Shadow Cloaker

Under strong light a shadow cloaker looks like a hole cut in the world in the shape of a long cape, utterly black and without texture. It melts so completely into dim surroundings that most people notice it only once it already clings to someone.

Sages think it is intelligent and perhaps has a tongue of its own, yet every effort to talk with one has failed. As with any cloaker, reaching its mind directly often calls for a madness check.

The creature slides soundlessly along floors and walls like a drifting shadow. Having no color at all, it hides in shadows 90% of the time, and a hidden cloaker always surprises its prey. Its whiplike tail strikes twice a round for 1d6 each.

To claim a host it makes an attack roll against a target's shadow. A hit causes no harm but lets the cloaker settle onto the victim's shoulders. From then on the host's touch saps Constitution: the first living creature the host touches each day loses 1 point, and further touches that day do nothing. If a day goes by with no such meal, the cloaker takes the point from the host instead. A host at Constitution 0 dies, the cloaker drifts away, and a day later the corpse rises as a shadow. A numbing quality hides the weakness for 2d8 rounds, so victims rarely notice. A host who drains others on purpose commits an evil act and must make a dark powers check.

Only magical weapons can harm it. Threatened while attached, it wraps its host and fends off rescuers with its tail. The wrapped host cannot use melee weapons, psionics, or spells with verbal or somatic components, and takes half of any normal damage aimed at the cloaker; area spells and weapons hurt both fully. A light or continual light spell cast straight at it makes it let go and flee. Sleep, hold, and charm spells fail against it, and since it is not undead, turning and holy water have no effect.

These loners are poorly understood, and most of what is said about them cannot be checked. Many believe they were born on the Demiplane of Shadow. The first one known arrived, barely noticed, with the lone survivor of an expedition into caverns beneath the shadow fey's lands, and others have since appeared across the misty dread realm with no clear cause.

A shadow cloaker needs a host to feed at all. Without one it loses 1 Hit Die each week until it perishes.