Shadelocke

Medium aberration, chaotic neutral

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 108 (24d8)
Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover)

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
8 (-1)	18 (+4)	10 (+0)	12 (+1)	16 (+3)	18 (+4)

Saving Throws Dexterity +7, Charisma +7
Skills Arcana +7, Insight +9, Perception +9, Stealth +10
Damage Vulnerabilities radiant
Damage Resistances cold, necrotic
Damage Immunities psychic; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 19
Languages Common
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Special Traits

• Aura of Gloom. When not subjected to full daylight or its magical equivalent, shadelockes have advantage on all Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
• Innate Spellcasting. The shadelocke’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). The shadelocke can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
  • At will: chill touch, detect thoughts, mage hand, minor illusion
  • 3/day each: blink, darkness, major image
  • 1/day each: dominate person, fly, true seeing

Actions

• Multiattack. The shadelocke makes two shadow touch attacks.
• Shadow Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 22 (4d8+4) cold damage.

About

A gaunt, robed figure stands before you, its features almost invisible in a deep hood. The essence of pure shadow swirls around it like a great cloak.

Shadelockes are mysterious creatures that dwell in gloomy places and possess a natural ability to harness the shadows to their own ends. Though they are usually solitary, shadelockes are sometimes encountered in pairs, working together to confuse and mislead their foes into thinking there is only one, then attacking when the opportunity presents itself.

While they may not belong in the material world (see below), shadelockes seem quite at home living in forsaken forests, bleak dungeons, or ruins – hiding among the shadows – occasionally emerging to quietly observe nearby mortals or to stalk and terrify. Some fear-filled tales claim that the shadelockes also kidnap their victims, spiriting them off to their own nightmarish dimension.

Scholars are uncertain about the shadelockes’ origins and true nature, for they utterly refuse to communicate with those not of their species. Attempts to magically compel them to talk result in an incomprehensible flood of verbal and mental gibberish. If discovered in their silent observations – lurking in the gloom, silently following their victims along streets or lonely roads, staring intently through windows in the dark of night – they will invariably attack, trying to slay anyone who has seen them. If outnumbered or badly wounded, a shadelocke will flee, and under no circumstances will it surrender or parley. In very rare circumstances, shadelockes have been captured, but these individuals never communicate and invariably die in short order.

Investigators have had to turn to folklore to learn more of the shadelockes, but even here legends are contradictory. The most common tale is that shadelockes are servitors of a mysterious Shadow King who dwells in a dark realm of shadow adjacent to but separate from the known planes. The shadelockes are tasked with gathering information on dwellers in the Material Plane, spreading fear and dread to keep the Shadow King’s realm safe from intrusion and occasionally kidnapping mortals into the shadow realms for experimentation and amusement. Some stories postulate that the Shadow King has other, even more terrifying, minions that no one has ever lived to describe.