Casimir Liber
Adventurer
ok
Shadowdancer
(...) Inhumanly tall and slim creatures of fiendish origin, an inactive shadowdancer is indistinguishable from a ebon statue of unearthly dark beauty. These "12 foot tall statues" move when touched by moonlight, walking with an elegant skipping gait as if they were dancing. Active shadowdancers become demonic-looking; their hawk-like face reveal flame-red eyes and a fanged mouth, and their hands are armed with sharp claws. (...)
(...) By the way, if you didn't already know, these creatures are clearly inspired by Robert E Howard's Conan story Shadows in the Moonlight (now Public Domain, so available on Project Gutenberg in it's Howard, Robert E. collection).
Those statues were not demons, but men (black-skinned hawk-faced warriors of a now forgotten race) cursed to become iron statues who came alive to attack intruders when the moon's light touched them. A survivor of the attack described them as "devils", "flame-eyed shadows, with tearing fangs and sharp talons", but the story does not say much more, since neither of the story's two viewpoint characters (Conan & Olivia) was present when the statues animated. The fight was offscreen when the "shadows" fell upon a crew of pirates camping in their ancient hall. Most of the description of them is actually from a dream Olivia had while sleeping in the hall.
There might also be a similarity to the inhuman black-skinned beings in The Pool of the Black One, which appears to still be in copyright in some territories. But it's out of copyright in Australia, which I believe is your neck of the woods, so you can read it on Gutenberg.net.au. (...)
Very interesting info indeed on the Howard connection!
However, if I may so bold, I would argue against describing the shadowdancers as having "hawk-like" faces and then some.
Albie Fiore doesn't describe them as such (to my knowledge, at least, so please correct me if I'm wrong) and I'd say that one could see the iron/ebon thing as "further evidence that we're dealing with different entities", as it were.
And then, last but not least, there is that I've always pictured shadow dancers as having only hints of facial features ever since I first met (and ran) them.
Gentlemen, you have shattered a cherished memory!
(...) If you prefer vague shadowy faces for the Dancers I'll make no objection.
Now that you mention it, I do seem to recall numerous speedy retreats...Ilgatto were they lethal when you ran the adventure? AC-5 at lvl 1 in AD&D....ouch...
(...)
Then I got an inspiration on how to do Grey Sqaarg this week (lightbulb goes on....)
Well...they're smooth and ebon when passive....Smooth and ebon!
anyway.....Chthon published here
I can't do anything about the +-1 glitch...except ask WOTC...will correct others
Interesting concept. To me, the original description seems to imply that they generally don't speak - just control animals, so happy to leave with just terran.
anyway...now here
Point taken.Well...they're smooth and ebon when passive....
(you're gonna hate it when I post a svart 5e conversion as I've just re-read Weirdstone of Brisingamen)
All that's left is deblueing the Enworld version and updating the Indexes.
Ok Cleon, what tickles yer fancy out of Buggane, Grey Sqaarg, Weresnake or svart