Dogs of War/Vermiform

DOGS OF WAR

The Barony is nominally controlled by the central authority in the capital, but in reality there are many regional nobles and other powers who maintain small armies, and who often engage in low-level conflict. It is an unstable region, and more so the further out from the capital you are.

Bands of villains and deserters from defeated armies roam the countryside. They steal, kill, rape, and generally treat the population as prey animals. You have to catch and kill them quickly. The best is if you can try them and hang them, judicial process dissipates the wolf energy - if there's no time just kill them and burn them. If you don't then they can start to grow strange; strong, and fast, and cunning, and rabid in combat or when they are feeding on the weak.

The rabidness is catching, but it only really takes root in people that view other humans as prey. This is almost always soldiers or criminals (or teenagers in their sociopathic years), although there is thought to also be a tiny section of the population who are naturally susceptible. Over a long period of time there are physical changes. Absolute physical monstrosity is very rare (although not unheard of); generally you grow hairy, fanged and clawed, yellow eyed, snarling, guttural, quick and tearing and vicious.

Most werewolves are still dressed in the scraps of their uniforms. They clutch tin medals, and many bands still have a ragged, bloodstained standard that they will rally around in a sad attempt to convince themselves that they are still human.

War Dog

HD1+4hp, sword d6, bite d3, armour as leather+shield, speed: faster than a human, disposition: pack hunter, cunning, easily spooked.

Hates fire, prefers butchering civilians to combat with professionals. Will fight to the death anyone who calls them a coward/deserter/monster. Eats corpses.

Werewolf

HD5, claws and teeth d10 x2, armour as chain, speed: twice human, disposition: suicidal berserker.

Takes half damage from all physical attacks (full damage from fire, silver, and magic). Never breaks, always fights to the death.

Howls when it kills something, dealing d10 fear damage to anyone who can hear it. Eats people, whether or not they are dead.

VERMIFORM

People become ill with desire - this is well known, and there are many societal pressure valves designed to mitigate it. When these fail, you get obsessives, whose lives begin to assume the contours of their obsessions.

Vermiform are human worms, insects, rats, and leeches. They suck blood and they leave drained corpses. They spread filth, disease, and degradation. They make the world around them worse, and they love persecuting individuals and ruining lives. They are swollen, pale, crawling things with soft eyes and whispering voices.

People hate vermiform. They are usually found alone or in small colonies in sewers, wells, and drains, and they often emerge at night to spread disease and to feed. Many heroic tales in the Barony are of farmhands or woodcutters descending down into dens of squalor with naught but a lit brand and holy symbol, and emerging again, battered and bloody and clutching the heads of the human monsters that live in filth.

Vermiform

2HD, bite d8, unarmoured, speed: human, disposition: cruel, cowardly.

Hates fire, attacks defenceless foes by preference. Drains defenceless prey, doing one HP per round, and healing itself one HP at the same rate. They can gain temporary HP above their maximum this way, which they lose at daybreak, or if exposed to sunlight.

Takes half damage from all physical attacks (full damage from fire, silver, and magic).

Can hypnotise foes. If you can see one another at the start of your turn, save CHAR: if you fail, you cannot do anything this turn. You can close your eyes to succeed (blind for the turn). Vermiform cannot use this ability if they can see a naked flame, or a symbol of the church.