<--- Game Update: The Elemental Gems --->

Each of the Elementals bears a jewel in their foreheads, a focus for their powers and a sign of their special origins. These gems were created by their "father", the lich lord Urathyme, and empowered by the elemental and energy planes.

Intended to be a way of controlling the Elementals should they prove uncooperative with their progenitor's plans to rule the multiverse, the mind-shackling power of the Gems was broken by an ally of the Elementals. This allowed them to create their own destinies and eventually defeat Urathyme during his bid to conquer all of reality.

The Elemental Gems are one inch wide and slightly more than that in length, resembling an ovoid mostly submerged in the bearer's forehead. The external appearance of the gems is only a small part of their structure; they also have "roots" that weave into the Elementals' brains and spiral down their spinal columns. Removal of the Gems would be both extremely difficult to achieve and painfully fatal.

Powers: The Gems have an undefined, near-limitless amount of power over the element to which they are attuned. This manifests in multiple ways, only some of which have ever been discovered by their bearers. Some of their known capabilities are as follows.

• Armor: Each gem can be mentally commanded to cover the bearer in a suit of crystalline armor resembling intricate, self-sealed plate complete with a full helm and face mask. This suit takes a free action to call or send away and grants a number of bonuses. Chief among these is a +15 armor bonus with no maximum Dex or armor skill check penalty and a +8 to a specific statistic.
  
• Elemental Manifestation: The Elementals can call forth a seemingly endless supply of their basic element and its normal forms. This acts as the spell produce flame attuned to the given element. The form this manifestation takes can vary; water can also appear as ice, wind can appear as fog, earth can become gemstone or metal ore, etc. The basic elements are permanent manifestations; alternate forms (gems, ice, etc.) fade after an hour and return to the elemental planes.
• These manifestations can be shaped by the will of the bearer as if they constantly possessed the stone shape spell focused on their element type. This also allows them to shape and mold existing material of their type, though the time required is double what the spell lists if the elemental matter is not from their own manifestations.
  
• Attack: The Gems can generate powerful blasts of elemental energy; these can be used as many times a round as the bearer has ranged attacks, requires a ranged touch attack roll, and can inflict up to 40d6 damage of the appropriate type each round (divided by the number of attacks taken). In addition, each attack type has a special property based on its core element.
• Defense: Each bearer can create a shield of elemental energy that duplicates the effect of the shield spell. Erecting or taking down this defensive power is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. The elemental shield also absorbs damage taken by spells or psionic attacks that inflict harm measured in hit points. Each shield begins with 200 hit points and has a hardness of 10. These hit points refresh every 24 hours at midnight; if they are used up, the Defense power does not work until the bearer surrounds him or herself in their element and spends one hour "recharging".
• Immunities: The Elemental Gems make their bearer immune to attack forms based on their element, exposure to their element, spells of their element type, and grants the bearer their element as a Type (Fire, Earth, Negative Energy, etc.). In addition, while their armor power is active, they gain all the benefits and traits of an Elemental.
• Power Combinations: The elements do not exist solely by themselves, nor do the Gems. When two or more bearers are in physical contact, additional powers become available to them. Several are known to the Elementals, but a couple of the most useful (or notorious) are given here.
• Darkness - Fire - Earth - Air - Water - Light: This combination creates a displacement effect that transforms the Elementals into pure energy and allows them to reappear anywhere on the same dimension they wish before becoming solid matter again. In all ways, this duplicates the greater teleport spell.
• Earth - Air - Fire - Water: When used to mold and shape the elements in just the right way, this combination allows for the permanent creation of a hollow depression in the earth filled with a constantly swirling, heated water complete with bubbling effect. In other words, the elemental equivalent of a whirlpool hot tub.
• Darkness - Fire: This combination creates a roiling blast of black flame that, if it destroys an object or being, obliterates them and denies the target the possibility of recreation or resurrection by any power less than that of a deity.
  

In future updates, specific Gems will be described in greater detail.