The Story

Fletcher’s Perch has a sizable werewolf population. Few of those who aren’t werewolves or related to werewolves know, however. Dr. Caitlyn Pierce is one of the few exceptions since she treats everyone in the town and surrounding farmlands.

Werewolves who reject the lycanthropic change, but who do not know how to remove the curse, and their children who inherited the curse from their parents like Fletcher’s Perch because, even when the full moon is high in the sky, they retain their minds. While they’re still forced to change into their wolf or hybrid forms on the full moon, they do not go berserk. They can have relatively normal lives in Fletcher’s Perch.

That said, if a person is evil, they can still use their lycanthropic abilities for evil. They just can’t blame the moon. 

In the past five years, a new voice emerged in the werewolf community. After Vivian Pike was turned on a hunting trip at age 23, she embraced the change. She derided the others for denying their true natures as werewolves and reminded them how wonderful it feels to run over the hills as a wolf. More than advocating for freedom, though, Vivian argued that lycanthropy was a gift more people should receive and enjoy. She argued that werewolves should rule over other people, rather than living their whole lives in hiding.

Vivian had some followers and together they started a new pack. They left Fletcher’s Perch to escape its pacifying effects. Before Vivian left, she asked her brother to let her change him so that he could join her. He refused. She told him to think about it and promised to return.

Vivian’s brother is Ellis Pike, the doctor’s assistant. Ellis drinks heavily on the full moon because it reminds him of Vivian and because he wonders what kind of chaos and destruction she is causing elsewhere.

Now Vivian has returned.

What’s Going On?

Vivian wants her brother to join her and she wants to increase the size of her pack. She sends Ellis letters extolling the freedom of being a wolf with no care for the sheep-like people herded so carefully into towns and cities. Ellis keeps these letters even though he continues to deny her. 

While Vivian is known to be a troublemaker, only Ellis and the werewolf community know she is a werewolf. Ellis wants to save his sister. Vivian has no desire to be saved.

Shortly after Vivian returns to town, a man in his early adulthood goes missing (Nolan Frieder; apprentice blacksmith). He was taken by Vivian’s pack and is forcibly changed into a werewolf. Vivian plans on taking more.

She is also meeting with other werewolves in Fletcher’s Perch, trying to urge them to join her. She threatens to reveal them all to the wider community if they continue to refuse her.

The players can learn about the werewolf community by investigating Nolan Frieder’s disappearance. If they have a good relationship with Dr. Pierce, she may ask them to intervene for Ellis’ sake.

Note: When the players talk with Nolan Frieder’s family, Gwyneth may suspect the Fox family to be the culprits due to the feud between her birth family and the Fox family. If she learns Nolan is a werewolf before learning who abducted him, she will be more adamant in her suspicion since many of the Fox family are born lycanthropes.

What Can the Players Do?

Vivian [stats] is not going to change unless she is dead. Ellis hopes that turning his sister back into a plain human will make her good again, but becoming a werewolf only revealed Vivian’s true nature. She is a capable leader who protects and is good to her own, but completely cruel and terrifying to all outsiders. For the moment, she still considers Ellis ‘pack’ even though he denies her and everything she represents. This latest encounter between them will end that, however. Either he finally sides with her fully or he becomes her enemy; no more middle ground.

Depending on the players’ levels, Vivian may be in town alone or she may have brought her pack. The pack should include a mix of werewolves, dire wolves, and wolves. The latter two would not appear in town, however. She may also not opt to bring her full pack with her. Confronting Vivian with her pack should be a Very Hard encounter. Consider giving the werewolves a variety of weapons, not just spears, or special abilities. All members of the pack should also have the ability ‘Pack Tactics.’

If Vivian is too challenging for your players, first remove her legendary actions. If she is still too difficult, remove her Frenzy. Finally, for level 1 and 2 players, consider using the regular werewolf stats.

The players can try Ellis’ plan and find a way to change Vivian back into a human (Remove Curse would do it; some temples nearby may also offer this), but some keen insight into Vivian should reveal that doing so is futile. She’ll only contrive to turn herself back into a lycanthrope. If she doesn’t immediately, it would only be because she decides she wants to be a werebear instead to be even more powerful.

Another course of action is to kill Vivian and disband or kill her pack. This would be very difficult, but would solve the threat she poses. Doing this, though, would also earn Ellis’ enmity. Some of the other werewolves in Fletcher’s Perch may be thankful she is gone, but others would see her death as a threat against them as well. Ellis may even try to arrange a trial against the players for murdering his sister when a cure was possible. The players can try to convince Ellis this is the best course of action. While he won’t ever agree that his sister should be dead, he can be convinced that the players aren’t acting maliciously. Dr. Pierce, who is Ellis’ mentor, can easily be swayed to back the players up; she is too practical to not.

Another possible course of action is to get Vivian to agree to leave Fletcher’s Perch and Ellis alone, never to return. This does mean that she and her pack can terrorize others in the world, though.

Whatever the players do, though, they should learn about the relatively large werewolf community in the town and understand how their actions against Vivian will look to them.

Note: This setting assumes that natural born lycanthropes feel the same pull of the moon and are, normally, unable to resist changing into their wolf or hybrid form. If that is not the case in your campaign, revise so that all werewolves in Fletcher’s Perch were turned rather than the mix of turned and born.