Cloakers resemble common black cloaks with
rows of black eye spots running
down their backs like buttons. Two
ivory colored claws on the upper
Cloakers, also known as lurkers
in shadow or chasm rays,
edge of a cloakers form are easily mistaken for bone clasps.
The white underside of a cloaker bears a horrific horned
face composed of two glowing red eyes and a ravenous maw.
A whiplike tail completes its monstrous form.
Cloakers fly with blinding speed, engulfing prey within
their folds. While devouring victims, cloakers defend
themselves with their tails. In addition, they emit subsonic
moans with varying effects that induce numbing unease,
fear, nausea, weakness, or paralyzation. Cloakers also
manipulate shadows to obscure opponents vision or produce
precise images. Cloaker thought processes are utterly
alien to most other life forms. As such, only mages who
devote long hours to training their minds in the arcane discipline
can understand them.
A rare, elite form of cloaker, known as the cloaker lord,
appears as a large black cloak, such as an ogre or giant
might wear. Cloaker lords powers and abilities correspond
to those of normal cloakers, but with significant enhancements.
Otherwise, they are physically identical to their
lesser kin.
Cloakers have lived in the Underdark since the earliest
recorded dwarf explorations. Their origins are lost in the
mists of history. Many scholars have noted the close physical
resemblance of cloakers to other flying rays, including
mantari and miners (forest trappers), as well as the ixzan
and ixitxachitl. Others suggest a kinship between cloakers
and bats, pointing to sinisters in particular. A closer study
reveals that while some ancestral kinship may exist
between cloakers and other races, chasm rays are decidedly
alien. A few sages go so far as to speculate that cloakers are
descendants of an ancient race of proto-rays (or proto-bats)
who made their way into the Demiplane of Shadow for a
time before returning to the Underdark. While all agree
that cloakers have long resided in the Realms Below,
cloaker lords seem to be a relatively recent occurrence,
arising within the past few centuries. An explanation of
their manifestation still etudes scholars. Possibly, cloaker
lords have existed for as long as common cloakers, but
remained hidden for millennia before making their existence
known. If true, that begs the question of why cloaker
lords have chosen to appear now (within recorded history)
and why no evidence of cloaker civilization dates back
more than a few centuries.
Cloakers are found individually and in small groups
throughout the lower and middle Underdark. They establish
cities only when drawn together by one or more cloaker
lords. Cloaker lords hold a natural domination effect over
common cloakers, drawing normally solitary cloakers
together into raiding bands, small communities, and even
cities. If more than one cloaker lord is present, then the
rulers draw together periodically to form a Conclave of
Shadows, a body with no established leader that requires
unanimity on any decision. When a Conclave of Shadows is
convened, the assembled representatives form a ring (or in
rare cases, a sphere) by positioning themselves at different
orientations and grasping each other with their claws. Such
formations then undergo a temporary transformation, not
yet understood, that results in a ring (or sphere) of living
shadowstuff and an apparent merging of minds. When the
cloaker lords disengage, they resume their original, individual
forms and disperse to carry out the conclaves decision.
Although cloakers and cloaker lords historically do not
exhibit spellcasting powers, their ties to the Demiplane of
Shadow are strong and apparently growing. As such, other
races have begun to report that a few cloaker lords seem to
be developing the ability to cast wizard spells from the
school of shadow as spell-like effects. Others report that
cloakers seem to travel through physical obstacles, lending
credence to the suggestion that they can briefly shift into
the Demiplane of Shadow and emerge elsewhere. Finally,
the increasing frequency of gloomwings, shadelings, tenebrous
worms, and umbrimals (shadow animals akin to animentals),
near cloaker enclaves suggests that the cloakers
summon such creatures to the Prime Material Plane, possibly
even controlling them.
Unlike nearly all other sentient races of the Underdark,
cloakers do not appear to venerate any particular deity.
Other races, with the notable exception of derro, refer to
individual cloakers as Diinkarazans Mantle, a fanciful linking
of the lost, mad demipower of the derro to the alien
thought processes of the cloakers.
Cloaker cities are built into the roofs of great subterranean
caverns or the sides of steep Underdark chasms.
Favored locations include places with massive stalactites
and towering chasm walls, inaccessible to those without
flight or levitation. While cloakers do not dominate any
one region of Deepearth, their isolated enclaves are rarely
contested, for such strongholds are nearly impregnable to
other races. If not for the tendency of cloakers to hunt
other nearby races, it would be simple enough to share such
prized living spaces with those who prefer the more accessible
cavern floors. More than one explorer has entered a
large cave and mistaken the hordes of dark, flying creatures
for bats, only to realize with horror that he or she has misjudged
the scale of the subterranean cavern and that hundreds
of cloakers are flitting overhead.
Whether hewn into a rock face or a dangling stalactite,
cloaker cities are recognizable for the countless apertures
through which they enter and leave. Within a cloaker
enclave, most passages are extremely high and narrow,
rarely more than a few inches wide. Cloakers navigate such
passageways by flattening their bodies and inching along
with their claws. Chambers resemble hemispheres with
smooth, rounded ceilings and wildly uneven floors with
sharp spikes and crevices everywhere. The floors serve as
both alien tapestries for the cloakers to contemplate as well
as defensive mechanisms, preventing flightless races from
establishing solid footing.
While cloakers are capable of mining, agriculture, and
trading, they would rather enslave other races to do these
jobs for them. Some cloaker communities keep captive
herds of deep rothé penned in on the cavern floor below
their communities. Such examples of animal husbandry are
exceptional, however. Sages suggest this fact indicates that
cloaker society incorporates the hunt into societal ritual.
Aside from an eerily uninhabited region, the most obvious
signal of a large community of cloakers is the Warding
Song, a great barrier of sound created by a cloaker choir.
The cacophony created by hundreds of cloakers emitting
subsonic moans of increasing intensity can echo through
the Underdark for miles, creating panic and uncomprehending
terror in communities far away with the slight shift
of a breeze or an echo. Warding songs start and stop without
any discernible pattern, and thus are impossible to predict.
While not truly evil, cloakers view all other races as
prey. A few cloaker realms have allied themselves with
other races, such as the ixzan, though again, this is a rare
exception. Other flying rays, including lurkers, mantari,
and trappers, are treated as favored servitors. Some creatures,
such as deepspawn and floaters, are forced into servitude
by the powers of the cloaker lords moans. Deepspawn
serve as a means to renew food stocks. Floaters, who resemble
long, puffed-up purple worms with tiny shimmering
wings in rows on either side, are enormous gasbags, ranging
from 20 to 100 yards long and up to 20 yards in diameter,
who serve as beasts of burden.
ersonal spell should affect this cloaker; but those cloakers and this cloaker are the same, so this cloaker's spell should be affecting them as well. So it tries to spread a range
