Robe of the Shadow Maw

Description

At first glance, this robe appears to be made of finely woven black cotton — a garment of quiet luxury and weight. It hangs with a heavy drape and moves fluidly in dim light. Upon closer inspection, faint runes can be seen sewn in thread just slightly darker than the cloth itself, glimmering at certain angles or under moonlight. Tiny embroidered eyes seem shut, though their positions subtly change when unobserved.   The inner lining has a soft, oily sheen. In truth, the robe is crafted from the hide of a slain Cloaker. Through alchemical and arcane processes involving a substance known as Essence of Veilshade, the hide has been transformed to mimic the appearance, feel, and movement of heavy cloth while concealing its organic nature. Only a deliberate inspection (DC 17 Intelligence [Investigation]) reveals the truth.  

Origin

This robe was created by Eldrin Marr, a Human arcanist of Ilthmar once whispered to have served the Cult of Cthulhu. In a forbidden ritual, Marr bound a Cloaker’s living essence into the creature’s own skin, shaping it into a vessel of sentient darkness. Fragments of the creature’s mind remain within the garment, granting it an unsettling awareness and faint hunger. They are regarded as "living wards," designed to protect their wearers through fear and devotion.  

Magical Properties

 

Veil of False Substance

The robe constantly projects a faint glamour that causes it to appear as any dark, mundane garment you choose. You can alter its apparent style or shape (such as changing it from a robe to a cloak or cassock) as an action. This illusion fools ordinary senses and divination magic of 3rd level or lower.  

Living Armor

While wearing and attuned to the robe, your Armor Class equals 14 + your Dexterity modifier (maximum +2). The robe subtly hardens when danger nears, its surface rippling like living muscle beneath the illusion of cloth. You gain no benefit from wearing armor while attuned to the robe, but you can still use a shield if you are proficient with it.  

Cloaker’s Legacy

While wearing the robe, you gain darkvision out to 60 feet. If you already have darkvision, its range increases by 30 feet. You also have advantage on Stealth checks made in dim light or darkness.   Once per long rest, you can use a bonus action to wreathe yourself in shadow for 1 minute. While this effect lasts, an aura of supernatural gloom clings to your form: if you are standing in bright light or normal light, you are considered to be in dim light; and if you are standing in dim light or darkness, you are considered to be in darkness. While you are in dim light or darkness (including those created by this aura), attack rolls made against you have disadvantage.  

Dreadful Whispers (Recharge 6)

As an action, you can channel the latent fear within the robe. Each creature of your choice within 30 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier). On a failed save, a creature is frightened for 1 minute and hears faint whispers and cries in its mind. On a success, the creature has immunity to this effect for 24 hours.  

Living Hide

The robe subtly breathes and shifts, pulsing in rhythm with your heartbeat. When you are wounded, the eyes sewn into the garment briefly open and the robe drinks a droplet of your blood, restoring 1d4 hit points. This effect occurs once per short rest.   The robe may communicate with you through dreams or indistinct whispers. It is protective yet jealous, encouraging solitude and mistrust. If ignored or mistreated, it may tighten around your chest as you sleep, dealing 1d6 psychic damage as a reminder of its hunger and bond.  

Essence of Veilshade (Crafting Note)

A rare alchemical reagent composed of soot, squid ink, and residuum steeped in shadow for nine nights. When applied to tanned hides, it alters the surface to refract light like woven cloth and projects a subtle illusion masking its true texture.   The creation of a Robe of the Shadow Maw is not a feat of tailoring but an act of subjugation — the transformation of a sentient predator from beyond mortal light into an obedient vessel of darkness. Few who attempt it survive with mind and soul intact.  

Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
Proficiencies	Arcana and Leatherworker’s Tools
Caster Level	Minimum 13th level (able to cast 6th-level spells)
Required Spells	Greater Invisibility, Fear, Fabricate, Magic Jar, Dominate Monster, Animate Objects
Time to Craft	Thirty nights of The Traveler’s absence (see below)
Ceremonial Phases	Must commence and conclude under the Full Phase of The Dark Lady
Base Material	The flayed hide of a living Cloaker, captured and bound before death
Essence of Veilshade	One vial (crafted separately)
Other Components	1 lb. powdered obsidian, 1 oz. powdered clear crystal, 13 moth cocoons, 200 gp silver thread, 1 spider carcass, 1 drop of the crafter’s blood for each rune sewn (13 total runes).
Gold Cost	5,000 gp (materials, reagents, wards, and foci)

 

The Nights of The Traveler’s Absence

The Traveler vanishes for at most two nights each cycle, meaning the crafting may take months or years to complete.

Each "night of shadow" counts as one full eight-hour session of labor.

The robe must never be touched during any phase when The Traveler or The Dark Lady are visible.

If exposed to moonlight, the creator must immediately succeed on a DC 18 Arcana check or the half-formed robe awakens violently in the form of a False Maw.

The Ceremony of The Dark Lady

The first full phase of The Dark Lady marks the ritual of Binding and Skinning, when the Cloaker’s essence is subdued and its true name learned.

The final full phase marks the Awakening, when the completed robe is infused with restrained vitality.

Attempting either ceremony outside The Dark Lady’s full phase results in failure and the birth of a predatory False Maw.

Step-by-Step Process

 

1. Capture and Binding

The Cloaker must be restrained within a black-salt containment circle.

The caster makes a contested Arcana check (DC 20) against the Cloaker’s Wisdom (Insight) to inscribe the Sigil of Subjugation before it escapes.

Failure: The Cloaker vanishes into shadow; the attempt can’t be repeated until the next new-moon alignment.

Success: The creature’s will is broken, and the Listening can begin.

The Discovery of the True Name

Each Cloaker bears a unique resonance-signature — a tri-tonal vibration defining its identity, will, and hunger. This is its true name, a sound not spoken but felt through the mind.  

The Listening

Over three nights of silence, the caster focuses on the Cloaker’s breathing, maintaining magical stillness while attuning to its resonance.

Each night requires a DC 20 Arcana and DC 18 Insight check.

After three successful nights, the caster perceives the Cloaker’s name as rhythmic pressure and tone within the skull.

Failure by 5 or more on any check causes psychic backlash (3d6 psychic damage) and auditory hallucinations for 24 hours.

Recording the Name

The name is inscribed within the Sigil of Subjugation, a spiral drawn in the creature’s ichor and sealed with powdered obsidian.

Each curve holds a tonal frequency; each crossing point marks a breath in the Cloaker’s pulse.

The sigil traps the resonance so it can be uttered later without breaking containment.

Speaking the Name

The name is approximated through Undercommon, layered with the harmonic undertones of Deep Speech.

Using a resonant focus — a hollow bone reed, throat crystal, or flute — the caster reproduces the frequencies while subvocalizing the syllables.

When correctly uttered, the air vibrates and shadows ripple like water.

Only spellcasters capable of 6th-level magic who can speak Deep Speech can form the necessary phonetic base unaided.

Example true name: Thol Ka’riss Mael — meaning "He Who Eats the Light Between."

Correct utterance: The Cloaker is paralyzed for 1 minute (Hold Monster), and its essence can be drawn into its hide via Dominate Monster or Magic Jar.

Incorrect utterance: The Cloaker lashes out, dealing 6d8 psychic damage and gaining advantage on its next three attacks against the caster.

2. Flaying Under Shadow

After subjugation, the Cloaker is slain with a blade dipped in its own bile.

Its hide is removed intact and placed within the sigil circle while its name is repeated in resonance.

Check: DC 18 Arcana or Religion; failure turns the hide to brittle ash.

3. Infusion of Veilshade

The hide soaks for nine nights in Essence of Veilshade, an alchemical oil of squid ink, black-lotus resin, spider carcass, and obsidian ash.

Each night requires a DC 15 Arcana check.

Three or more failures transform the Cloaker into a False Maw.

4. Weaving of Vigil

The softened hide is stitched with silver-threaded moth silk into robe form.

Thirteen Eyes of Vigil runes are embroidered, each sealed with a drop of the crafter’s blood.

Upon completion, the crafter must succeed on a DC 19 Constitution save or suffer one level of exhaustion as the robe drinks their vitality.

5. The Awakening

During the final full phase of The Dark Lady, the crafter lights a candle of brimstone and powdered crystal above the robe.

Dominate Monster and Animate Objects are cast simultaneously while the true name is uttered.

Check: DC 21 Arcana.

Success: The robe stabilizes, becoming a true Robe of the Shadow Maw.

Failure: The robe devours a fragment of its maker’s soul (lose 2d10 maximum hit points) and animates as a False Maw.

Essence of Veilshade (Reagent)

Uncommon Alchemical Reagent — Market Value 1,200 gp
Craft Time: 10 nights of lunar absence
Checks: Arcana or Alchemist’s Supplies DC 17
  Ingredients:

1 vial giant squid ink

1 spider carcass (any type)

3 black-lotus petals

1 oz. residuum dust

Ashes from obsidian ground beneath a black altar

Process:

Steep in brine within a silver basin kept in total darkness.

Each dawn, the crafter whispers the bound Cloaker’s resonance to preserve stability.

The finished oil mirrors light like still water and smells of brine and iron.

Outcome and Risk

If all steps succeed, the robe becomes a living artifact housing the subdued essence of its host Cloaker.

The creator attunes automatically upon completion, though the robe recognizes its maker as both master and meal.

The Eyes of Vigil

(Runic Sentience of the Robe of the Shadow Maw)  

Nature

Each eye is a complex sigil approximately 1/10th of an inch in diameter, large enough for its alien geometry to be seen when studied closely, yet still fine enough to appear as intricate embroidery from a distance.

Every rune forms a circular pattern of ink-black glyphs surrounding a faintly luminous iris that dilates or contracts depending on ambient light.

The robe’s construction allows variability: a skilled enchanter or the attuned wearer may resize the eyes at will — making them as small as sand grains for subtlety, or expanding them to coin-sized orbs that shimmer with eerie life.

The motion of thousands of eyes, all faintly breathing and blinking across the robe’s surface, gives it the illusion of a restless, breathing shadow.

Function

Perceptive Awareness — Grants blindsight 30 ft. when the hood is raised. The eyes see through shadow and magical darkness, their perception echoing the Cloaker’s own sonar-like awareness.

Reactive Defense — When danger nears, the eyes widen in unison. Once per long rest, the robe may impose disadvantage on an incoming attack roll or grant advantage on a saving throw.

The Listening — Even when folded or stowed, the eyes never sleep. After being left unattended for 24 hours, they memorize nearby motion, sound, and ambient emotion. Upon donning, a DC 15 Wisdom check allows the wearer to receive phantom impressions of what occurred in its absence.

Vigilant Bond — The attuned wearer may speak a command word in Undercommon to awaken the Eyes. For 1 minute, they grant advantage on Perception checks but cause disadvantage on Deception, as the wearer’s demeanor becomes unsettlingly alert.

Visual Aspect

When still, the robe appears as black velvet dusted with faintly luminous runic circles, each about a tenth of an inch across. In low light, the "pupils" narrow to fine points, reflecting candlelight like a predator’s gaze. When the robe is active, the eyes shift rhythmically — thousands of tiny black suns blooming and contracting across its folds, forming a living constellation that watches all things, even in perfect darkness.