Ever since the nose-blind apes succeeded in driving them away, wolves have carried their hatred in their guts, like a cold embryo.
Humans are slow, stupid, and nearly deaf and blind. And yet they outhunt the master hunters. Time and time again, packs have been driven away from their ancestral homelands. They are a living refutation of all lupine virtues--the idea that weakness can yield success on the hunt.
It is an ancient hatred. Humans were anathema long before they adopted their role as tempters and corruptors, who were able to twist the bodies and souls of noble wolves into the half-human abominations called dogs.
Wolves have sometimes debased themselves as well, performing horrible acts of desperation. In one example of this, they prevent their elders from venturing on after death, by hiding the path to the Great Hunting Grounds. Instead, the spirits are forces to assist the living in their own hunt.
Living so close to death, wolves are natural necromancers. Some say that they were the first.
Worgs
More rarely, they invite demons into their bodies, creating the gestalt known as a worg. Worgs grow larger the more that they eat, and they learn whatever their prey knew. (This is why worgs always know the speech of men.) They are only harmed by iron and by flint. Their howl drives horses mad, and causes dogs to turn on their masters (along with most domesticated animals).
Worg stats: as a wolf, except keep adding HD and adding fire damage to their bite.
They are too canny to be tracked, to alert to ever be surprised. The only way to ever kill a worg is to lure it into a hunt--and they will always scent a group. Vulnerable bait, precious bait, must be used.
Werewolves
Another technology developed by wolves is the werewolf. The original word is "weregild", which translates to "man-price", referring to the price that wolves would pay to rid themselves of a man. It's a kenning referring to damnation (as wolves would phrase it).
The Werewolf Rule
If the party is ever fighting wolves, and there is only one wolf left, and the last wolf bites someone, that person must save vs. lycanthropy. If they fail, the wolf's body is dragged to hell and the wolf's soul infests their own. Only a desperate, hateful wolf ever invokes the werewolf curse.
The demon-wolf spirit can make one attempt to possess a character once per session or once per month (whichever is more frequent). The wolf (DM) chooses when to invoke this check.
The character gets +4 to this save if it is during the day or in a village. However, they get -4 to this save if they are in a dungeon, or if it is night during the week of the full moon. In direct moonlight, no Save is allowed. The demon wolf-spirit watches from behind your eyes--it is canny enough to bide its time in order to cause the most grief.
Each session or month (whichever comes first) this increases to 2x per session/month, up to a maximum of 3x per session/month.
When you turn into a werewolf, the transformation lasts for 10 minutes (in a dungeon), until dawn (outside of a dungeon), or until you are reduced to 0 HP. You immediately burst your clothing and armor, and gain +2 HD and a claw attack that deals 1d6+2 damage. The touch of silver drives you away if you fail a Cha save. While transformed, you are completely under the control of the DM. Transformation (in either direction) takes 1 round.
Once you've survived a few transformations, it is difficult to hide what you are. Scars form along the seams of your skin, where it has burst and regrown. (Skin tends to tear along the softer lines. Armpits and inner arms will rupture before shoulders will.) And the skeletal plasticity quickly bestows a distinct deformity upon the face and lower legs. A cloak and hood could hide it, but nothing less.
When possessed by a demon-wolf spirit, it is best to avoid your acquaintances. Once the demon-wolf knows who you love the most, it will seek them out to destroy them. If it is discovered that you are a werewolf, most people will seek your death. The kindest souls might instead allow you live only after you've removed all of your teeth (which deprives the werewolf of its greatest weapon), but even this is ill-advised. The wolf inside your heart is cruel and motivated, and every story of a werewolf is a story of tragedy inflicted on innocent lives.
There is no known cure for lycanthropy. Those afflicted usually exile themselves to the loneliest corners of the world (where they are shunned by wolves, who know what they are). Among the barbarian tribes, werewolves seek to die bravely in battle.
The spirit of the wolf lives in the vitality of the heart, or the quickness of the eye. Scholars have theorized that the spirit of the wolf could be removed if the relevant organs were removed quickly, while the wolf spirit still lingered there. Machines have been built that remove these organs quickly and efficiently. Although you will die from this, you will at least be allowed to be buried in the churchyard.
DM Note: feel free to add a cure to your game, something that the players can quest for. It shouldn't be a dead end unless you want it to be.
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