Items · Materials · Non-Magical
Umbral Clot
A fist-sized clot of shadows with strange visual properties.
The Umbral Clot is a fist sized object, sticky and malleable like putty, that has bizzare visual properties. Portions of the Clot that are not exposed to very direct light appear utterly black, like a section of void. However, if a portion of the Clot is exposed to extremely direct light, like that of the sun, or a lantern held very close to it, it appears white, like it is bleached of color. It has many applications for thiefs and protectors against thieves alike. If applied around an object in a darkened hallway, the object may dissapear entirely until exposed to direct light, which few thieves will risk when infiltrating a house. Likewise, thieves may stretch this substance around a portion of their body or face to help them blend into shadows.
Magical Properties:
Portions of the Clot that are not exposed to very direct light appear utterly black, like a section of void. However, if a portion of the Clot is exposed to extremely direct light, like that of the sun, or a lantern held very close to it, it appears white, like it is bleached of color.
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- Umbral Fens & the Road to Chiaroscuro by Murometz Bound
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- Umbral Fens & the Road to Chiaroscuro Murometz linked by Murometz
Where does it come from and why does it exist?
Oh, yeah! I knew I was forgetting something!
It's basically congealed shadows that form of an unknown phenomena, probably something to do with gates to the Shadow World.
I wonder if it has any other properties besides concealment. If you acquired enough and crafted a golem out of it, could you make a shadow golem?
Well, if you could gather enough umbral clots you might be able to slap some sort of shadow sculpture together and animate it.
Thinking about the gate issue.
From the Books of Corvus (the early volumes), 'You could always tell a gate that led to or through the Shadow Realm. There was this 'slime' that always built up around the edges. Slime is not quite the right word, as that would imply a texture or touch. It was nothing but shadow, no temperature, no real weight, just a volume of shadow. Some guardians of the gates collected the stuff with a religious fever, but most gate guardians simply scrubbed the stuff off and tossed it in the trash.'
From the Book of Corvus (The Later Volumes part IV), 'The experiment to make a shadow orb failed, though it did make an artistic splat upon the walls when the sun shined early in the mowning. Stopped staff from cleaning it up by turning one into a Wombat. I hate repeating myself. '
4 days later
'I became visable today. Perhaps trapping Shadowclots in a glass globe is not a great idea.'
Nice! Like Pratchett's flowing light and dehydrated water ...
This is one of those semi-mundane items that a character of mine loves to collect, not to mention the uses he could find (not the most morally implicated)
It is the very lubricant that allows the shadow realm its ease of movement, slipping and sliding between all of those other dimensions and planes. Devilish stuff!
A great concept, the Umbral Clot! So many ways to play around with this idea.
Wheeeeeee! We used the Umbral Clot!
This is pretty cool - it might look a bit like - https://www.surreynanosystems.com/vantablack