when hailed, this mob will challenge the PC. If the PC accepts, a series of elemental spawns will be triggered. They are not immediately aggressive in my experience, so you have time to recover between each battle.
To add to the above if you keep clicking The Maelstrom groups of mob will keep appearing till you have one final battle with Magnimaclus. There appears to be another associated quest called Haunted Helm
kk to answer my on question- it took a few minutes, but he brought out some water twice, then some fire, then water again. i just had to keep looking for the elementals. finally the named popped.
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Success comes when preparation meets opportunity -- and EQ is no exception.