Lycanthropy Cure

[Zilfer]

Not sure, exactly if this is supposed to be "uncurable" or if it is curable some what. Or if it's only curable before a certain point.

[steveflam]

I Forget the items, but there are or is one in Van Richten's Arsenal. As well, is there not a spell somewhere that helps?

[Terminusvitae]

If I remember correctly, lycanthropy is supposed to be far more insidious in Ravenloft than it is in other settings. By Ravenloft tradition, the "cure" for lycanthropy was to hunt down and kill the offending lycanthrope and conduct a ritual that would allow the afflicted lycanthrope a single save to rid him/herself of the disease. If they failed that save...

I think there were some spells printed later that were supposed to help suppress lycanthropy and help an afflicted character shrug it off by providing a bonus to the save, but I haven't scoured the expanded spell lists for a long time.

[steveflam]

Ah yes the spell is called Suppress Lycanthropy. The Magical Item is quite rare and called something like the Silver Amulet of the Wolf maybe?

[herkles]

there might be some folklore on how to cure a werewolf that you could look into for ideas?

[Zilfer]

Yeah that was the plan, I was just seeing if anything was established. I knew something like Lycanthropy had to be worse here because almost everything else is! xD

Suppress lycanthropy, interesting spell though I guess it's best if you don't forget to memorize that one! xD Could prove disasterous one night.... Same with the necklace if it was replaced with a fake.

The one save thing definately puts the drama in that one roll.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

It's not impossible to cure lycanthropy in Ravenloft, just really difficult. (compared to the default d&d rules). First step is to kill the natural lycanthrope that infected you. If the one who infected you was afflicted, you have to trace the affliction back to the natural one who started it. Only when the natural lycanthrope progenitor is dead can you try the cure. You need atonement, remove curse, and remove disease cast on you while in beast form, and then have one chance at a save. If the save fails, you can never be cured. (in that case, you'll be wanting the aforementioned Suppress Lycanthropy spells and Amulet of the Beast (silver version)).

[Zilfer]

It's not impossible to cure lycanthropy in Ravenloft, just really difficult. (compared to the default d&d rules). First step is to kill the natural lycanthrope that infected you. If the one who infected you was afflicted, you have to trace the affliction back to the natural one who started it. Only when the natural lycanthrope progenitor is dead can you try the cure. You need atonement, remove curse, and remove disease cast on you while in beast form, and then have one chance at a save. If the save fails, you can never be cured. (in that case, you'll be wanting the aforementioned Suppress Lycanthropy spells and Amulet of the Beast (silver version)).

Well then, this gives him a good reason to work with George Weathermay then.

Thanks for laying the standard proceedure out Ron. Is there a set DC or is it depending on the original lycanthrope that infected you?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

The RCS says Will DC20, but personally, I'd base it on the progenitor werewolf in some way. I wouldn't be surprised if certain powerful strains are harder to shake.

[Zilfer]

RCS?

Ravenloft Campaign Setting? (how did I miss that if so? *goes to scower that book*

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Yup, somewhere in the last chapter or so is a summary of the upgrades that the "Van Richten" monsters* get in Ravenloft. It's in the Lycanthrope section.

*(the ones that had a Van Richten's Guide in 2e: Vampires, Ghosts, Werebeasts, Created, Ancient Dead, Liches, Fiends, Vistani, Hags)

[Zilfer]

Yeah i'm slowing growing a collection unforunately I may be the one more interested in the Ravenloft campaign out of my group.

Just means I know more about the realm and can keep evil little secret's from them. (grins)

As for Van Richten, all i have of him is his Arsenal which is nice though i wish it included a bit more.

I'm hoping to expand my collection a bit further i just got Gazeteer I and II and i see it has a bunch of mini plot hooks and "what ifs" that you can expand upon. A few of them i want to use in my game and if i can do the "throw 10 plot hooks their way and see if they take the bait and i snag em with the hook" then should be golden.

Now I just need Mordent and i'll have my three Domain's that I've wanted to know about. (Mordent/Barovia/Darkon)

[Mangrum]

Long after Ravenloft and I had parted ways, I tinkered with a more finely grained system for determining the difficulty of being cured along with variant lycanthropy rules when I went through a "fresh take" phase toward the material. The system's perhaps too fiddly, but I'll see if I can dig it out if anyone's interested.

[Zilfer]

I'd be interested enough to see it, might give me an Idea if i go for making my own system or at least judging how hard it should be.

[Mangrum]

Okay, found the notes. These are just idle ideas, and haven't been edited, playtested, or even finished, really. As a fan of old-school (well, middle-age school, I suppose) werewolves, I was looking to add more of an American Werewolf in London/The Howling flavor to Ravenloft's werebeasts. These rules are written for D20 3.5, which took me a minute to wrap my head around just now; I'd redo these in Pathfinder if I got serious now.

I'll break these ideas down into several sections.

Starting Premises
The little-known root cause of lycanthropy is a parasitic, possessing animal spirit called an animus. The animus more of a primal animating force than an entity in its own right; more a form of self-motivating spiritual energy comprised of pure id. Unlike a possessing undead spirit, an animus does not distinguish itself from its host. In fact, most lycanthropes are unaware of the existence of the animus as a separate entity; correctly, they tend of think of its constant urges as some element of their own "wild side."

The animus exists in the flesh and the blood of those it afflicts; it has no true form or even true personality of its own, just unquenchable desires and the ability to reshape a living mind and body to pursue those cravings. In fact, an animus cannot exist outside of its host. When the host dies and the soul departs, the animus rots in the moldering flesh. It has no afterlife, no existence separate from its body, and in fact has no innate ability to even conceive of such a thing. Werebeasts are driven by carnal hungers because in the animus' driving spark of a mind, there exists nothing but flesh and hunger.

Natural lycanthropes and afflicted lycanthopes are essentially as they exist in the game. What you become depends on when the animus enters your body and merges with your essence.

Afflicted lycanthropes are normal humanoids who survive a lycanthrope's bite--the animus must violate the victim's flesh in order to spread. Once the animus is present, it duels with the humanoid's existing soul for control of the mind and body.

Sometimes, however, an animus enters a humanoid host before that host has its own soul--namely, when an animus enters an unborn child before its quickening. (The quickening is the moment in pregnancy when a mother first feels her baby kick, generally at the end of the first trimester, and in the folk tradition these rules follow, was considered the moment the soul entered the unborn.) In this case, the animus, already established within the unborn's flesh, is ready and waiting for the newborn's soul. The waiting animus devours the newcomer soul, absorbing its strengths but leaving its own feral cravings unchallenged. These are the natural lycanthropes, born with bestial souls. Usually, natural lycanthropes are sired by one or more lycanthropic parents; while rare, it's also possible to produce a natural lycanthrope if the mother is afflicted with lycanthropy early in the pregnancy (see below).

After the quickening, the humanoid soul takes ownership of the unborn's body and rapidly grows in strength. Depending on the timing, an animus that enters an unborn child after the quickening might produce an afflicted lycanthrope child or even a natural werebeast tortured by a human conscience that was not completely consumed.

It's extremely rare for natural lycanthropes to be born to afflicted mothers; usually if the animus spreads to the unborn from an afflicted parent, it's the father. The lycanthropic transformation is devastating--a complete recreation of flesh and bone--and no human fetus can survive it. Lycanthropic pregnancies usually end in miscarriages come the next moon. For a lycanthropic mother to bring her offspring to term, she must be able to resist transforming throughout the entire pregnancy. For afflicted mothers, this is usually impossible, and pregnancies usually end before they can even be noticed. For natural lycanthrope mothers, bringing children to term is by necessity a conscious, voluntary act of will, requiring that she remain in a single shape for nine continuous months. Otherwise, however, lycanthropes are ordinarily quite fecund, and pregnancies that do reach full term usually result in multiple births whether or not the mother is a werebeast. Carrying lycanthropic unborn does not pass the animus back to the mother, so male natural werebeasts sometimes intentionally seek out non-lycanthropic women for the purposes of producing offspring.

All lycanthropes have certain elements in common beyond the expected basics (shapechanging, damage reduction/silver, etc.).

* All lycanthropes are spiritually and emotionally tied to the phases of the moon, even if the moon isn't what triggers the werebeast's transformation. Lycanthropes make control shape checks to transform into any form and to resist transforming. Much more on this later.

* Possessed of two souls (or one spirit grown more powerful by absorbing its twin in the womb), a lycanthrope's flesh flows with profound reserves of positive energy. This enhances its primal emotions and physical sensations, strengthens and repairs its body, and fuels its transformations, but it also burns out quickly, leaving the werebeast with a ravenous hunger for flesh that can never be completely sated. Even the most kind and gentle afflicted lycanthrope, one who has successfully fought for control over the beast, will always, always have a little itch in the back of his or her mind--an urge to indulge in their desires, to unleash the inner beast, and to feel hot blood on their lips. More on the Hunger later.

* Divination spells (detect evil, etc.) always detect lycanthrope's alignment as if the werebeast were a cleric rather than its actual classes (thus, it has a more powerful, more easily detected aura).

Afflicted and natural lycanthropes differ in a few (generally expected) ways.

* An afflicted lycanthrope is torn between its two natures. Even when the humanoid soul surrenders entirely, allowing the beast to consume it, the lycanthrope will always struggle with self-control. They usually lose control when they transform and seldom remember their actions once they change back. An afflicted lycanthrope can have two alignments -- one in humanoid form and one in bestial form. Regardless, the horrific truth is that ultimately in both the forms of a LG human form and a CE wolf, the same mind drives the creature's actions. When the animus is in control, however, the human mind is consumed by carnal hunger and is stripped of its capacity for restraint. Heedless of ramifications, it simply takes everything it wants.

* Unhindered by a constant struggle between two souls, the power of the animus flows pure in natural lycanthropes. They have far greater control over their transformations, and they have the same mind and alignment in all forms. They remember everything they do, and their rampages are not due to loss of control, but rather a gleeful shedding of humanity's restraints. Natural lycanthropes are the font from which the energy of the animus flows--the bloodline. The animus flows freely from the flesh, and their bite spreads lycanthropy, creating afflicted lycanthropes. While a natural lycanthrope lives, its mere existences strengthens the bestial spirits of the afflicted lycanthropes it has created. While the progenitor of a bloodline is alive, its progeny can also spread lycanthropy with their bite and cannot be cured. However, the death of the progenitor severs this bloodline. The moment the progenitor dies, its progeny permanently lose the ability to spread lycanthropy (much to their relief, in many cases), and they now have the possibly of finding a cure. More on the cure later.

All lycanthropes have an ingrained trigger, some stimulus that unlocks the curse of lycanthropy within them, compelling them to assume bestial form. In most cases, that trigger is the full moon, but many other triggers have been encountered. These alternate triggers seem to be rooted in some deep, inherent aspect of the progenitor's nature. In almost all cases, alternate triggers are related to carnal sensations or primal emotions like pain, ecstasy, rage, fear, or the taste of blood. While more esoteric triggers have been recorded, these are almost invariably tied to individual, specifically crafted curses (maledictive lycanthropes, who differ from afflicted and natural lycanthopes only in the means of their creation).

Natural lycanthropes do not have perfect control over themselves, but they do gain a +10 racial bonus on control shape checks. Once a progenitor's trigger is set, it remains fixed for every afflicted lycanthrope that joins the progenitor's bloodline.

Lycanthropes are born in human form, and whether afflicted or natural they do not develop the ability to change shape until they reach puberty. Lycanthropic children are, however, still otherwise possessed of an animus, and develop all of the other abilities werebeasts enjoy in humanoid form, such as heightened senses, and the animus affects their minds as it does an adult's. Natural lycanthrope children raised in awareness of their true natures may embrace their wild side long before they can physically assume it, while afflicted children may be wracked by strange urges and recurring nightmares they can scarcely understand.

Next Time: The Transformation.