Defending Your Territory

One of the chief ways animals communicate with and defend their territory or belongings against other animals is through scent marking. This involves rubbing objects or creatures with scent glands, urination, defecation, and other methods of leaving one’s distinct smell on the target. Every species language includes scent as a component, and no one learning another species’ language can truly understand it without knowing that species’ repertoire of scent messages. 

When an object or area becomes contested between two or more animals, a scent battle can ensue. Scent battles are a sort of non-lethal conflict by proxy, but follow different rules, since the parties are usually not both present at the same time. One party marks a target with her scent, then the other character comes along later and tries to overwhelm the previous scent. This can go on for days, sometimes months, without the two characters ever actually meeting. This does not imply, however, that scent battles are unwinnable, or fought by attrition. Victory can be achieved depending on the difference in Hit Dice/Total Levels between the two animals involved. 

Table 4.4 Scent Battle Resolution Matrix shows one way to resolve the conflict. It is based on the original fantasy game cleric’s ability to “turn the undead.” A player consults the column on the left, “PC Level,” to find her own current Total Levels. She then cross-references it with her opponent’s Hit Dice or Total Levels to the right. The number shown is the modifier to her core dice roll when trying to win a scent battle against that opponent; that is, the number she adds to her roll. A * indicates victory without rolling. The opposing character will simply give up the fight and move on to other prospects. 

NPCs who fail three consecutive Scent Battles will also give up and move on to another area. 

Note that this is the only modifier applied to your core dice roll during a Scent Battle, unless you have the Guardian niche.  Guardians can add their niche die roll result to a Scent Battle check.

                                        Opponent's Hit Dice/Total Levels

              

PC Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	+7	+3	+1	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
2	+9	+5	+2	+0	No	No	No	No	No	No
3	+11	+7	+3	+1	No	No	No	No	No	No
4	+13	+9	+5	+2	+0	No	No	No	No	No
5	+15	+11	+7	+3	+1	No	No	No	No	No
6	+17	+13	+9	+5	+2	+0	No	No	No	No
7	+18	+15	+11	+7	+3	+1	No	No	No	No
8	*	+17	+13	+9	+5	+2	+0	No	No	No
9	*	+18	+15	+11	+7	+3	+1	No	No	No
10	*	*	+17	+13	+9	+5	+2	+0	No	No

Sneak Peek: Spandrels

As I've noted, animal PCs tend not to collect magic items, per se.  But under the Great & Small rules, I've given them the option of internalizing magic items or claiming Species Traits from other animals as adventuring rewards.  I call this system "spandrels," after a term from evolutionary biology that refers to "accidental" or "side effect" traits of naturally-selected adaptations.

Most of the writing I'm doing on the expanded rules right now centers on spandrels, and I thought you'd like a peek at some of them.  

Recall than many listed game stat of a species -- its attack type & damage, AC, MV, Species Traits -- can be used as spandrel rewards for animal adventurers of other species.  And animals will be able to claim magical items by eating them.

In addition, there will be several spandrels unique to animal PCs, that can be rewarded in place of standard magical items.  Here are some samples. 

Atavism, Greater

You can fully transform yourself into a member of one of your evolutionary ancestor species, gaining all of its inherent Species Traits for 1d5 [1d6] turns + 1 turn per level.  The form you assume must actually have existed in your species’ evolutionary history, and must actually have been ancestral to your species and not from a sister taxa or mostly-unrelated extinct taxa.  A monkey, for instance, cannot transform into a T. rex, but could assume the form of a dimetrodon or some other proto-mammal.

You may only assume a single form with this spandrel, which will be specified in its description; for instance, “Greater Atavism: Dimetrodon” in the above case.  However, you can switch between this form and your regular form at will for the duration of the effect.

A greater atavism can be used 1d3 [1d4] times per day.

Atavism, Lesser

You can manifest a Species Trait from your species’ evolutionary history, gaining all of its relevant game rule effects, for 1d5 [1d6] turns +1 turn per level.  The trait must actually have belonged to one of your species’ ancestor taxa and not a sister taxa or mostly-related extinct taxa.  A monkey, for instance, cannot manifest the wings of a pterosaur, but could manifest the bite attack of a dimetrodon or some other proto-mammal.

You may turn this manifested Trait “on” or “off” at will for the duration of the effect. This spandrel will always grant only a single Trait, specified by its description; for instance, “Lesser Atavism: Dimetrodon Bite Attack” in the above case.

A lesser atavism can be used 1d3 [1d4] times per day.

Man-Killer

You gain a +2 bonus on all attack rolls, lore checks, and saving throws you make while opposing the efforts of a longpaw, so long as she is within 20 feet of you.

Sprint Of The Cheetah Lords (Prerequisite:  Epic Sprint Species Trait or spandrel)

Once per day, you can run in a straight line up a vertical surface, or across a body of water or gases, at any speed up to your Epic Sprint MV, provided the distance traveled is equal to or less than your Epic Sprint MV score in feet.  If you find that the distance is greater than you anticipated, you cannot stop or turn, and must keep moving in a straight line until you’ve covered the maximum possible distance.  At this point, you suffer whatever consequences your miscalculation entails: falling into water and risking drowning, perhaps, or suffering falling damage if tumbling from a great height.

Warding Growl (Prerequisite: Must be capable of vocalizations)

Your growl (or hiss, shriek, etc.) becomes exceptionally frightening.  A character or creature who has up to, but not more than, 2 Total Levels or Hit Dice more than you must succeed on a Fear save vs. your Threat, or suffer one of the Fight or Flight effects described in Chapter 4.

This effect applies even to beings not commonly spooked by animals, such as aliens, demons, longpaws, monsters, robots, undead creatures, etc.

Weaponized Musk (Prerequisite: Musk Attack Species Trait)

In addition to its normal effects, your musk attack now inflicts damage on all creatures within its area of effect.  The damage is equal to your maximum HP; for instance, if you normally have 15 HP when fully rested and healed, your musk attack inflicts 15 HP damage, regardless of your current HP.  This means the damage your musk attack causes increases as your Total Level increases.

Creatures within the area of effect are entitled to Tough Poison save for half damage.

Halloween Setting Spotlight -- Ravenloft's Wildlands

Who says animal fantasy can’t be dark and gloomy with the best of them?

Islands Of Terror, the old AD&D 2nd supplement for the Ravenloft campaign setting, contained a fascinating domain called the Wildlands, which was populated entirely by talking animals, and ruled by a crocodile darklord.

The main problem with the domain is that it provided few Gothic horror role-playing opportunities for standard longpaw characters, and seemed designed to serve mostly as a meat-grinder where every creature you meet is out to kill you.

But the Wildlands can make an excellent Gothic horror-fantasy setting for animal player characters, whether native to the domain, or drawn in by the Mists.

The darklord -- Death Bringer, King Crocodile -- is actually pretty good, as throw-away one-shot villains go.  His backstory is a classic tale of greed and power-lust:  the other animals of the wilderness realm from which the Wildlands was formed made a pact with the Crocodile.  He vowed to slay all the "hairless apes" in the land, if each of the animals there would give him some of their power.  This, they did eagerly... and of course, when the slaughter was done, Crocodile refused to return the borrowed powers. Instead, he began hunting the other beasts. He was now the greatest animal in the realm, but his hubris and ambition doomed him to be claimed by the Mists.  Though not before a python prophesied that Death Bringer would die either by the hand of a "hairless ape," or from something he felt was beneath his notice.

Death Bringer can be greatly fleshed-out using Great & Small's spandrels system.  I'd start him as a standard crocodile Warrior (I'll post game stats for crocs in the next couple of days), then advance him by granting him a signature Species Trait from each of the animal types listed in his back story.  Say, Nine Lives from the lions, an increased SZ from the elephants, Brachiation from the monkeys, Scent from the apes, and so forth.  This makes him a much more versatile villain, something more like the monster from The Relic in terms of his capabilities, rather than just being the "smarty pants giant croc" he was in the original supplement. 

The land itself is full of potential adventure seeds, too, including:

• An elephant graveyard where elephant skeletons and ghosts walk at night, and the bones of the dead are rumored to turn into silver and gold
• A war for supremacy between lions and tigers (who weren't originally part of the land, but were apparently brought in by Ravenloft's Dark Powers for... reasons) that is consuming the savannah
• Colonies of gorillas who relish combat (especially with "hairless apes"), and try to enslave chimpanzees and monkeys
• A whole society of young crocodiles scheming to replace Death Bringer, the King Crocodile who serves as darklord of the realm
• The python's prophecy, and a total absence of snakes in the land (imagine the repercussions if a snake -- say, a snake player character -- arrived from beyond the Mists)

As a whole, the Wildlands exudes a "dark Africa" feel, a sort of Lion-King-gone-sideways ambiance where longpaws would come to dread an encounter with even the lowly monkeys.

But the Gothic horror elements -- especially the sense of foreboding, of isolation, of being trapped in a doomed realm, of looming curses and twisted fates -- can be ramped up even better with animal PCs.  Longpaws would be walking targets everywhere they went, and Death Bringer's agents would inform their master of the presence of any humans in the realm long before those humans became aware of their ultimate enemy's nature.

Animals, however, would have more freedom to roam, to interact with NPCs, to pursue side-quests unrelated to the Crocodile metaplot.  Their time in the Wildlands wouldn't (necessarily) turn into a gauntlet-running race against the clock, as it probably would with longpaws in the mix.

African animals would be most appropriate to the setting, of course, but any species -- especially prey species -- would find the place terrifying and alienating in all the classic Gothic horror ways that Ravenloft sought to evoke with longpaw characters. 

So, if you're in the mood for some old-school fantasy horror this Halloween, I challenge you to put away I6 for a while, and treat your players to a session or two of Great & Small set in the Wildlands.  You could adapt any of the short adventures from Ravenloft supplements like the Book of Crypts or Chilling Tales -- plot and all -- simply by replacing the human NPCs with animal ones.

In fact, I might try this myself...

Goblin Punch Has Great Animal Goodies

+Arnold K.  at Goblin Punch blog has been doing some really interesting work on "mundane" animals in D&D.

I'm especially fond of his Really Good Dog class (some of whose powers resemble spandrels I've been thinking of posting here), and the gruesome-cute concept of catbooks.

I'm adding his blog to my "old-school blogs" roll to the left.  Go show his site some love (preferably with face licks) on my behalf.  If you're in need of adventure seeds for animal PCs, you can't go wrong tapping some of his wonderful ideas.

Some rules revisions & housekeeping

Here's a link (which I'll also share on the Quick Start page) to some revised rules that came about as a result of my alpha-test run of Great & Small.  I have a feeling that most of these will be in the final draft of the game.

The big changes are:

1) Hit Dice are now tied directly to Size rating.  Species determines 0-level starting hit points; adding a niche at character creation takes you to 1st level and gives an additional HD roll to add to this total.  Each time you level up afterwards, you gain a new HD of the appropriate type and re-roll all your hp using the new pool of HD, and only change hp total if the new result is greater than the old.

2) Initiative now uses a Move (MV) score determined by your species. I'll be going through the Featured Creatures to revise them, but in the meantime, MV scores can be converted from the old system by dividing the combat movement rate (the number in parentheses) by 5.  This number is added to a 1d10 roll during combat to derive your initiative. Runner characters add their niche die result as a further bonus to this roll.  This will eliminate the system using Speed ratings for declared actions.

3) I've diversified the saving throws so that each core niche now has its own unique save bonus.  The new categories are Blast (Runner), Charm (Storyteller), Deception (Seer), Device (Scout), Fear (Warrior), Paralysis (Trickster), Poison (Herbalist), and Trauma (Healer).  Discerning readers should be able to tell which old-school save category each of these was derived from.

Next week, I will be diving headlong into arranging, re-writing, and compiling the final draft of the full product, including systems for Scent Battles over territory (based on turning undead mechanics!) and hazards of the wilderness, a re-working of OSR treasure rules to accommodate Resources and spandrels, and hopefully expanding the Herbalism list.  Also, creating more tables, including randomized scenario generation ideas.

Meantime, on the blog, I'll continue statting up Featured Creatures -- which will also all be in the final product -- adding 5e-compatible material, more sample PCs of various levels, more setting details for the three campaign schemes, and reviews of some of the inspirational reading.

Thanks to all my readers for the support and encouragement.  This project really feels like it is starting to take on a life of its own.

Alpha-Test Session Report

Shots from our game table for the first-ever run of Great & Small.

Printed rules and Zocchi dice

Observations:

• Gamers will eat healthy snacks if you provide them.  Some of the gang brought popcorn and chips, of course, but I supplied a bowl of cantaloupe and some fresh carrots & celery.  All gone by session's end.
• The probabilities seemed to be exactly where I wanted them to be, dice-roll-wise.  The Zocchi dice finally got their time to shine at my table.
• The B/X-based rules run like a charm without the use of ability scores, as I suspected. You can design and run an OSR game using nothing but stat blocks, the race-as-class concept, and a collection of templates to add on top of them. I'll have more to say about that in a future post.
• The adventure I wrote wasn't enough of a challenge for 1st-level characters, except for the final challenge, which was beyond their abilities.  Need to scale it better on a re-write.

My players went through the Spooky Old Warren with Evra, the snake magic-user; Holly, the rabbit scout; Meander, the gopher tortoise guardian; Brogan, the rabbit warrior; and Bramble, the rabbit seer.

No one died, not even in the yellow mold room.

Spandrels: A Kind Of Magic For Animal Characters

Spandrel is a term in evolutionary biology (borrowed from architecture) referring to a characteristic that arose as a side-effect of evolution, rather than as a direct product of natural selection.  They are traits that were not necessarily adaptive in themselves, but got passed on because of the adaptive traits they were associated with.  Some can get co-opted into new uses that themselves become targets of natural selection.  A classic example is flight in birds.  Flight is a side effect of having feathers (feathers appear in the fossil record millions of years before the first flying birds).  Feathers evolved in response to some other purpose, and only accidentally made it possible for bird ancestors to be better at gliding.  Over time, the advantage provided by this accidental by-product of evolution (gliding) was acted on by natural selection, and birds became capable of flight.

Source

In the Great & Small game, "spandrel" refers to secondary traits that animal characters can acquire through adventuring and experience.  In most cases, these will be the traits of other species, but in campaigns with classic or modern fantasy elements, they can also be magical "items" that become part of the character's biology.

Any time an animal character overcomes a significant (as defined by the BM) challenge posed by an NPC from another species, the BM can reward her by granting her one of that character's Species Traits as though it were her own, permanently adding it to her repertoire of abilities.

For example, a rabbit PC who defeats a dog that was trying to eat her or her friends could be rewarded with one of the dog's unique traits, such as Ultravision, Versatility, a +2 on lore checks to understand longpaw devices, or perhaps the dog's better base Movement Rate.

The in-game explanation for precisely how this transfer occurs is up to the BM.  Spandrels are a kind of "magic" or treasure for animal characters, and shouldn't be any more (or less!) of a hassle to acquire than standard magical items for longpaw characters.

Speaking of standard magical items, their powers, too, can be acquired as spandrels by animal characters who discover or encounter them, assuming the item cannot be used as-is by the animal.  For instance, animals can benefit from potions by drinking them, just as longpaw characters can (however, potions are subject to the Dosage & Target Size parameters described in the Herbalism document).  In settings like the Trucewood Vale, where sapient animals and humanoids interact on a fairly regular basis, collars can be enchanted with the same sorts of magic as rings, and suits of magical armor can be made for non-humanoid species.

In most cases, however, animal characters will have to gain a magical item or weapon's benefits by eating it, either partially or completely (depending on both the size of the item and the size of the character).  Standard magic items aren't entitled to a saving throw to resist being consumed in this way; it is simply how the gods have decreed that animals can access magic from longpaw-crafted items.  Artifacts and relics, however, are entitled to saving throws, and are difficult to digest in any case.

Eating a magic item or weapon does not alleviate an animal's hunger, so she will still have to rely on normal sources of food for that purpose. Nor does eating the item harm her in any way.  It does, however, transfer its powers to her as though she were carrying it as a normal part of her body (note that this does not increase her mass in any way).  Magical weapons transfer their effects to one of the character's natural attack forms, and magical armors improve her natural AC.

For instance, suppose a lion Warrior uncovers a cache of longpaw treasure that includes a sword +1, +3 vs. dragons.  If she eats this sword, the magical bonuses will be transferred to one of her natural attack forms of her choice... say, her bite.  Henceforth, one of her natural attacks will be bite +1, +3 vs. dragons.

Similarly, a snake Magic-User who recovers and eats a wand of magic missiles will gain the ability to cast that spell at will a number of times equal to the wand's charges.

The remnants of a partially-eaten magic item are no longer magical.  Their effects have been completely transferred to the animal who ate them.

Finally, magical spandrels can be claimed by foes who defeat their possessors, just as Species Traits spandrels can be.  Thus, an animal who defeated the lion Warrior described above could claim the bite +1, +3 vs. dragons as her own.  In these cases, however, the spandrel retains its current form and cannot be converted into a different natural attack; the magical bite attack remains a magical bite attack ever after, no matter which species claims it.

It should be emphasized that, for unknown reasons, longpaws cannot transfer or acquire magical spandrels in this fashion; they must rely on using magic items in their standard forms.  Similarly, longpaws cannot claim the Species Traits of other animals for themselves (without special rituals), nor can their Species Traits be claimed as spandrels by animals.  The BM is free to concoct any campaign-appropriate explanation for why this is the case, but it is a hard and fast rule of Great & Small.  Altering it will significantly impact the feel of an animal fantasy campaign setting.

Spandrels with permanent or continuous effects are hereditary, and pass from one generation to the next, just as family heirlooms do in human families.  Thus, a lionness can pass her bite +1, +3 vs. dragons on to one of her children if she chooses.  However, she will herself lose the benefit.

Even so, there appear to be exceptions to this rule. It is believed by some scholars that the spandrel process is the origin of chimeric creatures like gryphons, jackalopes, or owlbears, animals who combine the traits of divergent species in a way nature can't do on its own.

Trucewood Vale: The Tale Of Beginnings

The Trucewood Vale campaign scheme is a classic fantasy setting inspired by works like C.S. Lewis' Narnia, or Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar,  in which human(oid)s and intelligent animals adventure together.  It's a perfect starting point for BMs who wish to incorporate classic fantasy game elements like magic, mythical animals, and demihuman longpaws like dwarfs or elves into their Great & Small campaign.

It's the default setting for the sample adventure, Secret Of The Spooky Old Warren (downloadable as part of the Quick Start Pack), although that adventure includes no overt classic fantasy elements.

The following fable should be read aloud at the beginning of any Trucewood Vale campaign, with each member of the group taking turns reading aloud for as long as they feel comfortable doing so.

As with any fable, it may or may not be true.

---------------------------------------------------

There are long-distant days that even the elephants cannot remember.

And in those days, the world of Okarthel belonged to the Eld-Beasts.

And the greatest of those Eld-Beasts were the mighty dragons, masters of claw and wing and breath.

And the greatest of these dragons were called the Urathear, who were like unto the gods.

Every Eld-Beast that walked, or swam, or flew, or crawled, upon the face of Okarthel gave reverence to the dragons as the kings of the animals.

But then one day, after much deliberation, the gods decided to call the longpaw races into the world, and to give them the gifts of speech and reason, much as the dragons possessed.

And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the Urathear and their dragons.

The  Urathear had foreseen the end of their kind's mastery at the hands of Man, unless the humble powers of Man were checked.

And so the Urathear and their dragons feuded with the gods, and the feuds shook the very pillars of Okarthel.

After a time, some of the gods came to see the justice of the dragons' complaint, and suggested a gift be offered to them, to return peace to the world.

And so the gods reached down to the Eld-Beasts who walked, and swam, and flew, and crawled, across the face of Okarthel, and raised up one from among each species to be the new king of its kind.  These Eld-Beast Kings were, like Man and Dragon, given the gifts of speech and reason.  And like Man and Dragon, too, the Eld-Beast Kings held within them the power of magic, if they chose to pursue it.

The gods presented their gift to the dragons in the land now called the Trucewood Vale, and hoped their gift would soothe the Urathear, by giving them sentient subjects of their own to venerate and revere them.

But the gods had committed a folly, for in giving the Eld-Beast Kings speech and reason and magic, they had also given them choice.  And some chose not to revere the Urathear.

Enraged, the Urathear threatened the Eld-Beast Kings, demanding from them the unconditional loyalty the dragons enjoyed from lesser animals.  They showed the Eld-Beast Kings visions of the future of Man, and how Man would drive out dragons and spoil the world.

Many of the Eld-Beast Kings listened, and agreed. These chose to serve the dragons in their cause against longpaws.

But other Eld-Beasts Kings did not trust the dragons.  They knew that Man, like them, had the power of choice.  These Eld-Beasts believed Man could be redeemed.  And so these Kings befriended the longpaws.

And still other Eld-Beast Kings had no love for Man, but saw great benefit to living alongside him.  These chose neither to befriend nor to oppose, but merely to shadow Man.

The Urathear, for all their rage and power, knew they could not prevail against Man unless all the Eld-Beasts stood with them.  And so they chose to leave the world of Okarthel, taking their dragons with them.

This left the Eld-Beast Kings to rule their kind as they saw fit.  Soon the Kings learned that they could pass their gifts of speech and reason and magic on to some of their children, and thus the next generation of Eld-Beasts were born.

Over time, the Eld-Beasts learned that life with Man was tricky and dangerous.  Man was often fearful and violent towards that he did not understand, and so the Eld-Beasts decided that it would be best to hide their true nature from Man.

This is why the tongues of animals cannot be understood by Man.  This is why Eld-Beasts hide their magic from longpaws.

And it is why each new generation of Eld-Beasts is confronted by the original question put to them by the Urathear and their dragons: will you befriend the races of Man, or will you drive them from the world?

Creepy Crawlies, Pt. 3: The Watch Dogs

To hear the longpaws tell it, Man "domesticated" wolves, who became dogs... loyal servants and friends of Man, because Man found them useful.

Evan Dorkin's & Jill Thompson's "Beasts Of Burden"; Dark Horse Comics

But that's not how the dogs tell it.  And it's not how the genes tell it, either.  Men like to brag that they tamed wolves somewhere around 11,000 years ago; but the genome shows us that the lines of wolf and dog began to diverge almost ten times farther back than that, during a time when longpaws were barely even human yet.

Something else was going on.

They'd migrated north, these strange mostly-hairless apes, and out of desperation and hunger started following the wolf packs who followed the herds.  Scavenging from them. Learning from them.  Mimicking them.

Man learned how to hunt by watching wolf.  He learned how to be a proper parent by following the wolf's example, eschewing his chest-thumping ancestors' ways and becoming more communal.

Wolves made longpaws human.

And some of these wolves took on a fondness for the silly longpaws, and began to mentor them.  Some even adopted orphaned longpaw children, raised them, and sent them back to their own kind with lessons and wisdom to share.

But something followed the longpaws out of Africa.  Something wanted them gone from the Earth forever.  For reasons unknown, the Winnower was hell-bent on destroying the longpaws. It sent some of its most vile minions to hunt them.  It tempted some of them to worship it and advance its desire from within their own species.

Seeing this, those wolves devoted to mentoring and protecting the longpaws made a mystic pact tying their fate to that of Man.  But not all wolves agreed.  Most saw the Winnower as no worse than the Progenitor, merely a force of nature whose will was to be honored.  They demanded the friends of Man renounce their pact. 

The friends of Man refused.

Thus, the great and forgotten War Of The Wolves began.  And in its crucible were born the first true dogs, devoted to defending their human charges from all threats, especially supernatural ones.

Over the long millennia, these Once-Wolves learned occult secrets and vowed to use all the means at their disposal to keep longpaws safe.  Known by many names across time, this network of canine monster-hunters now calls itself The Watch Dogs.

Their foes are any abominations that enter our plane from the Lingering World to wreak havoc and dismay.  And due to the Winnower's ancient animosity, these manifestations most often happen in or near places of human habitation.  So do the Neverspawn of the Progenitor, acting always against their god-thing's timeless rival.

So that is where The Watch Dogs act.  Among Men.

But they have learned they cannot do it alone.  The Neverspawn cults and the Winnower cults have both gleaned that dogs are not to be trusted, and so attract other animals to their ranks. And these animals -- bats, black cats, lizards, owls, rats, ravens, snakes, toads, and even wolves -- have come to be associated by longpaws with evil and darkness.

The wisest of the Watch Dogs, however, understand that these "children of the night" can -- if properly enticed or infiltrated -- form an effective early-warning system and pre-emptive strike force against the unnatural issue of Neverspawn and Winnowspore alike.

At first, it was not easy.  All animals fear the wrath of the great god-things of the Lingering World, and most simply did as they were bade by those who summoned them.

But a few could see beyond their own fear to the larger truth -- that the eternal war between Progenitor and Winnower had become a toxic, pointless conflagration that threatened all species, not just the longpaws.  And these few night-beasts, drawn from species long associated with dread and evil, allied with the Watch Dogs to save the world.

These brave animals were the first of the Creepy Crawlies.  And there were even a few wolves among them, bringing the tale full circle.

Today, every cell of Creepy Crawlies maintains ties to the Watch Dogs through a network of stray and feral animals who live on the outskirts of Man Places.  They operate more or less independently, trusted to investigate, identify, and neutralize occult threats on their own.  But every so often, word comes down from the highest-ranked dogs in the area -- usually an Alpha duo modeled on the Mated Pair hierarchy of ancient wolf society -- that certain missions and targets take priority, and in these instances, Creepy Crawly cells are expected to obey without question, no matter the risk.