Zombimode
2013-01-29, 08:35 AM
Last session I more or less spontaneously introduced an orc werewolf.
Some background:
The party camped for the night and I rolled on my custom "nightly encounters" random encounter table. It came up with "Werewolf".
When I originally designed this encounter I intended it as a straight up combat encounter. But, as often when I only have some rudimentary notes, I decide to add some more color when the situation actually comes up.
Likewise in this situation. The Werewolf was a default human werewolf, but in the region the characters are currently in, it is just as likely to encounter a goblin, orc or dwarf werewolf. (In hindsight, making it a dwarf werewolf would have been much better for the course of the game...). In order to move away from anthropocentrism I decided on the spot to make it a male orc.
I wanted to have some atmosphere to put the party on their toes, so I started the encounter with the howls of wolves. First, distant in the east. Then distant in the west. Then distant in the south. Then again in the south but much nearer and to those who know about this things the howl didn't sound like from an actual wolf, but more like someone imitating the howl. And then shortly after in the south a humanoid figure stands on top of a hill in the pale moonlight, but clearly humanoid and not werewolf-y.
The area is largely plains covered with very tall grass (growing about a meter in height). The humanoid figure kneeled down in the grass and thus vanished from the sight of the party. But they discovered something was moving through the grass with high speed towards their position (the werewolf, now in wolf form).
The party has set up camp near a river and the grass was much shorter there. Instead of breaking out of the grass in his hybrid form as a maddened beast aiming its claws and teeth at the character's throats, the werewolf stopped shortly before he reached the party's camp and arose from the grass, again in his humanoid form, and approach the party slowly.
I decided to play him as troubled by his own bestiality and struggling against his bloodlust and instinct to kill. So I described him as a twisted tormented creature on the verge of transforming, only able to spit out some mangled words (in orcish, which luckily some of the characters were able to understand) like "need... fresh... blood".
The party consist of an elf, a half-elf, a half-orc, a dwarf, a goblin NPC and a horse (the system is D&D 3.5, but it doesn't really matter). The half-orc wasn't keen on fighting this thing, but the others felt more threatened and readied their weapons (with the exception of the goblin who hid between the horse's legs, like he always does). On the other side, the werewolf was clearly aiming for the horse. He did not meet the party's request to stand back and so the half-elf ("owner" of the horse, which he stole...) lost his nerves and filled the werewolf's belly with a salvo of arrows. The werewolf transformed and attacked, but was still aiming for the horse. The half-orc did not participate in what he called "slaughter", but still up against three other PCs the werewolf was taken down before he could seriously harm the animal (mostly because I mistakingly assumed that the werewolf's damage reduction would apply in all forms, but as I reviewed the creatures stats as the combat began I realized my mistake and thus the half-elf's initial attack took away most of the creatures hitpoints).
Aftermath: half of the party stormed out in the night to find "a safe place to rest" or something, while the half-orc and two others remained at the camp site. The half-orc treated the wounds of the werewolf and stabilized him. Then, he cut his arm open and fed the werewolf with his blood. I was very impressed by this gesture and ruled that this would slowly end the transformation.
We made a cut at this point, so next session I have to deal with a split party (*sigh*) and a soon to be awake orc-werewolf who outlived his initial purpose as swordfodder for the players and now needs a personality.
Now, I have some trouble how to play this orc-werewolf. The archetype of the werewolf that is in conflict with it's bestial side only truly works when the creature "underneath" the werewolf is, or at least was, actually a peaceful and caring individual. It looses much of it's sting when the base creature already is brutal and warlike.
So, some stuff about orcs in this setting: like most creatures, orcs were created by some divine entity. Unfortunately shortly after their creation they, and many other races, were corrupted by the force of anti-creation, called Chaos. While the original design described a proud-warrior-race-culture with a strong emphasis on physical might, this corruption led to their commonly known "misbuild" appearance and a sometimes excessively brutal and aggressive mindset.
I am aware that I may already have created a dissonance by making his behavior so averse against violence against other humanoids that even after being attacked he still goes for the animal instead of the humanoids who injured him. I want to stay true to this characterization, but I also don't want to humanize him to much. Otherwise there would have been no point in making him orc in the first place.
I'm welcome to any suggestions :smallsmile:
Some background:
The party camped for the night and I rolled on my custom "nightly encounters" random encounter table. It came up with "Werewolf".
When I originally designed this encounter I intended it as a straight up combat encounter. But, as often when I only have some rudimentary notes, I decide to add some more color when the situation actually comes up.
Likewise in this situation. The Werewolf was a default human werewolf, but in the region the characters are currently in, it is just as likely to encounter a goblin, orc or dwarf werewolf. (In hindsight, making it a dwarf werewolf would have been much better for the course of the game...). In order to move away from anthropocentrism I decided on the spot to make it a male orc.
I wanted to have some atmosphere to put the party on their toes, so I started the encounter with the howls of wolves. First, distant in the east. Then distant in the west. Then distant in the south. Then again in the south but much nearer and to those who know about this things the howl didn't sound like from an actual wolf, but more like someone imitating the howl. And then shortly after in the south a humanoid figure stands on top of a hill in the pale moonlight, but clearly humanoid and not werewolf-y.
The area is largely plains covered with very tall grass (growing about a meter in height). The humanoid figure kneeled down in the grass and thus vanished from the sight of the party. But they discovered something was moving through the grass with high speed towards their position (the werewolf, now in wolf form).
The party has set up camp near a river and the grass was much shorter there. Instead of breaking out of the grass in his hybrid form as a maddened beast aiming its claws and teeth at the character's throats, the werewolf stopped shortly before he reached the party's camp and arose from the grass, again in his humanoid form, and approach the party slowly.
I decided to play him as troubled by his own bestiality and struggling against his bloodlust and instinct to kill. So I described him as a twisted tormented creature on the verge of transforming, only able to spit out some mangled words (in orcish, which luckily some of the characters were able to understand) like "need... fresh... blood".
The party consist of an elf, a half-elf, a half-orc, a dwarf, a goblin NPC and a horse (the system is D&D 3.5, but it doesn't really matter). The half-orc wasn't keen on fighting this thing, but the others felt more threatened and readied their weapons (with the exception of the goblin who hid between the horse's legs, like he always does). On the other side, the werewolf was clearly aiming for the horse. He did not meet the party's request to stand back and so the half-elf ("owner" of the horse, which he stole...) lost his nerves and filled the werewolf's belly with a salvo of arrows. The werewolf transformed and attacked, but was still aiming for the horse. The half-orc did not participate in what he called "slaughter", but still up against three other PCs the werewolf was taken down before he could seriously harm the animal (mostly because I mistakingly assumed that the werewolf's damage reduction would apply in all forms, but as I reviewed the creatures stats as the combat began I realized my mistake and thus the half-elf's initial attack took away most of the creatures hitpoints).
Aftermath: half of the party stormed out in the night to find "a safe place to rest" or something, while the half-orc and two others remained at the camp site. The half-orc treated the wounds of the werewolf and stabilized him. Then, he cut his arm open and fed the werewolf with his blood. I was very impressed by this gesture and ruled that this would slowly end the transformation.
We made a cut at this point, so next session I have to deal with a split party (*sigh*) and a soon to be awake orc-werewolf who outlived his initial purpose as swordfodder for the players and now needs a personality.
Now, I have some trouble how to play this orc-werewolf. The archetype of the werewolf that is in conflict with it's bestial side only truly works when the creature "underneath" the werewolf is, or at least was, actually a peaceful and caring individual. It looses much of it's sting when the base creature already is brutal and warlike.
So, some stuff about orcs in this setting: like most creatures, orcs were created by some divine entity. Unfortunately shortly after their creation they, and many other races, were corrupted by the force of anti-creation, called Chaos. While the original design described a proud-warrior-race-culture with a strong emphasis on physical might, this corruption led to their commonly known "misbuild" appearance and a sometimes excessively brutal and aggressive mindset.
I am aware that I may already have created a dissonance by making his behavior so averse against violence against other humanoids that even after being attacked he still goes for the animal instead of the humanoids who injured him. I want to stay true to this characterization, but I also don't want to humanize him to much. Otherwise there would have been no point in making him orc in the first place.
I'm welcome to any suggestions :smallsmile: