Intermission 10 Page 25
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“Stay back! He’s a damn werewolf!”
“But he seemed so nice!”
“It doesn’t matter what he was before! A werewolf’s altered shape is a completely different personality, a murderous beast!”
“Don’t let him bite you!”
“Yeah, but…”
“He’s not trying to bite?”
“Ricki…”
“I can see his… I can see that thing now. That I couldn’t see before?”
“He’s still on our team.”
“Can’t we just see what happens first?”
“If most of my hair hadn’t already fallen out, it wouldn’t have survived meeting you, I swear.”
“Amadeusz…?”
“NO. WOLF. AM WOLF.”
“WOLF IS CALM. FEAR NOT WOLF.”
“WOLF NOT HURT GOBLIN.”
“GOBLIN IS PACK. WOLF NOT HURT PACK.”
“WOLF AND GOBLIN TOGETHER HUNT.”
“HUNT HUNT HUNNNnnn…”
“Well, there… you have it.”
“I hope… that will serve as an adequate… explanation of my abilities.”
“Just… be judicious with how often you ask me to do that, yes?”
“The other fellow… does get riled up at times.”
For people who cannot, or would not, read coloured text, we present this episode of…
I WAS A SENIOR AGE WEREWOLF!
KAMAU: “Stay back! He’s a damn werewolf!”
MACADAMIA (true to his delusional self): “But he seemed so nice!”
KAMAU: “It doesn’t matter what he was before! A werewolf’s altered shape is a completely different personality, a murderous beast!”
“Don’t let him bite you!”
RICKI: “Yeah, but…”
“He’s not trying to bite?”
KAMAU: “Ricki…”
RICKI: “I can see his… I can see that thing now. That I couldn’t see before?”
(Macadamia whistles and looks away, pretending not to think about “seeing the werewolf’s thing)
“He’s still on our team.”
“Can’t we just see what happens first?”
KAMAU: “If most of my hair hadn’t already fallen out, it wouldn’t have survived meeting you, I swear.”
RICKI: “Amadeusz…?”
WOLF: “NO. WOLF. AM WOLF.”
“WOLF IS CALM. FEAR NOT WOLF.”
“WOLF NOT HURT GOBLIN.”
“GOBLIN IS PACK. WOLF NOT HURT PACK.”
“WOLF AND GOBLIN TOGETHER HUNT.”
“HUNT HUNT HUNNNnnn…”
AMADEUSZ (a completely different, murderous personality of Wolf): “Well, there… you have it.”
“I hope… that will serve as an adequate… explanation of my abilities.”
“Just… be judicious with how often you ask me to do that, yes?”
“The other fellow… does get riled up at times.”
I’m glad to see Ricki still being… well, Ricki.
IMHO, it wouldn’t have made too much sense for her embracing someone turned drider and then have qualms trying to befriend a werewolf. Unless there is something in the D&D universe that I’m not aware of, that makes werewolves disproportionately more dangerous/less trustworthy than driders.
(And yes, I’m aware Lara didn’t start out as drider and that Ricki and the others have known her for quite some time before she changed, but I’m guessing that Amadeusz didn’t start out as werewolf, either – is that even a thing that can happen in the D&D universe? – his char sheet does say “cursed bard”, after all; and theorethically he has supported the group for quite a while, even if they didn’t exactly know about it, and even though he might do this for his own reasons/have an ulterior motive that doesn’t necessarily benefit Ricki and her friends…)
In any case, I wonder if there is some kind of mechanic that Amadeusz warning will translate to (similar to Laras corruption stat maybe?) or if this is something we will have to keep in mind/track of ourselves or if it is “just flavour text”.
It is also quite interesting that the werewolf form seems to be its very own persona (and not “just” the same guy with less high-cognitive/conscious thinking and more… feral instincts). Is that something that is customary/commonly rooted in D&D universe or something originating from LSN’s creativity?
I’m pretty sure the “don’t ask me to do it too often” is the flavor for the fact that the ability can only be used twice (once in each direction) per dungeon.
I trust the Warewolf form more than I trust the Bard one.
The D&D universe draws a sharp distinction between natural lycanthropes, who are born with the disease-curse and have full control over their form, and afflicted lycanthropes. Only natural lycanthropes can infect others, and only afflicted lycanthropes can be cured (with wolfsbane or with curse removal). It is a curse that changes your personality – if you’re not aware of your condition then your transformed state is an NPC acting on the animal’s instincts, and once you become aware of the condition then every change risks changing your alignment (with a guaranteed change if you intentionally transform).
It is common in stories for the werewolf to not remember their time in transformed state, with some other personality during that time (and often the human form is shocked and appalled at the thought that their body is causing others harm).
Thanks for providing additional info on how werewolves work in D&D, much appreciated. 🙂
(although the bit about only innate werewolves being able infecting others does clash with Amadeusz claiming
on the next page (I 10 P26), talking both about a curse and a cure – so he sounds infected – but also about something stopping him from infecting others – that would mean he would have to be a natural lycanthrope, according to the above post.
Might be that LSN uses different rules – that he doesn’t want to elaborate in detail – in his universe or might be that A is BSing Ricki.
Either way, it’s good to know that while our characters might one day all turn mushroom, they won’t turn furry mushroom – or just furry – one and all. ^^)
In game systems there’s generally some safeguards against infectious monsters spreading indefinitely. I am confident that we won’t be able to freely grant lycanthropy to other party members.
I don’t think the natural-vs-afflicted split is relevant here. Wolf is pretty clearly a second person, more of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Bruce Banner and the Hulk.
Maybe he’s changed since his Clan Fourem days? Maybe the violence I was hearing about wasn’t something he had much control over and he’s trying to get better?
That’s possible. Could also be that he’s still capable of that kind of violence, but he genuinely wants Ricki to succeed for his own reasons, so he’s not lying about being on her side even if he’s not a very nice person.
Careful, Ricki. You almost spilled the beans there in front of Mac the Emperor fan …
If you’re having trouble seeing the coloured text, I would suggest highlighting it. You can do this by clicking and dragging over it, in case you didn’t know. That said, it is still a bit awkward to read, so it would be nice if the texts were made a brighter colour.
Or maybe the background colour could change. Not that I don’t like this ascetic.