Werehyena [Lycanthrope]

Werehyenas are humans, mostly men, who take the shape of hyenas, roaming the plains and deserts of the desert lands in hunting packs. As humans they are tall and wiry, with long, unkempt hair usually tied back at the neck. That hair hides their great secret: a second mouth set low on the back of the head that silently copies every word the real mouth forms. They go to great lengths to keep it concealed. In human form they are sociable and charming, many with a big, booming laugh.

The beast is a large hyena more than 6 feet from nose to tail, golden-furred on top and black on the underside and legs, and it can pass without trace. Packs often draw 2d6 ordinary hyenas, which follow the lycanthropes out of attraction rather than obedience.

As a human, a werehyena carries whatever weapon suits its disguise, but its real weapon is charm. Once per round, at will and simply by thinking it, it can produce a friends effect as a 12th-level wizard, treating its base Charisma as 14-15. The power is innate and needs no memorization.

The hyena bites for 2d6. On a natural 19 or 20 its jaws lock, and from then on it deals bite damage automatically each round without rolling, while its dragging weight cuts the victim's movement by 6, a penalty that stacks. Nothing short of 10+ points of damage (more than 10) makes it let go.

Whatever its form, only magical or iron weapons affect it; other blows seem to cut but the wound seals by round's end. Spells of the enchantment/charm school have no effect on them. They have a deep, instinctive terror of fire and prefer to show themselves and hunt by daylight. Holding up a burning torch keeps one back, and more than 6 points of fire damage sends it fleeing, yelping, into the wild, though a werehyena trapped by flames fights for its life.

Packs of up to twelve, mostly male, are tightly knit and ruled by one alpha male who settles every major question and enforces it with an occasional brutal bite. A newly infected werehyena joins only if it swears to obey the leader unto death; otherwise there is usually a dominance fight, and the winner leads. Within the pack they are playful and capable of deep, lasting bonds. They mate for life, only within the pack, and litters number 1d4 cubs, 75% of them male.

Packs cross the wastes in human form looking for settlements to infiltrate. Typically one member walks into town, uses its friends power to win people's hearts, and may even lavish gifts, usually small gems collected for the purpose, on some 'long-lost sister' or other relative. Then it lures its mark out of town into an ambush sprung by its waiting packmates.

Werehyenas hunt by stealth, preferring gullible humans, but like true hyenas they are superb scavengers that can survive on nearly anything. They are numerous but so widely spread that they make little mark on the region's ecology.