Regirond took a final look at the summoning circle, making sure everything was in order. One stroke of a symbol out of place, and the ritual would either fail or, more likely, backfire, calling something far less desirable from some unknown plane. He inhaled, closing his eyes to steel his nerves, and began the incantation.
"Hagrikthian, Lord of The Fifty Spheres, Timekeeper and Clockmaker, Hourmaster and Secondcreator, I summon thee from thy place in the Interstice. Impress upon me the minutes of your glory, and grant me thy presence this day."
Over and over until his voice was hoarse, he chanted the words, pouring all his magical power into the circle as his physical strength failed, his legs buckling under his feet. It was not long before he received an answer.
A cold wind swept through the room as the circle glowed an evil purple, sparking with the magical power he had sacrificed. He opened his eyes, seeing a tear in reality appear before him like a pulsating black wound in the air itself. But it was not Hagrikthian who came through.
Their faces were horrible, like that of children, contorted as if to fit non-existent mandibles. Their spindly fingers like toothpicks, ending in rotting yellow claws that scratched against the floor as they bounded towards him on all fours. He had made a mistake. Exactly where did not matter now. The Gatch-Mikaal had found him, and he could do naught but scream as they drank every ounce of magical power he had left.
A Race, Unknown
Knowledge of the Gatch-Mikaal is few and far between. The only wizarding school to ever attempt an investigation into them no longer exists due to a very much related incident. However, what little information recovered from the ruins of the college was more than enough to show exactly why they are so feared by those magic-users of Loa-Imidan.
Their defining feature as a species is their ability to eat the very essence of magical energy and turn it into sustenance. Through dark powers, they suck the spells from wizards, leaving them completely defenceless as they then eat the unfortunate spellcaster. Many writings speculate upon the fate of the victim, most coming to the reasonable conclusion that they are transformed into yet another Gatch-Mikaal. However, the race’s breeding patterns are currently unknown, and frankly no one is willing to find out.
We also know that they come from the Interstice; the transitory plane that leads to all other planes of the universe. This is further backed up by their near-incorporeal nature, which requires specially made weapons to even interact with them. Many wizards theorize some connection to the Unnamed King, ruler of the Interstice, which, from what we know of that entity, could be entirely possible, however personally I do not believe so. I am of the belief that they are in some way related to the Dearg Due, those living magical vampires. Their similarities in needing magical energy to survive are strikingly similar. These are, of course, merely the prevailing theories amongst the magical communities. There are hundreds more ideas out there, which I simply do not possess the ability to find or the motivation to go in depth with. I will note, however, Magrixiar the Large’s belief that they are, in fact, the leeches he accidentally let out of his lab twenty years hence. He is fully convinced of this, despite the indisputable fact that we have discovered writings that mention them from many thousands of years ago, to the very dawn of magic itself.
Whatever the truth is, we have no way of finding a definitive answer. Travel to the Interstice is a feat only achievable by those who call themselves Spiritcallers, and they guard their secrets with zeal. Such is to be expected from those who consort with the Court of the Unnamed King. Until one of them decides to assist us in our search for enlightenment, all we can do is theorize.
However, there is one last thing I would like to touch on. For a long time, we believed they were unintelligent spirits, mere feral beasts that fed on magic. Recently, however, it has been proven that the opposite is true. This has been brought to light after a Gatch-Mikaal was seen to be attempting communication with a wizard before it killed her, speaking in the Common Tongue, of all things. It only managed to say one thing before it struck, unfortunately, but the word in question speaks novels of these creatures.
‘Help.'
The Mechanics
The Gatch-Mikaal are a monster directly opposed to spellcasters, essentially magical black holes, and thus their abilities should reflect that. I’ll try to be as system neutral with the examples I give here, but I do assume a Vancian magic/spell slot mechanic. I will say up front that these have not been playtested, and if you wish to use them, I encourage liberal changes to their effects.
First of all, the Gatch-Mikaal are incorporeal. It doesn’t really make sense for magic-eaters to be susceptible to magical weapons like a lot of incorporeal creatures are in a system like 5e, so something like this could probably work:
Advanced Incorporeality: Cannot be harmed by physical weapons, unless coated in Spirit Oil, a concoction created from flowers in the Interstice.
This is, without question, very powerful, and if you’re running the kind of game where that ability would be acceptable, then you could turn getting Spirit Oil into a quest all unto itself. However, if that isn’t your style, you could change it so that they take only half damage from physical weapons. We’re already shutting down spellcasters enough here, we may not want to prevent the martial classes from doing anything either.
Speaking of shutting down spellcasters, here’s the main mechanic of the monster:
Spell-eater: On a hit, if the damaged creature has spell slots, they must make a save or lose 1d6+1 levels worth of spells until their next rest.
For example, if the monster rolled 5 levels worth of spells, they could make the spellcaster lose a 3rd level spell and a 2nd level spell, one 5th level spell, or any other combination of levels. For low level casters, this could be devastating, and for higher level casters it could present barely any issue. Thus, change the dice and bonus depending on just how deadly you want them to be.
For one last thing, it wouldn’t make too much sense for them to be easily affected by spells, or else they could be quite easily destroyed by a high level wizard. Thus, give them some sort of spell resistance. For Pathfinder, giving them a higher-than-average SR could work well. For 5e, giving them complete immunity to spells below a certain level is brutal but effective in getting across the danger of these spell-destroyers. Possibly even an ability to reflect spells back at the caster, or absorb them much like the spell-eater ability. This part is entirely dependent on how evil a GM you are, and thus I will leave it up to your far more developed knowledge on how you play your games and how powerful your players are.
Here are a few more ideas for abilities:
Magicsense: The Gatch-Mikaal can only see magical signals, allowing them to see spellcasters and magical items but not much else.
Nullify Magic: Magic weapons and items function as entirely mundane when used against a Gatch-Mikaal.
Vampirism: For every spell level the Gatch-Mikaal drains, it regains 1 hit point.
Conclusion
Lord knows why I created this, but I love it all the same. A group of magic-drainers was sorely missing from most RPGs I’ve played, so in my eternal struggle to find material for my campaigns, I created this unfinished mess. But hey, this is mostly inspiration fodder, so I can probably get away with it. Steal liberally and unapologetically, my friends, and I hope to receive at least two emails from angry wizards quite soon. The rest will probably be dead.
