Shaegoth
“Born of Shadow”
Greylord: Nyx
Nyx is the only Greylord to employ a strange race known as the Shaegoth. They act as her personal guards, an elite fighting force, and assassins.
The origins of this species is particularly difficult to pinpoint and none seem to be aware by what means it is that Nyx can so easily rely upon their unfaltering loyalty to her. Scholars of the Greylands postulate the Shaegoth could be a later metamorphosis of the undead spirit, the Shadow.
Shadows are curious things as, while classified as undead, they do not seem to be the result of any sentient death; they are some sort of spiritual flotsam or perhaps a parasite devoid of a natural physical form. What is known is that the Shadows are normally seen in two varieties, Lesser and Greater.
The Lesser Shadows are minor threats at best and utterly harmless to a healthy adult for the most part, assuming their numbers are low. The Lesser Shadow feeds upon the fear and terrors of its prey and often manipulates its surroundings in an attempt to evoke these emotions. The 'touch' of a Lesser Shadow is an unsettling chill that saps at a victim’s life force but is no more dangerous than a common leech or mosquito.
Over time a Lesser Shadow may gain an excess of energy and grow into a Greater Shadow. Greater Shadows are much more dangerous as their power and appetite have each grown and the touch of a Greater Shadow can now kill a healthy adult in minutes.
Shadows are insubstantial but vulnerable to most magics and will flee from bright light. A Greater Shadow may occasionally split up into multiple Lesser Shadows, but a Shaegoth, regardless of the processes involved, seems to be a further advancement from a Greater Shadow. Unlike Shadows, the Shaegoth become actual physical beings, solid to the touch like many races of the Greylands, though they are also able to transcend those limitations at will and enter an incorporeal state like that of their hypothesized origin.
APPEARANCE:
The skin is a black so deep that, without a strong light source, details blur. Each Shaegoth possesses auto-luminescent cells of pale blue that show in unique patterns per individual.
The eyes are dark with large, cross-shaped pupils that can expand to cover up most of the eyes. A blue, nictitating membrane covers the eyes in normal light conditions and prevents the Shaegoth from suffering the light blindness that affects most nocturnal creatures.
The mouth is lipless, showing a wide, ear-to-ear grin of thin needle-like teeth, with the tongue and maw glowing blue as well. What appears to be “hair” atop its head is actually thick tendrils filled with nerve ganglia acting as some form of sensory perception. Their gangly forms feature odd dermal plating to cover major joints.
When using their incorporeal distortion power, they become wispy and indistinct shadows. Often the only 'features' they are attributed to have in this state are eyes and mouths of “blue flame.” A Shaegoth is sexless and does not favor any gender in appearance or temperament.
Shaegoth clothing is minimal but always includes a pale white mask. When under contract a Shaegoth mask will often be made to take on an appearance of their target. After a contract the Shaegoth mask will sometimes take on the features of those that have contracted with them.
ABILITIES:
DISTORTION- gains the benefits of an amorphous blur at will
SHADOW EVADE- can hide in nearby shadows even if observed; they are 'invisible' to their opponent. They can then teleport to any shadow in line of sight. They use this to flank enemies. A Shaegoth can also choose to simply remain hidden in the shadow indefinitely.
SHADOW STRIKE- If it exits a target's shadow it can immediately make a surprise attack. This initial strike is almost always successful, unless the target has an extraordinary or supernatural detection ability.
FRIGHTFUL PRESENCE- There is just something unsettling about them that makes even the most stoic heart skip a beat.
SILVER BLADES- Each Shaegoth is armed with a silver blade coated with a poison derived from Pneuma Flint flint powder and Bane Wasp venom. Not only is silver rare but it is deadly to the Greylords and many native creatures of the Greylands. The poison will paralyze prey completely even as their soul slowly decays.
RITUAL SUMMONING OF SHAEGOTH:
A Shaegoth can be summoned to the prime material plane by a specific ritual (which can be performed by anyone) in order to slay a single target. The payment is always the soul of the contractor. Even if the first Shaegoth is destroyed, another will take up the contract ensuring that, no matter who the target is, their death is certain once the Shaegoth are summoned. It is possible to negate a contract by eliminating the contractor first.
In a dark room with no windows the summoner lights a black candle. Next to the candle a white mask is placed. In the flame of the candle, the summoner blackens a silver dagger and cuts himself. In his own blood, he writes the name of the target on a piece of parchment. Pressing the wound against his heart, he says the following aloud: “By blood, by shadow, by soul, death to the one I have named.” The summoner then burns the parchment in the candle. A Shaegoth will rise from the summoner's own shadow and inspect the mask.
Stories vary on what kind of mask is the correct one. Some place value on the materials, others that it must be made by the summoner, or that it must be made in the likeness of the target. If the Shaegoth accepts, he takes the mask and the dagger and sinks into the shadows again, now on the hunt. If the Shaegoth finds the offering somehow lacking then it instead will target the summoner first, simply sinking into the shadows and leaving the mask behind as a clue of the failure.
While the Shaegoth is actively pursuing its target, the summoner casts no shadow. Once the target is dead, the summoner's shadow returns but appears to be slightly faded. A summoner with a faded shadow becomes numbed to the world and bears a mark on their soul that is visible to those with second sight. This mark heralds the eventual physical changes, such as the skin, eyes, and hair begin to lose color, becoming less vivid with time. The time required to affect such changes is not consistent, though often it seems that the summoner prematurely ages. The personality also changes as time passes; they become depressed and unfeeling, eventually leading to a violent spiral of insanity and death.
In Yungian culture the Shaegoth are known as hungua or 'shadow ghost'. Old Yungian tales speak of their grim work and the fate of those that would traffic with such spirits.
The Greylands, capable of planar travel
Appearance
A skinny, grinning shadow with white mask and silver dagger
Lifespan
non-applicable
