The Ecology of the Shade:
Outcasts in a shadowy world
by Dan Salas
The sleeping chamber was filled with
shadows and formless black shapes. On
the bed slept Carissa, the Lady of Graham
Manor. Her young face was faintly lit by
starlight from the single bedroom window.
Until midnight, she slept undisturbed,
exhausted from the day?s events.
Carissa looked around as her eyes
adjusted to the pale light. She saw the
familiar furnishings, thick carpets, purple
dragon sculptures, bright tapestries, and
silk bedsheets. The heavy stones of the
walls seemed to reassure her that the
fortress was still strong. Then her gaze
found the intruder, and she froze.
A man sat motionless in a chair across
the room, dressed in gray and black. His
face was partially covered by a black cloth
wrapped around his jaw, and his eyes
were hidden in the shadows of a black
hood. He seemed more like a phantom
than a man. Though his posture was not
threatening, Carissa stared at him with a
paralyzing fear. If she shouted for help,
would anyone arrive in time? Was he an
assassin?
The intruder held up one gloved hand.
?Please don?t call the guards,? he said soft-
ly. ?I?ve come to help you, not harm you.?
Carissa?s brow wrinkled. She thought
that the voice sounded familiar, but she
did not recognize the stranger. Being the
lady of a large and powerful estate, she
was even now recovering her wits and
sense of command. She was on her own.
?Who are you?? she whispered fiercely.
For a moment, the intruder did not
answer. During this silence, Carissa
noticed the dagger strapped to his thigh,
the long sword at his side, and the studded
leather vest under his
dark cloak. Seeing
that he was a warrior and not a night-
demon, she gave him a steadier look.
?Tonight, I?m an advisor,? he finally said.
?I?m here to tell you about the man who
wounded your beloved, Lord Graham.?
Carissa perceived bitterness in the
intruder?s voice as he spoke the name of
her husband. She did not understand his
indignity, so she ignored it, trying to think
clearly. ?How do you know about my lords
wound??
?Right now, he lays in the chapel with
your clerics. He?ll live, this time. But you?ll
need to know more about his attacker if
you?re to keep your husband in this
world.?
Carissa was taken aback. Maybe he was
a spy. ?You seem to know much.?
?Then hear my words. Lord Graham?s
attacker is not a demon, nor is he a nor-
mal assassin. Your enemy is a shade.?
A childhood tale drifted up from mem-
ory. ?A shade??
?Yes. Once a man, but now a creature of
darkness. A shade is a person who has
traded his soul to gain a permanent con-
nection to the Plane of Shadow. There, the
Positive and Negative Material Planes meet
in the shadow of the Prime Material Plane.
Do you understand what I mean??
Carissa nodded, fascinated. She was a
scholar as well as a noble, and her interest
in the metasciences was drawn out by the
mysterious intruder.
?A shade receives effects from the Posi-
tive and Negative Planes:? he continued.
?From the Positive, he receives immunity
from aging and disease, as well as powers
of healing. To the Negative Plane, he loses
his soul. His appearance becomes dark as
night, and his personality becomes even
darker.? (1)
?Who would do this to himself??
The stranger chuckled sarcastically,
sadly. ?Anyone who finds no joy in day-
light and who cares nothing for the com-
pany of others. Anyone who would gladly
trade his soul for the powers of the night.?
The stranger slipped into brooding
silence. Feeling awkward but less afraid,
Carissa asked, ?How is it done??
?There are some clerics who will make
the transformation for a price ? usually
3,000 gold pieces. (2) I don?t know the exact
spells that are used, but I know that the
person must be brought to the Plane of
Shadow, where the cleric . . . slays him
and makes the transformation. (3)
The person is then a shade. He can never again be
returned from the dead because he has no
soul, no spirit. He cannot increase his
skills. (4) He-cannot have children.?
?There must not be many such people in
the world.?
Table 1
| Die roll |
Character Class |
| 1 |
Cavalier |
| 2-7 |
Fighter |
| 8-10 |
Magic User |
| 11-12 |
Illusionist |
| 13-17 |
Thief |
| 18-20 |
Assassin |
Table 2
| Die roll |
Alignment |
| 1-2 |
Lawful neutral |
| 3 |
True neutral |
| 4-5 |
Chaotic neutral |
| 6-7 |
Lawful evil |
| 8-9 |
Neutral evil |
| 10 |
Chaotic evil |
Note: reroll result if it is inconsistent
with the assassin character class.
?No, not many. The sacrifices are too
great for most people to accept. But there
are some . . .? (5) The stranger?s mind seemed
to wander as he spoke. Carissa listened
attentively, unsure of the truth of his
story, and increasingly doubtful of his
sanity. ?Not all shades are evil in nature,
but none of them are actually good. The
ones who changed from good alignment
sometimes seek revenge against those who
caused their misery. Lawful shades usually
continue their war against chaos. Evil
shades usually continue their war against
everyone.?
As the man?s voice drifted off, Carissa
decided to change the course of the con-
versation. ?You were talking about my
husbands attacker. . . ?
?Yes, of course.? The stranger seemed to
regather his thoughts, and he spoke with
new energy. ?The attacker?s name is Var-
ian. This shade came to me four days ago
and asked that I help him kill Lord Gra-
ham. He seeks vengeance for some person-
al reason. I refused his offer.?
?How do we fight him??
?Light is your best weapon. In bright
light, a shade becomes weak, and is more
vulnerable to magical attacks. Have your
clerics cast continual light spells on lan-
terns. Leave no passage unlit that leads to
your lord. In the shadows, a shade can
transport himself to the Plane of Shadow,
so you must keep Varian in bright light or
in complete darkness. As a last resort, use
a holy word to force him to return to the
Plane of Shadow.
?Varian himself remains on the Prime
Material Plane during daylight. He sleeps
in the ruins of Thurid Castle. There you
can trap him and kill him.?
Carissa nodded. ?If your words are true,
you?ll be richly rewarded.?
The man snorted in disgust. ?I don?t
want your gold.?
?Then why have you helped us??
The stranger sat in silence, his vision
fixed upon her. Then he stood and walked
slowly toward her. Carissa shrank back
from him, preparing to call for the guards,
but the intruder made no move for his
weapons. Instead, he sat on the edge of
the bed. Still, Carissa could not see his
eyes.
?I?ve helped Lord Graham because I
know that his death would ruin you. I
don?t want any harm to come to you,
Carissa. I still love you, even more than I
did ten years ago.?
Suddenly she recognized his voice, rec-
ognized the figure under the black clothes,
recognized his manner of moving and
speaking. Her heart jumped and she cried
out, ?Dimitri!?
The man leaned toward her and extend-
ed a hand. With wild joy she moved closer
to him, but then he grasped the candle
flame and crushed it. Shadows filled the
room again.
Her heart racing, Carissa waved a hand
in front of her. Dimitri was not within
reach. As she frantically relit the candle
with her last cantrip, she thought of Dimi-
tri: a lost lover from her past, an honor-
able man whom she had loved deeply
before her father had wed her to Lord
Graham. Her thoughts were dazed and
tangled as the candlelight returned.
She looked quickly around the room, but
Dimitri was gone. Carissa knew that he
would not be back. In the silence of the
flickering candlelight, Carissa covered her
face with her hands and wept.
Notes
1A character who
becomes a shade
takes new personality traits, becoming
sober, moody, cynical, and suspicious.
Because of these traits, the character?s
charisma drops. To determine the exact
penalty, divide the character?s charisma
score by three (rounding down), then
subtract this number from the original
charisma score to get the new charisma
score.
The character?s comeliness drops due to
his new appearance: dark eyes, gray skin,
black clothes, etc. Determine the comeli-
ness penalty in the same way as the cha-
risma penalty. Only drow elves are
immune from the comeliness penalty,
since the change in appearance leaves
their skin no darker than before, and only
affects their eyes and hair color.
2No cleric of good alignment will turn a
person into a shade, whether the person is
willing or not. A neutral-evil cleric is 50%
likely to intentionally kill the character
during the process, and a chaotic-evil
cleric is 75% likely to kill the character. To
perform the transformation, the cleric
must be at least 10th level.
3The process for becoming a shade
begins on the Prime Material Plane,
where the would-be shade drinks lethal
poison and dies. The cleric then uses
plane shift to transport himself and the
character to the Plane of Shadow. There,
the cleric casts neutralize poison on the
character, and then imbue with spell
ability if the character is not a member
of a spell-casting class. The cleric then
casts negative plane protection to allow
the forces of the Positive and Negative
Material Planes to enter the character?s
body, thus causing the physical, psycho-
logical, and magical changes. At last, the
cleric casts raise dead (this spell even
works on elves and half-orcs due to the
interference of the energies from the
Positive and Negative Material Planes).
The character must make a successful
resurrection survival check or die again
? permanently.
The character now needs to recover, as
noted in the description of the raise dead
spell. Afterwards, he is a full shade,
com-
plete with special powers, special abilities,
and all other effects as explained in the
Monster Manual II and in this article.
4A shade cannot gain experience
points,
cannot increase in class level or proficien-
cy, and cannot gain new levels of spell
ability. The mixture of the Positive and
Negative Material Planes holds the shade
forever at the same class level, also mak-
ing him immune to magical increases or
decreases in level.
5For the class of a random shade, roll
1d20 on Table 1. For the shade?s alignment,
use Table 2; roll 1d4 + 6 for assassins, or
1d10 for other classes. The shade?s level
and equipment should be chosen in
accordance with the PC party?s strength.
The ability scores of a shade can be
determined by the chart on page 74 of
Unearthed Arcana. Note that the charisma
and comeliness scores need to be adjusted
as with any other character who has
become a shade.
When determining the experience-point
value of an NPC shade
(Dungeon Masters
Guide, page 85), consider the shade status
to be an exceptional ability.