Nearby animals and vermin abruptly shudder. Their mouths and eyes gape wide as a torrent of blackness flows into them from the surrounding gloom.

You inundate the area with strange energies from the Plane of Shadow, warping the effects of magic.

A flood of mystical shadow-power renders casting more difficult. To cast most spells while in, or into, an area affected by flood of shadow, the caster must succeed on a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level), or the spell is lost with no effect.

By drawing shade from the Plane of Shadow, or banishing shadows back to it, you control the level of illumination in the area.

You make a dark area lighter or a light area darker, blanketing the affected area in shadowy illumination. Creatures with darkvision can see through this area normally.

At your touch, the target seems almost to leak. A tiny plume of jet-black mist emerges from his flesh, first in a trickle, then an ever-increasing stream.

Darkness coalesces about your body, forming a shadow-shape of armor and another that looks like a shield. Although they are as weightless as the air, you know they'll protect you as well as if they were made of steel.

Steel shadows grants you a +3 armor bonus and a +3 shield deflection bonus to AC, but without weight, armor check penalty, arcane spell failure chance, or speed reduction. The effect is not a force effect, and attacks from incorporeal creatures ignore it.