In the late autumn of 1050, a night creature assaulted Alegate. The creature was small, but the ancient curse it carried was terrifying and contagious. This is the story of how the creature came to be.
The General
This story begins with the human Apup Masterarrow. She was born in 439, in the Vigorous Confederacy. This was back before the war with the goblins, before the Vigorous Confederacy became a continent-spanning empire.
The first few decades of her life were unremarkable. She lived in various towns, and worshipped with various religious groups. She married a mercenary and had four daughters and a son.
At the age of 39, Apup reached the peak of her career. She was the chief general of The Vigorous Confederacy. As general, she journeyed to the Cloudy Steppe, a frigid region on the northern edge of the world. Something changed in Apup, and by age 42, she had become obsessed with her own mortality. She began to shirk her responsibilities as general, and travel to exotic places, seeking the secret of immortality. She tamed great beasts — jaguars in The Mire of Grips, and polar bears in Aqua Blizzard.
She was 65 when she profaned the sanctuary of Ador Siegescales, the human god of chaos and nature. For this, Apup was cursed to take the form of a humanoid sheep-monster every full moon.
Apup fled civilization, and spent centuries on the run. She became known as “The Routed Howl”. The logs of the Law-Givers list six hundred and ninety-six reports of The Routed Howl devouring livestock. Worse, sixty-six people have been murdered. An unknown number of people have been infected by this cursed monster. The most recently infected is Diso Candysmiles (“Diso Medicañi” in Old Human.)
As of 1050, Apup Masterarrow The Routed Howl is six hundred and eleven years old, and is still at large. Ironically, she never did die of old age, but this probably is not what she had in mind.
The Waif
Buttonsbreaches was a hamlet at the very edge of civilization. It was a dangerous place to grow up; every few years the place was targeted by some troll, werebeast, or monstrous creature. Yet for nine centuries the place remained home to humans.
In 1041, Diso Candysmiles was born to a ranger and a thresher. They were an elderly couple, and had no other children. By her seventh year, she had survived the attacks of three werebeasts, all cursed by the god of chaos and nature; a were-chamelon, a were-panther, and a were-sheep. These cursed assailants all have their own histories, but that will not be documented here.
In 1049, Diso’s mother died of old age. That same year, The Routed Howl descended upon Buttonsbreaches. In the attack, Diso’s right arm was smashed, and then she was bitten. The crippled child managed to get away with her life. But when the next full moon arrived, she turned.
Diso fled the hamlet. Her arm healed during the change, as is the way with lycanthropes. Now this forever-child roams the world, threatening to spread the curse even further. She was not spotted again until her assault on Alegate.
