When you strike an enemy with the staff, it sometimes creates a cloud of magical scents. One of two things can result. If a blue cloud is created, it is dropped on the PC. By staying in the cloud, the PC gains many positive intrinsics - Infravision, Haste, Telecontrol, Polycontrol, ESP, Levitate. If a red cloud is created, it is dropped on whatever enemy you just hit with the staff. It confers many negitive intrinsics, most of which aren't listed on the status line.

Although the blue cloud will always be dropped on the player and the red one always put on mobs, once the clouds appear they do stay there for a while, which means that a monster can wander into a blue cloud and vice versa if you are not careful, and the result can be dangerous.