Bestiary

Slaughterhouse Video, a small subsidiary of Pentex, is the exclusive producer of Gorehounds. In the past, Gorehound fomori emulated their classic slasher-film heroes — usually unstable to begin with — Bane possession killed most of their higher reasoning and turned them into silent, hulking, nigh-unstoppable murder machines with a penchant for power tools and ambushes.

Times change, though, and the Gorehounds are changing with them. While the “classic” model of enormous, masked, overtly murderous Gorehound remains a going concern, Slaughterhouse has also recently begun creating a “Take Two” version of the Gorehound as well. These creatures are less blatant than the classic Gorehound, and focus less on racking up a huge body count quickly, and more on extracting the maximum possible amount of suffering from each victim. Where classic Gorehounds are crude, The Bane possessing it imbues the new Gorehounds with a sort of hellish cleverness. This allows it intuitively to construct elaborate traps and torture chambers. Possessed of a relentless drive to kill, both types of Gorehounds rarely manage to last very long before going out in a blaze of terrible violence. Attributes (old): Strength 6, Dexterity 3, Stamina 6,

Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 1, Perception 4, Intelligence 2, Wits 2 Attributes (new): Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3,

Charisma 3, Manipulation 3, Appearance 2, Perception 4, Intelligence 5, Wits 4 Abilities (old): Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Intimidation 4,

Melee 4, Stealth 5 Abilities (new): Alertness 3, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Craft 5,

Investigation 4, Melee 3

Background

s: None

Powers (old): Immunity to the Delirium, Mega-Strength,

Mega-Stamina, Regeneration. Powers (new): Cause Insanity (via prolonged torture),

Immunity to the Delirium, Mega-Intelligence, Regeneration

Willpower

10

Equipment: (old) Household implements such as meat cleavers, chainsaws, pitchforks, cordless drills, or screwdrivers, to be terribly misused.

Equipment: (new) Chloroform-soaked rag, concealed knife, detailed map of next victim’s house, elaborate torture chamber.

Image: Gorehounds continue to look human, save that the classic model bulks up dramatically after pos-

session. Most fade away from their former identities, adopting a new persona for themselves, and may fashion some sort of crude costume, mask, or pattern of scarring to signify this new identity.

Genesis: In the past, Slaughterhouse Video produced heavily Wyrm-tainted direct-to-VHS slasher films, occasionally with minor banes sleeping inside the tapes, distributed through seedy video stores. These days, business is better than ever. While their Classic Slaughter line has jumped from VHS to the direct-to-DVD market, Slaughterhouse has also expanded with a Grim Reality line of “real” gore documen-taries, compiling animal attacks, industrial accidents, and other purportedly genuine compilations of human death and mutilation. The videos have just enough obviously staged fakery to deflect suspicions about their primarily real content. Slaughterhouse has also jumped enthusiastically into the modern “torture porn” genre, discovering that aficionados of their Blood Trap line of low-budget films are ripe breeding grounds for a whole new kind of Gorehound.

Slaughterhouse no longer bothers to pre-package banes with its products. It’s simpler to flood the market with cheap, low-cost Wyrm-tainted DVDs and just let

the taint’s clarion call do the rest of the work, attracting appropriate Banes out in the wild. The company is currently experimenting with direct-streaming services as well, and early results look promising; the internet seems as suitable a vector for Wyrm taint as any other does.

Roleplaying Notes: You stopped really feeling pain a long time ago — or much of anything else, for that matter. Now you only feel alive when screams ring in your ears, or when you feel hot wet blood soaking your arms up to the wrists. You’re living the dream; you’re carrying out a mission. It’s all that matters.