Count Varcolac Wulfen is the main villain and foremost enemy of the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Howl of the Werewolf. He is the tyrannical ruler of the province of Lupravia, who became a highly powerful Arch Lycanthrope after selling his soul to a demon and plagued his domain with were-beasts. He ruled for twenty years, until an adventurer who got cursed with lycanthropy broke it by killing him before they fell prey to it.
Appearance
While quite handsome, Wulfen always sported somehow wild looks, with long mane-like hair and a hairy chest. Now, his nails are long and pointy like claws and his eyes gleam a malevolent light. It must be noted that all of his family share said wild looks.
Personality
Count Wulfen always was malevolent, ambitious and rather feral. As such, he relishes in his new condition of werewolf, to the point that the Wolf Demon possessing him leaves him in total control, for even it could not do worse.
He is regal, dignified and suave, with perfect manners and even temper, but he is at heart cold, cruel, vindictive, haughty and blood-thirsty. He revels in hunting and wilderness, dismissing normal people as feeble and uninteresting preys. His violent albeit collected demeanour creates a stark contrast with that of his demented and totally feral younger brother Garoul.
He has lost interest in common matters, let alone his subjects, and cares only about his pack. As shown by his once wondrous and now derelict castle, his lavish but unkempt clothing, and the nonchalant way he slouches on his throne. His rule turned the already cold and harsh Lupravia into a gloomy hellhole.
Wulfen cares only about might, giving consideration to the best hunters and no-one else. Still, he apparently honestly cares about his brother, his pet wargs, and above all his pack, though he is quick to anger when denied... He lets his mad brother run free, and is genuinely polite to the playable hero.
He praises their mastery of lycanthropy and regards them resisting the curse a waste, offering to name them his right-hand in earnest. Yet, he regards his brother's death as deserved and only praises the beast the hero could be, attacking them without a qualm when they refuse.
Being a feudal aristocrat, he is very well-read and erudite, as evidenced by his furbished library and map rooms, and he likely learnt of politics and warfare. Judging from his trophy room, he enjoys hunting, though likely no longer in the mortal way. Finally, he is cautious, hiding weapons that can harm him but keeping an eye on them.
Powers and Abilities
Count Varcolac Wulfen is possessed by a Wolf Demon who gives him his power, but he willingly serves as its hosts, remains in control, and shares with it a sort of symbiosis. (Though the demon can take control if needed.)
As a werewolf, he is bound to master all the abilities gained by the playable character, though he only displays the perfect night vision, and his claw-like nails hint the one to fight with them just as good as with weapons. The other abilities being enormously amplified senses, vastly enhanced strength, speed and stamina, and a terrifying howl able to cower away all mortal creatures. Finally, he has other dark powers likely stemming from the Wolf Demon.
As an arch-lycanthrope, he perfectly controls his lycanthropy. He can transform at will, though he never displays the usual shape of a huge wolf as in folklore. He has the unique transformation of a giant, muscular wolf-man like the modern depictions of werewolves, vastly amplifying his already enhanced strength and speed.
Worse, he can draw power from the full moon to heal himself, and controls every were-beast and normal feral beast around, even when dead and put in trophies. The lycanthropy he and his thralls inflicts cannot be cured by normal remedies. As if it was not enough, he can force it to fully control its victim, and worsens it with his strikes.
Background
Count Varcolac Wulfen is the descendant of the berserker barbarian overlord Dragomir Wulfen, who destroyed the cabal of Vampire Nobles ruling the province of Lupravia, in the country of Mauristasia, in the north of the continent of the Old World. He pacified the region and established the noble House of Wulfen, which ruled it for centuries and made it thrive, but a dying curse from the lead vampire drove some of his descendants to madness.
About twenty years before the start of the story, not long after becoming Count of Lupravia, Wulfen restarted the Cadre Infernal, with a group of equally malevolent public figures. Under their impulse, what was decades ago a shady yet not dangerous secret society of Mauristasian nobles seeking to increase their influence through alliances and magic, became a cabal meant to gain power for the sake of power.
Guided by the sorceress Serena of Saarven, Count Wulfen, Countess Isolde of Maun, the black widow Lady Aranaea, and the Abbott of the Black Monks summoned a Wolf Demon and sold their souls, each relinquishing a precious item it the ritual. The demon possessed Wulfen and turned him to an Arch Lycanthrope, but only he and Countess Isolde, now a Vampire Lady gained power, the other three being reduced to feral and barely sentient monsters.
Count Wulfen wasted no time in raising a huge pack of all sorts of were-beasts, from wolves to bears and even rats and bats, living and undead alike, which he let run wild across the land. People do not know of his lycanthropy, but he is reviled all over and rumours of a curse of his plaguing the land abound. He infected his brother Garoul and his three wives, though he turned the latter to furry and feral humanoids instead of regular were-beasts.
Wulfen knows full well that Countess Isolde resents his rule and covets his throne, but he is too powerful and has the Wolf Demon's favour, so she is forced to submit. As for the others, the Abbott became a hideous Maggot monster, and went back to his Abbey where he turned all his monks into humanoid insects. Serena became a giant snake hybrid, known in a circus as Serpensa the Snake Woman. Aranea became the hybrid Spider Queen and took shelter in a cave. They all kept with them the silver dagger that they used for the ritual.
At some point, Garoul was imprisoned, probably because he was too feral even for Varcolac's tastes, but it drove him to sheer madness, acting like a beast even in human form and relinquishing all traces of humanity. The Mad Prince, as he was now known, was later released and roamed the country leading a pack of wolves. Ironically, Garoul would precipitate the fall of his brother, infecting the playable character.
Role in the Story
Howls in the Night
The player character is a seasoned adventurer who gets lost at night in a forest and surrounded by a pack of wolves, led by a giant black one. No matter what they do, they get bitten by the black wolf before being saved by a lumberjack named Ulrich, who cuts off its paw. Paw which transforms back to a human hand bearing a signet ring, meaning that it was a werewolf and that the hero runs the risk of becoming one. There is a score of Change measuring the progression of the curse, which must be kept as low as possible.
Ulrich takes the hero to the wisewoman Grandmother Zekova, who can give them a potion to reduce their Change score. She recognizes the signet ring as the seal of House Wulfen and identifies the black werewolf as Garoul Wulfen the Mad Prince. She explains that the hero's only hope is to find and kill the one at the source of their curse before the full moon. Garoul's pack attacks Zekova's cabin (parodying the Big Bad Wolf in The Three Little Pigs), but killing him does not lift the hero’s curse and reveals that of Ulrich, who turns into a werebear and must be taken down.
The hero starts the adventure with less skill (power level) than usual, but the more their lycanthropy progresses, the more their skill is raised, and the more special lycanthropic abilities they gain: night vision, howl that weakens normal mortal foes, unarmed fight, regaining stamina (life-points) after a fight, and the damaging cursed blood.
Hunting the Cadre Infernal
The hero travels through a desolate land with many settlements plagued by supernatural threats. They might save the village of Strigoïva from the spectral wolf pack known as the Howling, having dipped their sword in holy water, or save the priest Father Corran and the Shrine of Saint Crucius from the demonic hound known as the Shuck.
The hero escapes the Headless Highwayman (a nod to the Headless Horseman), the spectre of a beheaded brigand brought back through sorcery by his lover, the innkeeper's daughter Meg. Breaking his skull or her pentagram sends both beyond the Veil and the spectre's flintlock pistol can be taken: a powerful weapon especially with silver bullets.
Serpensa the Snake Woman
If the hero visits a circus, they can get clues with the seer Madame Zelda and see Serpensa the Snake Woman, in fact Serena of the Cadre Infernal. They must kill her to take her silver dagger, before escaping at once lest the circus people kill them to avenge the one they mistook as another harmless misfit.
- Serpensa is a dangerous foe with 9 in skill and 9 in stamina, who wraps the hero in her coils before fighting, costing them 1 in skill for two attack rounds. If she wins the first attack round, she crushes them costing 3 in stamina. If she wins the second, her venomous bite costs 4 in stamina and 1 in skill. If she wins the third, she makes them fall with a tail swipe, costing 2 in stamina and 1 in skill for the next attack round. Then her claws deal regular damage.
The hero next ventures in the town of Balci and meets the scholar Vereticus, whose son was turned into a feral wolf were, a human acting like a wolf. He can reduce their Change score and provide priceless intel about the Cadre Infernal, the House of Wulfen, and the monster-hunting Order of the Black Rose.
If they face the ice elemental Shiver Sprite, they can call his name to make him flee and avoid a dangerous battle. In the domain of Maun, they must never ask for Countess Isolde's help. They can ally with the vampire hunter Van Richten to kill her and take her silver dagger, but he attacks if he learns of their curse.
The hero needs a lantern or night vision to explore the nearby ruins, in fact the place where the Cadre Infernal summoned the Wolf Demon. They can dive in a well and fight demons to get the Wulfen Sword, now a powerful magic sword deadly against were beasts, and the other relics they cast aside in the ritual.
The local sanctuary is the Abbaye of the Black Monks. If the hero asks for shelter, the insectoid monks drug them and try to turn them into one of their own, so they must sneak in to kill the Abbot Maggot and take his silver dagger.
- The grotesque Maggot is weak but sturdy, with 6 in skill and 16 in stamina, and calling the name of Saint Crucius halves his stats. He can spit acid costing 3 in stamina, but such a laughable foe will not land many hits, if at all.
The hero can meet the mad scientist Professor Arcanum in a mill during a storm. He and his hunchbacked servant Igor are animating a dangerous Golem Hulk with 9 in skill and 11 in stamina, whose electric shocks cost 3 in stamina, but who can be destroyed without fight, by attracting lightning with a steel rod. Then, Arcanum might drink a potion to turn into a powerful monster with 10 in skill and 9 in stamina. (A nod to Frankenstein's Monster and Edward Hyde.)
The Beast of Vargenhof
The Spider Queen
The hero can save a farm from an evil changeling, and learns that the town of Vargenhof is plagued by a Were Beast (a nod to the Beast of Gévaudan). As they partake in the hunt, they can explore a cave maze where the Spider Queen Aranaea eats all who enters it, and take her silver dagger from goblins thieves.
- The Spider Queen is a powerful foe with 10 in skill and 12 in stamina, but burning her web with a torch destroys her without fight. She can use several attacks; normal claw swipes; a belly jump that makes the hero fall, costing 1 in skill for the next round and 2 in stamina; a web making them waste a round to break; a venomous bite costing 4 in stamina; and a spider swarm costing a dice roll worth in stamina but costing her 2 in stamina to spawn.
Right after, the hero saves the warrior woman Katya from the Were Beast itself, a huge half-wolf half-bear humanoid in full control of his actions, with skill 8 stamina 11. They chase him back in town, where he hides in his human form.
Katya attacked by the Werebeast
The Beast is in fact Burgomaster Straub, who transforms and flees. The hero runs after it with Katya on a coach, but he attacks them and they must send him down a ravine with the coach and flee on horseback. Katya can be killed, and dies if she reaches Wulfenstein, the now deserted capital of Lupravia.
It now becomes clear that Straub was heading to Wulfenstein, and is seemingly a vassal of the Arch Lycanthrope the hero is searching. Who is none other than Count Wulfen himself.
In the castle, the hero can fight Count Wulfen’s three wives or sway them with presents, and fight an old witch who can make her pet toad giant, but gives precious intel if spared. They must read a grimoire about demons, and defeat a powerful Silent Death demon with 10 in skill and 10 in stamina, who kills them if they lack a magic or silver blade. Finally they get the last silver dagger from an obsidian mirror, after destroying the wax golem formed from the candles.
Confronting Count Wulfen
Count Varcolac Wulfen greets the hero amiably and offers to teach them the "ways of the beast". If they pretend to pledge obedience but fail a test of Change, he makes their curse take its hold and the game is lost. If they succeed, they scare away his pet wargs and Varcolac transforms to fight. If not, the hero must fight the wargs first.
The Arch Lycanthrope is a very powerful foe with 12 in skill (the normal maximum) and 16 in stamina. A Cross or a mirror are useless, and a Changeling Spell empowers him by 1 in skill and 3 in stamina. On the other hand, silver projectiles cost him 4 in stamina each. The Wulfen Sword or his silver dagger costs him 1 in skill and 3 in stamina per blow (though the daggers reduce the hero’s skill by 1.) His strikes worsen the hero’s Change, and after seven rounds, the full moon rises and he regains 4 in stamina.
The full moon influences the hero's curse. If they win a test of Change, they resist and resume the fight normally. If not, they start transforming, and when they win the Wolf Demon possesses them to keep ruling Lupravia through a lycanthrope. The Demon fights through the animated corpse of the Arch Lycanthrope. It is a powerful foe with 10 in skill and 14 in stamina, advantaged by the previous fight. The hero cannot win without a magic or silver blade, but can banish it without fight using the five silver daggers in a ritual. Each dagger can cost it 2 in stamina before fighting.
If Countess Isolde hypnotized the hero, she forces them to invite her in and takes over Lupravia with them as her werewolf slave. If not, Wulfen’s death lifts the curse at last. They lose all their powers but could not care less, basking in the moonlight, in a land that no longer has to fear the howl of the werewolf and can finally enjoy lasting peace.
Trivia
- In Slavic folklore, the Varcolac, also called Vukodlak in Serbia or Vrykolak in Greece, (which means wolf's fur) is a type of undead acting like a werewolf at day and a vampire at night, being an inspiration for both.
- Count Wulfen's brother Garoul derives his name from “loup garou”, French for werewolf.
- Count Wulfen being a monstrous feudal lord with a vassal who not so secretly plots against him evokes Count Reiner Heydrich and his sister Katarina Heydrich. Like him, he can manifest his power through his portraits.
- Count Wulfen's look, derelict castle and transformation are a possible nod to Count Vlad Tepes Dracula from the Castlevania video games.