Umbral blot

An umbral blot, the so-called Assassin of the Elder Gods, or, as it was more commonly known, a blackball, was a flying construct creature of total pitch darkness, insatiable hunger, and unpredictable behavior.
==Description==
Blackballs were hovering spheres of the absolute void that usually were the size of , but there were known to exist umbral blots of much bigger sizes, reaching gargantuan proportions. In the inert state, a blackball was indistinguishable from a sphere of annihilation.
==Behavior==
On occasion, individuals carrying a talisman of the sphere came across an umbral blot and confused them for a sphere of annihilation and tried to magically control the sphere. For some unknown reason, such a blackball could choose to obey the wielder of a talisman of the sphere for some time, only to turn on them at some point and disintegrate them for the audacity of being controlled. They never spoke nor made any sound. Some claimed that the blots understood only the lost language of the old gods and, as such, never had anyone to converse with. To many observers, movements of a blackball could appear random and slow, prompting some to believe these constructs possessed no intelligence. When within of a living intelligent creature, an umbral blot moved toward it, seeking to consume the unexpecting victim. However, once such an intelligent creature left the area of wound a blackball, the void sphere seeming reverted to an inert state or returned to random movement about.
==Abilities==
Blackballs were immensely quick fliers, devouring or dealing deadly disintegrating damage to everything and everyone they touched. They possessed a powerful blindsight that allowed them to feel everything within around them. Blackballs possessed a self-repairing ability and could traverse the planes at will by folding the space around them as if using spells like ethereal jaunt, dimension door, teleport without error, and plane shift.
They were highly resistant to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic damage. Blackballs were unaffected by spells and abilities that were harmless to other constructs. Of course, they were also immune to the disintegrate spell and other magics of similar effect. Their all-consuming touch made them impervious to physical weapons – even the most powerful enchanted arms were disintegrated upon contact. However, artifacts of equal or greater power, when coming in contact with a blackball, could have deadly and unpredictable effects.
A single dealy sphere was a powerful foe, almost impossible to beat. However, these creatures were still vulnerable to a carefully worded wish spell or being sent through a gate somewhere far, far away, as once a gate was opened near a blackball, the creature was compelled to move towards it. Another vulnerability for for a blackball was a rod of cancellation. When a blackball touched a rod of cancellation, the road was disintegrated, and the orb was rendered immobile for a minute. If a blackball came into contact with a sphere of annihilation, the creature was sucked into another plane of existence while everything within around it, including the sphere of annihilation, was disintegrated.
==Combat==
Umbral blots never needed to strategize. Instead, they simply flew forward, consuming everything they touched. Only when dealing with creatures targeted and pursued that proved to be hard to catch did they take a more subtle approach. When targeting a creature, umbral blots preferred to approach from unexpected directions, such as from under the floors or descending from and through the ceiling.
Any physical object or creature that came into contact with a blackball was immediately disintegrated unless it possessed some high and supernatural levels of resistance to such effects. When dealing with tough prey, too nimble or fast to be touched, a blackball removed a thin layer of magical insulation they had to prevent the air from being consumed around it. When that layer was deactivated, a howling windstorm emerged around the sphere, sucking everything in within a sphere of in a radius around.
==Ecology==
Blackballs were solitary creatures. Everything consumed by a blackball was gone and destroyed, leaving nothing behind.
==History==
The true nature of the umbral blots was a secret that piqued the interest of many sages. Some speculated that the gods who existed long before the modern deities rose to power, the so-called Old Ones, created umbral blots to serve as messengers or assassins. This speculation was seemingly confirmed by blackballs being referred to as the "Assassins of the Elder Gods" in the oldest mystic texts that claimed that the umbral blots destroyed their creators and were unleashed on the multiverse. The only creatures who could, on occasion, control an umbral blot, were the Immortals of the world of Mystara. On the world of Mystara, sages also speculated that some immensely powerful beings created umbral blots to transport various creatures to whatever plane or world they inhabited for study.
One thing was known for sure: not a single mortal being had ever seen more than one umbral blot in one place at the same time.
==Rumors & Legends==
*Some sages speculated that nightshades, such creatures as a nightwing, were related to blackballs, believing that these balls of void were some sort of larval or metamorphized stage of a nightshade's life cycle or even an egg of sorts.
==Appendix==
===See Also===
* Kessell's spheres of annihilation
* Sphere of ultimate destruction
* Voidstone
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Creatures found on Mystara
Category:Creatures found in the Negative Energy Plane
Category:Creatures found in the Ethereal Plane