Everything

The Skull Pigs are twisted horrors, the only surviving trace of the once powerful Grondr. Once charged with cleansing Gaia, the wereboar’s fallen descendants

became their opposite. Skull Pigs attempt to befoul or devour everything they touch. They eat carrion and draw sinister strength from the flesh of the dead, though they can subsist on almost anything: including garbage, toxic waste, or even radioactive corpses. Skull Pigs dig through graveyards seeking human bones, devouring them to regain their Rage. When they eat bones of Wyrm-creatures, the Pigs gain a malevolent cunning that makes them all the more dangerous. The Skull Pigs can smell such tainted remains, and devouring such a feast raises a Skull Pig’s intelligence within only a few minutes. Attributes: Strength 7, Dexterity 4, Stamina 8, Charisma 0,

Manipulation 0 (2-4), Appearance 0, Perception 2, Intelligence 1 (2-5), Wits 3 Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 5, Brawl 5, Intimidation 4,

Primal-Urge 3, Stealth 2, Survival 4 Powers: Regeneration (as Garou)

Rage

5, Willpower 3

Health Levels

OK, OK, –1, –1, –1, –2, –2, –2, –5,

Incapacitated Attacks: Body Slam, Tusks (Strength +3) Each meal of Wyrm-tainted bones increases the Skull Pig’s Intelligence by 1, to a maximum of 5. These increases last for one year. Eating the bodies of especially powerful fomori, or devouring large numbers of them at once, makes these increases permanent. An intelligent Skull Pig learns at least one Black Spiral Dancer Gift per dot in Intelligence. Because of their toxic diet and innate corruption, the flesh of a Skull Pig is poisonous; any creature biting one suffers a point lethal damage per turn for the next six turns (see “Poisons and Drugs,” W20 pp. 258-259).

Image: Skull Pigs resemble huge, somewhat emaciated wild boars that stand six feet at the shoulder and are almost seven feet long. Their bristles are coarse and malformed and they stink of grave-rot. The deathly pale flesh covering their skulls is so thin, and the bone structure so distinctive, that it’s easy to get the impression that they have no flesh to their heads at all. Despite their deathlike appearance, they obviously possess a wiry strength.

Unlike many of the Wyrm’s creatures, Skull Pigs do not have obvious sores or deformities like withered limbs. Corrupted so long ago, the Skull Pigs have fully adapted to the Wyrm’s foul energies. They have lost the ability to change shape, and are born and grow up as nothing more than clever animals. They must devour flesh poisoned by the Wyrm to regain the intelligence once common to all of their ancestors.

Background

All of the Changing Breeds know that the War of Rage brought about the Grondr’s extermina-tion. So enraged were the members of one of the last Sounders (packs) of Grondr, by the Garou’s slaughter of their Breed that their lust for vengeance and their hatred

of the Garou attracted the attention of Lord Steel, the Maeljin Incarna of hatred. He offered these Grondr the chance to survive the werewolves’ onslaught and for them and their descendants to strike back against their enemies. The wereboars accepted this foul deal and they and their descendants became agents of the Wyrm.

Today, Skull Pigs roam in packs of three to seven. Often family groups, packs drive off young or elderly males, who form their own especially violent and predatory packs. Ordinary Skull Pigs have an evil cunning, but are only slightly more intelligent than gorillas or chimpanzees. However, if they are able to feed on the bones of a creature tainted by the Wyrm, they become fully intelligent and more actively malevolent. Intelligent Skull Pigs can be almost as dangerous as Black Spiral Dancers, but still lack the ability to change shape.

Storytelling Notes: Even the unintelligent Skull Pigs will attack Garou, though they ignore humans who are not obviously easy prey. Most humans either do not remember seeing a Skull Pig, or believe that they have seen a normal, if often terrifying wild boar or feral pig. They inflict Delirium the same as seeing a Garou’s Crinos form.

Ordinary Skull Pigs have keen senses and are skilled and ever-hungry pack hunters. They can smell weakness, and make a special effort to prey upon the weak. Intel-

ligent Skull Pigs revel in tainting the land and corrupting or killing other Changing Breeds, especially the Garou. Despite now being creatures of the Wyrm, intelligent Skull Pigs retain a faint racial memory of the destruction of their kind at the hands of the Garou.

In addition to becoming intelligent, Skull Pigs who devour Wyrm-tainted remains also gain the ability to imitate perfectly sounds and voices. They use this ability to trick humans and members of the Changing Breeds into thinking that an ally or comrade is calling for help. The pigs then lie in ambush when their victim comes to help. Skull Pigs can use their hooves to dig tunnels, and the intelligent members of their Breed occasionally construct large warrens to act as traps. They collapse these tunnels upon enemies who enter attempting to slay the Skull Pigs.

The Black Spiral Dancers are the only tribe of Garou that has fallen to the Wyrm, but they are far from the only members of the Changing Breeds fallen to corruption. Agents of the Wyrm work to corrupt individuals as well as groups. Every year, a few individuals among the Changing Breeds forswear their duty to Gaia and become servants of the Wyrm. Some are willfully blind to the consequences of their actions and choose cor-

ruption because they so firmly believe the ends justify the means that they lose sight of the ends they seek to accomplish. Others might ally with the Wyrm to save their own lives, or carry previous taint by the Wyrm and fell due to shame and self-loathing. A few simply decide that they want to be on what looks to them like the winning side in the coming Apocalypse

Queen Ananasa rules the werespiders. The Tenere, Kumoti and Hatar each obeys one of the Triat, as decided by the Queen. Even the Kumo have their place in the Ananasa’s web, corrupting and killing to her ultimate design.

Not the Antara. Also known as Breakers, the Antara walked Queen Ananasa’s web, obediently following the strands until they saw her trap for what it is. Refusing ensnarement they entreated the Wyrm for power and broke free of the webs. While the Hatar follow the Wyrm’s original purpose, the Antara follow the Wyrm into freedom.

The Antara believe Queen Ananasa uses the Ananasi for her own goals, not Gaia’s. Why should they serve when they can choose their own path? Breaking free of the Queen’s web opens their eyes — they understand corruption is inevitable, and everything must fall. Entropy is unceasing — even the most debased and degraded can erode further. The Antara see freedom in what others call the Wyrm’s madness. It is insanity on a cosmic scale, and only the uncontrolled can begin to understand it.

The Antara know that everything will eventually be of the Wyrm. They didn’t choose the Wyrm because they want to increase its power and speed its inevitable victory — although their existence does both. The Breakers choose the Wyrm’s power to gain freedom from the Queen’s machinations and to experience everything life has to offer before the Wyrm takes it all.

Antara are the hedonists of the Ananasi. Much like the Kumo, they revel in emotional release, often acting in spontaneous, seemingly irrational ways. The Antara see no kinship with the Kumo, and even their apparent irrational behavior is driven by perceptions and goals that are alien to other Ananasi. The Kumo are given to the Wyrm’s service by Queen Ananasi and still serve her plans — duped into believing they serve only the Wyrm. The difference between the Antara and Kumo is invisible to other werespiders, evoking deep anger within the Breakers. To the Antara the difference is immense. Where the Kumo still indirectly serve the Queen, the Antara are free of her webs. Their independence and lifestyle aligns them with the Wyrm but they do not serve it. Their act of breaking from Queen Ananasa is a victory for the Wyrm, and every free action they take damages the threads of her plans. Their existence empowers the Wyrm but the Antara serve only their own whims.