Day Twenty-two -- Heswil's Haze

Today is another mist creature. It . . . sucks away magic (58), siphoning it into another object, and can only be damage by a particular item linked to the creature.

Heswil's Haze
# Enc.: 1 (unique)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120' (40')
AC: 6
HD: 4 (20 hp, see below)
Attacks: Magic drain
Damage: See below
Save: F10
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: None
XP: 135

Years ago, an eccentric wizard named Heswil the Hirsute stumbled across the idea of building a machine that he dubbed the Abditive Collector, a machine the purpose of which has been lost to the ages. Needing a power source to run the thing, he created a mist with the function of siphoning off magical energy from the surroundings and shunting it into the machine. The Abditive Collector has long since turn to rust, its creator mouldering dirt in the ground, but the collecting mist lives on, haunting the empty halls of Heswil's remote tower.

Heswil's haze appears as a shifting cloud of greenish vapor about ten feet in diameter. All spells and spell-effects within its radius are sucked up, immediately ended, and siphoned off into space, since the Abditive Collector is no more. This siphoned off magical energy appears as bright purple flashes of light emitting from deep within the haze, the bursts of which as somewhat lethal. Any living creature within the haze takes 1d4 points of damage per level of the spell absorbed, saving against Breath Attacks for half damage. Those within 10' of the haze gain a +4 bonus to their Saves.

The haze can absorb one ambient spell per round, and gravitates towards the highest level spell effect within 60'. Any spells cast *at* it are immediately absorbed, regardless if it has already absorbed a single spell level, and cause the same amount of magical backlash. The haze is virtually immune to all attacks, except for the effects of another one of Heswil's invention: his Marvelous Margaric Mace, a pearlescent rod some two feet in length and an inch and a half wide. The Margaric Mace can emit a beam of energy once per round that causes a single incorporeal being within 60' to become corporeal and vulnerable to physical attacks. The effects last 2d6 rounds and can be used once per day. It is found in Heswil's workshop, which has remained locked and inaccessible to the Haze.