Post by bookworm55 on Sept 7, 2016 14:33:27 GMT
Names:
Shapechangers, Shifters, Werewolves, Beast-Men, Hengeyokai
The Basics:
We all have the basic image of the Hollywood werewolf in our minds. The full moon comes out, and an innocent man snaps and turns into this big, hulking, slobbering monster. The truth, as usual, is a little more complicated than the movie myths, but it's important to recognize that Shapechangers *do* exist, and that they're very, *very* dangerous. At its core, a Shapechanger is any creature with a humanoid appearance that can turn itself into the form of an animal, or in rare cases, into a monstrous half-animal form. This category does not only include what we consider werewolves, but seems to comprise a wide array of shifters.
I feel like it's important to keep in mind, as well, that we've had more than one report of Hunters having passive to amiable relations with these creatures, from Cop90's report of the one that walked right past him without bothering him to Hope123's story of the pack that saved her cell from a horde of Rots. I think it's safe to say that not all of these things are mindless killing machines, but due to the danger present in them I would advise avoiding contact unless absolutely necessary.
Types of Shapechangers:
Research has shown us that there are a few different kinds of Shapechangers, so be on the lookout for any of the following:
Wolves - The werewolf. Like most shifters, the Wolves appear human most of the time, but have the ability to turn themselves into - you guessed it - wolves. This transformation has been observed as both the form of a humanoid wolfman, and the power to turn into a straight-up, four-legged, run-of-the-mill wolf.
Wargs - While we haven't confirmed wargs to be a different breed from wolves, we also don't yet have enough sightings reported to link them. Essentially the same as above, but with the power to turn into a huge four-legged wolf.
Dopplegangers - Scarier than the wolves depending on who you ask, dopplegangers seem to have the ability to turn themselves into any number of people. They can wear anyone's face, making them incredibly difficult to detect and incredibly dangerous.
The following types of shifters have been reported, but at the time of this posting should still be considered unconfirmed speculation:
Bears - This one comes from local legend Fyodor, who claims to have run into a shifter in a Russian taiga that turned himself into a huge, two-legged half-bear monster. Of course, he also says he put the thing down with a bottle of vodka, a lighter and an icicle, so take this one with a grain of salt.
Hengeyokai - Japanese hunter Yuki Sanada posted a report on the original hunter-net of a "demon" she called a Hengeyokai. It hid as a human but could change its face, and she claimed its preferred form was that of a giant bipedal shark. I don't know much about demons, but that sounds like a shapechanger to me.
Identifying Features:
If you see any of the following, you might have a shapechanger in your presence:
Rapidity - Shapechangers seem to be constantly functioning at a heightened level, and this can be seen in subtle ways. Their breathing is always just a little fast like they're excited, their hearts always pounding in their chests and their blood pumping hard through their veins. Their eyes dart around rooms and they seem constantly twitchy, like they're waiting for an ambush at all times. Although they can control some of these mannerisms, they're good things to look for to identify a possible shifter.
Smell of Blood - This one might be a bit of a stretch, but it's come up enough to warrant mention. Shapechangers are violent things, and they seem to fight constantly. A lot of them carry the stenches of combat with them, and more than one hunter has spotted one of the things from the smell of blood in the air.
Native American Symbolism - Alright, let me preface this one by saying that I don't want this post to lead to any racial profiling, but it's an observed fact that a lot of shapechangers seem to carry tokens or bear symbols that at least resemble native american art or crafts. Do your research, and if you spot something out of the ordinary or not belonging to any known tribe, you might have found a Shapechanger. Or a douchey college kid who thought a tribal tattoo would be cool.
Intelligence - Sometimes, people have found the shifters already in their wolf forms, at which point a lot of the above becomes useless. What can help to identify them at this point is their intelligence. Even as wolves they're as smart as a human, and if you look closely you might pick up some mannerisms to support this.
Pack Presence - These things almost always run in packs, so one of the best ways to identify one is to be on the lookout for a small gathering of strange people. If you detect any of the above signs in more than one person in a group, you might have a pack on your hands. Do NOT engage a wolf pack on your own.
Powers:
Super Strength - Saying that shifters are ridiculously strong feels like the biggest understatement ever. Lots of supernatural things are strong, but shifters are on another level entirely. Just one of these things can tear a man in half like paper, and they're not usually alone. Trying to match muscle with a shifter is suicide, plain and simple.
Quickness - Shifters are fast, and that makes them even more dangerous. Fortunately, they don't seem to be quite as fast as a vamp or a rot, so outrunning one is still a possibility. It's just not a likely one.
Regeneration - Shifters heal faster than almost anything else we've ever fought, usually as fast as we can hurt them. They shrug off blunt trauma like it's nothing and bullets aren't much better. A shifter beaten down will probably be back to pristine condition within a minute, so use that moment to do what you need to do or get the hell out of there.
Vanishing - Oh, you thought werewolves were bad? How about teleporting werewolves? Yeah, these things have been reported to just vanish into thin air, sometimes right before your eyes. It's not invisibility, because *nothing* we do can detect them when they do this, but they can reappear in a flash and get right back to the fight.
Transformation - True to their name, a shifter can change its form at will. There doesn't seem to be any sort of trigger to this like getting angry or looking at the full moon. If a shifter wants to change, they change. Shifters seem to have several forms:
Hysteria - One of the freakiest things about shifters is the effect they have on people. Namely, you can't even *look* at one of these things while it's hulked out without feeling like you need to run, hide, piss yourself, or all of the above. Even worse, once you've got yourself out of the situation you won't even remember that you ever saw the thing. This urge can be fought off with the Sight, but mundane people have absolutely no protection from this.
Heightened Senses - This one might go without saying, but shapechangers have senses even sharper than the animals they mimic. You can hide from one, but nine times out of ten they'll manage to sniff you out. They can track like it's nobody's business, and they're hard as hell to deprive of those senses.
Weaknesses:
The following weaknesses have been field tested and confirmed to work on shifters:
Silver - As the old story goes, a silver bullet will stop a werewolf. It won't kill them outright, but it hurts like hell and enough will put them down. It also doesn't have to be a bullet. A silver blade will do the trick as well, or even just a little silver jewelry if you're in a pinch. Just be careful when making your weapons out of silver, as it isn't the sturdiest material to work with.
Warded Places - This is a bit of a weird one, and I'm sorry that it's not as helpful as you'd expect. Basically, there are some places the wolves just won't go. We don't know if the places are protected or what, but more than once a hunter's stopped running because the wolves just wouldn't advance anymore, and wound up just snarling at them from the other side of a fence or door they could have easily broken down. If you can find one of these places, use it to your advantage however possible.
Friendly Fire - Another stretch, but we need every advantage we can get. The only things that seems to hurt wolves almost as much as silver are their own claws, or the claws of another wolf. If, somehow, you can get them to turn on each other, they'll beat each other down efficiently enough for you to make a play. This is incredibly hard to do with a pack, but might be possible if you've got more than one pack on you.
The following weaknesses are suggested by hunters or media, but have either not been field tested or are complete bullshit:
The Sun - The sun, as far as we can tell, doesn't have any effect on shifters. They can walk in the daylight with no problem, and can even shift at will in the sunlight.
Wolfsbane - It doesn't do anything. Don't bother with it.
Gold - We've had stories of gold hurting the wolves just as much as silver, but we've also had stories of it doing nothing. It may only effect certain kinds, or maybe somebody just mixed up the metals.
Holy Symbols - Wolves don't seem to get religion. Holy symbols won't work on them.
Shapechanger Myths:
Getting bitten by a shapechanger won't turn you into a shapechanger. As of this writing, we don't actually know *where* these things come from, but nobody who's been bitten or scratched has ever turned.
Shapechangers don't need the full moon to change. For that matter, they don't really need the moon at all. Shifters can change at will at any time of day, and will usually do so when it comes down to a fight.
Shifters don't seem to lose control when they change. Even in human form a shifter seems to know and understand what they are, and they use their other forms as an extension of themselves for their own ends. There are no hapless victims turning into wolves beyond their own power.
Although they can and might eat you if so inclined, nothing we've seen has suggested that shifters have any need to feed on the flesh of humans. Tracked shifters have been spotted eating the same stuff as anyone else and being perfectly content with it, so this one's out.
The Rundown:
Aura Color - Green
Hostility Rating (Scale of 1-10) - Hard to pin down, but as a rule 5 when hidden and 10 when exposed.
Danger Rating - 10
Code Name: Juniors
Quick Kill Guide: Avoid direct physical confrontation. Bring friends. Catch it in human form if you can and apply silver liberally and rapidly.
Shapechangers, Shifters, Werewolves, Beast-Men, Hengeyokai
The Basics:
We all have the basic image of the Hollywood werewolf in our minds. The full moon comes out, and an innocent man snaps and turns into this big, hulking, slobbering monster. The truth, as usual, is a little more complicated than the movie myths, but it's important to recognize that Shapechangers *do* exist, and that they're very, *very* dangerous. At its core, a Shapechanger is any creature with a humanoid appearance that can turn itself into the form of an animal, or in rare cases, into a monstrous half-animal form. This category does not only include what we consider werewolves, but seems to comprise a wide array of shifters.
I feel like it's important to keep in mind, as well, that we've had more than one report of Hunters having passive to amiable relations with these creatures, from Cop90's report of the one that walked right past him without bothering him to Hope123's story of the pack that saved her cell from a horde of Rots. I think it's safe to say that not all of these things are mindless killing machines, but due to the danger present in them I would advise avoiding contact unless absolutely necessary.
Types of Shapechangers:
Research has shown us that there are a few different kinds of Shapechangers, so be on the lookout for any of the following:
Wolves - The werewolf. Like most shifters, the Wolves appear human most of the time, but have the ability to turn themselves into - you guessed it - wolves. This transformation has been observed as both the form of a humanoid wolfman, and the power to turn into a straight-up, four-legged, run-of-the-mill wolf.
Wargs - While we haven't confirmed wargs to be a different breed from wolves, we also don't yet have enough sightings reported to link them. Essentially the same as above, but with the power to turn into a huge four-legged wolf.
Dopplegangers - Scarier than the wolves depending on who you ask, dopplegangers seem to have the ability to turn themselves into any number of people. They can wear anyone's face, making them incredibly difficult to detect and incredibly dangerous.
The following types of shifters have been reported, but at the time of this posting should still be considered unconfirmed speculation:
Bears - This one comes from local legend Fyodor, who claims to have run into a shifter in a Russian taiga that turned himself into a huge, two-legged half-bear monster. Of course, he also says he put the thing down with a bottle of vodka, a lighter and an icicle, so take this one with a grain of salt.
Hengeyokai - Japanese hunter Yuki Sanada posted a report on the original hunter-net of a "demon" she called a Hengeyokai. It hid as a human but could change its face, and she claimed its preferred form was that of a giant bipedal shark. I don't know much about demons, but that sounds like a shapechanger to me.
Identifying Features:
If you see any of the following, you might have a shapechanger in your presence:
Rapidity - Shapechangers seem to be constantly functioning at a heightened level, and this can be seen in subtle ways. Their breathing is always just a little fast like they're excited, their hearts always pounding in their chests and their blood pumping hard through their veins. Their eyes dart around rooms and they seem constantly twitchy, like they're waiting for an ambush at all times. Although they can control some of these mannerisms, they're good things to look for to identify a possible shifter.
Smell of Blood - This one might be a bit of a stretch, but it's come up enough to warrant mention. Shapechangers are violent things, and they seem to fight constantly. A lot of them carry the stenches of combat with them, and more than one hunter has spotted one of the things from the smell of blood in the air.
Native American Symbolism - Alright, let me preface this one by saying that I don't want this post to lead to any racial profiling, but it's an observed fact that a lot of shapechangers seem to carry tokens or bear symbols that at least resemble native american art or crafts. Do your research, and if you spot something out of the ordinary or not belonging to any known tribe, you might have found a Shapechanger. Or a douchey college kid who thought a tribal tattoo would be cool.
Intelligence - Sometimes, people have found the shifters already in their wolf forms, at which point a lot of the above becomes useless. What can help to identify them at this point is their intelligence. Even as wolves they're as smart as a human, and if you look closely you might pick up some mannerisms to support this.
Pack Presence - These things almost always run in packs, so one of the best ways to identify one is to be on the lookout for a small gathering of strange people. If you detect any of the above signs in more than one person in a group, you might have a pack on your hands. Do NOT engage a wolf pack on your own.
Powers:
Super Strength - Saying that shifters are ridiculously strong feels like the biggest understatement ever. Lots of supernatural things are strong, but shifters are on another level entirely. Just one of these things can tear a man in half like paper, and they're not usually alone. Trying to match muscle with a shifter is suicide, plain and simple.
Quickness - Shifters are fast, and that makes them even more dangerous. Fortunately, they don't seem to be quite as fast as a vamp or a rot, so outrunning one is still a possibility. It's just not a likely one.
Regeneration - Shifters heal faster than almost anything else we've ever fought, usually as fast as we can hurt them. They shrug off blunt trauma like it's nothing and bullets aren't much better. A shifter beaten down will probably be back to pristine condition within a minute, so use that moment to do what you need to do or get the hell out of there.
Vanishing - Oh, you thought werewolves were bad? How about teleporting werewolves? Yeah, these things have been reported to just vanish into thin air, sometimes right before your eyes. It's not invisibility, because *nothing* we do can detect them when they do this, but they can reappear in a flash and get right back to the fight.
Transformation - True to their name, a shifter can change its form at will. There doesn't seem to be any sort of trigger to this like getting angry or looking at the full moon. If a shifter wants to change, they change. Shifters seem to have several forms:
- The Man: As human as they come, and nearly indistinguishable from a regular person.
- The Wolfman: Half wolf. We're talking Lon Chaney Jr. hairy face, big teeth, clawed hands wolfman. Some of these are so monstrous you can spot them right away, while some can pass themselves off as really hairy people. Be vigilant.
- The Wolf: Looks like a wolf, walks like a wolf, but thinks like a man. As stated above these range from your everyday wolves to big, hulking monstrosities.
Hysteria - One of the freakiest things about shifters is the effect they have on people. Namely, you can't even *look* at one of these things while it's hulked out without feeling like you need to run, hide, piss yourself, or all of the above. Even worse, once you've got yourself out of the situation you won't even remember that you ever saw the thing. This urge can be fought off with the Sight, but mundane people have absolutely no protection from this.
Heightened Senses - This one might go without saying, but shapechangers have senses even sharper than the animals they mimic. You can hide from one, but nine times out of ten they'll manage to sniff you out. They can track like it's nobody's business, and they're hard as hell to deprive of those senses.
Weaknesses:
The following weaknesses have been field tested and confirmed to work on shifters:
Silver - As the old story goes, a silver bullet will stop a werewolf. It won't kill them outright, but it hurts like hell and enough will put them down. It also doesn't have to be a bullet. A silver blade will do the trick as well, or even just a little silver jewelry if you're in a pinch. Just be careful when making your weapons out of silver, as it isn't the sturdiest material to work with.
Warded Places - This is a bit of a weird one, and I'm sorry that it's not as helpful as you'd expect. Basically, there are some places the wolves just won't go. We don't know if the places are protected or what, but more than once a hunter's stopped running because the wolves just wouldn't advance anymore, and wound up just snarling at them from the other side of a fence or door they could have easily broken down. If you can find one of these places, use it to your advantage however possible.
Friendly Fire - Another stretch, but we need every advantage we can get. The only things that seems to hurt wolves almost as much as silver are their own claws, or the claws of another wolf. If, somehow, you can get them to turn on each other, they'll beat each other down efficiently enough for you to make a play. This is incredibly hard to do with a pack, but might be possible if you've got more than one pack on you.
The following weaknesses are suggested by hunters or media, but have either not been field tested or are complete bullshit:
The Sun - The sun, as far as we can tell, doesn't have any effect on shifters. They can walk in the daylight with no problem, and can even shift at will in the sunlight.
Wolfsbane - It doesn't do anything. Don't bother with it.
Gold - We've had stories of gold hurting the wolves just as much as silver, but we've also had stories of it doing nothing. It may only effect certain kinds, or maybe somebody just mixed up the metals.
Holy Symbols - Wolves don't seem to get religion. Holy symbols won't work on them.
Shapechanger Myths:
Getting bitten by a shapechanger won't turn you into a shapechanger. As of this writing, we don't actually know *where* these things come from, but nobody who's been bitten or scratched has ever turned.
Shapechangers don't need the full moon to change. For that matter, they don't really need the moon at all. Shifters can change at will at any time of day, and will usually do so when it comes down to a fight.
Shifters don't seem to lose control when they change. Even in human form a shifter seems to know and understand what they are, and they use their other forms as an extension of themselves for their own ends. There are no hapless victims turning into wolves beyond their own power.
Although they can and might eat you if so inclined, nothing we've seen has suggested that shifters have any need to feed on the flesh of humans. Tracked shifters have been spotted eating the same stuff as anyone else and being perfectly content with it, so this one's out.
The Rundown:
Aura Color - Green
Hostility Rating (Scale of 1-10) - Hard to pin down, but as a rule 5 when hidden and 10 when exposed.
Danger Rating - 10
Code Name: Juniors
Quick Kill Guide: Avoid direct physical confrontation. Bring friends. Catch it in human form if you can and apply silver liberally and rapidly.