Shadowling

Welcome to a quick guide on how to be a lethal shadowling!

Intro

A shadowling is a light sensitive alien creature who starts off alone, but can enthrall humans to make them work for the shadowling!

• Access | Anywhere you can phase to
  • Difficulty | Extremely Hard
    • Supervisors | None.
    • Duties | Enslave filthy humans to work for you.

While a shadowling is hatched, it resembles humanoid form, with red eyes, small horns and claws.... until it ascends, of course...

Abilities

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. This Technique is so powerful, even loyalty implants can't prevent it! it takes 30 seconds to a minute longer, but a shadowling can bypass a loyalty implant and enthrall anyone, even the captain. Thralls gain the ability to glare, causing this to be even higher of a priority!
Hivemind Commune	N/A	0 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 (Toggleable)	Hatch Required	0 Seconds	Shadowlings can enable this ability to allow themselves to become ethereal, making them able to phase through any walls that do not have light on them. Shadowlings cannot travel onto walls with light on them, however they can still travel to floors that have light on them.
Icy Veins	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. It also puts out lights that originate from items such as torches or flares.
Collective Hivemind	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 Life	Hatch required + 5 Thralls	10 seconds	The shadowling will drain the life of all nearby People 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.
Black Recuperation	Hatch required + 10 Thralls	5 minutes	The shadowling calls upon its immense dark powers to revive one of their loyal thralls every 5 minutes, useful if you need to ascend but have 14 living thralls and one dead thrall.
Ascendance	Hatch required + 15 Thralls	N/A	the shadowling calls upon the power of its 15 thralls, transforming ONCE MORE INTO THE ALMIGHTY SHADOWLING ASCENDANT, THUS KILLING ALL OF THEIR THRALLS IN THE PROCESS
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.
Arc Lightning	Ascendant only	None	An extremely powerful ability that strikes all non-ascendants near you with a lightning that does a large amount of burn damage. Be wary, however, this DOES hurt thralls!

You're a Shadowling

First thing is that YOU'RE DISGUISED and you do not take damage from the light, You possess two abilities, Hatch, and Hivemind Commune. However, you cannot enthrall anymore while disguised. The first thing you want to do is send a message to see if you have any buddies as there is a high chance that you do, see what their job is, and ask if they may be able to assist you in enthralling the light-dwelling meatbags.

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. When you finally hatch, stay in the darkness. in there, you regenerate damage, and can phase through walls freely. you are NOT SUITABLE FOR COMBAT IN THE LIGHT!!! AVOID IT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

Your Hud

It's time to get familiar with your icons on your hud! Hover over the icons with your cursor to see what's what!

These are your masters, the Shadowlings! You obey them!

This icon represents your fellow thralls!

If you kill anyone with this HUD over them, expect a ban!

Things you should do against one

• 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 Weary
• Avoid areas that seem unnaturally dark.
• Don't fight alone
• Be prepared for anything

Things you SHOULD NOT do against one

• 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
• search for the ascendant in any way shape or form, you will be vaporized
• be close to an ascendant ever, seriously, you WILL DIE

So you see a Ascendant

It looks something like this, and we suggest that you.. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
Seriously, most of its abilities can kill you from anywhere it can see you.

If an ascendant sees you, you're either going to be a pile of gibs, or instantly converted to help them, or anywhere in between.


Unless, somehow... You can kill it?