SHADOW TROLLS

During the sun-death when the sun was extinguished, the elemental Plane of Shadow coalesced with the Material Plane, thrusting a new race of Troglodytes into the solid realms. These are the Shadow Trolls – ethereal manifestations of living shadow. These beings are bound closer to the Plane of Shadow than other Troglodytes, manifesting the ability to move and hide within shadows. Their physical form is insubstantial – a fearsome visage of pure living darkness clothed in armor and dark rags. It is said that to look into the face of a shadow troll a man can see the shadow of his own soul reflected. Resistant to mundane weapons and diseases, Shadow Trolls are a formidable adversary, but they suffer in broad daylight and deep darkness, losing some of their grip upon the Material Plane, and fading away.

For this reason they are most active at dusk and dawn or in dimly lit areas. When forced to go abroad in midday and midnight, they employ Darkane Magic rituals of protection. The Shadow Trolls’ natural affinity to their plane enables them to employ fearsome elemental magic against their foes. One unnerving aspect of these creatures is the fact that they cast no shadows, rather they are shadows, and absorb the light around them.

Shadow Troll lands are generally thickly forested areas covered in a perpetual cloud of gloom – light enough to permit plant growth, but dim enough to provide a comfortable twilight ambiance beneath the canopy. These creatures sleep inside obsidian obelisks and two-dimensional cities of shadow, assuming a highly ethereal form to do so. The Shadow-Troll diet is a horrifying affair for they eat the shade of living creatures – the shadow the creature casts on the pattern of existence. What remains afterwards is a listless cripple.

Longshadows