The Dim is not a realm of monsters wearing the Prime's geography as a mask. It is the Prime with the vitality subtracted: the same mountain range, the same river valley, lit by a sky that never brightens past deep dusk. Arcane magic is diminished there for no reason anyone can point to, it is simply what the plane is, while shadow magic and necromancy work better there than anywhere on the Prime. That asymmetry decides who chooses to live in the one permanent settlement, the City of Shadows, and it decides what evolved to hunt in the dark around it.
Lord Nocturnus has governed the city long enough that no resident remembers before him. He was not born to the Dim; he was a Prime-side shadow mage who went in once and never came back out, and the gap in the record of how he took power looks deliberately maintained. He trades in secrets, and deals struck in his presence hold, not from honor but because the consequences of breaking one are consistent and well documented. The Well of Void at the city's center nullifies magic within its reach, which is why it is also where negotiations happen: nobody's enchantment can escalate a disagreement there.
Only one native predator is cataloged so far. The Dim supports far more than this, carnivorous flora, things that hunt by vibration and thermal trace instead of sight, shadow-forms with no fixed substance that pass through solid walls. This chapter is a start, not the ceiling.
At the table: a Dim encounter should feel like the Prime with something missing, not like a different game. Let the players recognize the terrain before they notice what has moved into it.
Shadow
Role: Elite Lurker / Drainer Where It Appears: Dark places touched by old death or planar seepage — long-sealed crypts, battlefields absorbed into the Dim, collapsed temples.
A Shadow is not a ghost. A ghost remembers being something. A Shadow is what forms when a soul is incompletely processed and the piece that survived is only the hunger.
What It Is
Shadows form in places where death has seeped into the light itself — where so many things have died that darkness has learned to move with independent appetite. They are not intelligent. They are directed by hunger toward warmth and vitality. They drain physical capability — not life force, but the strength to move and act.
Ecology and Behavior
Shadows inhabit enclosed dark spaces and expand outward from them. They do not pursue in direct light but follow wherever darkness follows, which in practice means they track parties that do not maintain consistent light sources. The party that separates is the party that meets the Shadow alone.
Signs and Knowledge: Perception (Hard) notices a shadow that does not match its source. Secret Lore (Average) identifies Shadow behaviour and light-dependency.
Shadow (Elite)
- Skills: Stealth 5, Reflexes 4, Perception 3.
- Attacks: Strength Drain (Unarmed; Damage 6 Strain; Crit 4; Range Engaged; Pierce 2).
- Abilities: Strength Reduction — On each successful Strength Drain hit, the target loses 1 from its Might characteristic until it rests in light for an extended period. A creature reduced to Might 0 collapses and cannot act. This does not heal naturally overnight.
- Abilities: Insubstantial — Nonmagical attacks add 1 Bane and reduce damage by 3. Fire and magical attacks ignore this.
- Abilities: Light Bound — Cannot enter or act in direct firelight or sunlight. Dim light allows full action.
- Soul: A surviving fragment of a soul that was never fully processed, not a whole claimable coin; at death canon does not specify whether the fragment rejoins the crossing (default).
Tactics: Approaches from behind while the party moves, targets the weakest Might score, retreats into darkness between attacks.
Encounter Use: Shadows are most dangerous when light sources are finite. Give the party a way to force the fight: forced light, reflective surfaces, magical illumination.
Harvesting and Trade
A Shadow dissolves when destroyed, leaving only cold air.
Variants
Shadow Pack: Three to four Shadows working together, each attacking different targets to spread Might reduction faster.