What awaits powerful shadows is a question even the sages can only speculate about.
Some believe that in especially fallow times, shadows even consume their own, but this is almost certainly false, as consuming other undead would grant a shadow neither the energy it seeks nor a new spawn, and gangs of shadows have been found that survived sealed into lost tombs together for millennia.
Rarely is more than one greater shadow found in a particular place, as the creatures compete fiercely for prey. These “shadow lords” often command swarms of their lesser kin, typically spawn of their own making. A shadow that has fed on the lives of many victims, or that dwells long enough in a place suffused with sufficient negative energies, may grow in power, becoming a greater shadow. However, unlike lesser undead, shadows do appear to “grow” over time. As they have lost all concept of their previous life in the transition to undeath, the passage of centuries means almost nothing to them, and no one can say what shadows may do or think in the long wait between victims. Like all undead, shadows are timeless creatures. For as the victim of a shadow’s touch expires, its own shadow detaches from the corpse, taking on the same half-life as its killer, hungry for the essence of the living and operating under its killer’s command. Victims become weaker and weaker until they finally perish, but their suffering is only beginning. In addition to guarding the haunted ruins they lay claim to or serving more powerful undead capable of cowing them, shadows devote themselves to attacking any living creatures they encounter, draining their victims of all vitality with their chilling touch. This allows them to approach unnoticed, and those trespassers not caught completely by surprise rarely get more than a glimpse out of the corner of an eye-a flicker of movement and the sense of something out of place-before they strike. Shadows are incorporeal undead, distorted like their namesakes and able to float or slide silently along surfaces, blending in among the true shadows there. Over time, spellcasters have discovered that these avaricious souls make perfect servants and guardians, immortal creatures doomed to watch over “their” treasure for all eternity. While most such petty and despicable souls travel on to their final rewards the same way everyone else does, in some cases gluttons, misers, and thieves waste away into nothing but shadows- undead things that reach and grab, but cannot hold. Rampant covetousness and grasping greed lead some people down the dark path of evil and betrayal, eventually ending in a reprehensible death scene or a lonely expiration. The shadows move and hunger, for their very essence is gluttony and greed.
Long, dark fingers stretch out across the wall, reaching toward light, life, and all that they do not have, but long to possess. The shadow is an undead horror, and as such has no goals or outwardly visible motivations other than to sap life and vitality from living beings. The shadow prefers to haunt ruins where civilization has moved on, where it hunts living creatures foolish enough to stumble into its territory. The sinister shadow skirts the border between the gloom of darkness and the harsh truth of light. Organization solitary, pair, gang (3–6), or swarm (7–12) A creature dies if this Strength damage equals or exceeds its actual Strength score. Strength Damage (Su)Ī shadow’s touch deals 1d6 points of Strength damage to a living creature. Skills Fly +11, Perception +8, Stealth +8 (+12 in dim light, +4 in bright light) Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth in dim light (–4 in bright light)Ī humanoid creature killed by a shadow’s Strength damage becomes a shadow under the control of its killer in 1d4 rounds. Melee incorporeal touch +4 (1d6 Strength damage) Perception +8ĪC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+2 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge)ĭefensive Abilities incorporeal, channel resistance +2 Immune undead traits
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