Sniktraak

The curse of the Skinwalkers is spread when Siroth’s Undeath touches the spirit of a dead animal and causes it to lash out at whatever or whoever it can. This means that, regardless of the context, those who frequently kill animals or deal with carcasses are most at risk of randomly becoming a new Skinwalker. Despite the catechisms of the Sacred Order, and often convincing circumstantial evidence, affliction has no moral component. The transformation and its transmission can be suffered by any in the mortal world – it is not a particular judgment or condemnation of an individual. The fierce albino killer known as Sniktraak is a tragic example. Sniktraak once lived in a small village in the Duchy of Sench-Vallerwoul in Kaerok and made his way as spinerat-catcher, beloved by all for undertaking the miserable job of dealing with noxious vermin with a smile on his face. However, behind the jolly workman’s façade was a wounded, bitter, alienated soul. He unleashed his secret rage and cruelty upon the rats that he hunted, taking twisted joy in the animals’ suffering and always leaving some behind to breed so that he could have his fun again soon, and so he could keep his job. None of those who knew him would believe that the polite and obedient lad was so internally troubled, and even those who witnessed hints of his deepening sickness rationalized away their concerns. Why have sympathy for the pests anyway? Why not let him vent his frustrations? Why speak up and suggest he be relieved of rat-catching duty, only to have the eyes of the town fall upon oneself as the natural replacement? Changing the way of things is difficult for some toilsome rural communities, and silence often hangs heavy over ugly open secrets. Had knowledge of, and tolerance for, the Skinwalker curse been more abundant in this village, perhaps the danger of wantonly slaying so many creatures would have been recognized. But it was not. The last rat Sniktraak ever slaughtered perished in body, but its spirit clawed its way under his skin and up his arm, burrowing, and bored into his brain. The revenant animal spirit and the soul of the troubled young man clashed, merged, separated, and merged again, over and over in a process of violent reconfiguration. And while the human soul, as it usually does, won its battle against the invader, the process caused irreversible spiritual change. And with it came a wrenching transformation of his physical body, and a period of primordial hunger and delirium. He found himself far from his village with his new rodent-like hands and dagger-like fangs coated with dried blood, and only the very creatures he despised now willing to be his new companions. When he returned to what was once home, he found doors smashed down or chewed through, the granaries emptied, and the picked-clean skeletons of men and beasts alike. Was it his own doing, he despaired, or that of the corrupted rat spirit? Anyone would have lost their mind, and so, Sniktraak did. His old identity forgotten and a guttural new name given to him by his chittering companions – or perhaps by his own delusions, for little separates the two – Sniktraak became an instrument of vengeance for all verminkind, and soon was striking terror into the villagers of the nearby countryside. Swordsmen of the Banner Lords and Militants of the Sacred Order sent to investigate were torn to shreds. When elite knights were dispatched, they were hollowed out within their shiny armor by tiny fangs or else bashed to a pulp by Sniktraak with his mighty morning stars, which he took from some of his first victims and has since grown excessively fond of. Hammering had always been one of his favorite ways of dispatching annoying creatures… Tales of a ‘Rat-man’ bearing such names as ‘The Gnawing Flood’ and ‘The Eating of Breughshire’ have grown and spread, the stories exaggerating the truth but conveying the essential horror of Sniktraak’s modus operandi. Successive attempts to stop him, successful or not, necessarily involved slaying hundreds of members of his now-infamous swarm. As more and more animals died around him, more and more tainted rat souls clung to his own, intensifying the power of the Skinwalker curse. It would take a tremendous work of purifying magic to give Sniktraak another chance to forge a new, stable identity in his Skinwalker body, though the bonding of the animal soul to his own is irreversible. And though the excess spirits could hypothetically be purged – upon contact with the uninfected – his madness is another matter entirely.