Kada

A death that stirs strong feeling, yet not quite enough to raise a ghost, can leave that feeling's shadow behind. The soul passes on to the lands beyond death, and the shadow lingers as a kada, a magical spirit tied to whatever caused the emotion.

Kada are naturally invisible; detect magic or detect invisibility reveals one as a cloud colored to match its emotion. It cannot speak or use telepathy but understands every language its creator knew, and ESP can read some of its thoughts.

A kada affects the world only through one type or group of objects suited to its creator; a carpenter's kada might move any nearby saw. It wields these at up to 60 feet, holding perfectly still while it does, and every such attack deals 2d4 damage. Some gain special attacks from their medium, such as suffocation for a wind kada or arrow fire for one bound to bows.

Foes who can see invisible things or keep detect magic running treat it as AC 8. Only magical items or creatures can harm it, and magical cold or fire deals half damage. It cannot be turned, but dispel magic against 9th level destroys it, and it cannot pass into an anti-magic shell or any similar dead-magic zone.

Each kada pursues a goal that mattered to its creator, and drifting on the world's magical currents it often learns things useful to that aim. Its chief obstacle is range: it cannot go more than 300 yards from its birthplace or carry objects past that limit, unless an intelligent creature removes a substantial item from the spot, which the kada may then follow. Thus kada turn up wherever humans or demihumans live or once lived.

Those with magical potential leave kada more often, but they remain very rare and none has ever been made deliberately. A kada that succeeds fades away; one that fails or grows older than 100 years slowly erodes and breaks apart. As it disperses, its freed magic has a 20% chance to grant a minor enchantment to some item close by.