I'm running a fey-heavy homebrew and I was looking for a way to have fey and "dark" fey other than seelie/unseelie. So I came up with this nebulous concept of a corruptive force known only as the Shadow.
So in Ravenloft BITD there was the land and it gave power to but cursed those it tainted. I'm thinking this is similar. It promises Eldest level power to fey who embrace it giving them control over these shadow tainted realms called Twilit Realms. However something terrible happens to them.
This has been fine to keep in the background for the past three levels, but circumstances have come up where I may need more definition of it really soon. Also I'm looking for what it might do to normal mortals. It's not negative energy and doesn't make people undead, however since there's a Pharasmin PC in the game now I have suggested it allows mortals to cheat death, effectively hiding their own fate in the Shadow and thereby alowing them to return like immortals unless certain steps are taken.
Why not create a shade/Liche template? You can create a watered down/beefed up version of the current templates to get the ball rolling. I think there's also a shadow template in the fetchling statblock
@ the Dude: I like that. I may not make it a god... I think a Fey Eldest would work nicely though. You see there were 3 sisters at the beginning of this homebrew: Titania, Mabbe and Baba Yaga. They vied for fairest of them all; Titania became the summer queen and still rules in her fey realm, the last holdout against the Shadow. Baba Yaga was banished to the mortal realm for all she cared for was to plot and scheme; once so banished she retained her eldest immortality but her body was no longer timeless and now all her daughters share her age. But the third, wicked Queen Mabbe...
She was imprisoned in the Shadow after she conspired with her dark lover for power and dominion. Even her immortal sisters feared what might be unleashed by her unearthly ambitions, but they couldn't bring themselves to destroy her, so she was sent to the dark and forgotten.
Eons in the dark of the Shadow has driven her mad...
OMG I really love this! It has the pathos, the fairy tale feel I'm looking for. So the expansion of the shadow isn't just an ephemeral mistake...it's the will of wicked Queen Mabbe!
Now the party is only level 3 so they don't know about any of this. One PC is an oracle with a special power; to sense the shadow taint on others. I'm going to explain to him that the Shadow is a place as much as it is a what and it is expanding, spreading like a cancer. Those who it corrupts are promised power, beauty, wealth; anything their hearts desire. All the while they are accursed and then, in the end, they find themselves unable to die. Instead they merely grow hollow inside while on the outside they fade. They don't become shadows but sort of a hybrid fetchling-shamsaran or something.
The only reason I don't have tons of undead is b/cause when I made this homebrew I'd made my last 3 campaigns revolve around undead. I want to set Karnoss apart from all the other places I've made. I want to stop using the animated as my fallback, my crutch.
What do you think?
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Sounds exciting. I think you're right in avoiding "undead" as the transformation takes hold. Think of The Heartless from Kingdom Hearts.
Possession would be the closest. Anyone who becomes enshadowed (twilit, silhouetted?) slowly becomes possessed by an aspect of Mab. Gaining the Shadow subtype, and perhaps the following:
Deathless: a completely enshadowed creature never gains the dead condition unless (specific condition such as decapitation, reaching negative con in bright sunlight etc)
Hollow: A beshadowed creature is immune to cold, ability damage, mind-effecting abilities, disease and poison.
Ink-Eyes: A beshadowed creature can see perfectly in darkness (including magical darkness), up to 60 ft.
I'd say a template like this might be worth +1 or +2 CR.
If Mab still has a connection with nature and the shadow represents the darker aspect of nature, it might be able to give animals the dire template and do something to plants that twist them and make them more wild-looking, possibly even allowing Mab a limited awareness through them.
Mortals are turned into fey-shadows or twisted versions of their former selves.
If there's a corrupting force, is there a cleansing force as well?
Wow thank you D a D. I also like this b/cause you might yet redeem one of these templated creatures (Shrouded?)
Now the Twilit Realms then are places that powerful Shrouded rule like the Eldest of the fey. They are small realms in the Shadow where these beings hold dominion but, like Mabbe, once they ascend to this level of power they are trapped and cannot leave their prisons without outside help. This is a theme of my game; I've already had one behind-the-scenes break out of some other place by use of a fey ring and a witch.
Basically Mabbe is using these lesser things as puppets to probe the darkness for escape. Once she gets whatever: a number of Shrouded, a certain amount of doors opened, a mcguffin or what have you, then she can escape.
Something wicked this way comes. The Shadow is closing in on Staghorn Reach and precious few will be able to withstand its promises. Fewer still will know the truth; that the darkness reaches out merely as the caress of a wicked queen.
Years ago a hag fell to the Shadow's lures and she dwells now in a Twilit Realm, even now waiting for release. A couple made a deal with the fey for children; one they would keep and one they'd lose forever. She returns now, in the throes of the taint, to unleash vengeance on her jailors and all of their kind here. And finally there is the oracle - the one creature in a hundred years that can sense the darkness both in the world and in the mortals around him. These forces have conspired to band together in the form of 5 disparate souls at an inn in Staghorn Reach. Will they be enough?
Dot.
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Nice. And cool PC hooks. Now, what could the adventurers do to stop the Shadow's spread? Here's some brainstorm ideas:
-Travel into the Shadow to disrupt some location of power.
-Find some power or object that will protect them from corruption while they're inside the Twilit Realms.
-Redeem a certain shadow-tainted creature that can serve them as a guide.
-Open a gate into a shadow realm, and defend it from sabotage.
-Instigate a civil war between two or more of the Shrouded lords to weaken and distract them.
-Organize a Church or Movement outside the Shadow to delay its expansion and expose the evils of bargaining with it.
-Travel to other mysterious realms to recruit strange and powerful allies against the Shadow's expansion. These allies may not be as altruistic as they seem, and perhaps they have their own designs on the moral world...
So there's a crystal I introduced called Feybane in the lands of Karnoss. This stuff is fey kryptonite; make 'em eat it or hold it and it poisons/weakens and eventually kills 'em. Use it as a weapon and it cuts right through any DR. I have an alchemist NPC who is trying to weaponize it for more uses.
This substance is going to be crucial throughout the game. PCs may learn (the hard way) that it has no effect on Enshrouded fey. This is a substance of the combined power of Mabbe and the Shadow.
@ Trin: thank you for the suggestions! I have a wererat that escaped the party a couple adventures back and vowed to haunt them. With all your help I'm just coming up with these deets on the Shadow now so my players have yet to even meet any Enshrouded or have this part of the game revealed to them.
This sunday I'm going to spring the wererat, now Enshrouded, on the party as a minion of a fey witch running a nearby twilit realm. His need for vengeance brought him to the Shadow's notice and he'll be too far gone to redeem. However borrowing from T above I can have the wererat lead them into the realm, there to do battle with the witch and if they survive they will inadvertently put a thorn in the paw of the Shadow's Expansion.
Template: +1 CR/Enshrouded
Deathless (Su) Ensrhouded do not suffer the Dead condition unless inflicted by a weakness.
Hollow (Su) Ensrhouded gain immunity to ability damage/drain, cold, disease, mind-affecting effects and poison.
Shadow Blending (Su) Attacks against Enshrouded in dim light have 50% miss chance instead of the normal 20% chance. This ability does not grant total concealment; it just increases the miss chance.
Weaknesses: Enshrouded are repulsed by the sight or smell of roses and will recoil from them. If these are presented and held forcefully, requiring a standard action, the Enshrouded is forced to remain 5' away from the presenter and cannot make melee attacks against them.
Reducing these creatures merely incapacitates them (see Deathless) however they may be destroyed by the following methods: decapitation; fire damage; lethal damage under full daylight, on hallowed ground or complete immersion in either acid or fire.
What do you think/is the CR bonus too low?
Alright so...I used this template yesterday on one creature. It requires more testing of course but so far a mere +1 CR seems fair. Yes, it adds some great defenses but one merely prevents death, no defeat, while the other is conditional, based on environment. This template makes no enhancement to attack or damage capabilities, so for now it will stand at +1 CR.
Of course, it was still a good fight!
The party found themselves being robbed pre-dawn, right in the middle of town. When they exited the inn they were taunted from the shadows by a mastermind wererat they'd fought before. Then from said shadows crept 3 dire rats, 2 fetchlings re-skinned as ratfolk-looking shadow humanoids and a bugbear warrior with bull's strength and the Enshrouded template reskinned as a brute ratfolk shadow humanoid.
First the 3 rats appeared - yawn, giant rats. Then everyone rolls a Perception; 2 of 5 characters make it and the other 3 are surprised. Creeping out from behind the fountain com the 2 fetchling ratfolk and arrange themselves to not only catch the PCs flat-footed but be in perfect position for the flanking SAs next round.
Now some eyebrows go up. Surprise round goes and the monk takes some damage while the cleric takes a devastating sneak attack. Surprise round ends with 2 of the rats gone but the monk at 1/4 HP and the cleric at 1/3.
Finally the first round comes and goes and the rats are done, so the party consolidates. To open the 2nd round the bugbear ratfolk appears; he's Medium size but brutally built with a masterwork 2h scythe in his hands and he's growling epithets as he attacks. In short order over the next 2 rounds: the monk takes a critical to the side and suffers 13 damage + 2 bleed, the dwarf manages to smash one of the fetchlings but in the process takes 2 scythe attacks for just over half his HP and the cleric is whipping around light spells trying to stave off the darkness; her player was actually wide eyed and panicky at the table!
I love it when a plan comes together!
So now fast forward through a bit of story... the party is about to complete a side trek that gets them admission into a stretch of pine forest which is shrouded in darkness. At the heart of this is a perfect circle of Shadow; a twilit realm. The whole area is tainted by shadow and the entry to the realm is guarded by an Enshrouded woodsman. It is shaping up to be a decent adventure ahead.