Concealable and Versatile

This is perhaps the most effective flexible weapon I’m aware of, being not so long as to make it impossible to control, but long enough to create considerable reach. There are no rules, but a typical gusari is between 18 and 36 inches, with 20–24 inches being fairly typical. It’s quite versatile and can be used for strikes, chokes, traps, and throws. It’s also very small and concealable. One favored technique is to hold the coiled chain in one hand and throw one weight while holding on to the other.

Although not impossible to control, this weapon is very difficult to learn and use effectively.

Don’t Beat Yourself Up

Flexible weapons have the nasty tendency of biting the operator, and this one is no exception. It’s hard to control when swung, and the weights will cause a very deep bruise every time. If it strikes an area over bone, it will cut, despite its being considered a “bloodless” weapon. In expert hands, however, it can be concealed and then quickly deployed to devastating effect.

How’d I Make It?

This one is very simple to make, and the materials are inexpensive mild (low carbon) steel. I’ve used materials of various sizes, but I think I’ve settled on 1/2” square bar, 3” long, drilled and ground thinner on one end to receive the ring. The ring is either 3/16” round bar, or a link from larger chain. I cut the ring and bend it open, put on the chain and weight, bend the ring closed, and MIG weld the seam.

A short soak in ferric chloride followed by a cold blue in 50/50 selenium / phosphoric acid, and it’s done. I think the cold blue really gives it the appearance of age.

Manriki-gusari . . . Do you-gusari?

Appearance

A typical shadow claw stands 7 ft. tall at the shoulders and weighs 300 pounds, all of it solid muscle. Its entire body is covered in thick, black fur that fades to a deep gray on its underbelly. It has a long, muscular tail that both aids in balance and can be used as a bludgeon in combat.

The shadow claw’s powerful legs allow it to run at high speeds, and each leg is equipped with terribly sharp claws. This combination of sharp claws and brawny legs allow the shadow claw to easily tear the flesh off its prey. The shadow claw’s mouth is filled with razor-sharp teeth and equipped with powerfully muscled jaws, allowing it to bite or rip the head clean off of even large animals.

History

Shadow claws are not entirely natural creatures, but rather magically enhanced dire wolverines. According to information gathered from various sources, the first shadow claws were created centuries ago by a cabal of wizards whose name has been lost to history. They sought to create the perfect guard animal to keep their sanctums and secrets safe, and they believed they could magically enhance an existing beast to suit their needs.

The wizards saw the dire wolverine as the perfect animal for this project, most likely due to its ferocity. They captured a couple of dire wolverines and brought them back to their magical labs, where they enhanced the beasts’ strength and resilience. They also gave the wolverines other magical enhancements, including an invisibility effect that made the beasts virtually impossible to see when they stood still or moved slowly and a less powerful blurring effect that made them harder to strike in combat.

Unfortunately, the magical safeguards the wizards imbued into the dire wolverines to make them trainable proved insufficient to quell the inherent bloodlust of the creatures. After a short time, the test subjects escaped the wizards’ lab. Once out in the wild, the shadow claws bred with natural dire wolverines. Because the wizards engineered the shadow claw to breed true in the hopes of providing themselves with an easily renewable resource, the offspring of these unions exhibited the same magical enhancements as the shadow claw, allowing the beast to spread around the world in short order.

Habitat and Behavior

Shadow claws travel in packs of 3 to 12 individuals, one of whom serves as the pack leader. They can survive in a wide variety of environments, from deserts to tundra. They seem to favor forests and mountains, however, likely because there is varied enough terrain in these environments for them to launch the ferocious ambush attacks for which they’re infamous. The only restriction on where a pack of shadow claws chooses to live seems to be food supply; if a pack of shadow claws do not find enough food to sustain the pack upon moving into an area, they will relocate.

These beasts are also drawn to magical power sites, whether they’re natural or man-made. As a result, many such sites across the world have shadow claws patrolling their grounds, assuming there’s enough food in the vicinity to sustain them. The owners of many inhabited sites take measures to drive away or eliminate any shadow claws drawn to the area, since their uncontrollable viciousness outweighs any benefits they might provide as security animals.

Despite being a magically enhanced species, shadow claws settle quite naturally into the role of apex predator in any place they choose to settle. On their own, they attack and eat absolutely any living creature that they come across, even animals as large as elephants. When an entire pack of shadow claws hunts together, it can bring down even larger creatures.

Shadow claws are highly cunning beasts that adapt their hunting tactics to suit their prey. Against weaker creatures, they favor brutal, direct assaults that kill their prey in one strike. When fighting larger opponents, or prey traveling in groups too large to attack directly, shadow claws resort to ambush tactics, using the terrain to their advantage in setting up a surprise attack with the intent of encircling and slaughtering the target. Despite their ferocity, shadow claws do not fight to the death, and if the pack takes too many losses, its remaining members retreat.

Shadow claws have no fear of man, and they attack an armed squad of soldiers as readily as they’ll attack any other animal. Indeed, they’re unusually adept at sizing up civilized opposition based on factors like the weapons they’re carrying—shadow claw packs have been known to employ ambush tactics against groups of two or three heavily armed and armored men, while engaging in all-out assaults against groups of 20 lightly equipped travelers. Whether this trait was deliberately engineered into the first generation of shadow claws or simply an unintended side effect of the magical engineering performed on them is unknown, but either way, it makes shadow claws dangerous opponents for even well-prepared adventurers.

Watch for Part 2 of this monster entry, which will contain statistics and more!

(If you don’t waltz, you can tango into our vaults. The Charleston is also acceptable.)

Go to the Kobold Store, add issue #14 to your cart, and enter the coupon code KoboldWelcome at checkout to snatch a PDF copy of your own. It’s our big Gen Con 2010 issue, with nearly 100 pages of articles by Ed Greenwood, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Adam Daigle, Michael Furlanetto, John Baichtal, Jeff Tidball, Tim and Eileen Connors, John Wick and many others—plus an interview with Rob Heinsoo.

While you’re there, you might also want to get a copy of the new issue, Kobold Quarterly #20. Heck, you might even want to subscribe.

Remember, the vault closes again on February 14, so act soon!

We would love to see what sorts of creative things all of you have come up with for your games.

While we’re here, we want to thank those who have already sent in submissions, plus we thank those who have commented on the blog.

Previously… (Seriously. Check out the previously if you missed it!)

DAY FIVE

New unintelligent undead arrived today. More accurately, the bodies of the attacking dwarven warriors have been re-animated to act as guards, and so has Sigvald.

New arrivals are total jerks; at Jimbo’s suggestion, am trying to figure out how to sneak up on them and put silly hats on their heads while they are not paying attention. Limited success, limited access to silly hats.

Really looking forward to this weekend. Need vacation.

DAY SIX

Weekend vacation canceled due to adventurers. Hid in my strategically important water-filled hole while the dwarf skeletons and the reanimated Sigvald fought the intruders; pretended to be a semi-sentient toxic mold. Have perfected a pretty darn good impression, according to Jimbo. The trick is to make bloop-blurgle sounds and occasionally say things like ‘I am very toxic’; am told that I am quite convincing.

Impression has not been field-tested against actual adventurers; group of humans walked past the door to my room without bothering to look for me.

NOTE: Have taken precaution of writing ‘Warning: Cursed Fountain’ over the fountain and ‘Caution: Haunted Door’ above the doorway to deter entry.

DAY SEVEN

Decided to take the day off, adventurers or no. Aforementioned adventurers currently camping right outside my door, tending to wounds inflicted by Neil and his co-workers on level 2.

Trying to be very quiet. Poker night canceled; now reading a heavily annotated copy of “Menfolk are from the North, on the Ninvellir, standing upon the dwelling place of Sindri’s kin, they who are adorned in gold; Womenfolk should ever remain by the Hearth,” apparently a book of dwarven relationship advice, which I found on the floor covered in reanimated dwarf gunk.

Very interesting stuff. Now feel qualified to date a dwarven woman.

Have decided to grow a beard.

DAY EIGHT

Hate Mondays.

Adventurers left this morning to investigate down to level 3; have been hearing a lot of screaming and commotion coming from below all day. Very annoying.

Redecorating strategically important fountain and theoretically important fountain room to make them more ominous and therefore impractical to investigate. Jimbo has assisted me in adding layers of evil-looking symbols and junk to the wall. After much deliberation, we raided the room formerly belonging to Sigvald for candles and skulls and furs and things.

Having seen it, now strongly considering moving into Sigvald’s old place: very nice acoustics, good Feng Shui, a lovely secret door leading to a crawlspace that leads into the adjoining haunted woods next to the dungeon, excellent carpeting, good-sized closets. Unfortunately, a bit too conspicuous.

Huge main door, covered in skulls. I mean, you just walk into the first level of the dungeon, and you’re like “Oh, man, I bet the mini-boss is in there. Also: treasure.”

Still considering.

DAY NINE

Great day! Killed that group of adventurers, feeling really positive about life.

Quietly knifed the already injured wizard who was on watch; then calmly slit the throats of all the others in sequence. Now have a spellbook and am strongly considering becoming a mage.

Jimbo has volunteered to be my familiar.

DAY TEN

Will be updating further at later date; currently learning to cast spells. Magic not as hard as everyone makes it out to be, apparently.

About the Author
Clinton J. Boomer, known to his friends as ‘Booms,’ resides in the quaint, leafy, idyllic paradise of Macomb, Illinois. He began writing before the time of his own recollection, predominantly dictating stories to his ever-patient mother about fire-monsters and ice-monsters throwing children into garbage cans. He began gaming with the 1993 release ofPlanescape, which shaped his junior high years, and he was first published professionally in the ENnie Award-winning Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting from Paizo Publishing after placing in the Final Four of Paizo’s inaugural RPG Superstar! Competition. He currently devotes a full 99.9% of his waking hours to thinking about fantasy adventure in general or ninjas, more specifically. Boomer is a writer, filmmaker, gamer, and bartender; his short comedic films, the “D&D PHB PSAs,” have over 4,000 subscribers on YouTube and and have been viewed nearly a million and a half times. His debut novel The Hole Behind Midnight was released in 2011; Daniel O’Brien, columnist for Cracked.com and contributor to the New York Times bestseller You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News called it “ … Raymond Chandler meets Douglas Adams by way of a fantasy nerd’s fever dream. And it’s AWESOME.” Boomer is currently the happiest he has ever been in his whole life.

In the meantime, you can amuse yourselves with a free issue of Kobold Quarterly #14. The price is definitely right, so what are you waiting for? Follow the link to find more information on how to snag this freebie for yourself! Also, if you missed it the first time, we have a fun video showing artist Richard Clark as he worked on the cover of Kobold Quarterly #20.

“You hold in your hands a cut ruby as large as your clenched fist. The light shines on its surface, reflecting your face like a beautiful yet fractured mirror. Beams refract through its structure, causing it to seem to glow in your grasp, and it possesses an unexpected weight. Even in a gem of this size, the heft of the ruby is unbelievable.”

The Eye of Fate is an impressive find with a suitably impressive history. First mentioned some thousand years ago, the eye was discovered by a now nameless sorcerer. He claimed it as his source of power, and used it to establish one of the first empires in the region. His most impressive feat was to slay a dragon that threatened his rule. The magician’s personal refuge was destroyed by siege engines immediately after his death, and his name erased from history in a bold move by Arcus IV, the noble who next assumed power.

Throughout history, whenever a powerful individual rose to great heights, and later fell to treachery or arrogance, it has been believed to be the work of the eye. Less than a hundred years ago, General Dannelan claimed that he had found the eye shortly before he turned on his ruler and seized control of the country. In twelve years, the new king had quelled all resistance and expanded the borders—an impressive feat. His wife, however, poisoned him and left with his adjunct advisor. The eye fell into obscurity at this point, but rumors say an insular noble found it and hid it away, unused.

The eye has three distinct powers:

1. It increases the efficacy of casting spells, providing a +2 bonus to the Magic test, as well as a +2 bonus to Spellpower. To gain these bonuses, the Mage must hold it in at least one hand when casting a spell.

2. It also increases the reputation and social power of the bearer. This second power is more subtle, letting the bearer re-roll his or her dragon die in all social interactions for the purpose of determining influence (not stunt points). However, the second result must be kept.

3. The ruby binds fate to the ambitions of the bearer, altering events so that the owner’s most ambitious desires might come to pass. A kind ear here, a more fortuitous outcome on the battlefield there—the gem is extremely subtle and thus there are no rules for this. The Game Master can choose to manifest this in game terms, or not.

The main drawback of the eye is that it is also appears to warp fate to find a new master. Enemies and even friends have been tempted to steal or murder for it. All attempts to hide that the bearer owns the eye are fruitless, since it shifts fate to become known in a rumor or surprise presentation. Just as it changes events to bring the bearer’s ambitions to fruition, it inspires others to do whatever is necessary to acquire the eye. It takes a truly impressive individual to find, use, and keep the Eye of Fate. The only way to safely own it is to lock it away, unused. However, the eye sometimes shifts events to be discovered again, even when hidden and forgotten by all but history itself.

Perhaps this last part is how it comes to light in your campaign?

While our kobold guards are off chasing the culprits, you can sneak in and download a FREE issue of Kobold Quarterly magazine. Go to the KQ Store, add issue #14 to your cart, and enter the coupon code KoboldWelcome at checkout to snatch a PDF copy of your own.

Issue #14 was our extra-big Gen Con issue, and in its pages you’ll find:

• Exclusive Pathfinder content, including two articles by Paizo staff
• The Ecology of the Tengu—in Golarion and in Zobeck
• An interview with 4th Edition D&D lead designer Rob Heinsoo
• Treasure Trove articles with phat loots to improve your game and bring smiles to players
• Paladins, secret languages, and aasimar PCs
• Secrets of Game Design by Monte Cook
• So much more that it makes us dizzy to even think about it!

The vault will be locked and guarded again on February 14, so act now!

While you’re there you might also want to get a copy of the new issue, Kobold Quarterly #20 and build an elven archer, equip yourself with clever new arrows, and survive fey hunters and their hounds. You’ll also find Jeff Grubb discussing the lost elves of Midgard, an interview with Christina Stiles, a new Zobeck adventure, vile Derro ooze magic, AGE system specialties, 4E racial utility powers, and more. Heck, you might even want to subscribe so you don’t miss a single issue.