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Rock elementals


Manu

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Stone (the brother of Mostal) has died, slain by the vile High King Elf (and probably a range of other villains).

The Mostali rock-based creatures (called Jolanti when humanoid) are an approximation of this, as are gargoyles.

But then, a hypothetical rock elemental might only be able to permeate (living?) rock by merging with it on one side and picking up matter on the other side.

Edited by Joerg
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Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Historically, in RQ the answer is no, as of RQ G I am not sure.

Nope, no "rock" elementals in any of the RQG publications.
There is a Rune spell , to transform your earth elemental into a Gargoyle [RQG p 329].

In the Quickstart, there is a text passage, which reads ambiguous [Quickstart, p 28].

"If she is with the adventurers, Yanioth could put her summoned earth elemental to use at this task."
The task, to put some heavy stones together or the task to dig a grave in solid, rocky earth?

Certainly the Earth Elemental stat block makes it clear that the elemental could only work in soil.
 

Edited by prinz.slasar
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3 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

I understand the confusion there g33k, but that would be rock fossil.... close.

 

<glares suspiciously> "Fossil???  Are you calling me...."

 

Just because a guys remembers the Stones early days (even if just as a tyke m'self)...

Edited by g33k
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17 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:
2 hours ago, g33k said:

<glares suspiciously> "Fossil???  Are you calling me...."

 

NO g33k WHAT I SAID WAS TURN UP YOUR HEARING AID!

Would the younglings please cut down on the noise? There are grown-ups here who have to party hard tomorrow, and who need their beauty sleep!

Edited by Joerg
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On 12/30/2019 at 9:47 PM, prinz.slasar said:


In the Quickstart, there is a text passage, which reads ambiguous [Quickstart, p 28].

"If she is with the adventurers, Yanioth could put her summoned earth elemental to use at this task."
The task, to put some heavy stones together or the task to dig a grave in solid, rocky earth?

Certainly the Earth Elemental stat block makes it clear that the elemental could only work in soil.

But it can come out of the earth and pick up the heavy stones with its pretty high STR.

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4 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

But it can come out of the earth and pick up the heavy stones with its pretty high STR.

Actually I am sure it could not, I believe gnomes must remain in the soil, but I could see it pushing the earth which would push the stones above the earth... Again I think an understanding of magic rather than rules munchkinerry is the answer here. If the rules say the elemental can not deal with an substance, it probably can not, at least directly.

Cheers

ETA just did a bit of reading and the Bestiary says that gnomes can indeed move through rocky soil the problem they have is with quarried rock and straight up rock. They can not move through or be summoned in these terrains. Loam and sand offer a few caveats in the attack area. So they can move rocks in soil, but can they gather rocks? I suppose, what skill they would use lacking DEX I am unsure, As to heavy stones they can not travel through, could they push such? Good question.

Relevant passage, on appearance.

Quote

It cannot leave the soil and looks like a whirlpool or pulse in the earth itself.

page 179 of the Bestiary.

 

Edited by Bill the barbarian

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Actually I am sure it could not, I believe gnomes must remain in the soil, but I could see it pushing the earth which would push the stones above the earth... Again I think an understanding of magic rather than rules munchkinerry is the answer here. If the rules say the elemental can not deal with an substance, it probably can not, at least directly.

Cheers

ETA just did a bit of reading and the Bestiary says that gnomes can indeed move through rocky soil the problem they have is with quarried rock and straight up rock. They can not move through or be summoned in these terrains. Loam and sand offer a few caveats in the attack area. So they can move rocks in soil, but can they gather rocks? I suppose, what skill they would use lacking DEX I am unsure, As to heavy stones they can not travel through, could they push such? Good question.

Relevant passage, on appearance.

page 179 of the Bestiary.

 

Ok, my bad... 

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5 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Ok, my bad... 

Not bad, unless that apples to both of us, you were partial correct and until I added the ETA I was also only partially correct. The question is whether they can actually gather stones togather is still open to interpretation. But thanks for the thought in any case.

 

On 12/30/2019 at 1:09 PM, g33k said:

Just because a guys remembers the Stones early days (even if just as a tyke m'self)...

You are actually more decrepit, err ancient and wiser than I. Hell, the earliest days are beyond my ken, though I did watch the Beatles cartoons in my PJs eating Captain Crunch!

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Actually I am sure it could not, I believe gnomes must remain in the soil, but I could see it pushing the earth which would push the stones above the earth... Again I think an understanding of magic rather than rules munchkinerry is the answer here. If the rules say the elemental can not deal with an substance, it probably can not, at least directly.

An earth elemental can move the soil upward, though - just like a whirlpool will create waves that will lap upward of the water level and engulf items held into it.

Unless you cast gnome-to-gargoyle, an earth elemental mustn't lose touch with the soil. This makes them inconvenient to use when you have snow cover or are standing on bedrock. Even if you have a large elemental at your beck, it cannot do much if the soil is a mere inch thick, so the first thing it may do is bring more soil.

Stamped earth floors work fine for housing elementals. I guess they are used even for upper story floor cover in Esrolia, with soil-filled shafts somewhere in the house connecting that soil with the soil outside. 

 

1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Cheers

ETA just did a bit of reading and the Bestiary says that gnomes can indeed move through rocky soil the problem they have is with quarried rock and straight up rock. They can not move through or be summoned in these terrains. Loam and sand offer a few caveats in the attack area. So they can move rocks in soil, but can they gather rocks? I suppose, what skill they would use lacking DEX I am unsure, As to heavy stones they can not travel through, could they push such? Good question.

They can push more soil beneath loose rocks, moving them up just like frost and water will do over the years (at least if you live in areas with glacial loam soils that have rocks of all sizes mixed in, sedimentary soils like river marshes or loess don't have this problem). Collecting rocks from loam soils before and after plowing is a common agricultural activity to these days, and the annual harvest of rocks from a regularly plowed field is about four or five rocks of several kg per the area a man with an ox plow could plow in half a day (2500 square meters, a quarter hectare, and whatever this translates to in obscure imperial measurements).

 

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Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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7 minutes ago, Videopete said:

Man Glorantha changed the way I imagined elementals, from rock monsters, to just graboid waves moving through the ground. Maybe on the spirit plane they might look like the pictures.

It changed the way I looked at gnomes, sylphs. naiads and salamanders, let me tell you!

Edited by Bill the barbarian

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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1 hour ago, Videopete said:

Man Glorantha changed the way I imagined elementals, from rock monsters, to just graboid waves moving through the ground. Maybe on the spirit plane they might look like the pictures.

That's what I was thinking when I wrote my post above.

But I've found this on many occasions with the latest RQ books - the images don't match the descriptions (captioned or in text)

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