Potent Greater Shadow
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Potent Greater Shadow
HD: 9d12 +90 (148 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: Fly 80(good)
AC: 44(+12 Dex, +2 Defl, +8 Ins, +8 Luck, +4 Nat), Touch: 44
BAB: +4/-
Attack: Incorporeal Touch, +29 Melee, 1d8+8 Str
Full Attack: Incorporeal Touch, +28 Melee, 1d8+8 Str
Space/Reach:5/5
Special Attacks: Create spawn, strength damage
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., incorporeal traits, +2 turn resistance, undead traits, ER 8/-, DR 16/+5, SR 29, Fast Healing 20
Saves: Fort:+11, Ref:+25 ,Will:+22
Abilities:Str:-,Dex:33,Con:-, Int:18,Wis:24,Cha:27
Skills:Hide:+24, Listen:+19, Search:+16, Spot:+19
Feats:Alertness, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon Focus, Weapon Finesse
Environment: Any
Organization:Solitary
CR:19
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always CE
Advancement:-
Level Adjustment:-
This creature is a Shadow, but not a meek little mindless undead. No, this shadow is a juggernaut of vile darkness, an empty hole filled with malign intelligence barely able to harness the endless, aching hunger that consumes it. Hunger for life, hunger for hope, gnawing and savagely evil.
Perhaps it is a normal Shadow that over the ages consumed other Shadows to reach its current horrid state. Perhaps it is an experiment escaped from a wizards lab. Perhaps it is a summoned guardian, with many equal to its might lurking nearby ready to swoop in and pounce. Perhaps it is native to the Plane of Shadows, escaped to the Prime Material, and merely the harbinger of uncounted millions more. But it is a dire threat indeed, even if its spawn are only Greater Shadows.
The Potent Greater Shadow is not mindless, but it is unrelentingly evil and uncaring if its existence is snuffed out, so it will not retreat. But it will fight with tactics and cunning aplenty, using its Spring Attack feat and incredible speed to plunge in and drain strength. Its massive Str drain is able to slay many targets with single touch, and each rises in 1d4+1 rounds as a Greater Shadow and joins the fray. It is also clever enough to realize it has serious healing abilities, and will plunge away through walls and solid rock if seriously hurt and will return to kill later.
The Potent Greater Shadow is seriously dangerous, with excellent defenses and an attack that is able to kil most targets in only two or three touches. But it is also narrowly focused, and a simple Death Ward will render it harmless. But its vast hunger and evil intelligence make it able to wait patiently, and it will frequently attack while its targets sleep, if it can reach them.
These horrors infest the facility, but they are also trapped. The walls are all laced with siegestone and the adamantium doors are re-nforced by forcewalls when they are closed: There is no escape for these incorporeal fiends, since they cannot open even the doors that are open. If the adventurers smash open doors, or even simply leave them open behind them, one of more of the Potent Greater Shadows is likely to bring hundreds of Shadows from outisde.
Even if they do manage to flee the facility, they must maintain proximity to The Channel and it's effluvia of darkness, or their Potent template will fade away, leaving them mindless and weak.
Their hunger and rage combined with un-nerving intelligence and cunning make them especially dangerous, and when combined with their underwater location, they can slay unsuspecting victims with astounding speed. Firther, several of these titans have escaped The Channel over the millenia, and have stripped the lake of all life, turning their victims into countless hordes of shadows. Any of the Potent Greater Shadows outside can call up 2d8 Shadows at will even ourside the facility, and inside the facility can call and command 20-200 (avg 110) Shadows. Any adventurers caught unprepared by this avalanche of evil darkness is likely to perish quickly.
If the encounter seems too easy, it is possible that a Potent Greater Shadow will be able to bully the chaotic swarms of shadows into forming a Horde of Shadows, which should serve to add challenge to many encounters.