Oct 5, 2016

First update of the last month of both the contest and this campaign. We’ve still got quite a ways to go in order for this campaign to be successful, so hopefully we can pick up steam.

I’ve talked a bit about dwarves and elves with my previous updates, but since we’re now in October and rolling right towards Halloween I figured its time that I switch tracks a bit and start talking about a few of the "monsters" encountered in Exile, Magus. I should only have 4 more main updates(including this one) before the campaign ends, which works out well since there are 4 particularly terrors I wanted to cover: my jungle dragons, werewolves, frost giants, and ice dragons. I’ll be saving the dragons for the last two updates, so today I’ll be kicking things off with werewolves.

In the world of Exile, Magus there are of course the various high gods with their worldwide churches and whatnot, but they play no real part in this discussion. Its the opposite end of the divine spectrum which relates to werewolves, the small gods or nature spirits depending on your preference of terms. Back in the days before the Progenitors’ War and the subsequent first rise of both the Melexi and Thirosia empires, certain animal spirits sometimes decided to take physical form. These spirits would most often appear as the animals which most worshipped them, but due to the malleable nature of spirit-born flesh they could take other shapes as well, including that of humanoids such as elves, dwarves, and humans, or even a mix between the humanoid and beast forms. This led to the first lycanthropes(werewolves), now known more as spirit werewolves or werewolf progenitors.

These nature spirits were limited in their geographic region of influence, but within these regions they would often gain followers beyond their animal types, often being part of pantheons of small gods worshipped by the more nomadic of the humanoids. Some of the most favored of these humanoids were given the gift of lycanthropy or chosen as mates by the nature spirit. Any child born from such a pairing is born as a werewolf.

Any lycanthrope that is either originally a nature spirit itself, or is born as a lycanthrope, has no trouble controlling its actions so long as it is at peace with both its humanoid and beastly natures. Those who are transformed into a werewolf as a result of a nature spirit’s blessing or infected through a bite sometimes have trouble reconciling these two natures and thus struggle with control, the latter moreso than the former. In the Badlands south of Zaltruscas most werewolf packs fall under the control of the vampire lord Vargas, who can join his will with that of any lycanthrope touched so as to help them maintain control. (You can read a bit about the region known as the Badlands starting here, though Pentaz and Buscidia’s encounter with werewolves is detailed in currently unreleased chapters immediately following.)

There are other types as well such as ursanthorpes(werebears), scrofanthropes(wereboars), leothropes(werelions), and many others with much the same origins and history, though not necessarily the same geographical ranges. Most of the nature spirits themselves have ceased wandering in physical forms, returning to exist solely as spirits worshipped by their animals and nomadic humanoids with their shamans. The descendants of these curious spirits still exist today, however, and their populations have for the most part thrived as they form their own nomadic societies, breeding and living with one another. They tend to stay far from civilization lest the two worlds clash though, which has led to many of those living in the larger cities of Hanaen and Zaltruscas to think of these werebeasts as mere myths, if they even think of them at all.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for today. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this bit of insight, and of course I’m also hoping many of you who have followed but not ordered yet will decide to pull the trigger before the end of this month. To all of you who have ordered, thank you so much. For any fellow D&D players/DMs I will have a stat block at the end. To everyone else, thanks for your time and support, and as always keep reading and enjoying!

For natural born lycanthropes or afflicted lycanthropes I feel the stats presented in the MM are close enough(though I tend to abhor the alignment choices), however there is nothing akin to my Werewolf Progenitors, so that is the stat block I’m giving everyone today.  Hope you enjoy, and if you decide to try it out in your own game please give me feedback, I’d love to be able to tweak it to make it as good as possible.

Werewolf Progenitor  Medium Fey (shapechanger), Neutral

Armor Class 13 in humanoid form; 14 (natural) in wolf or hybrid form

Hit Points 78 (12d8+24)

Speed 30’ (40’ in wolf or hybrid form)

Str 15(+2), Dex 13(+1), Con 14(+2), Int 10, Wis 14(+2), Cha 14(+2)

Saving Throws Wis+5, Cha+5

Skills  Nature+6, Perception+5, Religion+3, Stealth+7

Damage Immunities Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with silver weapons.

Senses passive Perception 15, Truesight

Languages Common, Sylvan

Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Innate Spellcasting The werewolf progenitor’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). The werewolf progenitor can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.

     At Will: Druidcraft, Guidance, Resistance

     3/day each: Conjure Animals (always either 4 dire wolves or 16 normal wolves), Healing Word (always for 5d4 points of healing, average 12), Pass Without Trace

     1/day each: Freedom of Movement, Protection from Energy, Polymorph (if this is used on a willing humanoid target it can permanently change the target into a werewolf; when used in this way the progenitor cannot cast this spell again for 1 month)

     1/week: Awaken (can have more than 1 animal under effects at a time, but can only be used on wolves or other beasts descended from wolves)

Keen Hearing and Smell Advantage on Wisdom(Perception) checks that rely on Hearing or Smell.

Magic Resistance Advantage on Saving Throws against spells and other magical effects.

Magic Weapons Bite and Claw attacks count as magical weapons.

Nature’s Blessing Gains its Charisma modifier to Armor Class in all forms.

Shapechanger The werewolf progenitor can use its action to polymorph into a humanoid or wolf-humanoid hybrid, or back into its natural form, which is a wolf. Its statistics, other than its AC, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

Speak with Beasts The werewolf progenitor can speak with wolves and any beast related to wolves as if they shared a language.

Multiattack  2 bites(wolf form only); 2 spear attacks(humanoid form only); or 1 bite and 2 melee attacks with Claw or Spear(hybrid form only).

Bite(Wolf or Hybrid form only) Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5’, one target. Hit: 6(1d8+2) piercing damage. If the target is a humanoid, then it must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or become a werewolf.

Claw(Hybrid form only) Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5’, one target. Hit: 7(2d4+2) slashing damage.

Spear(Humanoid or Hybrid form only) Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5’ or range 20’/60’, one target. Hit: 5(1d6+2) piercing damage, or 6(1d8+2) piercing damage if used with 2 hands to make a melee attack.

Tactics: They are a mostly peaceful sort, resorting to combat only when forced to do so to defend themselves or their allies/followers. They are usually accompanied by a pack of wolves, a band of humanoids, or some combination of the two. If combat ensues when they have no allies/followers present, they will take their first action to cast Conjure Animals, conjuring dire wolves if faced with 1-3 enemies, or normal wolves if faced with more than 3 enemies. Only once they have conjured these allies will a progenitor werewolf dive into melee combat, conjuring more wolves only if the fight is going very poorly for it(such as all the wolves first conjured being defeated). They have no fear of death since they know that their spirit form will eventually coalesce once more after death, allowing them resume their previous existence outside of life as a nature spirit.