Shadow Knife

Description

One of the deadliest races around, the Shadow Knife makes a perfect assassin and is not to be trifled with. These air elementals can slide quickly from the shadows, kill their intended victim, and then disappear. With built-in weapons made of “air”, these hardened devices can extend past the shadow and eliminate someone without forcing the Shadow Knife to leave his protection.

The Shadow Knife mainly lives with the cavern systems under Ozul. They are only seen in the upper world at night or in various shadows. Their society is based on creating chaos among other families so they can better their place in the world. The only people that they can fully trust are their own family members. Anyone outside of that group is seen as an enemy and a threat. Even in rare situations where more than one assassin is needed, they will always recruit a family member or close relative.

In their secretive caverns, they will train and share special techniques among their own family members. Their special sanctum of training has several magical devices to prevent other members of their race from spying on them during training exercises.

The only times that they seem to "work" together is with a common enemy and, even in that case, they will, more times than not, kill their own race in addition to the enemy force. There doesn't seem to any form of friendship between them unless something is mutually beneficial to both parties.

To contract a Shadow Knife for a task, the requestor leaves a Memory Ball in several specific locations (known only to those who have dealt with them before). The requestor goes back later and determines if the Knife has responded. The Memory Ball will show where to leave payment. Woe to him that cheats the Shadow Knife and not pay. Most times, the Knife will eliminate that person and those they hold dear.

Interaction

No one has ever admitted to ever talking with a Shadow Knife and all information about their family life is suspect. What is known, though, is that if a Shadow Knife is captured, they will immediately kill themselves. Each Knife has a spell imprinted in their brain where they can immediately call up the memory and "die". As they die, their bodies dissolve.

Combat

Since the Shadow Knife spends most of their time in the darkness, they are incredibly difficult to see and hit. If they are shown in the light, they are weak but will try to dissipate into forms of dark mists and spread out to the shadows.

Their preferred method is to form parts of their bodies into piercing weapons for impalement. However, a curious feature is that they need not form the entire weapon. For example, they could create a long tendril that are mists so they get past the armor part of a foe and the part that is past the armor is immediately reshaped into a spike or knife.

In addition, they also like to surround heads or exposed features of an opponent and then solidify their mists into spikes. It is rumoured that most people will hear a slight chuckle before they die.