Mist, Vampiric

These gaseous monsters prey on all living creatures, enveloping them with their gaseous tendrils, then draining their blood for food.

Vampiric mists appear as thick, billowing clouds, 5 to 8 feet in diameter. Color ranges from pale pink when hungry to crimson red when sated. Vampiric mists speak no language, but they communicate through a limited form of telepathy. These creatures reek of old blood and are often smelled before seen.

Combat: Vampiric mists automatically sense the presence of any warm-blooded creature within 50 feet. Hungry mists take the shortest route possible to the victim, navigating by touch, flowing easily over water or through narrow cracks. Their path can be blocked by nonporous obstacles, but vampiric mists are intelligent and if any reasonable path exists they will find it.

All vampiric mists have maximum hit points (8 per die) when full, but they are almost never encountered in this state. For each 12 hours a mist goes unfed, it loses 1 hit point. Vampiric mists whose hit point totals reach 0 due to starvation die. To regain hit points, vampiric mists must drain fresh blood from living victims (hence the mist's name). For each 2 hit points of blood drained, the mist regains 1 hit point.

A vampiric mist may attack one victim per round by reaching out with a gaseous tendril. Targets of a vampiric mist are treated as AC 10. Modify this number by the victim's Dexterity, and by the magical protection worn (+1, +2, etc.) but ignore magical shields. The touch of a vampiric mist drains 1d8 points of blood. A hit 4 above the needed to hit number means the mist has enveloped its victim. Enveloped victims are automatically hit each round until either the mist dies, finishes feeding, or retreats. Attacks by other characters against an enveloping vampiric mist divide their damage evenly - half against the mist, half against the victim. Only the enveloped victim may attack the mist without harm to himself, However, because of the disorienting effect of rapid blood loss, enveloped victims may not use any spells or magical devices that require concentration.

While blood draining is mainly used to feed, the ability can also be used in defense by sated vampiric mists. Extra blood is simply dumped upon the ground.

Normally, a vampiric mist is damaged only by magical weapons or by spells that effect air. Lightning bolt and magic missile are also effective. However, immediately after reaching maximum hit points a vampiric mist takes on substance. This substantial stage last 1d6 turns. During this time the mist's movement rate slows to 6, its AC drops to 8, and it may be hit by normal weapons.

Blood draining is not a form of regeneration; a mist that loses hit points in combat must heal those points normally. Keep track of a mist's current hit points and its maximum possible for that combat (this total starts at 24 and goes down with damage caused to the mist). Each time the mist is wounded, reduce both the current hit points and the maximum. If the current hit point total ever reaches 0, the mist dies. Hit points gained by draining blood are added to the current hit points, which cannot exceed the maximum total (24 minus damage to the mist). Hit points lost due to starvation are subtracted from the current hit points only. The current hit points may never exceed the mist's maximum hit point total. (After the current battle is over, the maximum hit point totals for any surviving mists return to 24.)

Habitat/Society: These dread monsters inhabit both swamps, where they creep along mixing in with morning and night fog, and subterranean caverns, where they stalk prey in absolute darkness. Vampiric mists attack at night or early morning, flowing over the ground in search of warm-blooded victims. They prefer lone victims, but hungry mists sometimes raid towns at night, slaying livestock and draining victims in their sleep, before slipping out at dawn.

Ecology: First thought to be immature forms of crimson death, it is now known that these fiends were deliberately created by a powerful vampire wizard.

Vampiric mists reproduce by division. A mist is 10% likely to divide during its substantial stage immediately after feeding. The two mists created have 3 Hit Dice each, but only 4 hit points per die (thus they are born ravenously hungry).

Vampiric mists prey on all warm-blooded creatures. No animals hunt vampiric mist deliberately, though stirges, leeches, and other bloodsuckers are sometimes drawn (fatally) to their smell. Vampiric mists have no known life span. They live until they starve, are slain, or reproduce.