the Beast of Gévaudan (based on Brotherhood of the Wolf...sort of)

[Uller]

the Beast of Gévaudan (based on Brotherhood of the Wolf...sort of)

Hi All,

I've not seen BotW yet...but it is coming out on DVD soon so I was just checking it out. Roger Ebert's review said that it is (loosely) based on the legend of the Beast of Gévaudan that ravaged a rural french district in 1764. So I found a few links about the legend...

I'm thinking of creating a low/mid-level adventure around this beast. The above article postulates the creature is (was) some very large subspecies of the pine martin (a similar creature to a wolverine). This doesn't sound that plausible to me, but what the heck...let's run with it. It also mentions that some of the legends claim that the creature was a demon summoned by a sorcerer or sent as a punishment from God.

So here is what I'm thinking...give the players the hook that a creature is attacking livestock and woman and children in villages that surround a small tract of wilderness. You know...you're typical monster hunt. But as the PCs begin to look for the creature, they get conflicting accounts. Sometimes it is as large as a cow and is a wolf-like creature. Othertimes it is cat-like and leaps from trees. Its victims who survive go mad days later. One of the most important clues: Two of the accounts have the creature in two different places at the same time (let the players put that one together).

The truth is that the creatures are two different things. On the one hand, they are fiendish dire badgers being summoned by an evil sorcerer or cleric or some such and then turned loose on the locals. But they have a twist. Their bite causes a disease that does damage to wisdom and charisma, causing the victim to spiral into insantity over the course of a week or so. This causes everyone to believe it is a werewolf. The sorcerer or cleric is a member of a cult and heard about the second creature. He decided to use that creature as a cover so he could carry out his evil.

The second creature is an advanced fiendish dire wolf. Or maybe an Ogre afflicted with lycanthropy. I don't really know how this got here though. Perhaps it was sent to assassinate or terrorize someone and after that it just settled down in an environment rich in easy food.

Anyway...those are some ideas I thought up in just a few minutes. Any others? Basically, I want it to start out as your run of the mill, ho-hum monster hunt and have it lead to a mystery and conspiracy. Something that everytime the PCs think they've uncovered something, they find that it gets deeper and stranger...

 

[John Crichton]

Have any of your players seen the flick? If they have you may want to wait and see it just to make sure you don't duplicate what was done there. Also, the movie is really good and makes for great inspiration.

I think you are on the right path with your thinking so far. I'd have a few alternate variation on the theme handy just in case the PC's get lucky and figure it out too quickly. I've always found that a few good NPC's that "seem to know something" about the situation makes for some good mystery RP-ing. Gives the non-combat oriented types and chance to really shine.

 

[Angelsboi]

There was a game called Nightmare and a game called Atmosfear. It was hosted by the Gatekeeper and there were 6 players. Khufu the mummy, Anne deChantrain the Witch, Elizabeth Bathory the Vampire, Hellin the Poltergeist, Gevaudin the Werewolf and Baron Samedi the Zombie.

Just FYI =)

 

[Undead Pete]

I desperately wanted to see it, but my local theaters never play ANYTHING that is remotely foreign

Thankfully, it will be out on DVD next month.

 

[Sammael99]

Re: the Beast of Gévaudan (based on Brotherhood of the Wolf...sort of)

Hi All,

The truth is that the creatures are two different things. On the one hand, they are fiendish dire badgers being summoned by an evil sorcerer or cleric or some such and then turned loose on the locals. But they have a twist. Their bite causes a disease that does damage to wisdom and charisma, causing the victim to spiral into insantity over the course of a week or so. This causes everyone to believe it is a werewolf. The sorcerer or cleric is a member of a cult and heard about the second creature. He decided to use that creature as a cover so he could carry out his evil.

The second creature is an advanced fiendish dire wolf. Or maybe an Ogre afflicted with lycanthropy. I don't really know how this got here though. Perhaps it was sent to assassinate or terrorize someone and after that it just settled down in an environment rich in easy food.

Anyway...those are some ideas I thought up in just a few minutes. Any others? Basically, I want it to start out as your run of the mill, ho-hum monster hunt and have it lead to a mystery and conspiracy. Something that everytime the PCs think they've uncovered something, they find that it gets deeper and stranger...

Why are they both terrorising the same area ?

What is the cleric trying to achieve ?

How did the fiendish dire wolf get there ?

What does the ogre do when not in wolf form ?

Build from there...

 

[reddist]

Interesting link, Uller. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. The movie would make a wonderful plot for a 5-6 session game. Monsters, raving barbarians, seductive spies, court intrigue, evil masterminds, subversive conspiracies. Good stuff. You'd have to do it fast though, before everyone goes out and buys the movie

There were bootleg copies of BotW available at GenCon. I am still astounded that those DVD sellers were allowed to sell obviously illegal copies of unreleased films, TV pilots, and anime.

We have a few good art-house theaters around here. I think its funny when films like BotW, CT/HD, and even Black Mask and the original (undubbed) Princess Mononoke are screened at the bigger theaters, and people actually get up and walk out when they realize they have to read subtitles.

--Reddist

 

[Uller]

Re: Re: the Beast of Gévaudan (based on Brotherhood of the Wolf...sort of)

Why are they both terrorising the same area ?

What is the cleric trying to achieve ?

How did the fiendish dire wolf get there ?

What does the ogre do when not in wolf form ?

Build from there...

Well...I'm actually going to build from something farther down. I'm about to kick off a new campaign (probably in the next month or so). I don't like over arching plot lines (you know...the DM decides at the beginning of the campaign that the main bad guy is X and he and his minions are going to do Y and the PCs have to stop him...). I like to just sort of set stuff up like dominoes and let them fall however they fall...

So what I'm thinking now is using this as sort of "flavor" or the "hook" (in the Dungeoncraft sense of the word) for the early part of the campaign. The PCs will start out in a remote rural village where most of the populace is extremely poor, oppressed and illiterate. There is tension in the province between various factions: two factions of nobility, the clergy, freeman and the oppressed "serfs" or peasants. Revolutions have been brutally put down and invasions have been repulsed with one faction taking more losses than others leading to a lot of bad blood between the locals.

An annual harvest fair and tournament will be held at which it will be announced that the daughter of one of the noble factions will be marrying the eldest son of the leader of the other as a way to unify the nobles. This, of course, will be seen as a BAD thing by the other factions. A unified nobility would be strong and could easily supress the others...

It is during this festival that I will introduce the beast. It will not be something that is meant for the PCs to go out, hunt down and kill (although it will seem like it is)...hopefully they will try once and realize they are in over their heads. In fact, they will be unable to defeat it (it will be like a CR 7 or 8 creature with damage reduction). Famous huntsman and warriors will fall to it. Outside interests will want it destroyed but will fail. Soldiers will swear they fatally wounded it only to have it come back and attack again. It will ravage the country side over several adventures and will gain such a reputation that the PCs will have an incentive to not allow outsiders to slay it (because to kill it will bring such fame that is a reward in and of itself). So they may make enemies of competing NPCs who wish to slay it.

How the beast(s) tie into the above conflict I don't know. I probably won't know until something strikes me as "cool". Maybe it was set loose as part of the tournament and terribly underestimated. Maybe the clergy has called it to punish the nobles. Maybe the nobles created it to make the commoners feel they "need" the nobles (and in the mean-time, it kills off the bravest commoners). I don't know...whatever strikes me as interesting. The PCs can take up whatever side(s) they want or none at all and will have other adventures...some may involve the beast, others may not. Maybe eventually they'll feel strong enough to face it (around 6th or 7th level or so). In the mean time, I'll make them hate it. It will make their lives miserable. It will kill their friends. It will make goods unavailable as the population panics and flees. It will be fun!

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Hey, how cool! That website Uller linked to is run by me. Woohoo!

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Re: the Beast of Gévaudan (based on Brotherhood of the Wolf...sort of)

I'm thinking of creating a low/mid-level adventure around this beast. The above article postulates the creature is (was) some very large subspecies of the pine martin (a similar creature to a wolverine). This doesn't sound that plausible to me, but what the heck...let's run with it. It also mentions that some of the legends claim that the creature was a demon summoned by a sorcerer or sent as a punishment from God.

No, that's not too plausible. That's what I get for hurriedly writing something when I was 19 and "newly converted" to cryptozoology. With all the fanaticism that entails...

It was probably just a big wolf. But that sounds less "cryptozoology" than an unidentified mustelid, no?

 

[Uller]

Re: Re: the Beast of Gévaudan (based on Brotherhood of the Wolf...sort of)

It was probably just a big wolf. But that sounds less "cryptozoology" than an unidentified mustelid, no?

A single exceptionally large wolf (or a small group of them) killed over 100 people? That seems almost as unlikely as the pine martin theory. It is my understanding that healthy wolves are naturally afraid of humans. So even a large one will not attack unless it is sick or starving. I can't see a sick wolf surviving 3 years...

I would think it was either an exotic animal without such fear like a large hyena or a lion or lion/tiger half-breed (I've seen these in zoos and such...very weird looking) or perhaps a wolf-dog (a wolf mixed with an exceptionally large breed of dog could be quite large). A wolf-hound can look a lot like the descriptions (except the "cat-like" paw prints...but that may just be inaccurate). Wolves don't typically attack large animals outside of the pack. Even a very large wolf would consider an adult human to be too large to attack without the benefit of a pack.

I used to live in colorado and out there a popular "pet" was wolf-dog hybrids. One of the great concerns in the area was that you would end up with an animal that has the wildness of a wolf and the lack of fear of a dog. Now you've got a problem. In fact, I believe I was accosted by such an animal. I was the first to show up for first formation (I was in the Army) one morning and saw what appeared to me to be a small wolf (gray shaggy fir, pointed ears an muzzle, long hair on the tail) but it had some markings that reminded me of a husky or malamute (some of its fur was a reddish brown).

When it noticed me, it started moving towards me, head down, teeth showing and tail between it's legs. I readied for a fight ( I figured I could at least hurt it badly...). Fortunately for me, a couple of other soldiers showed up with our company mascot...a large boxer. The animal saw the boxer and the other soldiers and must have reallized it was severally out matched and fled. We reported the incident and the MPs shot it later that day. I still have no idea if my theory was correct or if was just a sick dog...