Mephit Code

This is a new and greatly expanded version of the previous Mephit Code page!

Parlez-vous la langue méphitique?

If you’re sent a lightning mephit as a gift, should you be flattered, angry or terrified?

Mephits are often sent by Lower Planar spellcasters, fiends and powermongers of Sigil to their enemies to convey messages. The variety and quantity of mephits sent relays meaning in the form of an ancient code, the dark of which is laid bare below. The recipients of such mephit messages are free to do what they will with the elemental creatures; keep them, enslave them, release them, or destroy them; the meaning’s the same. Mephits are never sent to friends or allies, as anyone who’s ever met a mephit will certainly understand

Connoisseurs of Inner Planarology will no doubt be aware of other kind of minor elemental beings known scamps and wysps. These creatures share a lot in common with mephits, so much so that some (lazy) graybeards classify them as the same beast entirely. Indeed, they seem to share many similar abilities and weaknesses. However this misses the unifying principle of mephits—fundamentally, they are obnoxious, annoying and objectionable. Scamps, on the other hand, may be mischievous, but generally do not seem to have quite the malicious streak as mephits. Contrast both of these with wysps, who are cooperative, musical, and thoroughly adorable in comparison, and you satisfy not only the rule of three, but also explain why Lower Planar spellcasters are drawn to mephits in particular. Sending a wysp to an enemy will only ensure they have a good day, and sending a scamp will just result in shenanigans. Only a mephit is truly capable of delivering the kind of ‘and one more thing, go pike yourself!’ punctuation that is so crucial in Lower Planar diplomacy.

Element	Meaning	Element	Meaning
Air	Ambush	Ooze	Sarcasm
Ash	You are beneath contempt	Quicksilver ‡	You’re barmy!
Brimstone	I will invoke divine judgement	Radiance	Request for a truce
Chardalyn †	I have a secret weapon	Root ‡	Keep your promise
Dust	I have discovered your plot	Rot ‡	I know you are corrupt
Earth	No!	Rust ‡	Your plans are falling apart
Fire	Displeasure	Salt	Declaration of war
Flower ‡	Peace offering / you have been tricked	Sand †	Your position is not as solid as you think
Frost ‡	I have spotted a hidden pattern	Shadow †	I have subverted your plans
Glass	I see through your disguise	Slag ‡	Your opinion is worthless
Grease †	Your reputation is slipping	Smoke	Declaration of a vendetta
Ice	Stay away from my home	Soot †	I have evidence against you
Leaf ‡	Change; either a warning or a demand	Steam	Yes, I told you so
Lightning	Reconsider	Stone †	This is not the moment for surprises
Lye ‡	I do not trust your explanation	Sun ‡	Blackmail threat
Magma	Gloating	Tar ‡	Let us form an alliance
Metal ‡	Leave me alone	Vacuum ‡	None (see below)
Mineral	Compromise	Water	I evaded your trap
Mirror	I am watching you	Wind †	There has been a change in position
Mist	Assassin close to you	Wood ‡	My plans will take over your life
Mud	Your mistakes will drag you down

A quick reference guide to the Lower Planar Mephit Code. † Third party creation; ‡ Mimir.net homebrew

Air

N | Small | Air | Elemental | Mephit | CR 1

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Air

APPEARANCE: From the waist up, air mephits are white-skinned bald humanoids, translucent in texture. From the waist down, they are tornadoes of swirling wind and air. They have no wings, instead using their hurricane-bodies to propel themselves with great speed and grace. That’s the only graceful thing about them though, unfortunately.

PERSONALITY: Restless, fickle and unreliable. Air mephits find it hard to keep focussed on one task as they constantly seek new stimulation or to escape situations. They speak in vague terms with half-truths, and are afraid to make commitments. Their personalities are just as flighty, and while they will deliver the first message because they are bound to do so, they quickly lose interest and flee their creators to go off exploring, looking for trouble, and if they don’t find any, causing their own.

MEANING: When sent as a message, an air mephit represents a warning to the recipient to beware, for the giver intends to surprise them with an ambush or political treachery. This gift is usually timed to arrive when it’s already too late to prevent the inevitable. Lower Planar diplomats fear the sudden breezes in their rooms caused when an air mephit appears.

OTHER USES: An imprisoned air mephit can be used to provide fresh and cool air in confined spaces and stuffy rooms. They can be useful for planewalkers too, when travelling to planes with unbreathable or thin atmospheres, or in Wildspace. Keeping an air elemental confined is just as difficult than it sounds.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e | 2e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p71; Monster Manual [3e] p132-133; City of Brass [5e]; Bestiary [PF1e] p202; Bestiary [PF2e] p150 (as mephit); see also Monster Core [PF2e] p146 (as scamp)

Ash

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Ash

APPEARANCE: Ash mephits have powder-gray skin and wings, long skinny arms and legs, and membranous wings. They are surrounded by a perpetual haze of white dust. Too weak to pose a real physical threat, they can instead cough up a cloud of choking ash.

PERSONALITY: Bitter, detached and emotionally spent. Ash mephits tend towards ruinous cynicism, deflecting deep conversations by changing the subject, using cold logic, or dark humour. They’ll harp on about themselves and their woes endlessly, with their nasal whining voices.

MEANING: When used as a message, an ash mephit is sent when that the giver doesn’t even think the recipient is worth corresponding with any more.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 5e | PF 2e ] More chant on the ash mephit here…

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p77; At the Shrine of Othrys [5e]; Homebrew [PF2e]

Brimstone

Sulphur / Sulfur Mephit

HOMEPLANE: Para-Elemental Magma; Quasi-Elemental Fumes

APPEARANCE: Brimstone mephits are goblin-like imps with dusty yellow-orange skin that looks like it’s crumbling. They are surrounded by a cloying cloud with a strong sulphurous stench—that’s just a polite way of saying they smell like rotten eggs and burnt matches. They’re able to take advantage of this to create a truly stinking cloud of noxious gas, or belch out a cone of volcanic vapour that’ll knock a cutter out sick.

PERSONALITY: Acerbic, caustic and intense. Brimstone mephits have a biting sense of wit, and can conjure up the most withering of put-downs with ease. They are brutally honest, viewing politeness as a type of dishonesty.

MEANING: Brimstone mephits are sent as a message to threaten the recipient that the sender will invoke a divine judgement against them. Perhaps they are warning that they have friends in high places, or perhaps it is a bluff. The beauty of the Mephit Code is you never have to reveal your hand.

STATS: [ D&D 3e ]

SOURCES: Sandstorm [3e] p176 (as sulfur mephit)

Chardalyn

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Chaos

APPEARANCE: These extremely rare mephits appear as angular crystalline hybrids of humanoid, bird and mosquito, made from a dull black mineral imbued with necrotic energy that absorbs almost all light. Their glittering red compound eyes allow them to see magical auras, and they are able to disguise themselves as a shard of chardalyn when they are not moving.

PERSONALITY: Cruel and sadistic, the charadalyn mephit prefers to stand perfectly still to masquerade as rock, and then ambush victims from behind. They love to hoard secrets as much as spells, and think of themselves as sophisticated information brokers—when everyone else just sees them as brutal assassins.

MEANING: I have the perfect secret weapon with which to strike you, and I am very patient

STATS: [ D&D 5e ]

SOURCES: Divining Evil [5e] p13-21

Dust

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Dust

APPEARANCE: Dust mephits are extremely gaunt humanoids, with dull dirt-coloured skin and thin bat-like wings. They are the only mephit that wears clothing, a drab robe that hangs on their frame like a sack on a bunch of bones. They are permanently surrounded by a choking cloud of dust that causes cutters to cough and sneeze.

PERSONALITY: Morose and nihilistic, dust mephits are whining and self-important, and love to spread doom and gloom. They make everything seem to an enormous effort, and portray themselves as martyrs for their tenacity.

MEANING: This gift represents a subtle threat, with the connotation that shows that the sender has recognised some plot of the recipient against themselves.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e | 2e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p75; Monster Manual [3e]p132-133 ; Monster Manual [5e] p206; Bestiary [PF1e] p202; Bestiary 2 [PF2e] p112

Earth

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Earth

APPEARANCE: Made from soil and dirt, earth mephits are always coated with filth and leave marks behind on everything they touch. While they have wings and can fly, they seem to be afraid of heights and prefer to swoop just above the surface of the ground.

PERSONALITY: Stubborn, inflexible and defensive. They are plodding and notoriously humourless. Earth mephits think that refusing to do something is proving evidence of their strength. They are unwilling to change their mind for any reason, and will deny self-evident truths in front of them. Preferring to win rather than collaborate, they alienate everyone around them quite quickly.

MEANING: A sign that the giver will not concede to demands; a stubborn answer of ‘No!’ to a request.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e | 2e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p72; Monster Manual [3e]p132-134; City of Brass [5e]; Bestiary [PF1e] p202; Bestiary [PF2e] p150 (as mephit); see also Monster Core [PF2e] p146 (as scamp)

Fire

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Fire

APPEARANCE: Fire mephits have bright orange skin, and wisps of flame flicker across their entire bodies. They have brilliant white-hot eyes, the typical long pointed nose and ears of mephits, and long flaming tails.

PERSONALITY: Vengeful and quick to anger. Hot-tempered, boastful and easily provoked. Fire mephits are prone to acts of wanton destruction just for the fun of it.

MEANING: Displeasure at an enemy’s actions, ranging from disapproval to downright fury depending upon how many mephits are sent.

OTHER USES: Fire mephits are often employed to heat forges or ovens, warm up the beds of the rich and powerful, or light their cigars.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e | 2e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p73; Monster Manual [3e] p132-134; City of Brass [5e]; Bestiary [PF1e] p202; Bestiary [PF2e] p150 (as mephit); see also Monster Core [PF2e] p147 (as scamp)

Flower

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Wood

APPEARANCE: Slender and lithe, flower mephits are humanoid-shaped bundles of green stems, leaves and roots that blossom with colourful blooms each day. This means they’re likely to look different each time you see them, as different flowers come in and out of season. They also change through the day. In the morning, their blooms are budding and fresh, in the evening they are wilting and dropping petals.

PERSONALITY: People-pleasing, vain, resentful. Flower mephits seem pleasant enough at first. However, they find it impossible to say ‘no’ to anything as they can’t bear to disappoint, and will do anything to be popular. This means they suppress their own opinions and become increasingly bitter over time.

MEANING: A flower mephit is one of the more polite messages that can be sent, as the formal offering of peace, but it’s also a warning that the peace is delicate. It can also be a warning that the recipient has been fooled by something or someone who is not what they seem.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] More details on the flower mephit here…

SOURCE: Homebrew

Frost

Rime mephit, snow mephit

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Air; Para-Elemental Ice; Quasi-Elemental Frost

APPEARANCE: Frost mephits are sometimes known as snow or rime mephits. Unlike the rigid, icicle-encrusted ice mephits, the forms of frost mephits are softer and more complex, consisting of many individual sharp flakes of ice that form delicate and beautiful patterns. They have bone-white translucent skin that is covered in glittering snow, long slender arms and legs, and wings that are grow into complex, fractal geometries.

PERSONALITY: Frost mephits are consummate schemers. To a frost mephit, everything is part of a pattern to be analysed. They dream up plots and conspiracies of breathtaking complexity, and sometimes there’s even a grain of truth to them. They don’t just keep their ideas to themselves though, they work to spread their chilling stories to anyone who’ll listen.

MEANING: Frost mephits are delivered to signify the sender has spotted a hidden structure, pattern or secret in events, and that a clearer picture is emerging from the details.

STATS: [ PF 2e ]

SOURCES: Homebrew

Glass

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Obsidian

APPEARANCE: Angular and sharp-edged, glass mephits have wickedly sharp claws and beak-like noses, which they can use in combat. Their bodies are moulded from transparent glass, while their wings when unfolded reveal spectacular coloured stained glass patterns. Their compound eyes contain lenses of many colours, giving them superior vision. Glass mephits are physically delicate and prefer to keep their distance from combatants, using magic and spitting molten glass globs instead of getting up close.

PERSONALITY: Brittle, spiteful, manipulative. Glass mephits are elegant, but cruel. They have a razor-sharp wit and have the most cutting bon mots.

MEANING: When sent as a message, a glass mephit carries the meaning: I see right through your disguise.

STATS: [ D&D 3e | PF 2e ] More details on the glass mephit here…

SOURCES: Sandstorm [3e] p175; Homebrew [PF2e]

Grease

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Clay

APPEARANCE: Grease mephits are thin, ugly humanoid creatures covered in oozing, slimy, oily grease. Their rubber-like wings are also slick and dripping. They have large webbed feet for balance and stability, and leave a trail of oil behind them wherever they go.

PERSONALITY: Grease mephits love filth, sewage and rotting food. They are slimy, mocking and contemptuous. The manners of grease mephits are frankly disgusting and they never miss a chance to offend. They don’t care one iota what others think of them, making rude comments, sneering and jeering at anyone when think they can get away with it.

MEANING: When sent as a message, a grease mephit is a goading insult: Your reputation is slipping.

OTHER USES: A dead grease mephit can be restored to life by igniting it with the invigorating flame spell, turning it into a magma mephit.

STATS: [ D&D 5e ]

SOURCES: Baldur’s Gate III

Ice

HOMEPLANE: Para-Elemental Ice

APPEARANCE: Skinny translucent humanoids covered in a crust of rime and adorned with icicles, ice mephits are scowling imp-like spirits with long spiked tails and paper-thin wings.

PERSONALITY: Cold, dispassionate and cruelly practical. No ice mephit ever shed a tear for someone else. They are driven by calculating logic and completely disconnected for any kind of empathy or emotion. They judge people based on results an often make questionable choices in the name of efficiency. They can be brutally honest, and perhaps that’s why they also tend to be solitary.

MEANING: The recipient is forbidden to enter the giver’s home. This can include realm, layer or even plane, at the giver’s digression.

OTHER USES: An imprisoned ice mephit makes a convenient way to keep food fresh in a pantry, provided you can stop the mephit from gating in its companions and eating all the food.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e | 2e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p74; Monster Manual [3e] p132-134; Monster Manual [5e] p206; Bestiary [PF1e] p202; Bestiary 2 [PF2e] p112

Leaf

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Wood

APPEARANCE: Leaf mephits are, in essence, small bundles of leaves and branches entwined together into an impish form. They could almost be mistaken for an ornately trimmed animated shrubbery, if not for their lack of internal structure. They have large leaves for wings and fern fronds for antenna-like horns, thorn-claws, grass blades that cover their arm-like appendages and creeping ivy for legs and feet. They change colours as they age, from verdant green in their prime growing season to beautiful yellows and reds when they are mature. Leaf mephits avoid cold climates altogether. They are experts at disguise, able to blend to any kind of vegetation by rearranging their structure to show the most similar leaves.

PERSONALITY: Leaf mephits aren’t as talkative as some of the other mephits of the Plane of Wood, but they really like “music”, or rather, discordant noises that range from rustling of leaves to rhythmic knocking on tree trunks with sticks. Of course, they also feel the need to supplement this performance with their grating voices. Never still, leaf mephits are flighty and emotionally changeable, going with whatever takes their fancy at a particular moment.

MEANING: A leaf mephit sent as a message signifies change. Either something is about to change, or something must change.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] — coming soon

SOURCES: Homebrew

Lightning

N | Small | Air | Elemental | Mephit | Positive | CR 1

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Lightning

APPEARANCE: Lightning mephits are torsos of dark cloud with crackling lightning limbs. The smell of ozone surrounds them, and they glow with a cold white light that flickers and rumbles.

PERSONALITY: Fidgety, impulsive and prone to exaggeration or bluffing. Lightning mephits are shrill-voiced and find it impossible to stand still. They tend to blurt things out without thinking, interrupt others and make hasty decisions. Rather than admit they haven’t thought something out properly, they will instead try and bluff their way through.

MEANING: A warning to the recipient to reconsider tactics, as the giver has a hidden ally who can swing matters. This often turns out to be a hollow threat, so the sender is either sure of himself and his ally, or bluffing.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 5e | PF 1e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p76; Tome of Horrors [5e, PF1e]

Lye

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Metal

APPEARANCE: Lye mephits are made of an angular grey metallic substance, but are typically covered with a thick layer of soapy scruf. They are slick and soft to touch, although actually touching them is not advised because the bubbles that form around them are hot to the touch and highly corrosive. Their eyes burn with a bright orange light.

PERSONALITY: Lye mephits almost always feel itchiness from their exterior surface reacting with water. This, understandably makes them quite irritable and erratic, not to mention obsessed with cleanliness.

MEANING: A lye mephit is sent to deliver the message that the sender does not believe the explanation given by the recipient.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] — coming soon

SOURCES: Homebrew

Magma

HOMEPLANE: Para-Elemental Magma

APPEARANCE: Magma mephits are burly brutes, with muscular bodies that consist of a thin crust of black rock. As they exert themselves, this crust cracks, revealing bright orange glowing molten rock inside. They have bright yellow eyes, short horns, and are completely hairless. Their wings drip with molted rock when opened, and whiled they can fly with them, they’re slow and fairly clumsy.

PERSONALITY: Both stupid and easily offended, magma mephits prefer brute force over any kind of pointless chat. They are arrogant and always think they are more skilled, intelligent, strong or charismatic than reality suggests. Because they are so talented, they assume success is guaranteed whether they bother or not. They’re the but of many fire mephit jokes, and they never take them well at all.

MEANING: A gift of gloating, when the giver believes they have bested the recipient at some intellectual challenge.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p77; Monster Manual [3e] p132-134; Bestiary [PF1e] p202

Metal

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Metal

APPEARANCE: Metal mephits are angular and inflexible, riveted together from sheets of metal, blades, and screws. They roll about upright on a pair of wheels instead of feet, their horns are drill bits and their hands are scissors. They can breathe out a cone of razor-sharp shrapnel, and attract metal objects towards their bodies.

PERSONALITY: Metal mephits are capricious and destructive. They take pleasure in ruining and wrecking things, even if it harms themselves in the long run.

MEANING: Sending a metal mephit has the meaning of ‘leave me alone’. The formal reply to a metal mephit is to either escalate the exchange with a gloting magma mephit, a radiant mephit for a true, or simply nothing at all.

STATS: [ PF 2e ]

SOURCES: Rage of Elements [5e] p153 (as metal scamp)

Mineral

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Mineral

APPEARANCE: Muscular humanoid imps, mineral mephits glitter with tiny quartz and mica crystals. Their wings are metallic and rigid, although they can still use them to fly. Their eyes are large diamonds that scintillate and reflect any light that shines on them.

PERSONALITY: Mineral mephits are greedy, and suspicious, assuming that everyone is out to get them. To be fair, they usually are. They believe that they are the rightful guardians of all kinds of treasure, whether they own it or not. They are guarded and emotionally impossible to read, giving little away and coming across as secretive and untrustworthy. In turn, they are slow to trust people and record their interactions on a quid pro quo basis, even out loud, as they weigh up the pros and cons of any situation.

MEANING: Signifies a willingness to compromise on some point and a corresponding exchange of power or lands. Can also be interpreted as a request for more direct communication.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e ]

SOURCES: Inner Planes [2e] p98; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. I [2e] p70,76; Vol. III [2e] p11; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide p29

Mirror

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Metal; Plane of Mirrors

APPEARANCE: A small highly reflective humanoid with jet black eyes. They have sharp claws, and wings that appear like glass. If damaged, mirror mephits can appear cracked or chipped.

PERSONALITY: Vain and thoughless, mirror mephits are easily distracted by glittery, sparkly or shiny objects. They can become fascinated by their own reflection. They often copy the actions of cutters they observe or act repetitively.

MEANING: I’m watching you.

OTHER USES: Mirror mephits can be used as spies, especially utilising their ability see throuygh mirrors.

STATS: [ D&D 3e ]

SOURCES: Expedition to the Demonweb Pits [3e] p208-209

Mist

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Steam

APPEARANCE: Small gray or green imp-like creatures whose bodies emit a thick mist enabling them to hide.

PERSONALITY: Evasive, shy, obscure and unnecessarily mysterious. Mist mephits can reply with answers that are so ambiguous that you get lost in the vague language. Mist mephits seem to be trying too hard to be interesting and unobtainable, and failing on all fronts. They believe themselves to be elite spies, and often end up spying on other mephits, snitching on those they see performing unmephit-like behaviour like showing kindness or mercy.

MEANING: A mysterious warning that someone close to the recipient is an assassin. This message is used to encourage paranoia and insecurity between the recipient and his allies.

STATS: [ D&D 2e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p78; Eye of the Serpent [1e] p29; Fiend Folio [2e]; Dragon Magazine [4e] #421 p8

Mud

HOMEPLANE: Para-Elemental Ooze

APPEARANCE: Mud mephits spend most of their time half-submerged in mud and quicksand. While they have wings, it’s thought they use these to propel themselves under the surface rather than to fly. Whether they have legs or not is a matter of speculation, but what is certain is they have tentacles attached to their bodies below the surface. These are able to burst up from underneath the mud up to 10 feet away from the mephit, giving it a surprising reach for a creature so small. They are also able to retreat under the surface, appearing exactly like a puddle of ordinary mud, perfect for ambushes.

PERSONALITY: Indolent, evasive and half-committed. Mud mephits will agree to anything to get you to shut up—but almost certainly won’t actually do it. They are treacherous cutter too, making use of their ability to disguise themselves to eavesdrop on rivals.

MEANING: When sent as a message, a mud mephit means ‘your mistakes are dragging you under’—a message designed to enrage and instil paranoia in equal measure.

STATS: [ D&D 5e ]

SOURCES: Monster Manual [5e] p216 (no link, paywall)

Ooze

HOMEPLANE: Para-Elemental Ooze

APPEARANCE: It’s hard to say what an ooze mephit really looks like as they are completely covered in thick globs of slime. Or perhaps that’s exactly what they are… Drooling with mucus and dripping with mud, these ochre-coloured creatures leave a trail of muck wherever they slither. They have bat-like wings of bubbling green skin and gill-fins on their neck through which they can breathe air, water and muck.

PERSONALITY: Obsequious, slippery and pathetically servile, they make natural lackeys but their fawning—and their stench—takes a lot of getting used to. They love to slide up to cutters and flatter them, then when they think they’ve made a friend, quickly ask for a loan of jink.

MEANING: A sarcastic gift, sent by a spellcaster who is sure the recipient is far weaker than they are. Often this gift is insulting enough to goad the recipient into making a mistake.

OTHER USES: Ooze mephits are frequently summoned and bound to perform disgusting or menial tasks that wizards think they are too good to do themselves.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | PF 1e | 2e ]

SOURCES: Inner Planes [2e] p83; Planescape Monstrous Compendium [2e] p70,72; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. III [2e] p10,64,71; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide p33; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p29; Monster Manual [3e] p132-134; Bestiary [PF1e] p202; Bestiary 2 [PF2e] p113

Quicksilver

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Metal

APPEARANCE: Humanoid imps with smooth bodies of liquid metal with a dull sheen. When they move, droplets of metal detach from their form briefly, before being drawn back in and merging as if by an invisible force. They are able to liquefy their bodies completely and flow through cracks, as well as reform their shape to copy another creature—although they retain the same metallic colouration.

PERSONALITY: Mercurial, emotional, borderline crazed. Quicksilver mephits are volatile, and prone to sudden mood swings. They are also prone to making rash decisions and acting out, and bouts of histrionics.

MEANING: Quicksilver mephits are sent as a message to say either ‘you are barmy’, or ‘you are driving me barmy’.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] — coming soon…

SOURCES: Homebrew

Radiance

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Radiance

APPEARANCE: Radiant mephits have smooth silvery bodies that reflect and scatter light like a prism, splitting it into a dazzling kaleidoscope of colours. They have enormous black eyes and wings that glint with rainbows of light. Their expressions are vacant, unless they are laughing. They love to adopt ridiculous titles like other mephits, but they’re never able to remember them.

PERSONALITY: Spaced-out, dazed and confused. Radiance mephits act like they are high even when they are paying attention, and have a habit of drifting off completely into a dissociative state when you are talking to them. They are forgetful and easily distracted, and prone to fits of uncontrollable giggling.

MEANING: Request for a truce; in effect the ‘white flag’ of mephit messages.

OTHER USES: Radiance mephits are sometimes employed by the rich and powerful of Sigil to create soothing displays of beautiful colours to lull their children to sleep.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 5e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p73; At the Shrine of Othrys [5e]

Root

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Wood

APPEARANCE: Root mephits are clods of earth, bound together by a complex network of large and small roots. Tubers and bulbs are embedded in their forms, seemingly as vital organs—although planewalkers report they can taste delicious when prepared properly.

PERSONALITY: Secretive and anti-social, root mephits are bitter loners, who do not enjoy any kind of company. Their preferred way to escape annoying conversations is to burrow themselves away in the ground wherever they can, paying no mind to any dirt they displace onto others’ clothing along the way. They are utterly convinced of their own importance, believing that they alone have the duty of connecting everything together. Once the obsessive interest of a root mephit has been piqued, good luck getting rid of them. They become attached to secrets, creatures or topics—which makes them excellent sources of information, if you are ablw to find them. A word of warning though, if threatened, they can become surprisingly violent, strangling attackers with unexpected strength.

MEANING: A root mephit sent as a message is a reminder to the recipient that they still need to uphold their end of a promise.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] — coming soon

SOURCES: Homebrew

Rot

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Wood

APPEARANCE: While they are able to disguise themselves temporarily, the true form of rot mephits is that of a hollowed-out crumbling log made from a dead tree or driftwood. They are covered in moss, lichen or algae, and bristle with toadstools. They have toadstools instead of horns, and pure black eyes that suggest nothing is inside their heads at all.

PERSONALITY: Charming, manipulative, dishonest. Rot mephits usually try to pass themselves off as wood mephits at first but they are corrupted to the core and will always inevitably try and drag others into their horrid little schemes.

MEANING: Sending a rot mephit as a message can have several layers of meaning. It may simply mean the sender has recognised the recipient is corrupt, and that could be taken as a threat or blackmail. However, it may also mean that the sender wants to become a part of the scheme themselves. This meaning is usually conveyed by sending a rot and a wood mephit together.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] — coming soon

SOURCES: Homebrew

Rust

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Metal

APPEARANCE: Rust mephits look like metal mephits that have seen better days—and perhaps thats exactly what they are. Covered in a layer of crumbling rust, their iron bodies are pock-marked and damaged. Their coppery wings are crusted with blue-green verdigris. Their crowns are dull and dented. They typically wield a pair of blades, or sometimes their arms themselves are blades.

PERSONALITY: Chronically unreliable, flaky, and physically weak. Rust mephits never follow through with what they say they will do, forget things they have promised, and have no concept of time.

MEANING: A rust mephit sent as a message should be taken as an insult: Your plans are falling apart.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] — coming soon

SOURCES: Homebrew

Salt

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Salt

APPEARANCE: Angular white humanoid imps with grainy skin that sheds white dust continuously. Their eyes are large, red and sore-looking. Their bright white teeth gleam from their broad mouths.

PERSONALITY: Abrasive, cruel, aloof, uncompromising and corrosive in temperament. Salt mephits are dryly sarcastic and prone to saying offensive or tactless things without thinking, or caring.

MEANING: Sending a foul-mouthed salt mephit as a message is a blatant declaration of open warfare.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p75; Monster Manual [3e] p132-134; City of Brass [5e]; Bestiary [PF1e] p202

Sand

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Silt

APPEARANCE: Almost skeletal in form, the desiccated frames of sand mephits have been worm smooth and featureless by scoring grit. They faces are little more than expressionless grinning skulls, and their leather wings are highly polished. They are continuously surrounded by a swirling cyclone of hot desert air. They are able to manipulate their forms into other shapes with ease, flowing through locks or under doors, or making faces in billowing clouds, although all of these new shapes are clearly made from sand too.

PERSONALITY: Shifty and unreliable, sand mephits will promise the earth and then work to undermine you. Sand mephits are obsessed with the passage of time, speaking about it in metaphorical terms even when it is inappropriate. However their own perception of time is terrible, for they are always too late or too early for things.

MEANING: When sent as a message the sand mephit carries the veiled threat: “Your position is not as solid as you think”.

STATS: [ D&D 5e ]

SOURCES: Zargoth’s Tome of Familiars [5e]

Shadow

HOMEPLANE: Plane of Shadow

APPEARANCE: Shadow mephits appear as two-dimensional shapes cast onto walls and floors, but with no original source. They can assume any shape they like, but their true form is a small angular winged imp with pointed ears, nose and chin.

PERSONALITY: Creepy, secretive and ever-present. Shadow mephits are almost impossible to get away from and will follow you anywhere, emerging from the corner of your sightline just when you think you have shaken them off.

MEANING: An enemy of the recipient has discovered his plans, has subverted and is now manipulating them to his own ends. For a fiend, it’s one of the most feared messages, because they never can tell which of their many enemies, and which of their many plans and schemes this concerns. This make a lot of recipients nervous, paranoid, and generally makes them change plans or make mistakes. The shadow mephit can, of course, be used for bluffing, but it’s seldom done, for the senders fear that if this rare mephit is used too often, it will be taken for bluffs too much, and then won’t be useful as bluffs.

STATS: [ D&D 5e | PF 2e ] More details on the shadow mephit here…

SOURCES: The Gates of the Shadowmage [5e]; Pathfinder #213 [PF2e] Thirst for Blood p18 (as lesser shadow scamp)

Slag

Gangue [GANG] mephit; Scoria mephit

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Metal; Quasi-Elemental Pumice

APPEARANCE: Slag mephits look like red-hot sculptures of soft melting crude metal, covered with a crust of residue. They have residual wings but they are too small for flight. Their limbs are elongated as if they’ve been stretched and then solidified. Beyond that though, the composition of each slag mephit is quite different, depending on how they were formed. When metals ores are molten down this produces pure metal mephits and the waste products, if anyone bothers with them at all, become slag mephits with a dirty crystalline sheen. Metal mephits laughingly call them ‘pig iron mephits’ and treat them as second class-elementals. Another kind of slag mephit is formed when lava cools and forms detritus like pumice or scoria. These mephits are mocked by magma mephits as being too cold and crusty to be useful, and teased by stone and mineral mephits because their rocks are ugly or too full of holes to be beautiful.

PERSONALITY: Thousands of years of abuse from other mephits has led slag mephits to become convinced of their own worthlessness. They utilise this to excuse themselves of any kind of responsibility. Slag mephits envy most other kinds of mephit, believing their claims to be superior due to their lack of impurities. Ironically, when forced to stand up for themselves, slag mephits are actually tougher than any of the ‘nines’ — the name the purity-obsessed metallic mephits call themselves. Perhaps because of their affinity with the unwanted, slag mephits are hoarders. They can’t bear to discard anything, and their dens are chock-full of all kinds of objects, both trash and treasure. For a slag mephit, there is no difference, and they value every item equally.

MEANING: A rude message, meaning “Your opinion is worthless”.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] — coming soon

SOURCES: Homebrew

Smoke

N | Small | Air | Elemental | Fire | Mephit | CR 1

HOMEPLANE: Para-Elemental Smoke

APPEARANCE: Smoke mephits are barely corporeal humanoid-shaped clouds of smoke with long wispy noses and slender arms. They’re never seen without their smoking pipes, which their their most prizes, and sometimes only, solid possessions. While they spend much of their time invisible, any cutter with even half-a sense of smell can detect the characteristic sweet and smoky aroma—at least when they are on a plane with a normal atmosphere.

PERSONALITY: Lazy, evasive and prone to empty talk. Smoke mephits will waffle on endlessly about things that interest only themselves. A favourite pastime is to turn invisible, hide from their responsibilities, and sit around and tell crude jokes. These usually concern their creators, but anything is fair game. The only thing that gives them away is the smell of pipeweed.

MEANING: A gesture of insolence and contempt that amounts to a declaration of a vendetta.

OTHER USES: Smoke mephits are connoisseurs of all kinds of pipeweed. While they are typically too lazy to do anything as strenuous as becoming a merchant, importer or farmer of the weed, smoke mephits have been put to use by drug barons and owners of gentlefiends’ clubs to test the merchandise for its quality. Smoke mephits that land this kind of gig quickly realise what a cushy job it is and rarely try to abscond.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p71; Tome of Horrors [5e, PF1e]

Soot

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Spark

APPEARANCE: Soot mephits look like humanoid birds who’ve fallen down a chimney and been unable to escape. Completely smothered in choking black dust, they are more of a black blur of motion than a defined creature. They have sooty black wings and a coating on their skin that leaves marks wherever they go. The phrase “easy as tracking a soot mephit” is used by planewalkers for a reason. The only thing that isn’t pitch black is the pair of red eyes you can see glowering from the shadows at you.

PERSONALITY: Outcasts even on the plane of Smoke, soot mephits are looked down upon by smoke mephits because they are cursed with being corporeal. The smoke mephits believe their sooty cousins are the unwanted residue of the place; the detritus to be swept away and discarded. Love to trick other creatures, especially if it harms them or they can profit from it. They will set up elaborate traps and then settle down to watch their handiwork come to fruition. They’re hard to spot when they blend into the shadows, but once they’ve left it’s incredibly easy to see they were there, and incredibly hard to clean the evidence away.

MEANING: A soot mephit sent as a message is a warning or threat to the recipient that the sender has evidence that they are planning to use against them. It could be interpreted as a blackmail attempt, a bluff or a declaration of legal action.

OTHER USES: Soot mephits are used by some witches for tracing out circles of protection or ritual. Unfortunately, the soot mephit does not need to be alive for this to happen.

STATS: [ D&D 5e ]

SOURCES: At the Shrine of Othrys [5e]

Steam

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Steam

APPEARANCE: Steam mephits are red-skinned imps, their skins scalded and inflamed from extreme heat, although this seems to cause them no pain—in fact, they become uncomfortable and restless in cold or even temperate climates. They have shrill, high-pitched voices like the whistling of a kettle, and even when they aren’t speaking, there’s a continuous hissing sound of steam escaping from them.

PERSONALITY: Brash and bombastic, steam mephits are energetic and bombastic. They’re arrogant enough to call themselves the leaders of any group, demanding everything is done their way. They’re also hypersensitive, and the fact that the mist mephits refuse to acknowledge their claim to be the rulers of the plane angers them deeply.

MEANING: A message of agreement; the opposite of the earth mephit message, except there’s the connotation of a gloating ‘I told you so’ to the acceptance.

OTHER USES: Confining a steam mephit into a small space is one way to power a steam engine, modron mechanics have discovered.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e | 2e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p78; Monster Manual [3e] p132-134; Monster Manual [5e] p208; Bestiary [PF1e] p202; Bestiary 2 [PF2e] p113

Stone

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Earth

APPEARANCE: Whereas an earth mephit is composed of compressed soil and grit, stone mephits are rockier in constitution. Looking like statues carved quickly and crudely from low-quality blocks of rock, they are covered in cracks and gaps where chunks are missing and pebbles have been pushed in to fill the gaps. Their wings are stiff membranes of slate, with flexibility more like a shield than a bat’s wing. Their faces are elongated and ugly, with long noses and ears.

PERSONALITY: Most stone mephits would be given a job as a church gargoyle pretty quickly, although they wouldn’t hold it for long, because they obsess about the most trivial things. They can’t help but count things, for starters, like the number of pebbles in their body, the number of leaves on a tree, or the number of stars in the sky. Perhaps because they are so distracted by this they are slow to speak, answer questions or react to other cutters. As a resule, a stone mephit always seems to be in the way, getting under other cutters’ feet or accidentally tipping them up.

MEANING: A stone mephit sent as a message should be interpreted as a stern warning: This is not the moment for surprises.

STATS: [ D&D 5e ]

SOURCES: Chelimber’s Descent [5e] p22 (variant mud mephit) †

Sun

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Radiance; Para-Elemental Sun

APPEARANCE: Sun mephits are shapes of incandescent plasma and gas, that could be mistaken for radiance quasi-elementals. This plasma is so incredibly bright, looking upon their dazzling forms for too long can cause permanent blindness. While like fire mephits, sun mephits are also aflame, they are also partly incorporeal. Sun mephits can be found not only on the planes of Sun, Radiance, Fire, Smoke and Sparks, but also in Wildspace, where they like to cause trouble on stars. Ever heard of sunspots and solar storms? Probably these little pikers.

PERSONALITY: Sun mephits are regal and vainglorious, priding themselves on their supposed beauty. While all mephits tend to be self-important, sun mephits take this to another level, believing themselves to be semi-divine, or at least regal, despite any evidence to support their claims. They are easily offended by cutters who refuse to look at them directly. They have a narcissistic streak too, apparently seeming to believe that everything should revolve around them and their desires.

MEANING: Receiving a sun mephit is basically a threat of blackmail. The sender is threatening to reveal some confidential plans, provable facts, or just a really juicy rumour to all and sundry.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] — coming soon

SOURCES: Homebrew

Tar

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Chaos

APPEARANCE: Tar mephits are formed from thick black tar and resin that never quite burns, but is always smouldering, emitting sooty smoke and a sickening stench. They look like seabirds that have been dunked in oil and then left there, their feathers matted and congealed by the thick bitumen. They are most at home in the Elemental Chaos, and apparently resulting from an unlikely union of Smoke and Ooze.

PERSONALITY: Even more self-important than other mephits, tar mephits are utterly convinced of their usefulness in every possible task. The thing they are best at however, is making everything sticky.

MEANING: A sender of a tar mephit is making an offer to form a pact or alliance. It could be a trick, of course.

STATS: [ PF 2e ] — coming soon

SOURCES: Homebrew

Vacuum

HOMEPLANE: Quasi-Elemental Vacuum

APPEARANCE: Vacuum mephits are small imp-shaped holes in reality—gaps in stuff, where there is instead nothing at all. They make no sound, cast no light—not even a shadow, they are simply not there. This leads many cutters to say they don’t exist, which is technically correct, but when that non-existent mephit is strangling you to death, hard to reconcile.

PERSONALITY: Vacuum mephits are especially hateful and will generally throttle or do other vile things to victims rendered unconscious by their special abilities.

MEANING: A message which never turns up. The expression: “Got a Vacuum Mephit” means to receive no response.

VACUUM OR VOID: While a true planewalker would never get these two confused, there is an important difference between vacuum—the state of their being nothing at all, just utterly empty space—and void—an all-consuming kind of negative energy which erodes life and is the driving force of entropy. They’ll both kill you of course, just in different ways, but as with most things primes get the two muddled up. Vacuum mephits don’t exist because they embody literally empty spaces, while void mephits don’t exist because there is no such thing. Clear? Thought not.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | 5e | PF 1e | 2e ] More chant on the vacuum mephit here…

SOURCES: Homebrew [2e]; At the Shrine of Othrys [5e]; Traps, Trammels and Triggers [5e] (as void mephit)

Water

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Water

APPEARANCE: Water mephits are amphibious blue-green creatures covered in a layer of sleek fur or scales that traps a layer of water next to their skin. Their claws, ears, toes and wings are webbed, to help them swim faster. They have large wet eyes which never blink, and fish lips. They smell of bring and seaweed and they leave a trail of drips and wet footprints wherever they go.

PERSONALITY: Water mephits are jovial to the point of being irritating. They make tactless quips about their companions, which upsets all but the thick-skinned. This is probably a defence mechanism, because water mephits can also be clingy, needy and secretly insecure. They will follow you everywhere like puppy dogs, only wetter and more annoying.

MEANING: A sarcastic message sent when the spellcaster has evaded a trap or plot of the recipient’s. Formally the answer to an air mephit, if the giver survives the ambush.

OTHER USES: Water mephits are often employed by wealthy cutters of Sigil and the Lower Planes to put out house fires, or maintain their aquaria.

STATS: [ D&D 2e | 3e | PF 1e | 2e ]

SOURCES: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I [2e] p74; Monster Manual [3e] p132-134; Bestiary [PF1e] p202; Bestiary [PF2e] p151 (as mephit); Monster Core [PF2e] p147 (as scamp)

Wind

Uncommon | N | Small | Air | Elemental | Mephit | CR 1 †

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Air; Quasi-Elemental Lightning

APPEARANCE: While air mephits propel themselves with their cyclonic bodies, wind mephits are slender imp-like creatures as light as a feather, with enormous winds they use like sails to catch the breezes of Air and Lightning. They love nothing more than surfing the air currents at incredible speeds, using their long sinuous tails to steer.

PERSONALITY: Wind mephits are incorrigible gossips, who seek out secrets only to spread them as far as they are able. The djinn have a saying, they best way to spread news is to tell it to a wind mephit in confidence. It’s possible that they whisper messages into the breeze, and listed out for the sibilant murmurs of other wind mephits in return with their huge ears. That’s one way to explain the speed with which they spready the chant across the vast distances of Air anyway. Wind mephits also have no concept of personal space, and tend to get far too close to cutters, sniffing them deeply, and not finding anything wierd about this despite how badly most solid folk react to it.

MEANING: A wind mephit sent as a message signifies the sender is announcing there has been a change their in position about a topic, a plot, or an ally.

STATS: [ D&D 5e ]

SOURCES: Zargoth’s Tome of Familiars [5e]

Wood

HOMEPLANE: Elemental Wood

APPEARANCE: Craggy, bark-faced little humanoids with roots for feet and sharp thorny claws, wood mephits grow from all varieties of tree, from white ash to grainy oak and dark mahogany. They have branches for horns that look a lot like antlers, and their wings are paper-thin membranes stretched between wicker sticks. Some wood mephits have small leaves growing from them like a humanoid might have body hair, while other wood mephits are sanded smooth. They smell of sap and moss, and have an irritating habit of taking everything personally on behalf of “the forest”, even when no forest ever asked them to. Chant goes you can tell how old a wood mephit was by cutting it in half and counting the rings. This is clearly not good for the mephit.

PERSONALITY: Brittle, egotistical, prone to flying into a rage, wood mephits seem placid at first

but their egos are easily damaged and they can flare up into incandescent rage without much provocation. They are unusually sociable for mephits, and gather in groups called bundles. They seem to find the Plane of Wood rather dull, perhaps because they’ve been stuck there for so long, and are eager to travel off-plane to find new places to create havoc.

MEANING: Wood mephits represent a stark threat—I have (or will put) plans in motion that will spread throughout your life and be difficult to eradicate.

STATS: [ PF 2e ]

SOURCES: Rage of Elements [PF2e] p205 (as wood scamp)

Sending More Complex Messages — the Mephit Swarm

Gargantuan | Elemental | Troop | CR 6

MEANING: While sending a single mephit as a message may be a convenient way to communicate, the limited numbers of mephit species known means the vocabulary of the Mephit Code is somewhat restricted. Fortunately, centuries of Lower Planar spellcasters insulting each other via mephits has resulted in ever more complex forms of meaning being achieved by more than one mephit being sent at the same time. Chant goes this originally began with multiple mephits of the same element being sent to emphasise a message more strongly. For example, three earth mephits send a stronger message of ‘no’ than a single one of the little pikers, perhaps more a ‘NO!!’ Not only does this underscore the message, but a larger number of mephits sent makes it more likely that enough of them will survive to deliver the message. And a swarm of mephits is considerably more annoying than a solo mephit, which makes inflicting them upon your enemies even more enjoyable.

The Code developed from there next, with mephits of more than one elemental type being paired up and sent. Interpretation of such messages is more of an art than a science however, and experts in Mephit Lore find themselves consulted on occasion by concerned high-ups who are seeking to learn what they might read into a message of an earth and steam mephit being sent (the answer to this is ‘yes-no’, the kind of ridiculous message sent by a tanar’ri who’s trying to drive the recipient barmy).

Interpreting the full scope of messages with more than one mephit is out of scope of this treatise—as any good Mathematician will tell you, a message of two mephits results in a combination of nearly one thousand meanings, and three mephits in well over ten thousand meanings—but here are some commonly used ones:

Shadow & Dust: I know what you did, I know who helped you, and now they work for me
Tar & Mist: I have placed an assassin in your inner circle, so please accept my offer of an alliance…or else
Glass & Stone: I have discovered your secret identity but will not reveal it, for now

STATS: [ PF 2e ]

SOURCES: Battlecry! [PF2e] p190 (as scamp inferno)

Mephit Magic

If after reading all that you’re still interested in summoning a mephit then firstly—go back and read it again—and secondly, who am I to judge you? The following spells are used in summoning circles to conjure up these little pikers.

Mephitic Messenger — Level 3 Spell or Ritual

D&D 5e rules

Level 3 Conjuration (Druid/Wizard)
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: 20 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Special

You summon a mephit that appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. You can choose the specific type of mephit (like fire, water, wood etc) and it is bound to deliver itself as a message to the recipient of your choosing. You cannot command it to perform any other actions, but it is unable to harm you directly. The spell duration lasts for as long as it takes the mephit to find the recipient.. Once the message is delivered the spell ends and the mephit is free to do whatever it likes. If the mephit realises it has not been provided sufficient information to find the recipient, or learns that they are dead or otherwise impossible to reach, they may make a Wisdom saving throw once per day against the caster’s spellcasting DC to escape the binding magic.

Pathfinder 1e rules

School Conjuration; Level cleric/oracle 3, sorceror/wizard 3, summoner 2, witch 3
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Components: V,S
Range: Close (20 feet)
Effect: One summoned mephit
Duration: Special
Saving Throw: None (but see below); Spell Resistance: No

You summon a mephit that appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. You can choose the specific type of mephit (like fire, water, wood etc) and it is bound to deliver itself as a message to the recipient of your choosing. You cannot command it to perform any other actions, but it is unable to harm you directly. The spell duration lasts for as long as it takes the mephit to find the recipient. Once the message is delivered the spell ends and the mephit is free to do whatever it likes. If the mephit realises it has not been provided sufficient information to find the recipient, or learns that they are dead or otherwise impossible to reach, they may make a Will saving throw once per day against the caster’s spellcasting DC to escape the binding magic.

Pathfinder 2e rules

Ritual 3 Uncommon | Conjuration
Cast: 1 hour; Cost: Precious metals, rare incense, and herbs worth a total value of 5 gp
Primary Check: Arcana (expert), Nature (expert) or Occultism (expert)
Target: 1 mephit
Duration: Special

Critical Success The mephit of your choice is conjured and bound indefinitely, its term of service ending only when it finds the message recipient. If the mephit fails to actively seek the recipient, it is Sickened 2 until it makes a genuine effort.
Success The mephit of your choice is conjured and bound for up to one week, or when it finds the message recipient, whichever is first. If the mephit fails to actively seek the recipient, it is Sickened 1 until it makes a genuine effort.
Failure The conjuration fails and the cost is expended.
Critical Failure A mephit is summoned but the binding magic fails. It is free to haggle with the caster for payment, leave, or attack. The cost is expended.

Heightened (+1) One additional mephit of any type can be added to the summoning.

Canonical Sources: Planescape Monstrous Compendium Volume 1 [2e] (air, smoke, earth, ooze, fire, radiant, water, ice, dust, salt, lightning, mineral, magma, ash, mist, steam); Beatiary [PF2e] p150 (scamp troop); Bestiary 2 [PF2e] p112-113 (air, dust, earth, fire, ice, ooze, steam, water mephits); Rage of Element [PF2e] p153, 205 (metal, wood scamps); Monster Core [PF2e] p146-147 (air, earth, fair, water scamps)

Source: Jon Winter-Holt and Margarita, with thanks to the Planescape Monstrous Compendium and Zak Arntson for the inspiration. This page is a complete revamp of the earlier Parlez-Vous Mephit page with new artwork and a greatly expanded number of mephits rom canonical and homebrew sources. Mephitwatch: Mephits were redesigned as scamps in the Pathfidner 2e remaster and while their stats are similar, their vibe is quite different. I propose keeping both—maybe reusing the stats for simplicity’s sake—and reskinning these minor elementals as scamps or mephits depending on their origin and attitude.

Parlez-vous la langue méphitique?

Air

Brimstone

Chardalyn

Dust

Earth

Fire

Frost

Grease

Ice

Leaf

Lightning

Lye

Magma

Metal

Mineral

Mirror

Mist

Mud

Ooze

Quicksilver

Radiance

Root

Rot

Rust

Salt

Sand

Slag

Smoke

Soot

Steam

Stone

Sun

Tar

Water

Wind

Wood

Sending More Complex Messages — the Mephit Swarm

Mephit Magic

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