Tonight we look at the softer were-folk that we are encountering this week. The weredeer and wererabbit. While not violent and inherently predisposed to evil as werewolves of wererats these creatures are softer and more timid.
While werebears tend to not inflict their disease on creatures due to their understanding of it as a curse and weretigers not inflicting it due to the prospect of sharing tendencies wererabbits and weredeers, the softer were-folk don’t inflict it because they don’t want to inflict harm in others. This makes them perfect as prey or slaves to their more vicious cousins.
And that is where we find ourselves tonight, prey or slaves and a glimmer of hope for a cure if they can escape for long enough. Clinging to the party and guards with a desperate hope these lycanthropes just want to be free. So to find out more let’s grab a coffee, sit down and roll into tonight’s adventure.
Softer Were-Folk
403SaSoWF
The sounds of snapping twigs and branches followed the party as they trekked on foot with the prisoners; now in their hybrid lycanthrope forms, hunched down behind them. The large ears of the wererabbits and the twitching nose of the weredeers revealed that they were aware of the creatures that stalked them. And how nervous they were.
The party had split from the guard with a hastily drawn map from Boris. They had taken the remaining functional wagon and most of the lycanthrope prisoners-come-refugees and had ridden off to lead the man and his rats away from the party who had snuck off with some of the folk when the coast was clear. Watching the hoard of giant rats, and the man in a coat, chasing after them was relieving. After a few hours of moving by moonlight they had become aware of creatures doubling back in search of stragglers.
As the night went on the fog got deeper and the ground became harder to see – but they had managed to stay on course from the passage of the moon, stars and from identifying some key landmarks. But they were not out of the woods yet, figuratively and literally. By cutting through the woods they would make it to their destination by mid morning – if they travelled through the night. But it was a rough journey and pausing to avoid creatures in the forest only slowed them down.
Luckily the were-folk with them, three wererabbits and two weredeer were calm, fit and smart so travelling with them was easy. They seemed to shy away from the party, seemingly unwilling to get close to them for fear of infection. But there was no hint of malice in how they spoke or acted – a hopeful trust that the party would get them out of this situation.
And so the next few hours went, moving swiftly when the moon pierced the fog, stopping suddenly when something moved nearby and even having to fight off a few giant rats as they darted out of the darkness to attack the party. But the woods were full of noise and movement and the dawn couldn’t come soon enough.
Thanks for joining me for another night. Expanding this particular one-shot has been a pretty easy affair with the narrative nearly writing itself. I have covered it before in the past where there are only soo man fundamental quests for a D&D party and they differ from each other with the twists and NPCs. Tomorrow we have the PDF for this week coming out so don’t forget to come back for that and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 