Shadowling

EXTRATERRESTRIAL STAFF
Shadowling	Access: Whatever you or your victims had or have Additional Access: Anywhere you can phase to Difficulty: Extremely Hard. I'm not kidding, you'll probably lose. Supervisors: None Duties: Enslave the filthy humans, ascend and murderbone Guides: This is the guide

Shadowlings are light-sensitive alien creatures from space. They are mainly defensive, but can 'enthrall' humans, which is basically a euphemism for enslavement of their minds. They start off disguised as a normal crewman (they can still enthrall like this!) but they have to take time to 'hatch' to unlock their full potential.

While hatched, shadowlings will resemble humans with black skin, small horns, red eyes, and claws.

Until they ascend, of course.

Shadowling Abilities

Shadowlings have quite a few tricks up their sleeve, from vanishing to freezing the air around them. Below is a list of abilities that shadowlings can use.

Name	Requirements	Cooldown	Description
Hatch	N/A	N/A	In order to utilize their full potential, shadowlings need to go through a little-understood evolution process coined as "hatching". They will form a chrysalis around themselves, which is impenetrable, and begin the evolution. After a few minutes, they will burst from the chrysalis, evolved and with a plethora of new abilities. The chrysalis will quickly decay before vanishing entirely.
Enthrall	N/A	45 seconds	Of course, shadowlings are weak. They can easily be killed by a lightbulb. So, how does it fend off attackers? By enslaving them, like any good alien should! By getting close and rearranging the memories, motives, and physical form of the target, the target will become a "thrall", bound to the shadowling completely and utterly. Thralls can empower the shadowling with their own life force in addition to sharing a telepathic link with them and all other thralls. They have been known to drop dead in unusual circumstances.
Hivemind Commune	N/A	2.5 seconds	Shadowlings and thralls share a telepathic link through which they can communicate silently, undetectably, and at zero cost or cooldown. There may be ways to discern this behavior, but it is unlikely and for now all you can do is simply let their words flow past you.
Glare	Hatch required	30 seconds	Glare is a basic single-target stun. By forcing the target's gaze into its own, the shadowling can mesmerize a target for quite some time in addition to muting them.
Veil	Hatch required	25 seconds	Veil instantly puts out all light sources, mobile or otherwise, near the shadowling. They can easily be repaired, turned back on, or simply replaced. Rumor has it that some slime extracts have shown resistance to this, as well as fire-based light and glowshrooms.
Shadow Walk	Hatch required	1 minute	Shadow Walk lets the shadowling briefly enter the space between worlds to escape attackers. For four seconds, the shadowling will be invisible, move quickly, and be able to phase through all obstacles. Unlike the wizard's jaunting, holy water does not have an effect on this.
Flash Freeze	Hatch required	2 minutes	Flash Freeze is a formidable crowd control ability. Everyone within a short range will instantly have their body temperature reduced to freezing in addition to having it continuously lowered, similar to a cryogenic sting. Targets will also be briefly stunned.
Collective Mind	Hatch required	30 seconds	Shadowlings can draw upon the power of their thralls to enter a state of almost unstoppable power. Collective Mind lets them gain that ability - they send out mental "hooks" that latch onto the minds of their thralls, mainly a head-count, if you will. If there's enough (currently it is believed to be 15 thralls) then they will gain various abilities in addition to the ability to ascend with enough.
Blindness Smoke	Hatch required + 3 Thralls	1 minute	By regurgitating a cloud of black smoke, shadowlings can disorient pursuers. This smoke will induce blindness in non-shadowlings, but heal shadowlings and thralls.
Drain Thralls	Hatch required + 5 Thralls	10 seconds	The shadowling will drain the life of all nearby thralls to heal for 25 brute and 25 burn. Damage dealt to thralls is split between all affected by the ability.
Sonic Screech	Hatch required + 7 Thralls	30 seconds	The shadowling can let out a piercing screech. This will confuse and deafen nearby humans, damage windows, and stun silicons.
Spatial Relocation	Hatch required + 10 Thralls	5 minutes	The shadowling instantly swaps places with any thrall in the world. Both parties are stunned for a brief duration.
Ascendance	Hatch required + 15 Thralls	N/A	Shadowlings gain the ability to 'ascend'. Very little is known about this process, only that they become nigh-invincible, they gain terrifying new powers, and it is a process similar to hatching but without the protection of a chrysalis.
Below is a list of abilities ascendant shadowlings are known to have used.
Annihilate	Ascendant only	30 seconds	Ascendants, with extremely high telekinetic abilities, can easily cause someone's entire body to explode simply by directing a lance of mental energy at them.
Hypnosis	Ascendant only	45 seconds	Ascendants can enthrall from a range and with extremely increased speed. Basically, it's a ranged and instant version of enthrall.
Plane Shift	Ascendant only	N/A, toggleable	An upgraded version of Shadow Walk, ascendants can simply enter the space between worlds at will at no cost. They use them as passageways, able to move from place to place extremely quickly.
Glacial Blast	Ascendant only	1 minute	An upgraded version of Flash Freeze. It will stun for far longer, bring body temperatures to the point of no recovery, and almost instantly put people into near-critical condition from frost burns. Similar to its weak version, it does not affect thralls.
Vortex	Ascendant only	2 minutes	Earlier it was mentioned that ascendants can use the space between worlds very easily. They can also do this offensively by simply tearing open a hole to this space. Anyone who steps into this hole will simply vanish into this space, never to be seen again. It is thought that this includes the ascendant, as they have been seen avoiding the portals they create.

AAAAAAAAAA I'M A SHADOWLING WHAT DO

So you're a shadowling. Congratulations! Here's some pointers on how not to die from a lightbulb within thirty seconds.

Starting Off

You're disguised. You don't take any damage from lights and you are undetectable to any means short of godly intervention. You possess three abilities: Hatch, Enthrall, and Hivemind Commune. First off, send a message or two over the hivemind to see if you have any buddies - chances are high that you do. Assess your job's capabilities. Are you the captain? Feel free to grab some stun stuff to arrest people and then enthrall them - same goes if you're an officer or something. Are you an engineer? Build a stunprod and use that as well. Are you the clown? You're not clumsy, so use your banana peel to cablecuff people and do it too. Are you an assistant? Make use of the environment, using things like tables to stun or hinder people.

There are multiple things to do from the start. Hatching immediately can work since you can easily enthrall people who rush into maintenance early for various goodies, or you can play it safe and try to get some thralls before that. It's up to you - you're the alien monster, after all.

Post-Hatch

So you've hatched. You have the rest of your abilities now - use them! Alert your fellow shadowlings (and thralls) that you're hatched over the hivemind, and make more thralls your first priority. You can't wear normal clothes, but you can still put on backpacks and headsets, which is an extremely good idea. If you're discovered by a group of people, use your defensive abilities to escape in addition to your thralls. If a single guy sees you, just glare at him, slap some cablecuffs on if you have them, take away his headset, and enthrall him. People who you enthrall cannot be turned back under any means and their new loyalty to you overrides all else. If you enthrall a nuclear operative somehow, they will serve you over their Syndicate friends. If you enthrall the captain, he will do much the same.

Your priority is to gain fifteen thralls. You have the Collective Mind ability which will, after a short time, give you a count of how many thralls you have as well as the needed amount for ascendance. If you get fifteen thralls, use the ability and it will give you the Ascendance ability in a new tab. Simply use that ability and you've won - no need to escape on the shuttle!

The Light and You

While hatched, the light is your worst enemy. You take extreme damage from even being in it, and burn-based stuff like flashbangs, welders, and lasers all hit harder. However, on the other side of the coin, the darkness is extremely beneficial. All wounds will heal. You will have a stun reduction. You have night vision and thermal vision as well, so not being in the darkness at all is a huge downside to everything about you. Use the darkness as your buddy in times hard and easy. The darkness will always give you a shoulder to cry on. He's a bro like that.

AAAAAAAAAA I'M A THRALL WHAT DO

So a shadowling mesmerized you by staring into your eyes (lewd) and now you're a thrall! What this means is that your primary goal and objective is to obey the shadowlings and help them at all costs. If you look in your tabs, you have a new one, Shadowling Abilities. In this tab is the Hivemind Commune ability, which lets you communicate on a silent channel with all other thralls and shadowlings. You're basically an Adamantine Golem in terms of where your loyalties lie -- utterly with the shadowlings. Loyalty implanted? Not anymore, the nanobots are dead. Wizard? Use your spells to help the shadowling. Traitor? Tough titty, if the shadowling wants your uplink you give it to him with zero questions asked. You have no free will.

Keep in mind that many of the shadowling's abilities rely on damaging or manipulating you. Even by helping the shadowlings accomplish their one objective, you are sentencing yourself completely and utterly to death - there is no way around it. You may find yourself drained of half your life, used as bait, used as a bodyguard, or suddenly surrounded in the middle of a maintenance tunnel by Security officers who are trying to cave your chest in. Assume you're going to die because you are and there's no way around it.

As of right now, thralls cannot currently see in the dark as shadowlings can. That means you have to use your lights in the dark areas, so make sure you don't accidentally make a Kentucky Fried Shadowling with your PDA light. You do have one advantage, however: stealth. Short of attempting to loyalty implant you, there is zero way of finding out that you're a thrall. Use this to your advantage to do things for your masters. Keep in touch often.

Finally, you also have a HUD indicator above your head. A more intimidating version can be seen above any shadowlings, hatched or not. Your indicator signals that you are a thrall - only other shadowlings and thralls can see this. If you're killing someone with that HUD indicator, expect a ban.

This is the HUD indicator for shadowlings. These are your masters.

This is the HUD indicator for you and fellow thralls. You obey the shadowlings.

AAAAAAAAAA THERE ARE SHADOWLINGS WHAT DO

So the shouts over the radio weren't wizard, ops, or blob, but shadowlings? Your work is gonna be cut out for you, soldier. Shadowlings are terrifying foes and can do much in their power to avoid you. They can even extinguish lights, save for fire-based sources and yellow slime extracts, and even then they can extinguish those fires. Don't get caught alone or you'll live out the rest of your considerably shortened lifespan in mindless servitude.

Things you SHOULD do

• Travel in groups
• Get burn-based weapons and lots of light sources (flares are good, so are slime extracts if xenobio is doing their job, and if all else fails botany can make torches)
• Carry flashbangs or flash powder grenades from security or the medbay
• Be extremely wary
• Avoid areas that seem unnaturally dark
• Don't fight anything alone
• Watch for suspicious activity
• Don't fight anything alone
• Be prepared for anything
• DON'T FUCKING FIGHT ANYTHING ALONE

Things you SHOULDN'T do

• Hoard the entire armory and secede from the station as your own force
• Run up to the shadowling and ask to be enthralled. Seriously, it's a dick move to everyone and the admins will ban your ass for it.
• Prowl the maintenance tunnels alone armed with your trusty screwdriver and PDA flashlight
• Refuse to talk or communicate - a silent vigilante, as proven by the mime, is the best vigilante
• Attack an ascendant
• Ask to be enthralled by an ascendant. They'll seriously just make you explode.
• Be near an ascendant
• Consider approaching an ascendant
• Look at an ascendant in a suggestive way
• Think about ascendants

Is that a horrible wail in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

So you're in the maintenance tunnel with your group of vigilantes and ready to fight a shadowling. Suddenly you hear a horrible wail in your head and all the lights blow up. Not good. This means a shadowling has ascended. You're basically fucked over since all the shadowlings can ascend when one can.

In Case of an Ascendant

If you see an ascendant, it'll probably look something like this:

That guy just exploded.

RUN.

Run far and fast. There is no way to fight a shadowling ascendant. They are completely invulnerable to normal attacks, can phase through walls at zero cost, and possess a slew of abilities designed to make you and all you hold dear explode. They can make the air explode, they can make reality explode, they can make objects explode, they can make your corpse explode, they can make you explode, too, so run. They can instantly enthrall you, so run. Not that it'll do you any good since they move faster than you. They'll probably just make you explode like they did the seven guys before you it found. The now-exploded seven guys. Oh, and they also hit harder than an esword with their melee attacks.

You're probably gonna explode, too, so just accept it and hope they're either merciful, somehow friendly, or want to enthrall you.

Again, though, you'll probably just explode.

Or maybe, somehow, you can kill it?

AAAAAAAAAA RELEVANT CODE CHANGES

• #8157 Shadowling (MERGE-READY!!)
• #8927 Shadowling Update I: Bugfixes and Minor Features