Jan 26, 20233 min read

97 Shadows

Updated: Feb 7, 2023

Introduction

James: Lamont Cranston Freeman: Nightcloak

Book: MM 269 & GGtR 205 (…sort of)

D&D Lore

Appearance:

· Resemble a dark exaggeration of humanoid shadows

· Incorporeal undead

5e About/Creation

· Drawn to creatures untainted by evil

o Apparently, they taste better?

· Drains victim strength and physical form until it’s shadow begins to move on it’s own

· Once the mortal dies, the shadow then breaks free becoming a new shadow

· IF somehow this creature returns to life, the shadow birthed from it senses its rebirth and could seek out it’s parent to dispatch it

o This creature no longer casts a shadow until it’s undead

one is destroyed

Previous Editions

· Hate life and light

· Seek our those who have lived morally good lives

· Hesitant to confront those wearing silkstone

o A fibrous variety quartz

· Touch saps the strength of living creatures (like 5e)

o Not needed as sustenance

o Exist entirely on negative energy

o Are just straight up an addict for the life energy

o If denied living energy for too long enter a frenzy and will attack anything

Society

· Usually live alone in dark places

· Can be found in a “gang” of 2-5 or a “swarm” of 6-11

· Clerics of Shar, Nightcloaks, can be capable of summoning shadows

Cultural Lore

Choctaw [chok-taw]

· An indigenous population native to the Southeastern US

· Known to Europeans as one of the “Five Civilized Tribes”

· Have a rhythmic languages and I’m going to try very hard to get this correct

· Believed that every man had a shilombish [shy-lomm-bi

sh] (outside shadow) which always followed him and the shilup [shi-lope] (inside shadow/ghost), which after death goes to the land of ghosts

· The shilombish would wander restlessly moaning over it’s former home seeking another place to live

· try to frighten its friends (other shadows) to scare them away so it could take their place

Nalusa Chito [na-luss-A chit-O]

· a great black being

· it people thought evil of depressing thoughts it would enter their mind and eat their souls

· many Choctaw people will not say the name in fear of summoning it

Jinn

· Romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies

· Invisible creatures that from pre-Islamic Arabian religions

· Covered more when we get to Djinns

Shades

· A spirit of ghost of a dead person residing in the underworld

· Common believe that the dead there live in shadow

The Book of Shadows

· A text containing Wiccan magical rituals

· First was created in 1940s or 50s by Gerald Gardner which he used in the Bricket Wood Coven in Hertforshire

Cultural

· Shadow Man, Mega Man 3

· Shadow the Hedgehog

· Honda Shadow

· The Shadow Man – episode of Twilight Zone

Lamont Cranston

· THE Shadow

· Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!

· Debuted on the ratio in July 31, 1930 in the Detective Story Hour

· First pulp magazine written by Walter B Gibson in 1931

· Sept 26th 1937 first The Shadow radio drama with the “Death House Rescue”

· Starring the 22 year old Orson Welles!

· Replaced by Bill Johnstone in 1938

· Then Bret Morrison in 1944

· Eventually into comics in the 1940s

· Then to DC comics in the 1970’s

· Then Dark Horse in the 1990’s

· Now Dynamite

· In the books the shadow is Kent Allard, though this isn’t revealed until 1937 in the Shadow Unmasks

· A famous pilot for the French during WW1, known as the Black Eagle

· After the war ends he fakes his death by crashing his plane in e Guatemala before encounter an ancient Xinca tribe

· He uses magic tricks, intelligence and a Colt .45 to hunt down criminals

· In almost all other aspects his alias is Lamont Cranston, a man whos identity he steals as a cover, but not in other media

· In the radio drama he leans how to read minds and hypnotize people enough to make himself invisible to them

o Explicitly states that this shit is actually science

· After the war he returns to NY and decides the best way to use his money and ninja skills are to become a vigilante

o Sound familiar?

· Bob Kane & Bill Finger sight the Shadow as the basis of Batman, whose origin story is based on the “Patterns of Peril” a Shadow pulp by Theodore Tinsley

· Also credited by Alan Moore as being the inspiration for V

· And Darkwing Duck

· And Darkman

· I could go on

· Just because it’s my favourite episode – Beware the Gray Ghost, where Adam West plays the Gray Ghost a Shadow analogue that was Bruce’s hero growing up, and homage to both the Shadow and Adam West