I had one of the roles were I couldn't reveal my true nature, but in my case, it would have been suicide to tell the truth even if allowed. Almost everything about my character, except my actual role designation (survivor), screamed SK. Claire did want town to triumph (for selfish reasons) and I played that way. Originally, I thought I might be a witch or some kind of vampire.

In my opening flavor I killed an animal - quite graphic with erotic undertones. That was the flavor I compared to the disembowelment - wasn't really any worse than that. The NK flavor of RWarehall was just plain violent pornography - NC17 and X rated stuff. Drealmer tops bler in being more twisted. :-p

The vote/penalty thing seems bastard. If Dessi had actually been lynched N1 and chose to venge-kill say Tammy, what a different route this game may have taken.

Thanks to the mod for a fun game and to all the players, especially our new ones. I hoped to see you all in future games!

What I posted D1 about being suspicious of RW was true. Probably should have voted for him. I allowed RWarehall's argument the Bookwyrm might be shading him to raise some doubt. RWarehall's vote for no-lynch was the clincher. He said D1 was "productive enough". Really? By scum standards, yes. From town's perspective, D1 was a bust. That pretty much sealed it for me.

BTW, @brasas - you had me snowed. Good to see what your scum game looks like.

I am thinking I did not invest myself enough in the game, I mean my QT had a total of 15 posts and only that many because I asked if I could post something drealmer had said in the QT verbatim.

You seemed pretty involved D1 but seemed to taper off after that imo.

Curious if it was a function of being vanilla in a game where everybody else seemed to be running around with wacky roles or info.

It had to do with me not trusting my own reads, did not really matter to me whether I had a role or not.

heh


Regarding RW - altough I understood what he wanted to convey with that comment, I do remember cringing at it emotionally. Not surprised it got him in trouble I guess. Another way day chat would have been great, as I would have screamed at everyone to stay on their wagons and see what happens, the lynch mechanics were opaque up to then.

Of course my assumption was that a maj was required, just later in the day, so I thought Dess was safe unless a bunch of votes would rush him. So ironically I think RW holding would have meant a Dess lynch with only Tammy and maybe Stan as town on the wagon? Me, Nacho and RW bussing our Alpha... that would have been ridiculously funny.

Still, I think there was an overall trend that regardless of alignment players with a more vanilla draft struggled more than usual. Wyrm was the main outlier on that, defaulting to his usual fake a PR gambit from outta the gate...

Mine I confessed to Tammy and I think she got it as part of context for decision to cure me or not, so she knows it verbatim I assume. Still will wait on Drealmer to confirm it's kosher.

But I breadcrumbed some of it all over D1, the rest would probably play into the fakeclaims: lonely / melancholy, the horses - I really want it to be true I didn't just leave them behind (Ivy, Mable, Baron, and Clive), being afraid to lose control, and how I became a wolf and that left me kind of independent of both groups.

You all can share whatever from the QTs you want, just don't share the QT links themselves.

If I get time later I will post each player's opening flavor, but feel free to do your own.

brasas - if chosen by the pack to perform the NK, Dan would have been given the option to obey or not, rules 1 & 2 relate to the WS and AW mechanics in relation to you (like if you are chosen twice and obey twice, you lose your LW status.)

3. if LW targets DW, he gets seduced, loses -1x night-prowl use. If DW targets LW, DW fails.
4. if LW targets SH, SH fails NA (distracted by LW), loses -1x night-prowl use
5. if LW targets AD, AD fails NA (distracted by LW), loses -1x night-prowl use
6. if LW targets VW, VS, CV, NV, V, then LW is given option to NK them or not.
7. if LW targets PV, LW dies!

wyrm, it's not like I'm trying to hide the mechanics, there's just a lot of them and to post them all would be a PITA - please ask about specifics if you want to know

quick reference:

WS - Wood Spirit
DW - Demon Worshipper
AW - Alpha Wolf
LW - Lone Wolf
SH - Skilled Hunter
AD - Animal Doctor
PV - Paranoid Villager
VS - Village Snoop
VW - Village Worrier

Sarah Matthews -

You are an ancient Wood Spirit. Your true sound is "Tyf" but the villagers here in Oakwood will only ever know you as "Sarah Matthews."

This forest is your home and these trees are your life force. You have lived deep in the forests of this area for millennia. You have seen them shift and grow and change and they are sacred to you. You are as much a part of these woods as they are a part of you. You are their spirit, their consciousness, and their conscience, manifested. They are your arms, eyes, and body. You are connected to every piece of life here, from the largest tree to the smallest blade of grass; from the greatest of eagles to the meekest of moles, and all in between. You watch over all life here and you are an ambassador to the balance of nature within these woods.

You aren't innately powerful yourself, you, and in turn your powers, are simply a byproduct of the energies and powers coming from the trees and all of the life that is a part of them. It is their power which drew you into existence in the first place.

The existence of beings like you and the influences associated have dwindled greatly since humans have become more abundant on the earth in the past 1000 years. Many of them have instilled a greater negative influence in more and more concentrated forces across the planet over time, damaging the earth and in turn draining many of its natural powers that bring beings like you into existence.

There have always been humans that have roamed through and lived in these lands since you first came into existence in these woods thousands of years ago. For most of the time that they've been around they have been some of the most interesting and complex creatures the earth has ever created, and not of the negatively impacting element. Many have grown to be wise and knowing of the true nature of things and live with respect to it all.

But then there are others. Over the past several hundred years there has been a sense of a different sort of people than any you had been exposed to before. People that do not live in healthy symbiosis with the rest of the earth and disrespect it to the highest of degrees. They exploit it and all that is a part of it, including each other. From the trees and animals that dwell throughout the lands to the water and dirt and minerals themselves that make up all the connecting land. Many are carelessly, intentionally, unnecessarily destructive and you wish at times that the earth would take them back.

Contrarily, over the past very recent years you have come to realize that how a human is just depends on how they learn to view and live in the world. The circumstances they are surrounded by while growing to learn how to view and be in the world, and what they are able to make of it all influences them greatly. Whether they are able to overcome or thrive or make the best or better out of whatever the circumstances are varies as much as life itself.

Most of life is uncontrollable for all living it, and humans exert a great deal of energy in trying to control theirs. One of the reasons for this is because humans are a very aware and sensitive species, and so they have the capacity to understand and feel the depths and complexities of life to a high degree, and that makes them capable of suffering on deep intellectual and emotional levels as well. So they strive to prevent their own suffering, at the expense of making all others suffer.

They are an interesting species, indeed. You find almost all earth's creatures to be, but humans are still in an infantile stage in their existence as a species, and it remains to be seen how they will evolve and so you watch with great interest, and a bit of worry.
Despite very few encounters with varying natives of the land over the past few millennia, which never involved any words, the only humans who have ever met you, spoken to you, or had you speak to them are people who live in Oakwood Village.

If a traveler or visitor or passer-through of any sort ever visits the area you stay hidden from them and have never interacted with anyone that hasn't shown themselves to be a true part of the community. Everyone just takes this to be because of your shy, timid nature.


...continued in next post...

Every single person's home, every building and structure that are a part of this village is either entirely or partially made from the wood of these sacred-to-you trees. Fields and meadows and yards and other spaces have been cut and cleared, stumps blown out of the ground with only the cratered earth remaining, and it has been happening ever since humans moved into the area. When they first started clearing the trees and stripping them you were hurt and even a bit afraid to what extent it might go, but over time you watched them use the trees to build their homes and other things of impressive design and skill and art, and with it all you became fascinated and impressed and began to respect them more, and they never took more than they needed, and in fact seemed to improve the land and all around them with their presence over time.

You've always known humans build things from wood and you've seen them do it at various stages at different times since they've been alive. Over time here now you've been able to see the detail and skill involved in everything they do, and it is impressive. So much of what they use in life comes from wood, and there is a huge capacity for what they can do with it. Buildings and structures, furniture and tools, instruments and accessories, and it all can have elaborate details and variances that make each thing unique even if they are similar. Trees in all their forms truly are the essence of life.

It was after quite a time of having observed them from afar without letting your presence known that one night you finally decided to approach them and see how it went. You were nervous, but they seemed in good spirits and like a warm and loving group, so you gave it a try. They had built a large fire and were dancing around it, singing to it, to each other, to the sky, and to the woods around them. They seemed to be having some sort of ceremony or celebration of some sort. You later found it was a ten-year anniversary of them having established the community. You ended up being a part of that celebration, and it was very special for all of you, and you are happy to have been a part of it, and to be, even if you are a bit distant from the rest because of hiding your true self, a part of the community.

At first they figured you must have either been from Nashua or a traveler from a group of travelers and gotten lost or left behind in the woods some time ago, how long they couldn't tell, and you couldn't tell them. They figured that you eventually made your way over to this area having happened to see their fire and hear them in the night. When they asked who you were you gave no answer, and played dumb until you felt things out better. At first you didn't have a name, and they figured you'd bumped your head and not remembered much and had been living in the woods for quite some time. They celebrated your life and luck of finding them and you joined them in their celebrations.

The next day they sent word to Nashua to check if someone like you was missing or if anyone knew you or could find out anything about you. Regardless of where you came, it was apparent to them that you had lived in the woods for some time and new not much of the ways of people and their things, and so they took you under their care. You have reinforced the idea that you'd been living in the woods for some time and that you never have quite gotten accustomed to people and social and village life. It serves you well to have them believe this is the truth in many ways. It is what makes the most sense to them all and you're glad to have them believe it.

It was almost winter when you came to the village, and it was too late to start construction on a home for you so you stayed in The Community Home (even though you hate staying inside buildings, you needed to pretend to let them "watch and care" for you for a little because you seemed so helpless to them.) When they did build your home the next spring you asked them to make it very small, a portion of the size of any of the other homes in the village, and they obliged you.

You reluctantly stay in it once in a great while just to have it appear to them that you're trying to change, but after 10 years they have accepted that you prefer the outdoors to the indoors, even when it comes to cooking and sleeping. It is barely lived in, but it is there for you to receive guests if you ever need, or to show the pretense of taking shelter. It was also a way for them to show you how welcome you were to be a part of the village and their desire to have you stay with them.

Your appreciation and enthrallment for their capabilities has grown over the years the more you've been exposed to it and seen more of it. You have watched them build more and more homes and barns and fences and gardens and tools and instruments and everything else that they've needed to do to carve out a life here in the wilderness, just like all animals, but in such great depth and detail, it at times breath-taking.

You love seeing how they have transformed the area. You see it as a refining and enhancing of an small section of the world where they've learned to use what they need in a way that suits them for their survival and enjoyment of the lives they have while they survive and live in harmony with the life around them. It is a beautiful thing.

You have come to learn that humans can, if they choose to make the effort, live respectfully and symbiotically with the earth in ways and purposes that are in line with those of the other life-forms of the world and that you can accept and support some of them. Most of these villagers have proven themselves to not warrant your initial fear of them, and you've learned to live with them and appreciate them, and you do care for their well-being, just like you do any creature of the earth.

You have learned that they can even be enjoyable to be around at times. You've learned they can be lovable and offer great company, too. You've come to learn of and love their humor and laughter and their ability to have fun to their songs and stories of wisdom and heart and of triumph and loss that express so well their good and bad parts of being a living being. You admire the depth of their ability to feel and think, and then learn and grow from it all. Humans are fascinating creatures indeed.

There are some you like more than others and even a couple that you've barely spoken to and intentionally stay away from because you are uncertain of, and when new people move in you keep your distance from them and observe them with caution and depending on how you feel about them and how the rest of the villagers treat them you eventually reveal yourself to them to one degree or another. Almost always people turn out to be just as good of people as the rest here, with the same friendly and loveable qualities that made you feel welcome enough to meet them all in the first place.

You will do your best to help maintain a healthy balanced existence for these woods on a whole. However, you aren't sure what you think is the best way to go about doing that at this point. You don't know whether you want to help the true humans or the werewolves, or to help them both, or neither and just observe. And you don't even know that even if you do decide to do something if you will ultimately be able to have any influence anyway. At a certain point it will probably cross your mind to turn them both against each other and try to eliminate them all, and you could try to do that if you wanted. It is all up to you.

For now you think it will be best to simply go to The Community Home with everyone else and watch everyone closely and make your choices carefully and with full thought and intention going into each you make to try and figure out and do the best things for these woods that you can.

Of course, no matter the decisions you make, you never know what consequences may unfold from them anyway, so you must just do your best and trust that you are making the right choices if and when you do finally make them.

You've sensed a werewolf's presence for some time in these woods, but you never bothered to try and discover who it is and never have felt their presence here to be a problem or anything that worked against nature, as far as you can tell. You have also felt that he's grown in power and at some point he started a pack and has grown that by at least a couple followers over the years.

As much as you've seen in nature and as long as you've existed, the existence of Werewolves and their interactions with humans is a rare thing. The nature and dynamics of it all interests you greatly, and, again, you really aren't sure if the werewolves or humans are a greater threat to you and the balance of nature overall, or to what level, if any, you might want to get involved in what goes on here between them.

Humans can be invasive and do seem to populate quickly. The existence of werewolves in the area might be a good counterbalance to their abundance and continued increased presence in the region, but also, you know these humans of Oakwood Village are mostly good people and you aren't sure you want to see them gone either. Regardless, your path is your own. Make it as you will.

You figure if it comes to it you will tell other villagers that you didn't go to Nashua with most of the rest of everyone because you are uncomfortable anywhere else, and that you almost fear leaving because you know nowhere else. Oakwood Village is your home and you can't imagine leaving. You figure you might tell them you aren't sure what good you'll be or if you'll just get in the way/be a sacrificial lamb, but regardless, you couldn't even consider leaving.

--- end Sarah Matthews ---

Claire Dwyer --

Your true name is Cirale ("keer-AL".) You have gone by several names over your lifetime, but here in Oakwood Village you are only known as "Claire Dwyer." You will never tell anyone your true name or identity (if you do, you'll be killed, for sure, both by the villagers and mod-killed by me.)

You worship the demon Yrrel ("YEER-uhl.") She craves flesh and fluids from all forms of life, and for most of your life, so have you. You have been worshipping her since you were eleven, and you are quite powerful. Most of your power is used for prolonging your life and maintaining your youngish appearance, and those things are not to be underestimated, and you'd have it no other way.

You are single, of course, and pass off as being in your early 30s, but are actually 166 years old. The people in the village assume you are a widow and that you came into some wealth through the death of your husband, but you actually have never been married, and you have never suggested to anyone having been, it is just what has been assumed by those here and you've never led them to believe otherwise seeing as how it has served your advantage to have them think it. The truth is that you have accumulated your holdings over much time by much more nefarious means, and they are far greater than you reveal to anyone.

Ever since you first arrived in Oakwood Village over 6 years ago everyone has been extremely and genuinely nice to you. You are the most well-off person living here, but this is not a classist place by any means and it doesn't mean anything other than the fact that you are able to provide work and resources to a good number of villagers, and this in turn has helped the village thrive (you run a small farm and kitchen on your property and in your home.) This fact it is not something you flaunt at all, it's just apparent. They've been supportive, helpful, and caring of you in many ways, and you've used that to your advantage repeatedly to a large extent.

You are adept at convincing others to do things that advantage you and then making them feel indebted to you for letting them help you. You always take things when they're offered and you ask from others for more than you need - food and animals, clothing and shoes, firewood and free maintenance, and house and property work of all kinds.

You love to cook, and you spend most of your days in the kitchen preparing food in abundance for a good portion of the villagers who are then able to spend their time doing more work on other things and not having to worry about food preparation (which is a hugely time-consuming thing in this time period.)

You have several helpers from the village that work for you in your kitchen and around your home doing all the things that need done. Providing this livelihood and ability to the community is your one true contribution to this community, and one of the real reasons all of the people here love you to death. You also create scrumptious meals multiple times a day for a majority of the people here, and you get more done in the kitchen than many can conceive is possible.

You also have a skilled assistant Margery, who is an aging woman that can no longer run her own kitchen and now helps you in yours.

Often there's a young girl or two staying at your home, learning the operations of a big kitchen. There are always other people volunteering their free time to help in one way or another, and many of them like to do so just to be around you, your food, and all the goings-on in your home; it's a "happening place", as they say. You also have large gardens and all sorts of animals and livestock around that all need tending and you employ a good number of villagers to do almost all of those things, as you spend pretty much all of your work-time in the kitchen. If anyone needs you for anything, they know to come find you there.

Your place is often bustling with activity of some sort or another, and is a concentrated point of socializing in the village from day to day. You like the attention and things being centered around you and your home. You love the ease of access to many people. It all makes you feel so powerful and in control. It's not going to be like this during this situation, however.

You've made your way through most of your life mostly alone. At times you've lived in the woods with the animals, almost as an animal yourself, and there was even a short time where you were a servant to other people. That will never happen again. You love this current way of life here in Oakwood Village.

Now that you've established a life for yourself here, you've grown accustomed to the comfortable living - your large house, having others around to exploit and do for you as you will and everything else about how it is here - you will live this way until the day you die.

You look forward to taking advantage of the fear and confusion these killings are going to instill among the villagers. You are planning to perform a series of killings of your own, and are excited. You don't get grown human specimens to sacrifice very often at all, as killing anyone from the village even on the rare occasion is likely to cause panic or other issues and be bad for the village overall in a way that would not benefit you.

For the most part you satiate your and Yrrel's cravings the best you can on animals, but occasionally you are able to slaughter a human. You use both wild and domestic animals - pets and livestock that you are either able to get away with making disappear or are just given to you for food which you give the majority of to Yrrel. Once in a great while you are able to take a passing traveler or visiting merchant, but in those cases you have to be extremely careful and never pick someone who is going to be missed or has made it known Oakwood was an intended destination of theirs or that they can be traced back to here in any way.

Most people here figure you to be barren or that you lost all of your children to disease earlier in your life and that you can no longer bear any, and don't know you to have any children. The truth is you had your first child at thirteen and have had 61 children over the past 153 years, and are expecting another in 5 months or so. You conceal your pregnancies with your powers. Most of your children have been beautiful healthy children born of exceptionally healthy men, but not one of them has ever lived past the age of 12. They were all intentionally raised to be virginal sacrifices to Yrrel. They are never given names and you keep them locked in a sacrificial chamber in your basement before ultimately sacrificing them there.

...continued in next post...

You learned of the presence of werewolves in the village three years ago after such a sacrifice, but you have never seen or heard any evidence of them until this morning.

Some time ago, Yrrel came to you after you sacrificed a 3 year old girl that you had given birth to and told you there had been at least one werewolf here for some time. After that visit from Yrrel you had another child as quickly as possible (donors are always easy to come by in the village, and they never know their seeds bear any children) and sacrificed it on the first full moon after its first year of life as a signal that you wanted to hear more about the werewolves. She came and told you eventually they would make a move on the villagers and when that time came you should be prepared to take advantage of the situation.

Yrrel is looking forward to you getting as much blood, tears, semen, spit, sweat, guts, flesh, and bone as you can get your hands on, and so are you. It all drives you wild you salivate at the thought of all the potential power it could all bring you.

Suddenly, the excitement and anticipation of it all overwhelms you and you can't wait any longer. You know everyone is busy getting ready to gather at The Community Home to discuss what to do next after this morning's events, but, you must satisfy this craving for blood and flesh first.

Since everything got disrupted this morning no one is around to help with breakfast or do any other chores. At first you weren't sure if anyone was going to come back and so you waited to see what to do. After over an hour after everyone had left after the initial bell-ringing, the young errand boy, Jeremy, came and told you what was going on and that everyone was busying themselves getting over to The Community to discuss what happened to Julie Ives and figure out what to do about it and that you should head there too, immediately - food for everyone would have to wait.

No, there is certainly no one around. Another rush of excitement hits you as you are about to get to do something you almost never get to do! You go out the back door of the kitchen. Out here is which an outdoor food washing and preparation.

The house is entirely surrounded by pretty thick woods, and there are all sorts of roaming livestock out in it (goats, chickens, pigs) - even though there are barns and field space for them if they desire it, most spend most of their time roaming around the woods near your home, foraging, sleeping, and living the simple, unsuspecting lives of livestock.

You see a pig about fifteen yards off in the distance, rummaging through some leaves with its snout. You quickly take off your dress and place it on a hook in the wash area. Underneath you are wearing light pants and a shirt, and under those, a nice thick pair of long underwear that keeps you warm. Attached to the inside of the pants you have a long slim knife clasped to the hip. You unhook the clasp from the knife and set it on the vegetable preparation table next to you. You then remove the rest of your clothes until you are standing out the back of your house in the woods completely naked.

The cold air on your skin is an extremely stimulating contrast to your hot, excited, fast-pumping blood that has you almost sweating in the pits. It feels good. You feel alive. You lick your lips. You are light and quick, and you dart off into the woods with the pig in view, who now has wandered to about 25 yards away. You go as fast as you can while remaining silent, and with your skills you are upon the pig without having alarmed him.

In one quick motion you leap onto his back, latch yourself around him with all your might (which is considerable), your arms going around his neck and legs around his hips to hold him secure, and, in the same motion with your knife in hand, you slice deep and fast into his neck. He doesn't have a moment to get startled before he is on the ground and bleeding out.

His body relaxes under you and you quickly flip him over on top of you and let the gash spill over your face, and you suck ravenously at it. Its fast flow spills out and goes down your neck, chest, and the rest of your body as you drink, covering you in its warm, sticky gloriousness. You get up, flip him over, and cut into his chest. You remove his heart and take a few moments to take several large bites out of it, and then stuff it back into the chest cavity. Then, easier and quicker than is natural and than anyone knows you able, you pick up the few-hundred pound pig and carry it all the way back to the house as if it had the weight of a rabbit. Ahhhhhh! The power!

You put the pig on a slaughter-wagon at the back of the house for someone to butcher later. Meanwhile the blood will just drip into the earth, pleasing Yrrel who lives deep below in the depths of the earth's crust. You get in an outside shower and clean yourself (this is essentially just a stall with a high shelf with buckets of water on it that you tip over onto your head. It's rough and not as thorough as a dip in the creek, but it is good for a good quick rinse of the body.) You re-dress in your clothes and dress, brush your hair, and then make haste to The Community Hall...

You gave no sweat helping to build your home, others gave theirs, and their blood too. Almost everyone in the area had a hand in helping build it to your standards, and you oversaw every bit of the process, from the tree-clearing to the well-drilling to the door-latch placement. It took over 5 months to complete, much longer than any home yet built there. On top of the basement you have seven other rooms in the house, two outhouse areas, two outdoor shower/bath areas, a large barn and medium stable, a corral of ponies and horses, and there is a large attic with two rooms as well of course the kitchen that is its own separate large room from the main room of the house and has its own giant cooking fireplace and many work areas and amenities. The main living room area has a large wood stove at one end and a fireplace along the opposite wall.

-- end Claire Dwyer --

Actually, seems Drealmer went offline.

I was going to post my flavor anyway, so here it is.

You are Daniel (Dan) Evans. You are the Lone Wolf of a pack of Werewolves.

- You only became part of this pack by way of an unfortunate encounter with another werewolf. He is your Alpha Wolf and leader of the pack that lives here in Oakwood Village. He is Nathaniel (Nathan) Smith. You are submissive to him and you obey him and do as he says whenever that occurs, which isn't really that often, as he mostly leaves you to do your own thing and your own life. You've never had to feast on human flesh, and you are glad for that, even though at times it is tempting.

You wish you weren't a werewolf, but you are mostly as peace with it. When you moved here, your wish was to start a family, but now you can't because you would fear for their safety. Even just a wife is too much to risk. And so you are alone, and lonely, and a loner, but in all other areas your life is rather fulfilling, and you try to stay focused on those things and the happiness they bring you.

You find comfort in your fellow villagers and their genuine loving and helpful nature. While remaining just somewhat distant from getting too close to anyone, you care and admire and have feelings for them all to varying degrees. If only you could truly feel like you were a part of them, your love would be boundless and your life would be even more fulfilled. However, you don't let yourself get that close, being a werewolf holds you back, and that at times makes you sad. You dislike that you have to deceive them, but have learned to live with it and accept it as how life is as well.

- Your property contains a large stable and livery for the care and oversight of horses. You have four of your own (Ivy, Mable, Baron, and Clive), and at varying times you can have anywhere from one to fifteen horses under your care for other people of the village for varying amounts of time. You love horses and spending your time with them is what you do more than anything else. You manage on your own more than most of the villagers, but socialize well enough at times and there is nothing weird about your habits. You know a good deal about carpentry and woodwork, farming, you know how to cook and sew and keep to yourself more than most. You are friendly and get along well with everyone.

You have lived in the village for a little over 7 years. One Full Moon night almost six years ago, just a few months after your home and stables and corrals had been finished being built and you moved in to your home from having lived in The Community Home until it was completed, you awoke to the sound of your horses fussing and you went out to find a man leading one of your horses away. You attacked him with a pitchfork you had on hand and as he turned you realized it was Nathan Smith and that he was trying to avoid you as best as possible and get away without engaging you (the look on his face having been discovered by you told it all, and he's told you to confirm it since, that he tried desperately to be quick and quiet and not make you aware of his presence), but he failed. He was stealing one of your horses and was going to feast on it.

He had no choice but to either kill you or turn you into a werewolf once you attacked him. He turned you into a werewolf, not wanting at all to kill you. He had wished that you never had heard him, and he is sorry he instilled the beast within you. He told you and everyone else he had found you unconscious on the ground with a gash in your chest that seemed to be from a bear and that he nursed you back to health.

You were clawed across the chest and bitten on the right side of your rib-cage and nearly died, but he kept you alive, hoping to do right by you by doing that at least, and now you are one of his pack. For the first couple weeks in his company and in the village getting to know people, you didn't even realize that he was your attacker, and you got to know him as a strong, caring, intelligent man and upstanding member of the community.

He wasn't trying to deceive you, he simply was too heart-broken about what happened to you to know how to tell you right away. It wasn't until the next Full Moon approached that he revealed the truth and told you what had really happened. You had just gotten moved back into your house and had been getting back into more of a normal routine, and then he gave you that news, and your world changed forever. You had a little over a week to get comfortable with the idea that you were now a werewolf and once you felt the power of the Full Moon, you were going to go through a transformation into a beast and have an uncontrollable desire to hunt and feast on flesh. He told you to try to not worry, that he would be with you and look after and care for you and that you'd learn to live with it eventually.

He told you there were at least a couple other werewolves who lived among the villagers and that they would all support you in the difficult times of coming to terms with it and learning to deal with this cursed life. You weren't so sure of that at first, but, over time, you have learned that they are good people, and consider them friends and allies and care for them, and they you.

As much as you might not like being a werewolf you are loyal and obedient, and you ultimately do wish for him and your fellow werewolves to succeed in whatever it is he is going for and you will help achieve whatever it is he wants to achieve as best as you can.

Your name is Nathaniel (Nathan) Smith.

You are the Alpha Wolf of a pack of werewolves!

However, most of the time you really are just a regular villager with nothing unordinary about your existence at all. After all, you only have to shift to a werewolf on the full moon. You are part of this community and you care about everyone that lives here. Once a month you and your subordinate werewolves can't help but make the change and allow the beasts within to take over and go feeding, BUT, you have learned, and in turn have taught your underling pack mates, not to feast on humans unless there is good reason and you explicitly say they can. You all almost only ever hunt and devour other animals that roam the forests when the uncontrollable thirst-for-blood take you over. They're better hunting anyway.

One night every month you lead most of them off deep into the woods to stalk and slaughter deer or bear or moose or elk or whatever else until the effects wear off and you return to your normal lives. Sometimes one or two will go off on their own for a full-moon night, and you trust them to do that. Once in a great while you will instruct one of them to kill a human for one reason or another.

Only eight times ever in your years of being part of this community have you killed or allowed one of the others to kill a human. Those that were killed were necessary and merciful killings done for the better of the whole village (the sick, the suffering, the un-savable, etc.), or no-good intruders who would do the villagers or community harm (killer thieves, raiders, slavers, etc.)

There have been a few sick babies and children, a couple elderly, and even a low-life potion-peddler who was instilling fear and lies all through the community and then making a profit off of it that you saw fit to kill yourself one time (sometimes you allow your fellow pack-mates to have their own individual kills while you and the rest go about feeding on deer or whatever else as you normally do.) He was the riskiest kill of all, ever, but you handled it perfectly and there was never any fallout from it.

Not quite two weeks into his stay in the village there was a full moon and you took the opportunity to invite him over for dinner, and then you had him for dinner. You had Sean-O feast on his horse and then you stored his potion cart in your barn, which no one else ever goes in anyway, until you could dismantle it and remove all signs of its existence. Everyone else in the village assumed he had moved on in the night or early morning hours and that they had missed his leaving, with it having a been a full moon and bright for travel and a nice night in general, and never thought about him again.

Over the past years you have slowly grown your pack and you all live in relative harmony and positivity with the villagers in a peaceful and fulfilling life. Your subordinate pack mates are: Sean O'Donnell (Sean-O!), Daniel (Dan) Evans, Fergus (Fergie) Perkins, and your close friend, Adam Johnson.

You are a 56 year-old man and you have been a werewolf for the last 30 years of your life. However, to others, you appear quite a bit younger and are in prime health. Your hunger for flesh and blood has diminished quite a bit over the past several years, and you are fine with that. You are still confident and strong and the only other Alpha you've ever fought has fallen to your might (22 years ago, elsewhere) and none of your subordinates are even close to matching your power or prestige as a werewolf.

You moved to Oakwood Village 19 years ago as one of the original establishing settlers of the community. You had lived for twelve years before that in the busy city of Portland, where monthly feedings could be rampant and varied and you never had a worry of being caught. However, City society and living among the streets and all the forming of councils and organizations and governments began to bore you and felt more and more ill-suited for you as the monotonous years went by. So, when you saw the bulletin posted calling for a meeting of anyone interested in heading out to a yet-to-be-decided-upon location to begin a community settlement, the idea struck you as enticing in many ways and you went to the meeting, and then more meetings, and you ended up being a crucial founding member, with much skill and knowledge to contribute.

Early on in your living here, once in a while, but probably not for 11 years now, a wandering regular wolf or pack of wolves would come through the area, but you'd quickly smell them and either easily kill at least one or two yourself and chase any that remained away. Now it is known that this is your territory and no other wolves have been even close to the area.

After having fed regularly on humans in a city-setting for years you've also recognized that hunting and stalking deer, bear, and moose in the wilderness during your monthly cravings for flesh is much more rewarding than the easy-pickings of unsuspecting non-instinct-using humans. You love what living in the wilderness has brought to you and you have learned to accept your natural and symbiotic fit within the world more and more over the years. You are at peace with who and what you are, and have come to love your existence here among the community in all ways. You often feel like its protector.

You recognized during the early forming of the community that each of the villagers are crucial and of value to the village, and that even your werewolf instincts can be used, at times, for the better of the community.
Over the time when the community was holding meetings to find more and more people who were interested in the idea of starting the community you undeniably began to care for the people that you were forming it with, and on top of that, there were so few of you, it would not have been good to sap the village's resources and potential by feasting on any of them and sabotaging any contributory elements so early in the village's development. You stopped feeding on humans for several years once moving to start the village, because it is what you wanted and thought was best.

However, you've decided over the past 19 years that Oakwood, with the influx of people and the way things have grown, that it is at a size that it is now time that should begin to slowly reduce their population over the next several months and bring some balance to the area and nature, as it is for wolves to do in nature and you feel is your pack's time to do here with these humans.

There are enough here that you can stop killing after probably 6 or 7 months, maybe less, maybe more, you aren't sure exactly, and hopefully there will be no lasting significant damage done to the community and that your plan works and you will be able to simply go back to living here when everyone returns with everything normal. They will feel that the threat is gone. Then, over time, you will likely feast on one of them everyone once in a while without raising suspicion, hopefully, if everything goes as planned, to maintain the balance between humans and nature.

There are going to be some tragic things that happen here over the next several months, but you want it to go as smoothly and calmly as possible. You also of course hope that you and your pack mates slip under the radar the whole time and can go on living here with the rest of the community, unsuspecting and happy for the rest of your lives, but you figure that there will be some casualties on both sides before it all over and you'll try not to have hard feelings about that.

Your name is Adam Johnson.

You are one of the original founder / settlers of Oakwood Village, and attended every meeting that was ever held in regards to its founding.

You have a wife, Megan, and four children - Adam who is 16, Aaron who is 13, and twins, Owen and Erin who are 10. You love them all deeply and there isn't anything you wouldn't do for them if you are able. You sent them away to be safe in Nashua until things resolve here.

You hope you live through it all and see them again, but there was no question about your staying.

You are quite a strong man, almost 6 feet tall, your stature is thick and formidable yet you have a little belly on you from being so well-fed. You have thick black hair all over your body, arms, legs, chest, and face, which is covered in more hair than your head and seems to take up a good 60% of your face. Your beard is so thick and gnarly that there are often numerous things to be found within it. Wood chips and sawdust, flakes of apple, nuts, and an assortment of breadcrumbs all are things that are likely to reside in your beard.

Your family and most of the rest of the villagers think you have stayed to defend the community that you are so deeply a crucial part of and that it was only natural for you to stay to defend it, which you are and it is, in a way. You feel close to and care deeply for the entire well-being of the community and village, that part is absolutely true, but the entire truth is:

You have also stayed because you are one of the werewolves of the pack belonging to the Alpha Wolf, Nathaniel Smith, and so there's no way you could have left even if you wanted to because you're directly involved in what is going on, and you don't want to leave, not that your Alpha would allow it even if you did.

You aren't too thrilled with the choice of Julie Ives being killed (you weren't there for that, thankfully), she was very close friends with your children, but you understand that the shock of it was necessary to scare people out of the village, which was the goal, and you ultimately support the decision. If it had been less horrendous perhaps not as many people would have left, and that would have made things harder and more horrible for everyone in the village.

Nathan wants everything to go as smoothly, calmly, and quickly as possible while executing his plan, which could take several months, he figures.

One full-moon night in November almost 12 years ago you heard your chickens making a fuss and you went out to check on them thinking you'd find a fox or something getting at them in the winter night, desperate for food. Instead you found some version of a man you knew very well - Nathan and you became good friends early on in the establishing of the community - that you could have never imagined existed, standing right in front of you in partial werewolf form, staring right back at you in almost as much horror as you were at him.

He was devouring a fox that had been attacking your chickens. You recognized him immediately and froze; you had startled him and he lunged at you. There was a full moon and he could not help himself, and has told you since that he is very sorry for what he has done to you and your life and family. If he could take it back, he would.

You remain friends to this day, and you have learned to accept it as a part of life and be at peace with that part of you. You don't believe Nathan would ever harm you or your family, and you trust him as a friend and obey him as your Alpha.

You were clawed across the arm and bitten on the right side of your rib-cage and really only suffered medium wounds. You passed out more from shock, and the next day woke up in his home. He was sitting there with you, ready to explain and apologize. He had never intended to harm you and regrets ever having done so. He never wanted to drag you into his cursed world. You trust him and he is a good friend.

You dislike that you are a werewolf for no more than the reason that it is something you feel you must hide from your wife and children and the rest of the villagers, all of whom you love and care for very much. As at peace with it as you are, you could never think of telling them, for so many reasons. Otherwise you have learned to embrace the lycanthropic affliction. You see it as a natural part of the world and existence that simply has befallen you. You have forgiven Nathan many times over, and he is less at peace with it than you are.

Once a month, on the full moon, when the beast within you emerges, you are sure to be on a hunting trip or elsewhere far away and you feed on deer or elk or bear or whatever else you might find out in the wilderness. Nathan is sure to provide cattle or horses or goats or pigs if necessary if any in his pack have trouble finding a kill on their own, but that doesn't happen very often.

Your fellow pack mates, aside from the Alpha Nathan, are: Sean O'Donnell, Dan Evans, and Fergus Perkins.