Besides the usual sorts of lycanthropes, the City sometimes sees a rarer sort created by an elixir from the Outer Planes. Known as the Potion of Werewolfism, the magical elixir is thought to be brought to the Prime Material Plane by agents unknown from the Land of Beasts. It appears as a shockingly effervescent liquid of shifting color within a somewhat oversized test tube stoppered with a cork.Imbibing the liquid has the immediate effect of transforming the drinker into an anthropomorphic wolf resembling the inhabitants of the Land of Beasts. Despite the startling change, people encountering the person for the first time in werewolf form will not react as if anything is unusual: such is the extraplanar magic of the potion. This initial transformation lasts 1d100 minutes, but there is a 50% chance that the potion has given the imbiber the hiccups and each hiccup will bring a shift between forms. After the initial transformation, the imbiber will return to normal, but the wolf form will re-emerge ever night at sundown.
Persons suffering from this werewolfism aren't ravening beast like common lycanthropes but are compulsive carousers and cads. No attractive member of the opposite sex is safe from their crude come-ons. While in werewolf form a individual can be hurt, but quickly shrugs off any damage sustained (regenerating like trolls). They do not have any particular susceptibility to silver.
Victims of this “werewolf curse” often make themselves destitute with their spending and unwelcome in any night-spot in town with their skirt-chasing as they fulfill their wolfish appetites.
12 comments:
This is absolutely brilliant. I'm throwing one of these in my next treasure-hoard for the PCs to find.
That is a brilliant description of a great iconic character.
"Persons suffering from this werewolfism aren't ravening beast like common lycanthropes but are compulsive carousers and cads."
You have to love this trope!
As humorous as this post is at times, it still is a great mechanic for a game.
Brilliant!
Is there a fox/vixen one for women? While the victim is unlikely to want a cure, are their cures out there?
Popularly known as "Hair of the Dog."
Very nice use of the Tex Avery images & ideas! Very cool!
Cool! This is wonderful stuff. What a fun twist on lycanthropy. A brooding, rhinestone-wearing werewolf giggolo sauntering through smoky cabarets prowling for fresh meat...wow...you pack a lot of implied/potential stuff into a few paragraphs...like dynamite...
Thanks guys.
@seaofstarpg - I hadn't thought of how to handle a female variant, but that's great! I would suspect cures exist--maybe a remove curse would be enough, but most likely it would require more extraplanar magic.
@Black Vulmea - Heh.
@Garrisonjames - You know, now that you mention it, I bet these guys run into lounge lizards a lot.
That hammer is going to hurt...
Great twist on the idea, and fits in your setting really well.
That you even have Lounge Lizards at all makes The City one of the most incredibly cool places to go adventuring. Great stuff!
You know in Brazil there's a whole outfit to go with this character archetype - the Malandro. He classically wears a white or light-coloured suit and a white hat with a brim (a trilby, maybe), and of course he has a little lady at home, alongside the couple of hookers he hits up for cash and whatever other unfortunate girl should cross his path.
Now I think about it, the outfit probably owes a lot to the Preto Velho of Umbanda or Candomble: maybe this could be a form of possession curse (or at least that's what the werewolves plead when they're confronted).
Candomble seems quite sympathetic to the City's aesthetic, actually.
Interesting! I wonder if the malandro style relates in some way to the zoot suit. While not as exaggerated, their are some similarities.
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