The Mud Elemental: Two Old Monsters Combined for WFRP4
The Viydagg and Mardagg were not the only unusual “elementals” in Citadel’s miniatures range in the ’80s. The C22 “Creatures” range included a Mud Elemental, for which game rules and stats were never published.
Five years later, in the Doomstones adventure Blood in Darkness, a creature named Xhardja appeared. Also made of living mud, Xhardja took the form of lashing tentacles that rose up to attack trespassers in its mud-choked lair.
I wondered whether these two creatures might be one and the same. While Xhardja didn’t rear up in humanoid form to talk to the PCs, it is entirely possible that it could have done so. So I decided to combine the two. Here are stats for WFRP4. As always, everything that follows is to be considered a fan work and no challenge is intended to copyrights held by Games Workshop, Cubicle 7, or anyone else.
Mud Elemental
There is some debate among Wizards and other academics over whether or not these entities are true Elementals, or constructs magically animated from mud, or something else entirely. Those who reject the term “Elemental,” and those who do not concern themselves with such distinctions, simply call them Mudmen.
Mudmen are found in swamps and other muddy areas, both above and below ground. They can draw themselves up into a humanoid shape or sink down and become indistinguishable from the mud around them, attacking with a number of tentacles of animated mud.
Two profiles are provided below, one for the creature’s humanoid form and one for a single tentacle. The creature has a number of tentacles equal to its Wounds score, and each tentacle that is destroyed reduces the creature’s overall Wounds total by 1.
Humanoid Form
| M | WS | BS | S | T | I | Ag | Dex | Int | WP | Fel | W |
| 3 | 45 | – | 45 | 50 | 45 | 20 | 35 | 40 | 55 | 25 | 19 |
Traits: Amphibious, Bash (2) +8, Construct or Daemonic, Dependent (Mud), Dark Vision, Painless, Shapeshift (Mud), Swamp-Strider, Unstable
Optional: Die Hard, Size (Large), Territorial
| New Traits Dependent (Various) The creature requires something to sustain it. At the end of every round in which it has not been in contact with the required substance, the creature loses 1 Wound regardless of Toughness and armour. Shapeshift (Mud) The creature can shift between humanoid form and an amorphous form in which it becomes one with the surrounding mud. The transition takes a full Action. While shapeshifted into amorphous form, the creature is vulnerable only to attacks that have an area of effect or to attacks directed against its tentacles. |
Tentacle
| M | WS | BS | S | T | I | Ag | Dex | Int | WP | Fel | W |
| 2 | 33 | – | 45 | 50 | 65 | 10 | 15 | – | – | – | 1 |
Traits: Amphibious, Painless, 1 Tentacle +6, Swamp-Strider, Unstable
Optional: Die Hard, Size (Large), Territorial
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Graeme Davis 
I think it is monster that works better unexplained! The whole idea of a mud elemental is odd – how does it differ from an earth elemental? Or is it the unholy progeny of an earth and water elemental? The mind boggles.
The whole question of the role of elementals in Warhammer has never been clear though. I seem to recall there was a White Dwarf encounter for WFRP involving unusual an elemental. It suggested there would be many different types of elemental, mirroring the position with demons. It was doubtless one of the many times that reference was made to the soon to be forthcoming Realm of Sorcery to explain all!
When I read the title of this feature, I thought that the mud elemental was a combination of two different elementals (the water and the earth ones, of course) some kind of semi-elemental! Now, could we envisage 6 semi-elementals, each one being the combination of two “true” elementals? What could they be (called)? Water+air=storm, hurricane? Water+fire=vapor? Earth+fire=lava? Earth+air=sandstorm? Air+fire=????
Thank you Graeme!
You are thinking about the Wisentlich in WD 107. Unusually that one actually was explained in Realms of Sorcery – at least Ken Rolston’s non-canonical draft of it.
I had not thought of that. I will have to take a look.
To clarify, I was referring to Wolf’s memory of the special elemental in White Dwarf.
Thank you, Gideon. That’s it.
I never read Ken Rolston’s RoS, but that would fit.