Description: Imagine, if you will, a large diamond-shaped gem, floating in mid-air. This is the appearance of the beings known as the Ghem. Varying in colour from red to blue to green to opaque and clear, Ghem have no facial features of any sort, nor any other humanoid-typical characteristics. They are easily mistaken for very large, and very valuable, mineral deposits, though they appear to be worked at closer range.

Gehm spend most of their lives in the elemental plane of minerals, living out whatever their lives may involve, which is subject to only speculation by sages, any forays into their realm's have ended in tragedy. The only concrete thing known about them is the elven high mages both respect and fear them.

No known instances of communicating with a Ghem are known. In all instances where they have been disturbed, they have ignored their inquisitors until such a time as violence is apparent, at which time they relentlessly attack. No Ghem has ever ceased its attack, and thus it is theorised they do not actually die, but merely reform upon their homeplane upon destruction, as do certain fiends. No Ghem has been seen in the phlogiston.

Combat: Usually not involved in combat, unless someone tries to capture them (mistaking them for something valuable) a Ghem will attack with an energy-like attack, appearing as blue-white lightning, once per round. The lightning requires a thac0 to hit, and is not deflectable by magic resistance It is speculated it is a form of psionic attack, but as all attempts to converse with a Ghem have failed, this has not been confirmed.

Beings unaffected by non-magical lightning are affected by this attack, as are those unaffected by magical lightning. It is a purely energy based attack, only mirroring the appearance of lightning. The only contributing factor to armour class versus this energy strike is dexterity, or something similar. The beam passes through armour (destroying non-magical, and passing around/through magical), and cannot be deflected by a shield, or any physical substance. Nor are there any known spells that will deflect it. There is a rumour abound that the psionic power thought shield deflects it, but as this is a relatively low powered defence mode, not much credence has been put in to this, and not many are willing to try it.

Ghem's float at a rate of 3 per round, though this is a strange semi-psionic levitation, which cannot be prevented. Nor can it be stopped by anything less than a 23 strength. Cumulative strength's seem to have no effect.

Ghem's have the strange ability to absorb magical attacks. Every time a Ghem is struck with any sort of magical attack (ie fireball, magic missile, shocking grasp, power word kill etc.), it adds the spell level, and casting level to the damage for its next attack. For example, a fireball (lv 3 spell) cast by a level 8 mage, would add 11 points of damage to the Ghem's next energy strike. There are no known spells which can penetrate this defense.

Further, Only bludgeoning weapons damage a Ghem, piercing/slashing merely bouncing of the hard surface. Also, the magical properties of any weapon hitting the Ghem heal it for one point of damage per plus or enchantment (ie a +1 longsword may roll 6 damage, and where it would normally add another for its magical plus it instead heals for that much). Items such as stave's of striking etc give 3 hp healing per charge used in the attack.

Once per turn a Ghem can emit a flash of blinding light, causing all within 120' radius to save vs death magic or be blinded for 1d4 rounds.

Habitat/Society: The natural environment of a Ghem is the elemental plane of minerals. Here they live their lives, and (theoretically) reproduce. The one thing that has been discovered, however, is they do not find sustenance there.

Ecology: Instead, Ghem's can be found in wildspace, where they feed upon something known simply as "dark matter". This matter is that which is theorised makes up the empty (or dark) regions of space, where nothing appears to exist. All that is know is that Ghem's somehow absorb this matter, which seems endless in origin (pointing, perhaps, to a plane of dark matter?) in wildspace, and then return home to their mineral plane. How often and how much each Ghem devours is unknown, as many of them appear the same, and it is hard to keep track of them. The longest a Ghem has been known to stay in the one region of space, however, is four days, after which time it moved on to another part of the solar system it was feeding in.

A side-effect of the feeding of a Ghem is the slight drain on the power of any helms within a million mile range. Helms within this area function at roughly half speed.

When a Ghem is destroyed (a rare feet) it sends out a magical pulse of energy, de-activating all magic (as a magic dead zone) within 500,000 miles, for a day. Furthermore, the Ghem breaks apart and shatters into thousands of pieces, which fly away from the explosion at a fast rate. Anyone within 20 feet must save vs death, failure meaning 40 points of damage from small shards, a pass providing only 20 damage. Note that these shards may not be recovered, they pass straight through anyone they hit. Luckily, the few times a Ghem has been destroyed, the shards have managed to not slit anyone's throat or punch a hole in their brain. Typically, however, they leave ghastly wounds which bleed profusely, and tend to drop the hull points of any ships within 100 miles by a d3 of points. Cruelly, the shards sometimes puncture, and render useless, the ships helm.

DM Notes: Ghem do, in fact, care about the lives and dealings of mortals, but not very often. They do not communicate with them as to keep their mysterious appearance. Ghem feed on the dark matter within crystal spheres, which is created from the resonant psionic energy produced by mortals. Thus, they have great interest in keeping spelljamming technology active. However, they also known that once a humanoid's curiosity is peaked there is often naught that will stop them, hence the ignoring of communication attempts, and the relentless attacks (however, DM's should note that the Ghem rarely instigate these attacks, instead they are usually the targets of thieves seeking money, who they deem unworthy for sparing, good-aligned PC's who are merely investigating are usually ignored, unless they try to capture the Ghem, in which case they may find themselves slightly discouraged).

The Ghem have caused the appearance of spelljamming technology on many worlds in the spheres. It is rumoured, in fact, that they taught the arcane how to make helms originally, or whoever taught the arcane learnt it from the Ghem. However, these are sage-rumours, not pc-heard rumours. The amount of sages who have even seen a Ghem are few and far between, let alone those who truly investigate their nature.

The Ghem are those responsible for the creation of the Ultimate Helm known as the gem glove. They created it eons ago to promoted good-aligned creatures into the exploration of space, and as such it does not necessarily need to be used to take captaincy of the great wanderer. In fact, once aboard the great ship, a potential captain will likely find the item removed and passed to another if he is deemed worthy of captaincy.

Ghem's can communicate using a form of resonating sound, which is understandable through use of comprehend languages, and similar spells. When a Ghem speaks it flashes with myriad' of brilliant colours, and makes sounds varying from low humming to high pitched thrumming sounds. Animals typically dislike the sounds a Ghem makes when it "talks" in this fashion.

The Ghem should be used as a random-encounter, or as part of the gem glove plot. Perhaps there is a great evil attempting to destroy SJ technology, or conquer the spheres and disrupt the Ghem's plans? Maybe the scro, once they have taken over the spheres, would prove to give inadequate psionic residue for the Ghem to feed upon? Perhaps the Ghem are merely trying to stir the pot so to speak, and keep the minds of the humanoids flowing with energy.

The psionic residue digested by the Ghem should not appear vampiric in nature, it is similar to the way a preserver (from the player's option rulebooks) draws mana from the surrounding area, excepting that after a few days the Ghem must leave an area and left the dark matter build up once more.

Though the Ghem may sometimes attack relentlessly, slaughtering pirate crews or those trying to capture them, remember they are in a way custodians, or guardians of life, not only to keep their food source aplenty, but on the basis that all good life deserves to life and be free.

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