Shadowling

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Shadowling

Superiors: None. Thralls just need to obey the Shadowlings.
Difficulty: Hard
Guides: This is the guide.
Access: Whatever you or your victims had or have
Duties: Enthrall the crew, ascend and become akin to a God.

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Shadowlings are light-sensitive xenoform alien creatures from space. They are mainly defensive, but can 'enthrall' crew, taking control of their minds by a tumor on their brain. Shadowlings start off disguised as a normal crewman but they have to take time to 'hatch' to unlock their powers.

When 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	Hatched	0s	Of course, shadowlings are weak. They can easily be killed by a lightbulb. So, how does it act without risking itself? Entrallment! 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. Be aware that mindshield implants make crew immune to this ability.
Glare	Hatched	30s	Glare is a basic single-target stun. It's effectiveness depends on the distance to a target. The further the target is, the shorter stun target gets and there will be a longer delay before stun kicks in. Target will also be slowed and muted even before stun takes effect. Targets glared right next to the Shadowling are stunned and muted without any further delay for a maximum duration. (WARNING: This Ability will bring up a menu, does not work as an area of effect but instead as a targeted ability)
Veil	Hatched	15s	Veil instantly puts out all electrical light sources, mobile or otherwise, near the shadowling. They can easily be repaired, turned back on, or simply replaced. Some slime extracts have shown resistance to this, as well as fire-based light.
Shadow Walk	Hatched	30s	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.
Icy Veins	Hatched	25s	Icy Veins 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	Hatched	30s	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.
Rapid Re-Hatch ]	Hatched	60s	Allows the shadowling to rapidly rejuvenate their genetic material, removing any cloning damage and DNA defects that might have been the result of cloning or more creative of the weapons used by the crew.
Destroy Engines	Hatched	N/A	A one-time use ability, you can delay the shuttle from arriving by 10 minutes by sacricifing non-ally target. Useful for giving yourself that extra little time getting the final thralls.
Sonic Screech	Hatched + 3 Thralls	30s	The shadowling can let out a piercing screech. This will confuse and deafen nearby humans, damage windows, and stun silicons.
Blindness Smoke	Hatched + 5 Thralls	60s	By regurgitating a cloud of black smoke, shadowlings can disorient pursuers. This smoke will induce blindness in non-shadowlings, but heal shadowlings and thralls.
Null Charge	Hatched + 7 Thralls	60s	This ability will send an APC battery to the void, preventing it from recharging or sending power until it is repaired. Shadowling must stand still next to the APC without interruption for a good moment, or the whole process will fail and APC will immediately repower.
Black Recuperation	Hatched + 9 thralls	60s	This ability allows you to either bring back a dead thrall to life or empower a living thrall, making them a Lesser Shadowling, making their abilities more powerful.
Ascendance	Hatched + 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	30s	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	45s	Ascendants can enthrall from a range and with extremely increased speed. Basically, it's a ranged and instant version of enthrall.
Plane Shift	Ascendant	Toggle	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.
Lightning Storm	Ascendant	10s	Ascendants collect a ball of seething energy and then release it, shocking everyone in a radius around them.
Ascendant Broadcast	Ascendant	20s	This ability allows for a broadcasted message that is very, very hard to miss.

I appear to be a Shadowling. What do I do?

So you're a disguised Shadowling. Congratulations! Here're some pointers on how to play this role successfully.

Starting Off

You're disguised. You don't take any damage from lights and you are undetectable by any means short of godly intervention. Your only ability currently is being able to communicate using the shadowling hivemind (:8). 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. Take advantage of the position you're in, coming back to your workplace later will be almost impossible. Grab equipment that will help you tie people up while you enthrall them. There are a lot of options.

Post-Hatch

So you've hatched. You have all of your proper 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 can only be turned back through Surgery 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, and you gain a stun reduction, night vision and thermal vision as well. 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.

Alright, a Shadowling got me. What do I do?

So a Shadowling mesmerized you by staring into your eyes 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 can also communicate with the hivemind by using the :8 channel. You're basically an Adamantine Golem in terms of where your loyalties lie -- utterly with the shadowlings. If the Shadowling wants you to march to your death, you do. You no longer have a choice.

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 a Thrall, your Darksight ability isn't as powerful as a Shadowling's, so you have to utilize a light - remember that you can kill your Masters with even your PDA light. You do have one advantage, however: stealth. It is very difficult to tell you are a Thrall without a Loyalty Implant, exploratory Surgery, or if you wear a mask. Use this to your advantage to do things for your Masters. Always stay in touch.

Finally, you and other tralls will 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.

To help your masters, you also have a few abilities.

Name	Cooldown	Description
Guise	120s	Wraps your form in shadows, making you harder to see. If you are in a dark place and you use this ability, you will becoming harder to see for 4 seconds. This doesn't make you completely invisible, however. The ability has to be activated in the dark, but works in the light. If you become a Lesser Shadowling this ability will be upgraded to the normal Shadowling's Shadow Walk.
Thrall Darksight	N/A	Gives you night vision.

I think there's Shadowlings. How do I fight them?

So the shouts over the radio were not wizards, nukies, or blob, but shadowlings? Your work is gonna be cut out for you, soldier. Shadowlings are terrifying foes and can do much to avoid you. They can even extinguish lights, save for fire-based sources (like Flares) and yellow slime extracts. 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, as are slime extracts if Xenobiology is doing their job, and if all else fails Botany can make torches)
• Carry flashbangs or flash powder grenades from Security or Science. Flashes are not enough.
• Be extremely wary.
• Avoid areas that seem unnaturally dark, usually maintenance.
• Don't fight anything alone.
• Watch for suspicious activity.
• Do not fight anything alone.
• Be prepared for anything, people with masks on make great hints that these people are thralls.
• Do NOT fight anything alone.
• Consider getting a cyborg to accompany you--glares cannot stun them, and they can turn their lights on again very quickly. Sonic screeches, however, can still stun them.
• Do NOT fight ANYTHING alone.

Things you SHOULDN'T do

• 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. That won't work, ever.
• Refuse to talk or communicate - a silent vigilante, as proven by the mime, is the best vigilante.
• Don't suicide once enthralled. This is a bannable offense.
• Attack an ascendant.
• Be near an ascendant.
• Consider approaching an ascendant.
• Look at an Ascendant in a suggestive way.
• Hug lewdly at an Ascendant.
• Trade life stories with an Ascendant.
• Exist around an Ascendant.

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. At this point, it's pretty much Game Over -

In Event of Ascendance, Break Glass

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

That red stuff used to be the Clown. Run in another direction.

Your Last Hope

Ascendant Shadowlings are obscenely powerful - They are completely invulnerable to normal attacks, can phase through walls at zero cost, and possess a slew of other abilities that make even the manliest man cry. They can instantly enthrall you, literally use their brains to instantly make you explode into a colorful splatter of blood and organs, rip holes in spacetime and generally be a bad guy to be around.

You're probably going to die in a painful and gruesome manner, so make your peace with your Gods. You can hope that they're somehow friendly, or want more thralls...
More than likely, they'll just murder you, though.

Unless you can find a way to kill them?

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