Shadowman
The Shadowman, Shadow Man, etc.
Origin: Internet Meme, heavily modified for Call of Cthulhu through the YSDC forum (link).
Contents
In the Mythos
"I feel I'm walking outside... circled around me are these faceless figures watching me, as if they are waiting for something to happen... then it happens...." - The Nefilim, "Still Life"
"The strange, tall, slender figure was dressed in a traditional stage magician's costume of black and white, and had some sort of featureless, white mask over its over-sized head, topped with a shapeless black cap or beret... in one hand, it held the vast, ponderous book of black secrets as if it weighed nothing at all, though I knew from many hours of treacherous study just how much it really weighed; with the other, the faceless figure silently pointed to the blank white pits in the fabric where its eyes should be, then, towards its sleeves... 'look! there's nothing up my sleeves!", it must have been gesturing, as if anything at all could be hidden in the tight-fitting sleeves around such abnormally long, thin arms, or anywhere else about its nauseatingly tall, skeletal, stooped shape. Yet, in an absurd, silent instant, the book was gone, as if it had never existed. I never saw it vanish, and there was no way I could explain its sudden absence... the figure was cocking its head to one side, and, if it had had a mouth, I swear it would be grinning at me; but there was nothing but that blank, white cloth... and, it was gesturing again: a strange, open-palmed gesture, a strange, sardonic gesture that asked whether I wanted to see another trick, when it knew all too well that I never wanted to see tricks or magic or wonders ever again! But it was too late - it performed its next trick, far worse than its first, and I think that was the moment I went mad...."
- Anonymous Eyewitness
The Shadowman: a figure that does not hide or lurk in the shadows, but stands tall and unseen in the light of day — allowing itself to become visible only to the victims it stalks. The Shadowman appears as an extremely tall, thin, unnaturally long-limbed, faceless humanoid in dark clothing. Its origins, motivations, and purpose are mysterious, and its presence is associated with paranoia, delusions, and even physical illness. Those who see the Shadowman are often driven to madness, compelled to scrawl strange messages and scribbling sketches of a dark, faceless figure, before disappearing entirely.
The less you know about the Shadowman, the better, for knowing too much may make you the subject of its interest; and, indeed, the Shadowman leaves clues to its own existence for the curious to find and follow to their doom; such clues usually appear in the form of recordings which typically feature the Shadowman in some way, subtly attracting the victim's attention, and perhaps drawing a psychic connection between the viewer and the Shadowman.
Heresies and Controversies
Keeper Notes
- The Shadowman enjoys leaving "calling cards" to its presence, just short of overwhelming proof: cryptic drawings, messages, images or distortions/glitches to digital and other recording equipment, phone calls filled with bizarre noises, nightmares, etc.
- The Shadowman does not speak and prefers to operate in the background, preferring to let its followers (Men-in-Black and Rake-Hells) speak for it and do its dirty work, and perhaps only revealing his presence to NPCs and to PCs who are helpless to do anything about it.
- The Shadowman enjoys a sort of telepathic link to its followers, communicating through a combination of simple pantomime and telepathic dream-imagery.
- The Shadowman is full of malice and will seek to divide investigators and turn them against one another.
- The Shadowman seeks excitement and perverse amusement at the investigators' expense.
- After they have been properly "prepared" with terror, madness, and forbidden lore, the Shadowman's victims are dragged away to distant location beyond our time and space, where they are "treated", converted into Men in Black, agents in service to the Shadowman, or into feral, Ghoulish "Rake-Hells", the Shadowman's monks and foot-soldiers....
- The Shadowman will seek to acquire any sources of Mythos knowledge and power that are bought to its attention.
- The Shadowman will sometimes deliberately leave evidence of its existence for the morbidly curious to find, such as tomes, film strips, photographs, video-cassettes, and information on the Deep Web, tempting these investigators to explore deeper and deeper mysteries, until "ripened" with paranoia, terror, and madness, at which time the Shadowman comes for them, taking from its victims any Mythos tomes and artifacts and carrying those objects and their former owners away from Earth, to secret places known only to the Shadowman and his servants....
Seventh Edition Stats
Shadowman, faceless meme
Statistics:
- STR 90 (4D6+4 x5)
- CON 115 (1D6 to 6D10+10 x5)
- SIZ 55 (3D6 ×5)
- DEX 80 (3D6+6 x5)
- INT 80 (3D6+6 x5)
- POW 90 (4D6+4 x5)
- HP: 20
- Average Damage bonus: +1D4
- Average Build: 1
- Average Magic points: 18
- Move: 8 / 40 Teleport
Attacks and Special Abilities:
- Dodge 35% (17/7)
- Armor: 2 points, plus invisibility. Shadowman only takes minimum damage from physical weapons, which is reduced by 2 due to an uncanny field around the creature. Enchanted weapons do full normal damage. Shadowman's Invisibility is only good against normal sight. If a camera of some kind is used, it will pick up his form unless he's able to Haywire it (see below).
- Attacks per round: 2
- Fighting attacks: Shadowman often chooses not to attack in combat, but rather summon those that will protect him while he observes from nearby. If attacked directly, he'll attempt to corrupt his attacker before vanishing.
- Corrupt: Shadowman may telepathically control a human's mind if desired. The target may resist by making an opposed POW roll. If failed, they must perform an act that the creature commands of them, no matter how vile. A controlled target may attempt to resist by successfully making a POW roll against Shadowman. Once they've had experience with it, an INT check notes awareness of the creature. Shadowman must expend one magic point per attempt to use his abilities on a target.
- Infect Mind: After an encounter with Shadowman, a target must successfully make a POW check over 1d6 days or be infected with his presence. Those failing the check become "Sources" or "Vectors" for the creature, and must spread his meme across any media outlets that they can. This includes sharing photos, paintings, or tales of the creature, or even exposing loved ones to his presence. Ultimately, this creates a larger farm of people for Shadowman to exploit.
- Sickness: Just being in close proximity to Shadowman for 1d10 rounds can cause a target to gain The Sickness. Once infected, it takes a number of rounds equal to the effect of the poison takes a number of days equal to one-fifth of the victim's CON. After this period an Extreme CON roll must be made, otherwise the infected suffers an agonizing death over the course of 1D6 days. During this time, the victim will experience coughing fits and coughing up blood, along with occasional nausea, paranoia, vomiting, and extreme exhaustion due to an encounter and being stalked by the creature. If the CON roll is successful, however, the infected becomes extremely sick for 1D10 days as the sickness is fought off by the mind and body. During this period, many have experienced bloody noses, fever, and sometimes amnesia. Doctors won't find evidence of the disease within those infected. During this period, STR and CON temporarily drop to 10 as the victim is utterly exhausted and suffers from terrifying hallucinations and nightmares. The victim regains 1D10 points of STR and CON per day until fully recovered.
Skills:
- Cthulhu Mythos 20%
- Intimidate 80%
- Listen 75%
- Slight of Hand 80%
- Spot Hidden 75%
- Stealth 80% (lurk ominously in background)
Sanity Loss
- 0/1D6 Sanity points to see Shadowman on film or other media
- 1/1D8 to see it in person.
Special Powers:
- Haywire: Through some unexplained means, Shadowman may edit and control video, audio and photographic technology. This allows him to insert or delete objects within scenes, change noises and make himself appear in images, even after they're recorded.
- Teleport: Shadowman jumps through space by editing his surroundings. As such, he seems to appear and disappear much like adjusting tracking on VCRs.
- Create Rake-Hell: As a precaution to protect itself, Shadowman may turn an infected target into a Rake-Hell, a monstrous humanoid bent on destruction. Mindless and filled with rage, it hunts the area for its master, providing protection or misdirection when needed. (For a Rake-Hell's stats, use a Ghoul from the Call of Cthulhu RPG.)
- Shadowman Symbol: Seeing the mark of Shadowman is a sign that the creature is watching. Often it appears on a objects or building interiors, and may cause SAN loss once recognized. After the first time seen, have characters make SAN rolls (0/1D6) each time its seen in person.
Spells - Shadowman knows spells and may sometimes teach them to followers for a specific purpose, or even use them himself:
- Cloud Memory
- Dominate (1 MP and takes 1 round to cast; caster can mentally cloud the mind of one victim at a time and manipulate that character; player should make an opposed POW roll vs. caster's POW)
- Implant Fear
- Mental Suggestion
- Create Gate
- Contact Men In Black (3 MP)
- Contact Mi-Go
- Summon Rake-Hell (use Ghoul stats)
- Call/Dismiss Shadowman
- Call/Dismiss Azathoth
- Call/Dismiss Yog-Sothoth
Cult: The Men In Black
One of the countless factions of the Men in Black consist of government/church agents, conspiracy theorists, and former investigators who have dug too deep, and attracted the attention of Mythos beings; consequently, these lost souls have been taken away, and... treated. Now, pale-skinned from long decades spent in unearthly places without sunlight, the Man in Black serves the Mythos, typically dressing in a dark suit and hat or black cloak and hood, and bearing little of the appearance or behavior of his former human identity. He obeys messages and visions from his new masters without question. Men in Black and their master usually prefer to avoid combat, preferring intimidation and mind-games to direct conflict, but have a 50% chance of cutting and running when casualties reach 50% or if an allied monster is destroyed/driven away; otherwise, they fight to the death if attacked.
Servitor: The Rake-Hell
"At first, I thought it was a large hairless dog of some sort, then perhaps a thin, naked man, but it was something in between... it was covered in loose, rubbery skin, with long, thin fingers or claws. Its lower jaw was hanging slack and its whole outline and form seemed crooked and unnatural, as if it had been hit by a car or broken on a rack, and badly healed...."
- Anonymous Eyewitness
"They stood him before a mirror. He was emaciated and covered with wounds, his back was bent, his hair was gone. There was not a single deprivation he had not known."
- The Nefilim, "Pazuzu"
The Rake-Hell ("Grey Monk", or "hell-raiser", or simply "rake") is a sort of Ghoul bound in service to the Shadowman... a former human, broken and deformed into ghastly, immortal sub-humanity through centuries of meditation, indoctrination, self-mutilation and exposure to the unearthly environment of whatever outer realm the Shadowman has bound them in, a place described by some scholars as a damp, cavernous, mold-infested, grotto monastery/library located somewhere deep in an alien Astral Realm, the shelves filled with scrolls of skin peeled from the monks' backs and inked in uncounted black secrets to transformations of flesh and spirit.
The Rake-Hell appears in the form of a ritually-scarred, twisted, and mutilated Ghoul, with a Ghoul's hairless body, loose and rubbery face and skin, mouldering corpse-like stink, vaguely dog-like appearance, festering claws, ragged teeth, feral behavior, and unsavory habits and diet; in addition, the body of the Rake-Hell may be marked with a peculiarly stooped and twisted posture, and covered in elaborate scars, brands, tattoos, piercings, mutilations, modifications, and other such alterations of apparently occult and symbolic significance, typically including some form of the mark of the Shadowman upon their foreheads or hands.
The Rake-Hell in a former life may well have been a stalwart, brave, selfless, and decent investigator, but the slow spiral of madness associated with investigations into the Mythos has driven the humanity from the beings, leaving only a mindless, broken shell for the Shadowman to cast into the abyss for conversion into a Ghoulish form, and reprogramming into the deranged service of the Shadowman.
Associated Mythos Elements
- servitor race: The Rake-Hell (a form of mindless Ghoul)
- cult: Men in Black
- The ranks of the Men In Black include of government agents, conspiracy theorists, and Investigators who have dug too deep and attracted the attention of Slenderman; they have been taken away, and... treated. Now, pale-skinned from long decades spent in timeless places without sunlight, the Man in Black typically dresses in a dark suit and hat or black cloak and hood. He obeys messages and visions from Shadowman without question, but has a 50% chance of cutting and running when casualties reach 50% or if an allied monster is destroyed/driven away; otherwise, he fights to the death if attacked. Men in Black prefer to avoid combat, however, preferring intimidation and mind-games to direct conflict.
- tome: The Shadowman will sometimes leave tomes (either in the traditional written form of books, scrolls, pamphlets, etc., or in the form of film, audio records, digital video recordings, photographs, etc.) in places where they might lure wizards, cultists, and investigators into his grasp.
