The Storm that Thinks

The wizard Glibeus was old and dying as he sought a way to move his mind into something else.  Whilst he had a spell that would swap minds, he had grander ambitions.  He did not want another weak flesh body; he wanted something that would be powerful and immortal.  His experiments with constructs having failed, he created a simple cloud and gave it a primitive intelligence.  When the time came to cast the mind swap spell, a vast and powerful storm was passing over his tower.  At exactly the wrong moment lightning engulfed the building.  The resulting explosion destroyed everything for five miles. Above the devastation the storm began to think.

The storm doesn’t have a name for itself, but is commonly known as the wandering storm.   Moving against the wind, it drifts slowly across the sky. It likes to lurk over mana sites as it is now fueled by magical energies rather than changes in air temperature.  The storm appears as a full and dark thunderhead, ominously looming over the landscape.

A sentient and intelligent being, it’s mind was formed in a merger of the little gas cloud, the wizard and the vast amount of energy released.  It has none of the personality of its components.  That it has a mind at all is because it has the use of magic.  Retaining some knowledge of spells, it has learnt to use illusions to speak and cast spells. Capable of defending itself, several foolhardy magic users have found themselves on the wrong end of a lightning bolt or mass dispel when attempting to harness its power.  If angered, the storm becomes worse, with rain, hail, strong winds and lightning.

Plot Hooks:

  • The storm is lonely.  As an unpleasant weather cycle, it’s not welcome wherever it goes.  Peasants don’t like the damage it causes, magic user object to their mana sites being syphoned and lords resent that they cannot control it.  Immortal and lacking in purpose, it sadly wanders the sky.  It’s up the players to find something useful for the storm to do
  • The storm is alien.  Seeing itself as above that exists below it, its only intent is to grow, to become bigger and bigger.  For this it needs mana sites and lots of them.  As the storm grows, it is becoming more and more violent, causing massive damage beneath it.  The players have been tasked with stopping it.
  • The storm is religious.  After conversing with a particularly ambitious priest, the storm has become a worshipper of the god of storms.  As a devout acolyte it is striving to become a paragon of its god’s tenants.  It hopes that it will gain the notice of its deity and become a favoured messenger.  The player must escort the storm as it goes on a holy pilgrimage across a barren desert.

Image Credit: Storm Clouds by Jukka – CC-BY-2.0