Peasants and travellers tell stories of what happens to those who get lost in the ancient woods. The mortal dangers of the woods themselves are bad enough, starvation and predators are common fates of those lost in the woods. But, there is something more dangerous in the deep woods, the ancient parts of the world themselves. The spirits of the ancient woods are only properly understood by the Ghosts of the Deeping Wood or the Spirit Hunters of the great wolves, and humans or dwarves will never fully understand them, but the wise still properly fear them.
It's rare that a person living outside of the great cities is not aware of the needs of the spirits. Most of the peasant folk will sacrifice from their harvests to feed the spirits, dance the maypole to celebrate the end of spring, or drop small offerings at the crossroads. By doing these things, humans become allowed to enter into the ancient woods, allowed to grow fields, and allowed to travel in the domains of the ancient spirits. Entire towns have been wiped out in floods, or burned to ash, because of disrespect toward the spirits, or not obeying the original rituals. Wise priests of human towns will often chastise, excommunicate, or exile those who do not respect the spirits in order to prevent this doom. The less wise priests might attempt to use the power of the divine to keep the spirits out, and few succeed at this ambitious task.
The Spirit Hunters of the great wolves, however, have a different way to protect the human towns. The wolves do not respect the cities themselves, but do not want the spirits discomforted, nor do they want the spirits wrath being unleashed. The ravens of the ancient woods will spy upon the town for several days, watching the people of a town upsetting the forest spirits, and select the target. The ravens will then bring their selection to the Spirit Hunters. They howl their Grandfather's Song in the nights for three total nights, and bring curses upon the unlucky one. After those three days, the unlucky target is now cursed for 101 nights. During those 101 nights, the target is now a great wolf themselves. A wolf who has a taste for human flesh, and a desire to stalk and hunt the rest of their community. During the day, the awaken with no memory of the night before, fully human, but often wounded, scratched, and in an unfamiliar place. And this is the horror of the loup garou.
Once a loup garou is found stalking a community, it is immediately a moment of terror in a community. The loup garou will attempt to stalk and hunt the people of the community, and kill them, no matter their relationship when the loup garou is human or dwarven. This means that the citizens of the town must choose if they will slay the loup garou, attempt to find a way to imprison the loup garou for the entire 101 nights, or bring in a priest to attempt to exorcise the cursed individual. The easiest, and most common answer, is to kill the loup garou, and therefore the inflicted individual will often hide their curse, which makes it much worse. Most peasants are also often aware that slaying a loup garou will end the disfavour of the spirits, making this more likely.
Loup Garou are not properly different than the person they are in life. They are larger, stronger, and more violent, but they are still the person under the flesh.
So instead of a proper set of stats, they only receive a list of changes while they are in wolf form.
Gain
Lose
Add
Regenerating Body: The Loup Garou shrugs off wounds with alarming ease. At the beginning of every exchange (in Range and Cover or Fight) or shortly after receiving the wound, the Loup Garou rolls their Health and reduces the wound by a number of pips equal to their successes. For example, if a Loup Garou is fighting two hunters, one with a long knife, and another with a bow. The Loup Garous is stabbed with the knife for a B4 Wound, and then shot with an arrow for a B8 wound. It's incapacitated at the end of the round, but the hunters didn't press their advantage in their scripting. At the beginning of the next round, just after rolling for positioning, the Loup Garou rolls their B8 health, getting 3 and then 5 successes. Instead of a B4 and a B8 wound, they now has a B1 and a B3 wound, meaning only one superficial wound remains as it scripts. The hunters watch in fear as the arrow is pushed from the wolfish flesh, the blood disappears, and the wolf-man stands again to fight.
Stands Like A Man: The Loup Garou stands on two feet and have something resembling hands. This means they can hold objects much like a human, but can also go to all fours to run. The most important thing about this is that it can use things that require hands.
Driven to Hunt: The Loup Garou is not mindless. They are not even unintelligent. They are not a very wise monster, but they are able to keep many of their original wits about them. The loup garou has only two beliefs: "I will taste the flesh of mortals" and "Being caught is my downfall, I will hunt stealthily". The wolf can only have other beliefs if they are magical in origin.
Violent Rages: When Loup Garou fail a steel test they may use the Violent Rage hesitation option (they shift to aggressive stance, and only Strike in Fight, or only Charge in Range and Cover).
The Loup Garou's immense strength, deadly jaws, and overpowering healing abilities make them incredibly hard to kill. However, there are a few methods.
A Burning Wheel Monster Every Week