The Silken Shadows are master spies. Their cunning in the fields of disguise, information gathering, spin doctoring, and infiltration are unmatched. A single Silken Shadow is more than capable of toppling aristocrats, organizing a war, or manipulating entire political infrastructures. They are also capable thieves, adept at retrieving guarded items, infiltrating secure locations, and retrieving sensitive information. Because of their expertise, counter intelligence is also something they excel at. Despite the dark nature of their professions, Silken Shadows epitomize the old term ‘honour amongst thieves.’ Once initiated into the Order of the Silken Shadow, loyalty is expected till death.

Most Silken Shadows hail from the rogue or bard class. Rarely however, fighters, clerics and even the odd barbarian have become Silken Shadows. There are no paladin Silken Shadows.

NPC Silken Shadows are often spies in noble courts. They are generally working for another noble or political interest. Sometimes they are gathering information for the Order of the Silken Shadow itself.

Hit Die: d6

To qualify to become a Silken Shadow, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment: Any non chaotic.

Disguise: 5 ranks.

Bluff: 8 ranks.

Gather Information: 3 ranks.

Innuendo: 5 ranks.

Sense Motive: 5 ranks.

The Silken Shadow’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Innuendo (Wis), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Pick Pocket (Dex), Read Lips (Int), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spot (Wis).

All of the following are features of the Silken Shadow prestige class.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Silken Shadows are proficient with the club, crossbow (hand, light, and heavy), dagger (any type), dart, quarterstaff, rapier, sap, shortbow (normal and composite), and short sword. Silken Shadows are proficient with light armour but not shields. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pockets, and Tumble.

Undetectable Alignment: Starting at first level, a Silken Shadow is treated as though she were constantly under the effects of the 2^nd level bard spell, ‘Undetectable Alignment.’ This conceals his alignment from all forms of divination. This is a supernatural ability.

Eyes That See Deeply: You have developed a keen and quick intuition. You are adept at reading between the lines and watching people’s bodies say one thing even as their mouths say something else. The truth often comes in the subtle details. Starting at 2^nd level and every 2 levels past second, the Silken Shadow gains a +1 profession bonus to Sense Motive.

Encryption: At 2^nd level a Silken Shadow learns to place hidden messages in seemingly mundane written communications. To achieve this, the character rolls an Innuendo check (DC 15). If successful, the Silken Shadow may encode a short message (no more than 50 words). Upon casual observation, the message will seem completely mundane. Decoding the message without the key requires a Decipher Script roll (DC 35). Each attempt to encrypt a message takes 1 hour.

Thought Shield: Starting at 3^rd level, the Silken Shadow has learned how to keep others from detecting and reading her thoughts. She gains a +3 enhancement bonus to saves versus ‘thought reading’ effects (ie. Detect Thoughts spell). This is an extraordinary ability.

Chameleonic Aura: At 4^th level, the Silken Shadow learns how to alter his own aura as she sees fit. Once per day, the Silken Shadow may alter her aura to reveal any alignment she wishes (or none at all, if so desired). Her aura will continue to show that alignment until the next time she changes it. This is a supernatural ability.

Spells: At 4^th level the Silken Shadow learns to cast a limited amount of arcane spells. To cast a spell, the Silken Shadow must have an Intelligence score of at least 10 + the spell’s level, so a Silken Shadow with an Intelligence score of less than 10 cannot cast spells. Silken Shadow bonus spells are based on Intelligence, and saving throws against these spells have a DC of 10 + the spell’s level + the Silken Shadow’s Intelligence modifier. When the Silken Shadow gains 0 spells of a given level, such as 0 1^st-level spells at 4^th level, the she gets only bonus spells. The Silken Shadow’s spell list appears below. In addition to the chosen spells, the Silken Shadow gains the ability to cast the 0^th level arcane spell arcane mark once per day.

Mind Shield: At 5^th level, the Silken Shadow gains the Iron Will feat.

Counterintelligence: At 5^th level the Silken Shadow has learned the art of counterintelligence. She gains a +2 profession bonus to her Sense Motive skill checks when attempting to detect another spy or when securing an area against spying.

Eyes and Ears Everywhere: At 6^th level the Silken Shadow gains a +2 profession bonus to his Gather Information skill as long as she has spent at least two days setting up contacts in the immediate area (within the town, encampment, etc.).

Poison Preparation: At 7^th level a Silken Shadow gains the ability to brew two types of poison. The first is Oil of Taggit (Ingested DC 15, 0 initial, unconsciousness secondary, 1 day preparation time, 45 gp materials cost). The second is Dark Reaver Powder (Ingested DC 18, 2d6 Con initial, 1d6 Con + 1d6 Str secondary, 3 day preparation time, 150 gp materials cost).

Golden Tongue: Starting at 9^th level the Silken Shadow has become so adept at the arts of swaying others with her words that he may re-roll any failed bluff or diplomacy check. She may only re-roll any single check once and must accept the second roll.

Silken Shadows choose spells from the following list:

1^st Level – comprehend languages, detect secret doors, change self, ventriloquism, message

2^nd Level - obscure object, detect thoughts, locate object, see invisibility, invisibility, misdirection, alter self, darkvision, whispering wind.

3^rd Level – nondetection, clairaudience/clairvoyance, tongues, suggestion, illusionary script, secret page.

4^th Level – arcane eye, detect scrying, emotion, locate creature, scrying, improved invisibility.