move relatively light objects and are unlikely to cause any significant damage to solid objects.

Passing Through Dirt, Sand and Earth-Based Solid Structures

All elementals can pass through dirt or sand, whether loose or packed. Typically only flame elementals leave any obvious long-term signs of passage through dirt or sand. Wind and water elementals may leave obvious yet temporary signs of passage through hard packed dirt, since they may displace some dirt to move through it more rapidly. Moving through hard-packed dirt without displacing any dirt is possible for all elementals because even hard-packed dirt is porous and thus offers routes of passage, however microscopic, but progress may be relatively slow.

If an elemental is commanded to dig a hole in loose or packed dirt, the result will depend on the elemental’s ability to move or damage solid objects, as described earlier. Stone elementals are generally quicker at digging than the other elemental types. Shadow elementals do not dig holes. A hole dug by a flame elemental will contain ashes and burned debris.

Stone elementals can travel through dirt faster than other elementals. Their typical form of travel through dirt and other earth-based solid objects is referred to as phasing. When phasing, an elemental occupies the same physical space as the substance it is phasing through, without displacing the substance. The speed at which a stone elemental can phase through an earth-based solid structure depends on the elemental’s volume and the density of the structure being phased through, but a stone elemental about the size of the average human, walking towards a foot-thick granite wall, could phase through the wall without breaking stride. A stone elemental about twice the size of a human would take twice as long to phase through the same wall.

When phasing through an earth-based structure, a stone elemental can move in any direction, whether horizontal, vertical or some angle in between.

Other elementals cannot phase through earth-based solid structures. If an elemental can find even the tiniest crack, however, it can pass through the crack by taking a long, thin form. This is a slow process for most elementals. Even a microscopic crack, however, is little deterrent to a two-dimensional shadow elemental.

Passing under a door, even one that might be considered waterproof, is not impossible for an elemental unless the door is magically sealed. Magically locking a door is not enough; it must be magically sealed as well as locked. A door that is sealed by non-magical means may slow down an elemental, but if the door has not been magically sealed, there will almost always be some weakness in the seal that the elemental can exploit.

Magic can be used to make a wall or other earthen structure impassable to phasing stone elementals. This magic is different than the magic used to seal a door against other elemental types. The wizard must effectively create a magical barrier that coincides with the wall. The creation of the barrier is technically not an enchantment of the wall, but a conjuration of an invisible barrier of magical force constructed in the same location as the wall. Even if a crack exists in the wall, the barrier will block the crack, thus preventing passage to all elemental types.

Surviving Burial in an Earth-Based Environment

A stone elemental may take up long-term residence in a phased state inside a mass of earth or metal.

A flame or water elemental cannot survive if buried in dirt or surrounded by stone or metal for an extended period. If the elemental is not somehow restrained, it will of course attempt to flee such an environment before the elemental expires.

Wind elementals can typically survive indefinitely if buried in dirt, because dirt contains air pockets. If packed in a solid mass of earth-based material without air pockets, however, the wind elemental will not survive for an extended period.

Shadow elementals have no problem surviving indefinitely when buried in dirt or surrounded by earth-based solids.

Additional Notes on Interactions with Ice

All elementals can pass through an ice structure if sufficient cracks or holes exist in the ice. Such passage is slow for wind elementals and excruciatingly slow for stone elementals. It would be quicker for a stone or wind elemental to pummel its way through the ice if the elemental is strong enough or the ice thin enough.

A two-dimensional shadow elemental can pass through a crack in ice as easily as passing through a crack in any other solid object. A three-dimensional shadow elemental can move through a crack in the ice at about the same speed as a wind elemental could. Shadow elementals cannot pummel their way through ice.

Flame elementals can pass through ice structures by melting the ice. The speed of this process depends on the thickness and temperature of the ice.

Water elementals can phase through ice. A phasing water elemental can reside indefinitely inside a block of ice. The presence of a phased water elemental inside a block of ice will prevent the ice from melting, in all but the most extremely hot environments, if such is the desire of the elemental.

Only water and shadow elementals can survive if surrounded by ice for an extended period of time, assuming there are no mineral impurities or air pockets in the ice.

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In the next installment, Khayd’haik discusses how the different types of elementals interact with water and liquids.

Do you have any additional information, anecdotes or thoughts about how elementals interact with solid objects, either earth-based or ice-based? Leave a reply below.