Shadow (Grey Order)

For other uses, see Shadow (disambiguation).Shadow is a tabaxi master thief and swashbuckler who was infected with a unique strain of lycanthropy that has granted him an unnatural longevity. 
== Description ==
Shadow is an average height tabaxi with brown and black fur and bright green eyes. He has a striped tail and his fur is spotted in patches all over his body like the fur of a leopard. This is a signifier of his lycanthropy, though the nature of this curse has changed since his demise in the Pyramid of Souls, life inside an Esperedge, and inadvertent rebirth after the Esperedges were broken. He is most commonly seen wearing read leather armor with a specially made mithril fauld. On his hands are gauntlets with metal clawed fingers.
== Personality ==
Shadow is a professional, always focused on the task at hand. He is soft-spoken, only speaking when the words he says would have impact, be it dramatic or comical. He is ever serious, but he can prove very aloof. He is a skilled and clever combatant who prefers to just outright win a fight than to let one linger on to prove something. He is the type to end a fight unfairly before it starts if he thinks the fight will prove troublesome outside of an opportune moment. He asks a lot of questions regarding matters he sees as tasks or dilemmas. He is bond to help others who would help him just based on his upbringing. He knows what he did due to the curse of lycanthropy was wrong and is set on redeeming himself in his own eyes. 
== Abilities ==
Shadow is a high level thief and swashbuckler, capable of extreme feats of acrobatics and sword skill. He perfected the arts of a shadow stalker during his time in the city of Rastegar and is capable of manipulating shadows and even blending into them without seam. He's also extremely fortunate, almost to a point where he can twist fate to his favor in minor ways. He is blessed by the zodiac sign of the Wraith and he cannot be detected by divination magics or scrying sensors. His time as a soul in an Esperedge linked him to his weapon, the Silver Sword, and he is especially deadly with a weapon that is like another appendage to him spiritually.
Shadow was cursed as a werejaguar in a hidden shrine in the region around the capital of Stormloft. This curse has mutated after his death, imprisonment in an Esperedge, and rebirth. He still possesses the immunity to weapons not made of silver and animalistic senses and agility, but he can no longer shift his form to a jaguar or hybrid between tabaxi and jaguar. Additionally, he is not afflicted by the evil and predatory desires that took him before his rebirth and cause him to betray his student. 
== Possessions ==
Shadow is never seen without the Silver Sword at his hip. He wears a pair of special clawed gauntlets called the Shadow's Claws that magically empower his natural claw attacks. Under the gauntlets he wears a pair of gloves of thievery and a ring of spell turning. On his back he wears a cloak of arachnida, a light crossbow +3, and a Heward's handy haversack. His studded leather armor +3 has an ornate mithril fauld which is more for form than function. On his legs, he wears a set of anklets of speed and a pair of boots of elvenkind. As is standard for Grey Order members, he has a communication device that allows him to communicate with other willing members. When he goes out on a sortie, he is issued a Grey Order Band.
== History ==
=== Early Life ===
Shadow was born and raised in the streets of the city of Stormloft. He was an exceptional cutpurse and was also a capable tough when the situation called for it. His skill was noted by the Felhoods, who would often maneuver to corner him into doing jobs for them. This criminal childhood gave him all the skills he'd need to develop masterful techniques later in life. They also served as the reason why he left the city for the small town of Hilton. One of the jobs for the Felhoods led him to act as a highwayman who would prey on the refugees that were displaced from the city of Jether. He couldn't bring himself to perform these horrid tasks, so he tried to leave but was forced to fight the other brigands, whom he left for dead on the road just outside of Hilton.
=== Shadow in Stormloft ===
The town of Hilton was plagued with problems, namely trying to find meaning and shelter for the Jetherite refugees. Shadow was among a group of heroes who began taking on tasks for Anton Haverhill, lord of Hilton, in an attempt to make the lives of the people easier and the jobs of the official guard and government easier. The group was responsible for blocking efforts of monstrous creatures from plaguing the common folk, exorcising ghosts in old mines, and avenging the death of Lord Anton Haverhill who was slain by a secret organization of usurpers in league with the Felhoods. With these direct issues dealt with, the group of heroes began exploring outwards, hoping to weaken the forces of a frost giant who was responsible for Jether being sacked and its citizens being displaced.
=== The Hidden Shrine ===
During one of the adventures outside of Hilton, Shadow and a small band ended up trapped underneath a hidden shrine built by the Vazriel people from before the Empire of Parnak was built in the land. The ancient tomb beneath the shrine was filled with poison gas and strange creatures and curses. One such curse was that of the werejaguar, which afflicted Shadow. Due to the group's determination and cunning, they escaped the shrine's crypts and made it back to Hilton. Shadow was forever changed, but was able to keep a hold of his mental faculties. The curse was a unique mutation of lycanthropy that also made it so he would age more slowly, perhaps some magical manipulation to the strain of lycanthropy buried away in the shrine to allow the werejaguar guardians to serve for thousands of years.
=== Dighgrum ===
Soon after the incident at the hidden shrine, Hilton was attacked by the the frost giant Jarl Jormugndr and his massive army. The heroes evacuated those they could and were chased by the Jarl all the way to the Dwarvish Road north of Hilton that lead through the mountains to the capital. The door to the road was sealed behind them, barring the Jarl and his forces from chasing. Unfortunately, the city of Dighgrum that sat as a waypoint on the Dwarvish Road had been taken over by the great aboleth known as the Sleeper in Dreams during the past few years. The heroes set up a camp on the outskirts of the city and began make forays into the city to purge the influence of the aberration and the other hostile groups that had made the city their home. 
After fighting back the horrors of the constructs that were forged within the city from the remnants of the Anaxim, a divine construct, the heroes were able to force the Sleeper deeper into the Foul Deep and were able to seal the passageway it escaped through. In the time after, these heroes made Dighgrum a bastion to allow for the armies of Stormloft to move through the mountains and directly assault the Jarl at Hilton. During this time, Shadow came to know the goliath Gruhn Stonechyld. 
=== Odd Jobs ===
After Dighgrum's revitalization, Shadow started working on his skill by taking random jobs throughout Parnak. This ended up working him south across the lands, becoming a bit of a folk hero in smaller towns that had problems with the remnants of Jormugndr's armies harassing those who could not protect themselves. A number of times throughout this time of his life, Shadow would join up with other long-lived friends like Gruhn to go on adventures. He spent a number of decades on the Parnak-Seiryu border, eventually working with Yasugisawa's Army in dealing with the bandits that plagued the borders. This allowed for him to gain training from a number of different master swordsmen and manipulators of shadow. Some of these relationships were utterly ruined due to Shadow's outbursts of evil that were a result of his curse. He focused on methods to control this twisting of his nature. One of the teachers was a wandering swordsman named Byakko Kojima, the last living member of the Byakko clan. He granted Shadow a short sword called Ketsujin after the tabaxi proved to master the White Tiger techniques of swordsmanship.
Shadow then traveled with Gruhn to Rastegar's capital. The two worked together with Ritkov Oakhorn to help the dwarves in the region deal with a problem of neogi invaders that were taking dwarvish miners from the deep dark tunnels of the iron and mithril mines that would go on to build the city up. Gruhn, like Shadow, was also afflicted with a curse. Gruhn's curse was his birthright, but it led to him becoming maddened by a need to destroy and he became a menace to the peoples of the city. Shadow joined with the defenders of the city in standing against Gruhn and he was there when the goliath was petrified into a stone statue at the center of what became Stonechyld Park. After seeing what had happened to his friend and being party to it happening, Shadow decided to try to meet a mental balance by training someone in the arts and techniques he had learned and developed over his long life.
=== Mentoring Renn ===
Shadow came to meet Renn Keeneyes in the streets of Rastegar. This young wild elf had found his way into the city with nothing to his name and Shadow befriended him. He taught his student how to be a skillful fencer and also how to seek out the truth in all things. He saw in Renn a young and inquisitive mind that was unclouded by a jaded past and a horrible curse. As Shadow's affliction became harder and harder to deal with and his intrusive thoughts became more and more focused on doing harm to Renn, Shadow faked his death with the misconception that he died of old age and secreted away out of Rastegar and left the sword Ketsujin to Renn. On the road, he met with an elvish contingent that was transporting a number of relics to the museums of House Rastegar. He allowed his evil nature to take over and he slaughtered the elves and stole what was theirs. Among these items was the Silver Sword with a soul bound within it. 
=== The Esperedges ===
Shadow and the Silver Sword became notorious in the borderlands of Parnak and Seiryu, as Shadow began to fight in the small border skirmishes between bandits and government militias. Shadow joined sides on his own whim and gained a reputation as a demon in combat. It was during this time that the spirit within the Silver Sword started to call to him. That spirit was Zausbex, a mind flayer, who had been bound to the sword by Gith long ago before the sword was gifted to the elvish enclaves in Rastegar Kingdom. With this connection, Shadow joined the Dark Choir of Edges and learned of Gruhn becoming freed of his stony prison. He joined with the goliath and the two began to work together in an effort to find the other swords and take them from the corpses of those that wielded them in hopes of growing ever stronger by collecting all of the weapons. The two attempted to take Ketsujin back from Renn and Shadow nearly killed his student himself, but their plan was thwarted by the other Esperedge wielders that were with Renn. Gruhn and Shadow escaped using the gate spell, a very powerful magic allowing them to escape to an extraplanar safety. 
Eventually, Shadow and Renn would meet again, this time Renn was ready. The two battled inside of a stairwell within the Pyramid of Souls. When Renn dealt the killing blow, Zausbex's soul was obliterated and Shadow's soul entered into the sword. Renn, in hopes of purifying the weapon from its darkness and thereby saving Shadow's soul, gave it to Gilbert Kirgozler as his Esperedge had turned dark. In the hands of the gnomish cleric, the sword was used all the way to the Battle of Rastegar. 
=== Battle at Rastegar ===
In 992 CA, the Pyramid of Souls, which had been buried underneath the city of Rastegar, vanished from reality and reappeared hovering directly over the capitol building of the city. Floating above the Pyramid was the Demon Prince Dhuron Balcard, who had power over the magics in the Pyramid and could focus them into devastating bursts of spellfire. The group known as Kirgozler's Heroes faced off against the Demon Prince on the underside of the Pyramid. Shadow was used by Gilbert in this fight. Eventually, the Choir of Blades revealed its true source of power: the essence of the divinities known as Alu'nsu-Ro and Stacia which had been bound to the Black Blade. Once they were revealed in the Material Plane, the Grey Order quickly intervened. The essences were obliterated and the Esperedges had their divine powers ripped from them. In this moment, Shadow was able to escape the prison of the Silver Sword and form a new material body for himself. He then escaped the wreckage of the city. 
=== False Identity ===
When the Pyramid of Souls fell at Rastegar, all the Esperedges broke, their souls allowed to escape and be allowed to die. Shadow was not ready to die, so instead he willed a new body for himself displaying an impressive amount of willpower. This new body escaped the wreckage of Rastegar city and fled out into the world. He felt that the nature of his escape and what it had meant would mean he might be hunted by the Grey Order. He took the name "Renn Keeneyes" and pretended to be his former prey to hide away, but was eventually found out by Wenviiron, a member of the Grey Order.
"Renn" pleaded his case, explaining why he felt she should not just erase him from existence or cause him to die. So, she took him into the Pyramid of Souls once again and the two found his soul remnant, a fragment or duplicate of a soul that can be found of anyone who enters that place, and then used it to burn away the curse of lycanthropy that still plagued his new body. This was possible with her compatriot Elamroth's divine magic. Shadow was reborn, purified of the curse of lycanthropy, but with lingering powers from the curse and from the Silver Sword. Wenviiron gave him a choice: die and meet what would normally befall a mortal who died, or serve the Balance by joining the Grey Order. So he joined. Wenviiron has worked in training the shadow cat in the arts of a Grey Order Spy, and Shadow has taken to the craft like a cat to a ball of yarn as many of his preexisting skills served the role quite well.
When asked if he has a surname, Shadow now states that it is "Keeneyes", not as a slight against his former protégé, but as a badge of respect for the elf doing the right thing in defeating him. 
=== One Hundred Hands Make Light Work ===
Shadow's most notable mission with the Grey Order came about when Igaion, one of the Nine Bastards of the Warring Triumvirate, was freed into the Material Plane and began destroying settlements in the Broken Blade Coast with a direct path heading towards the metropolitan city of Nock. Shadow was among the members that brought a stop to Igaion's rampage, hiding in the shadows of the buildings of the city as the demigod spewed fire from the heavens and fired out beams of energy that atomized any matter it touched. His aim with crossbow was unerring and he was able to remain hidden from Igaion's god-like perception.
== Appendix ==
=== Trivia ===
Shadow was a character created by Andy M for use in the Shadows Over Stormloft story arc. This game was a West Marches-style game with rotating Dungeon Masters. When he was afflicted with lycanthropy, the subject of his alignment changing was never brought to the table and the character was played without the narrative implications of that change. Andy M then created Renn Keeneyes for use in the Dead of Ages Past story arc with a mention that Shadow was his new character's mentor. In an attempt to add a bit of drama to the story, Shadow's lycanthropy was decided to have been effecting him, but he was capable of bottling it down and maintaining his sense of self, that is until he took up the Silver Sword outside of the dynamic of the game and was transformed into a villain. As Andy M was very fond of Shadow, the character was given a redemption arc outside of the game and included in the roster for the Patreon Game One Hundred Hands Make Light Work.