Werewolves 3 Beta Preview -- Prologue: The Wraith

Welcome to the first in a series of previews from my upcoming game: Werewolves 3: Evolution's End!

This prologue begins immediately after the Werewolves 2 ending where you escape with the elders and a mysterious figure appears. The text for choices I've made in this preview is noted with a '#' before the text of each choice. :

Tiva steps back, away from the advancing figure. "No," she whispers. "No no no no no no…" Her eyes flick to Ahote. "What is this? Why are you doing this to me?"

The Elder's eyes never leave the wraithlike figure. "You had the right to know."

The creature removes its hood, and it takes several seconds before you recognize who it is that you're facing. He's been changed. Shaped in hideous ways as though torn apart and rebuilt by an architect unfamiliar with the building blocks of humanity.

Tiva steps forward on shaking legs, eyes wreathed with tears. She meets the figure halfway, their reunion backlit by the light of the moon.

"I've missed you, love," the creature rasps.

"I've missed you too, Lapu."

Player: #"Quick, Ahote. We've got to get him inside and lying down. He looks like he's about to collapse!"

Lapu takes a few faltering steps toward the warehouse. "I got all the way here by myself, didn't I?" He clears his throat with a wet cough. "Knew I'd find you guys. Just had to have faith."

"Come on," Tiva says. She wraps an arm around Lapu and helps guide his steps into the warehouse office.

He takes several hesitant steps, but his left ankle is turning in at a dangerous angle. Tiva notices and adjusts her support. "How the hell did you get here like this?"

"Wasn't easy," Lapu says, "but I didn't have much of a choice. How many of the others are here? I don't think I'm ready for them to see me like this…"

Ahote looks through the door back into the main warehouse. "We'll keep you in the office for now and let you rest until you're ready."

"Yeah," Lapu wheezes. "That works for me." You help the others lift him up onto a small bed that Ahote has been using since your arrival in the safe house. He hisses with pain but doesn't cry out. "We can't wait too long, though," he says. "We can't stay."

Player: # "You're in no shape to be moving anywhere."

"No," Lapu says. "No, I'm not. But I don't always get to do things the way I want to lately." He tries to catch his breath before continuing. "It's Maker," he says. His eyes go wide with fear the moment he says her name. "She experimented on me for weeks…and she wants the rest of you too, I'm sure of it! She knows where you are—we can't stay!"

"Maker…" you say. "She made it out alive? I was never sure what happened to her."

"She probably worked out a deal with Rivera," Ahote says.

"I don't-"

Tiva cuts you off with an elbow to the side. "I don't care what you think happened back then! Look at what's in front of your nose! Who could do something this fucked up to a person other than Maker? If she's coming for us then we can't sit around arguing about Rivera's motivations!"

# "If we're about to get raided, I think we should inform the others right away. There's no time to waste!"

"You're right," Lapu says. "I just need…" he groans, "a minute to rest before we move on."

"Fine," Tiva says. "But we're not leaving until you can actually walk without help."

"I'll do my best," Lapu says. "I was barely alive after the Haven disaster. It wasn't only soldiers and wolves fighting that day—there were civilians in there, too. Some of them wanted to make quick cash by selling werewolves to private researchers. They pretended to be with the activists and grabbed me up when I could barely move. They dragged me into the back of their van and I passed out. The next time I opened my eyes, I saw Maker. She bought me from them."

"Wait," you interrupt. "I thought Haken…"

"Killed me?" Lapu shakes his head. "He couldn't do it. He stood over me like he was ready to cut my throat, then he prayed to his gods. I don't know if they answered him or what, but when he opened his eyes, he came for me." He swallows hard as he remembers just how close he'd come to death. "I thought that was the end so I screamed, but all he did was push me away. Told me I was exiled."

Tiva breathes out slowly. "The old brute has a heart after all. So what happened after Maker bought you?"

"Maker bought you? That doesn't make sense," Ahote says. "Maker was imprisoned in the Nail, and after that she was in Sonoma's campground. When would she have been able to buy you and do this? You're certain it was Maker?"

Lapu tries to laugh, but it comes out as a raspy gurgle. "You really think she was a prisoner? Maker had a lab! Staff! She came and went as she pleased. She had me smuggled out the moment she heard about the escape plan. Sonoma wasn't the only wolf with secrets hidden in her basement. After the military attacked the camp, Maker escaped to a private compound, and she's been trying to track you down ever since. She needs new test subjects."

# "You couldn't have been at Sonoma's camp. Someone would have heard you. Smelled you!"

Lapu shakes his head. "I yelled until my throat was hoarse. It was muffled, but I know some of you heard it. Maker laughed when she told me that she blamed the yelling on Sonoma's sex life and the noises from the cabin attached to the lab. Then she muzzled me." He shudders. "She wasn't entirely wrong, either. I got to hear all of that too."

"I had reports from a scout that I didn't believe," Ahote says. "They said they smelled you, but every attempt to find you failed. She was so careful…how did you manage to escape and get to us?"

Lapu struggles to sit up. He's stronger than he looks—not so much sickly as deformed and exhausted from his long journey on foot. "Maker wasn't paying as much attention to me after the attack as she was before; she just strapped me to one of her examination tables and showed up every so often to 'check on my progress,' whatever that means. It took hours, but I managed to cut through the straps with my claws." He holds his right hand out, palm open. It's scarred over by hundreds of little cuts he must have sustained while scraping at his bonds. You wonder if Maker's experiments slowed his healing ability, temporarily or otherwise.

"That doesn't explain how you found us," you say. Ahote nods in agreement, a frown slowly creeping over his face.

Lapu turns in the bed and puts his gnarled feet on the floor. The shoes he's wearing are almost worn out, and his twisted toes peek out from deep tears in the fabric like bone wrapped in gristle. "All the doors of her complex were electronically locked so I had to sneak around looking for a keycard. I found one in her office, but that wasn't the only thing."

"She had this address," Tiva says.

He nods. "That's why I had to warn you."