Darkmask The Darkmask was a special divine caster of Vhaeraun . They were considered the elite among the clerics . Becoming a Darkmask . Formerly open only to male drow , the gender barrier was dropped and entry opened to half - drow at latest in 1372 DR , the darkmask was a special kind of divine caster of Vhaeraun with skills in stealth , generally a ranger or a cleric with the skills of a rogue or a ranger . A would be darkmask had to fulfill a number of requirements . Rudimentary skills in , namely in stealing , basic survival skills in the wilderness , hiding and sneaking , out of which hiding and sneaking needed special training . One also needed to be trained to be inured by the effects of sunlight , naturally a requirement a half - drow fulfilled by virtue of being a half - drow . They also needed experience at fighting a clerical follower of Lolth , though they only needed to survive the encounter and not necessarily win . General Information . All members of Vhaeraun ’ s clergy had some degree of skill in trickery and often learned the additional skills of a rogue . What differentiated the darkmask was that they followed a way that allowed them to learn more stealthy skills than they already had without neglecting their spellcasting abilities . As mentioned above , they were considered the elite of Vhaeraun ’ s clergy and conducted special assignments to further the church ’ s goal . They generally wore black masks and black or grey clothes , the favored color of Vhaeraun ’ s clergy . Abilities . Darmasks had strong wills and unusually fast reflexes for a cleric but tended to be less sturdy than normal ones . The abilities , they gained over their career were generally of either mundane , stealthy or protective nature . On the mundane level , at some point in their career , darkmasks specifically trained one skill to be more developed and learned to strike harder on foes who had problems defending themselves . Every darkmask was able to cast the spells " darkfire " , the only purely offensive ability , and " pass without trace " without somatic , verbal or material components . With increasing skill , they also gained the ability to cast " change self " , " alter self " , " locate object " and " lorloveim ’ s shadowy transformation " in the same way as the aforementioned spells . When they progressed far enough in their studies , they gained some truly special abilities . " Dark embrace " was an ability that allowed the caster to create a mask for about 10 minutes and store one spell into it . This mask could be then made to fly on its own for about 100 ft . ( about 30m ) on the face of someone and the spell was cast on that person . This worked with a thought and made it possible for them to cast the stored spell in rapid fashion . They also gained special defenses against illusions and another protective magical ability called . Cloak of Shadow . Cloak of Shadow gave additional abilities at hiding but also protected the user from harm by making the body sturdier , the reflexes sharper and the will stronger . After acquiring sufficient skill , darmasks were capable of creating a " dagger of venom " , it cost them time , material and also jewels . If the jewels were more worth than the minimum needed , it was possible for the dagger to become even more magical than normal . The pinnacle ability of a darkmask was called Bladebend . Bladebend was originally one of Vhaeraun ’ s ability to cause the edged weapons of his enemies to strike their wielders instead of their target . It was an ability his clerics tried to emulate but never truly managed to do so , a truly accomplished darkmask on the other hand was able to emulate the deity ’ s ability . Whereabouts . Darkmasks were wherever their work brought them . Despite their reputation of not working together with other darkmasks , there was at least one group of drow rumored to be in Cormanthor that was led by four equally strong darkmasks who wandered the forest to kill lolthite raiders .