Rokugan in the Shadows Ch 1: Gathering Dark

[~Corvus~]

Just as a bit of darkness goes to writhe out of the gap and form a new soldier out of its shifting umbral form, Yrashnal charges in. What seems to be forming as an entity in and of itself finds a blade slashing across it. The forming creature stops its morphing when cut, and falls to the ground. A soldier nearby whoops as Yrashnal does the deed and encourages him, "Kick it away! Don't let it reconnect!" Another tendril of shadow distracts the beast, threatening his attention, and the darkness retreats where he is, but with its backwards motion it forms a new contender; a shadowy version of the Barghest appears, except that it looks like a Heyena, and nearly exactly as Yrashnal has seen himself in reflections. Its hackles raise and it lunges at him, forcing him to pay (at least some) attention to the threat. Meanwhile, several tendrils of shadow sneak out, searching for the severed, partially formed body near him.

Gusai Hakamoto, the soldier that greeted you all, nods in appreciation and readies his sword again for battle and changes in to follow Yrashnal. The darkness again moves back, ready to give the samurai an opponent to face.

Baleth, the Incarnum-man, rushes in behind Yrashnal and pulls away the shadow-figure and tosses it towards the back of the ship, where the encroaching darkness has not yet reached. He then moves to another gap, further away from you all, where fighting seems to be going poorly. Azure and translucent arms fade into sight over his own, and two more appear below his arms, making four spectral claws that become visible to you.

Specimen fades from view. The ship you're on is mostly flat, but there are two masts, as mentioned, and trellis platforms that hold the ship and masts together. It's not a tough climb, and the platform actually facilitates Specimen's climb, since its designed for a single person to be able to actually manipulate a single sail; it doesn't need to climb very far. From Its vantage point it can see not only this battle but at least the other four like barges and their battle-lines. You face a maw of shadow that surrounds the ships' circle formation. Instead of teeth, tendrils bleed onto the sides of the ships and form shadowy copies of their adversaries. As the humans slay pieces of darkness and push them away, the shadow will retreat to form new menacing forms. Where it manages to defeat a foe, it covers that person and darkness sprouts from the felled person and surges forward like a plant's root trying to force its way into a stone.

Spoiler: Ellowryn

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It's clear from Specimen's observation that this shadow has little means of changing its color from the utter blackness of its creation. After a bit of study, the creature realizes that what shadow is pursuing them has little imagination; it copies what it sees wherever it forms. Oddly enough, though, Yrashnal faces what seems to be a shadow-wolf instead of a reflective copy. T is, this shadow would have little means to depict Specimen other than how it sees the kython.