Low Shades

​“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.”

The Dead,

by James Joyce

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Low Shades
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 60' (20')
Armor Class: 4/15
Hit Dice: 4-8
Attacks: 1*
Damage: 1d4 suffocation with a persistent 1d4/hour wilting effect within 10' radius, 
Save: F4-8
Morale: 4

Gloomy, moralizing and compromising geists of the most abysmally dismal sort, Low Shades wallow in sadness and regret. Their lingering, loitering presence causes a slowly accumulating form of wilting over time that inflicts 1d4 damage and lowers it's victim's morale by 1 for every hour of exposure. The wilting damage can only be restored by magic, the morale drain persists for 1d6 weeks.

These softly muttering, dimly fluttering vestiges of timid, vacillating souls wander about the broken edges of unhallowed spaces and defiled places, lurking uncertainly in a sort of in-between state, lot souls stuck between life and death, they cannot bring themselves to finally let go of the fears, failings and foibles of their former lives, not without help, not without compassion, not without the guidance only a skilled medium can provide. Simply exorcising or driving these things out will accelerate their decay and deterioration into broken spirits and far more hurtful demonic things.

Normal weapons only do half damage. A circle of salt and amber negates their wilting effect, so long as the Low Shade remains within it. They cannot pass cold iron.

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“Our path through life is strewn with many such sad memories: and were we to brood upon them always we could not find the heart to go on bravely with our work among the living...therefore, I will not linger on the past. I will not let any gloomy moralising intrude...”

The Dead,​

​by ​James Joyce