Legends of the Shattered World
The original author's name has been lost. He played Persied the Centaur in early 1996. If I every find out his name again, I'll put it here. This is what I remember from his original message. - Shawn
Little is known, but much is feared about the Hooded Men. They are believed to be a form of Undead, but also have strange psionic abilities. They are definitely highly intelligent and resourceful.
The Hooded Men are usually encountered singly, or in small groups of no more than 5. They appear as hooded and cloaked figures with no parts of thier bodies exposed. Their cloaks are filled with shadow and are mostly immaterial. The sight of a Hooded Man causes normal men to run in fear, the same affect as if they'd seen a Ghost. When a Hooded Man has been slain, his cloak was found empty except for one small body part such as an arm, head, leg, etc. Nothing else remained.
Hooded Men are known for kidnapping members of other races. They perform some sort of psionic ritual on the victim over a period of several weeks. Perhaps it is a means of transforming the poor soul into another hooded man. Or, more likely, it is some strange experiment that only the Hooded Men truely understand.
Often, the victim is released insane, drooling and useless. Some who have escaped with their sanity have reported increased abilities in psionics or some new ability they never had, such as regeneration, levitation, unaging. They are usually a little easier to dominate by magical or psionic means after that. And always, they develop an intense fear of something that robs them of their senses when they encountered it.
Hooded Men do not normally exist in the Abyss, only on fragments. When found on a Dragonship in the Abyss, a Hooded Man has only reduced powers and appears only as a body part, an arm, leg, head, etc, wrapped in a cloak. He is unable to move and easily slain. When they reach a fragment, the cloak fills out with shadowstuff. The Hooded Man regains all his powers and sets out on his unknown mission.
On some fragments a cult of followers have developed, worshipping the Hooded Men. The cult is made of many races. Their purpose is unkown. All that is known is that in some rare cases a Hooded Man will arrive at the cult's woship ceremony and take away one of the higher ranking members. The member is returned weeks later either an insane, drooling madman, or dead, cut up in six pieces (arms, legs, head and torso).
The cult believes it to be lucky to be murdered in this fasion. The body parts are wraped in new black cloaks and blessed by the cult. They are hidden in cargo and shipped to another fragment where they believe each part will be reborn in eternal life as a Hooded Man.
The Hooded Men seems to have some sort of Psychic Surgery ability. They attempt to bring out the abilities of their victims. Apparently, if they are successful, the victim is slain and turned into a Hooded Man. If unsuccessful, the victim goes insane.
The most powerful Hooded Men are those who had psionic abilities before being changed. They retain nearly all their powers, but odd or new powers appear as well. Sometimes the powers have strange side affects that wouldn't be considered normal, such as an audio illusion only being effective against an apponent that can see. Or being unable to read the mind of a victim unless they are of a certain age.
Hooded Men cannot be attacked psionically, nor can they attack psionically, unless they had psionics before becoming a hooded man.
On a Fragment, Hooded Men can fight with normal weapons or by touch. The touch of a Hooded Man causes Fear (save vs. Magic or run away) and d8+1. The first sighting of a Hooded Man also causes Fear. A Hooded Man can only be struck my magical weapons, or weapons made of pure iron. They also can become immaterial by use of wraithform to escape a powerful foe.