The Shadowed Ones
| Statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Climate/Terrain | Beyond the Void (Any) |
| Frequency | Common (Very Rare) |
| Organization | Solitary |
| Activity Cycle | Any |
| Diet | Light |
| Intelligence | Very (11-12) |
| Treasure | O |
| Alignment | Neutral Evil |
| No. Appearing | 2d4 (1) |
| Armor Class | -2 (2) |
| Movement | 9, Fl 15 (C) |
| Hit Dice | 8+3 |
| THAC0 | 13 |
| No. of Attacks | 2 |
| Damage/Attack | 2d4+4/2d4+4 |
| Special Attacks | Spell-like Abilities, ability drain |
| Special Defenses | Hit only by +2 or better weapons, regenerate 1 hp/round in shadows |
| Magic Resistance | 15% |
| Size | M (7' tall) |
| Morale | Elite (13-14) |
| XP Value | 6,000 |
(The items in italicized parentheses above denote their statistics outside The Canopy of Shadows)
Description
The servants of Oranan, created from larva that he buys from the night hags, are known only as The Shadowed Ones, also known as shadow beings. Only a precious few know of Oranan; most of the multiverse has forgotten about him. But The Shadowed Ones do not forget. Nobody knows of the origin of them, but most attribute them as being natural creatures of Gehenna (as natural as such creature come).
They appear as beings of pure shadow, with very little substance to them. Out of their backs grow huge bat-like wings, which allows them to fly. Their eyes glow of the purest white; usually this is all that a body can see of them, since the rest of their bodies are completely invisible in the shadows. Even when outside of the shadows (a rare occurrence) they are masked by a continual darkness spell. It's said that if one of these beings were to ever have light fall upon it that they would be utterly destroyed. However, there's not a spell in creation that has been known to be able to pierce their veil of darkness.
Combat
In combat, shadow beings are ruthless opponents that strike with their two claws, which strike for 2d8 damage. Each claw also inflicts four extra points of cold damage on the victim. However, they are reluctant to enter combat, and prefer to kill from the shadows using their spell-like abilities.
Shadowed Ones can use the following spells at will, once per round, at the 8th level of ability: continual darkness, demi-shadow magic, infravision, shadow door, shadow monsters (1/day), shades (1/day), shadow walk (always active), summon shadow (1/day). Once per day, they may attempt to gate 1d4 other Shadowed Ones to aid them with a 40% chance of success.
While inside Beyond the Void, the realm of their god, shadow beings are much more powerful because they derive their power from the Canopy of Shadows which covers the entire realm. While under it, their armor class becomes -2 and they can gate other Shadowed Ones in three times per day with a 100% chance of success. They can also cast spells as 8th level illusionists while under the Canopy.
Habitat/Society
The Shadowed Ones are the creations of Oranan, and as such are completely devoted to his evil will. They are created by Oranan and his main proxies from larva using rituals that only Oranan knows. When created, they spring full-grown from the Canopy of Shadows that covers the realm.
All Shadowed Ones pay respect to The Veiled One (M/? Shadowed One/14 HD/NE), their earthly master in all things. The Veiled One commands all of the movements of the Shadowed Ones throughout the Planes. It's said he has a hidden agenda, but nobody's quite sure what it is.
Ecology
The diet of the Shadowed Ones consists completely of light, which they completely absorb and strengthen themselves with. Some would find it odd that beings of Shadow would need light to sustain themselves, but could Darkness exist without the Light?
Also in this section of the source
Maps
Finally, included here are the maps that I've made (please don't laugh) for a few realms. I've really only done this for the realms that have a large number of sites and towns within them. Yes, I know that they look pretty low-quality, but I do the best with the graphical editing programs that I have (Paint… and… umm… Microsoft Photo Editor, which is very good at not being able to edit photos).
(Not to scale. If it was, the towns would be little dots on the landscape compared to the sheer size of The Sleeping Forest and The Chasm of Dreams.)