TEXT: Poisoned Pages for Shadow of the Demon Lord
  1
  We all wear masks. We wear them to conceal our 
  true selves, to become what others expect us to be, 
  navigating the murky waters of social interaction 
  to forge relationships, ﬁ nd love, and avoid enemies. 
  For most of us, masks conceal uncertainties and 
  doubts, ambitions and desires, and all the little 
  secrets that make up what we think of as our 
  true selves. For a few, masks conceal darkness, a 
  dangerous beast just barely restrained by the chains 
  of self-control. Sometimes, the chains break, the 
  mask slips, and the horror begins.
   Skinchangers in Shadow of the Demon Lord 
  encompass a variety of shapeshifting 
  creatures,from werewolves to ratmen and 
  everything in between. The animal form 
  a skinchanger adopts can be anything 
  you need it to be without having to alter 
  anything other than how it’s described. 
  For Game Masters, this approach provides a great 
  deal of freedom, but from the perspective of players, 
  especially those who contract the Skinchanger 
  Curse, a bit more information can be helpful.
   This entry into the Poisoned Pages series takes a 
  closer look at skinchangers, revealing their secret 
  origins, how they spread their curse, and everything 
  else you need to know to play a skinchanger 
  character. Unleash the beast inside you and bark at 
  the moon!
  ~Credits~
  WRITING AND DESIGN: 
  rOBERT j. sCHWALB
  editing: Jay Spight
  Proofreading: Kara Hamilton 
  and Carlos Danger
  ART DIRECTION: rOBERT j. sCHWALB
  Graphic Design and LAYOUT: kara hamilton
  ILLUSTRATIONs: Andrey Vasilchenko
  and Todd Wilson
  Tooth and Claw is ©2016 Schwalb Entertainment, LLC. 
  All rights reserved.
  Shadow of the Demon Lord, Tooth and Claw, Dweller in the Dark
  Schwalb Entertainment, and their associated logos 
  are trademarks of Schwalb Entertainment, LLC.
  SCHWALB ENTERTAINMENT, LLC
  PO Box #12548, Murfreesboro, TN 37129
  info@schwalbentertainment.com
  www.schwalbentertainment.com
  
  2
  Skinchangers
  All kinds of creatures can adopt diﬀ erent forms. 
  Students of Primal magic and Transformation 
  magic can become animals, clouds of mist, or even 
  other people. Changelings can mask their natural 
  appearance with the guise of a person they observe. 
  Hideous broodlings can become clouds of biting and 
  stinging insects, while nisse can balloon into giants. 
  The most notorious of the shapechanging creatures, 
  however, are the skinchangers, sometimes called 
  weres, scions of the Horned Lord, or lycanthropes.
   What sets the skinchangers apart from other 
  shapeshifters is that they all bear a weighty curse. The 
  source of their aﬄ  iction’s origin varies with the telling, 
  as revealed below, but in all cases it causes a beast to 
  come forth, transforming the skinchanger into a wild 
  and dangerous animal, or, sometimes something in 
  between. The forms skinchangers take vary wildly, 
  from wolves to leopards, ravens to rats, and just about 
  everything else in between. If it walks, crawls, slithers, 
  swims, or ﬂ ies, somewhere in the world, there’s a 
  skinchanger that can adopt its form. 
  The Curse
  The skinchanger curse has haunted the mortal 
  peoples since they ﬁ rst spread across Rûl, leaving 
  the stories about where it came from unreliable at 
  best. However, the dominant religions have some 
  of the most accepted explanations. Devotees of the 
  Old Faith believe the Horned Lord laid the curse on 
  mortals who poached sacred animals in his grove, 
  causing those people to become the beasts they had 
  slain. The Inquisition of the New God’s cult claims 
  the skinchanger curse is one more manifestation of 
  the corruption on the mortal soul, indicating a sullied 
  heart and diseased mind. All servants of the gods 
  count skinchangers as dangerous foes that can spread 
  their vile curse to their followers.
   Not all view skinchangers as a menace. Among 
  the Woad, a wild, nomadic people that live in and 
  around the Empire, skinchangers within their ranks 
  are believed to be favored by their tribe’s patron spirit. 
  That members of the tribe can sometimes adopt 
  animal forms matching the spirit supports their 
  claim, though even the Woad admit the rapacious, 
  bloodthirsty skinchangers found outside their tribes 
  are dangerous, possibly estranged kin driven mad by 
  the loss of their custom and society.
   All of these stories could be true, but in all 
  likelihood, the curse’s origin probably belongs to the 
  faeries. Many early encounters between the mortals 
  and immortals were peaceful, even supernatural 
  given that the gods of the Old Faith bear a striking 
  resemblance to many of the great fey who now rule 
  over the hidden kingdoms, yet many encounters 
  ended in violence, clashes that ultimately contributed 
  to the faeries decision to abandon the mortal world. 
  Leaving a curse to transform their enemies into wild, 
  destructive animals who preyed on other people is 
  just the sort of vengeance angry faeries might concoct.
  Passing the Curse
  Curses usually aﬀ ect only the person on whom they 
  are bestowed. In other words, they’re not infectious. 
  Once you become cursed, you remain so until you 
  ﬁ nd a way to lift it. The skinchanger curse is the 
  big exception to the rule, however, as skinchangers 
  can bestow it onto creatures they scratch or bite. 
  Any living, mortal creature that becomes injured or 
  incapacitated from damage dealt by a skinchanger’s 
  natural weapons is at risk of gaining the skinchanger 
  curse.
   In addition, the curse can pass from one generation 
  to the next. This is especially true for people with 
  strong ties to the faerie or who live in or near lands 
  steeped in faerie magic. Sometimes the curse passes 
  directly from father to son, mother to daughter, 
  or might wait one or more generations before a 
  descendant discovers she carries the curse when, one 
  night, she transforms in the light of the moon.
  The Effects of the Curse
  The eﬀ ects of becoming cursed by a skinchanger do 
  not usually reveal themselves right away. The cursed 
  creature often goes several days or weeks unaware 
  of what will happen when the moon next rises full, 
  although cravings for raw meat, fascination with 
  the moon, and strange dreams of running with rats, 
  wolves, or roaming about the wilderness under the 
  cover of night are all common warning signs that 
  something is wrong. Once the moon rises full, the 
  cursed creature undergoes a painful transformation, 
  joints popping, skin sliding, fur or feathers bursting 
  from the pores until the victim becomes an animal in 
  body and mind. This lasts 
  until the moon sets, 
  at which point the 
  curse fades and the 
  creature returns to 
  its normal form, 
  likely covered 
  in blood, dirt, 
  and grass stains. 
  Henceforth, each 
  time the moon rises 
  full, the skinchanger 
  transforms, and its 
  mind shatters a bit 
  more until it eventually 
  becomes the monster it 
  fears lurks within.
  from the pores until the victim becomes an animal in 
  body and mind. This lasts 
  more until it eventually 
  becomes the monster it 
  
  3
  Lifting the Curse 
  A few remedies exist for those who become enslaved 
  to the moon. The best and most certain is to ﬁ nd the 
  skinchanger responsible for passing the curse and kill 
  it with a weapon made from silver. When the creature 
  dies, the curse lifts from each creature to whom it was 
  passed, but only from those who had not themselves 
  passed the curse onto others.
   Magic can also lift the curse. The remove curse spell 
  from the Protection tradition (see Terrible Beauty for 
  this spell) has a chance to remove it. The caster must 
  cast the spell on a target while it is in its animal 
  or hybrid form. The target instantly returns to its 
  normal, humanoid form, but the next time the 
  moon rises full, the target must make a Will 
  challenge roll. A success indicates the curse was 
  removed successfully, while a failure indicates 
  the attempt fails, and the target transforms as 
  normal.
   Finally, belladonna, known also as 
  wolfsbane, might lift the curse. An 
  uncommon herb commonly sold for 
  1d6 cp by apothecaries 
  and some witches, it 
  must be administered 
  as a tincture once 
  each day for seven 
  nights leading up 
  to the full moon. 
  Consuming the tincture 
  causes the creature to 
  take 1d6 damage and 
  become poisoned until 
  it completes a rest. 
  However, when the 
  full moon rises, the 
  creature can make a Will 
  challenge roll with 1 boon. 
  On a success, the curse is 
  lifted. 
  Skinchanger Characters
  Skinchangers, like vampires, tend to be adversaries 
  and their presence in a group can be disruptive, at 
  least until the skinchanger gains some control over 
  the curse. If permitted in the campaign, you can 
  either create a skinchanger from scratch or become a 
  skinchanger after contracting the curse.
  Starting Ancestry
  The skinchanger curse aﬀ ects only living, 
  mortal creatures such as humans, dwarfs, 
  fauns, halﬂ ings, and orcs. Other ancestries 
  might also produce skinchangers at the 
  GM’s discretion, but such ancestries must 
  be living and not created by magic—so no 
  vampires, clockworks, or changelings. 
   
  You can create a new skinchanger 
  character by ﬁ rst creating a character that 
  belongs to  a permitted ancestry. Once you 
  ﬁ nish, apply the following adjustments, 
  traits, and talents to the character. You 
  also apply them to a character who 
  becomes a skinchanger in play.
  Skinchanger Traits
  Attribute Scores Increase Strength 
  by 1 and decrease Intellect by 1.
  Characteristics Increase Perception by 1. As well, 
  you gain 1d3 Insanity and 1 Corruption.
  Silver Vulnerability When you take damage from 
  a silver weapon, you take a penalty to Health equal 
  to the damage. The penalty remains until after you 
  complete a rest.
  Skinchanger Curse If you are in an area illuminated by 
  light cast by a full moon at the end of the round, you 
  become an animal. The kind of animal whose form you 
  assume is determined either by the skinchanger that 
  bestowed the curse if you gained it during play or by 
  rolling on the Animal Form table when you create your 
  character. You remain in this form until you are in an 
  area lit by sunlight at the end of any round, at which 
  point you immediately return to your normal form.
  As you transform, you must make a Will challenge 
  roll with 3 banes. For each level your group has 
  attained, make the challenge roll with 1 boon. 
  Thus, if your group level is 1, you make the 
  challenge roll with 2 banes. You control 
  your character on a success, and the GM 
  takes control of your character until you 
  return to your normal form on a failure. 
  Under the GM’s control, you behave as a 
  vicious animal. In either case, you use the 
  animal’s statistics in place of your own, 
  though if you got a success on the Will 
  challenge roll, you use your Intellect and 
  Will scores in place of the animal’s. 
  from the Protection tradition (see Terrible Beauty for 
  this spell) has a chance to remove it. The caster must 
  cast the spell on a target while it is in its animal 
  or hybrid form. The target instantly returns to its 
  normal, humanoid form, but the next time the 
  moon rises full, the target must make a Will 
  challenge roll. A success indicates the curse was 
  removed successfully, while a failure indicates 
  the attempt fails, and the target transforms as 
  normal.
   Finally, belladonna, known also as 
  wolfsbane, might lift the curse. An 
  uncommon herb commonly sold for 
  1d6 cp by apothecaries 
  and some witches, it 
  must be administered 
  as a tincture once 
  each day for seven 
  nights leading up 
  to the full moon. 
  Consuming the tincture 
  causes the creature to 
  take 1d6 damage and 
  become poisoned until 
  it completes a rest. 
  However, when the 
  full moon rises, the 
  creature can make a Will 
  challenge roll with 1 boon. 
  On a success, the curse is 
  The skinchanger curse aﬀ ects only living, 
  mortal creatures such as humans, dwarfs, 
  fauns, halﬂ ings, and orcs. Other ancestries 
  might also produce skinchangers at the 
  GM’s discretion, but such ancestries must 
  be living and not created by magic—so no 
  vampires, clockworks, or changelings. 
   
  You can create a new skinchanger 
  character by ﬁ rst creating a character that 
  belongs to  a permitted ancestry. Once you 
  ﬁ nish, apply the following adjustments, 
  traits, and talents to the character. You 
  also apply them to a character who 
  becomes a skinchanger in play.
  Skinchanger Traits
  Attribute Scores
  by 1 and decrease Intellect by 1.
  Characteristics Increase Perception by 1. As well, 
  you gain 1d3 Insanity and 1 Corruption.
  Silver Vulnerability When you take damage from 
  a silver weapon, you take a penalty to Health equal 
  to the damage. The penalty remains until after you 
  complete a rest.
  Skinchanger Curse If you are in an area illuminated by 
  light cast by a full moon at the end of the round, you 
  become an animal. The kind of animal whose form you 
  assume is determined either by the skinchanger that 
  bestowed the curse if you gained it during play or by 
  rolling on the Animal Form table when you create your 
  character. You remain in this form until you are in an 
  area lit by sunlight at the end of any round, at which 
  point you immediately return to your normal form.
  As you transform, you must make a Will challenge 
  roll with 3 banes. For each level your group has 
  attained, make the challenge roll with 1 boon. 
  Thus, if your group level is 1, you make the 
  challenge roll with 2 banes. You control 
  your character on a success, and the GM 
  takes control of your character until you 
  return to your normal form on a failure. 
  Under the GM’s control, you behave as a 
  vicious animal. In either case, you use the 
  animal’s statistics in place of your own, 
  though if you got a success on the Will 
  challenge roll, you use your Intellect and 
  Will scores in place of the animal’s. 
  
  4
  When you cause a living creature to become injured or 
  incapacitated by an attack made with your natural weapons, 
  that creature must get a success on a Strength challenge roll 
  with 1 bane the next time it’s in an area lit by a full moon or it 
  too becomes a skinchanger.
  Upon returning to your normal form, you must make a Will 
  challenge roll with 1 bane. On a failure, you gain 1d3 Insanity.
  Level 4 Expert Skinchanger
  Characteristics As your base ancestry.
  You either learn one spell, gain the level 4 beneﬁ t from your 
  ancestry, or gain the Change Form talent.
  Change Form You can use an action, or a triggered action on 
  your turn, to adopt your normal form, your animal form, or 
  a hybrid of your animal and humanoid forms. You remain 
  in the new form until you use Change Form again or you 
  become incapacitated, which causes you to return to your 
  normal form immediately. The animal form must be the 
  same as the form you adopt when under the effects of your 
  Skinchanger Curse. If you adopt an animal form, use the 
  animal’s statistics in place of your own, except you retain 
  this talent and your Intellect and Will scores. If you adopt 
  a hybrid form, you make the following adjustments to your 
  statistics.
  • 
  You gain the frightening (see Shadow, page 214) and 
  shadowsight traits if you don’t have them already.
  • 
  You gain a +2 bonus to Perception, a +2 bonus to 
  Defense, +10 bonus to Health, and a +2 bonus to Speed.
  • 
  You make Strength and Agility attack rolls and 
  challenge rolls with 1 boon.
  • 
  You gain Regeneration, allowing you to heal 1d6 
  damage at the end of each round if not incapacitated.
  • 
  You have natural weapons as appropriate to your 
  animal form—teeth, claws, horns—that function as 
  basic weapons with the ﬁ nesse property and deal 
  1d6 damage.
  Skinchanger Tables
  The following tables help explain how you came by 
  the curse if you are creating a new skinchanger rather 
  than becoming cursed in play.
  Curse Origins
  d6
  Result
  1
  You were cursed by magic after offending a 
  faerie, devil, or an evil witch. 
  2
  You inherited the curse from one or both of your 
  parents.
  3
  A distant ancestor was a skinchanger, but the 
  curse lay dormant in your bloodline until it 
  reached you.
  4
  You became cursed after barely surviving a 
  skinchanger attack.
  5
  Someone you knew contracted the curse and 
  passed it onto you the ﬁ rst time they changed.
  6
  You have no idea how or why you became cursed. 
  One day, when the moon rose full, you changed.
  Animal Form
  d6
  Form
  3
  Leopard (as medium animal with Speed 12)
  4–5
  Snake (as medium animal with poisonous trait)
  6–8
  Rat of unusual size (as small animal with climber, 
  pack ﬁ ghting, and swimmer traits)
  9–12
  Wolf (as medium animal with darksight and pack 
  ﬁ ghting trait)
  13–15
  Boar (as medium animal with ferocious trait)
  16–17
  Raven (as small animal with ﬂ ier trait)
  18
  Black bear (as medium animal with the brutal 
  trait)
  New Traits
  • 
  Brutal When you attack with a natural weapon, such as 
  your ﬁ st, claws, teeth, and the total of your attack roll is 
  20 or higher, the attack deals 1d6 extra damage.
  • 
  Ferocious When the ferocious creature would become 
  incapacitated, roll a d6. On a roll of 5 or 6, the creature 
  instead heals 10 damage.
  Skinchanger Side-Effects
  d20
  Side-Effect
  1
  You only eat meat and then only when it’s raw.
  2
  Your eyes change to match those you possess in 
  your animal form. 
  3
  You make animal noises when angry.
  4
  You do not sleep comfortably indoors.
  5
  You are exceptionally hairy, have feathers for hair, 
  or possess scaly skin.
  6
  You have a strong animal odor about you.
  7
  You have unusually large teeth.
  8
  Right before you transform into an animal, a 
  pentagram appears in the palm of each of your 
  hands. 
  9
  When you walk barefoot, you leave behind animal 
  prints.
  10
  Your face changes slightly, resembling the 
  features of the animal into which you transform. 
  11
  Normal animals behave around you as if you were 
  the animal whose form you can assume.
  12
  The shadow you cast has the shape of your animal 
  form. 
  13
  Silver has a strong, repellent odor to you.
  14
  You become uncomfortable and paranoid around 
  people you haven’t met before.
  15
  Your eyes shine in the dark.
  16
  You become a wild animal in your dreams, racing 
  through the wilderness, hunting and killing.
  17
  You twitch, drool a lot, or have a weird facial tic. 
  18
  You dislike water and rarely bathe.
  19
  You sniff strangers to see where they are headed 
  and where they’ve been.
  20
  You tend toward impulsive behavior, given to 
  acting on impulse.
  
  5
  Changing Forms in Armor
  When a skinchanger adopts a hybrid or animal 
  form, any clothing or armor worn tears at 
  the seams and there’s a 1 in 6 chance that 
  the coverings are completely ruined. As well, 
  a skinchanger wearing armor during the 
  transformation takes 1d3 damage if wearing light 
  armor, 1d6 damage if wearing medium armor, or 
  1d6 + 3 damage if wearing heavy armor. 
  Greater Skinchanger
  Master Path
  With time and eﬀ ort, skinchangers can overcome the 
  curse they carry, so that it becomes part of them. This 
  mastery rids them of their loss of control in the full 
  moon’s light and prevents them from passing on the 
  curse to others. Making peace with the beast within 
  allows them to combine the might of both forms to 
  become something greater.  
   You must have the Skinchanger Curse to choose this 
  master path.
  Level 7 Greater Skinchanger
  Attributes Increase three by 1
  Characteristics Health +5, Perception +1
  Tongues of Beasts You can communicate with animals as if 
  you were under the effects of the beast tongue spell from 
  the Primal tradition. In addition, you retain the ability to 
  speak in animal form. 
  True Skinchanger You lose the Skinchanger Curse trait; 
  however, you retain the talents and traits you gained from 
  becoming a skinchanger.
  Level 10 Greater Skinchanger
  Characteristics Health +5, Perception +1
  Keen Natural Weapons While in your animal or hybrid 
  form, your attacks with your natural weapons deal 
  1d6 + 2 extra damage.
  New Spells
  The following spells expand on those presented in 
  Shadow of the Demon Lord.
  CURSE OF LYCANTHROPY           CURSE ATTACK 5
  Target One living, mortal creature you can see within 
  short range
  You speak a bitter curse. Make an Intellect attack roll against 
  the target’s Will. You make the attack roll with 1 bane if 
  the target has Health 50 or more. On a success, the target 
  becomes dazed for 1 minute. At the end of that time, the 
  target becomes a skinchanger and gains all the skinchanger 
  traits.
  REMOVE CURSE 
  PROTECTION ATTACK 5
  Target One cursed creature you can see within medium 
  range
  Make an Intellect challenge roll. On a success, you remove 
  one curse from the target. If the total of your challenge roll is 
  20 or higher, you remove all curses from the target.
  QUICKSILVER 
  TECHNOMANCY UTILITY 1
  Requirements You must have one coin made from silver
  Target One weapon or 5 pieces of ammunition
  Duration 24 hours
  The coin disappears, and the target becomes covered in a 
  silver patina that remains for the duration. The target counts 
  as if it were made from silver.
   
  Sacriﬁ ce You cast one rank 0 spell you have learned.
  UNMASK THE MASKED 
  TRANSFORMATION ATTACK 1
  Target Each creature you can see that you choose within 
  short range
  If a target can assume a different form without having to cast 
  a spell such as a skinchanger’s ability to become an animal 
  or a changeling’s ability to adopt a different appearance, the 
  target must immediately use that ability without having to 
  use an action or a triggered action to do so. 
   
  Sacriﬁ ce You cast one rank 0 spell you have learned.
  beast tongue spell from 
  the Primal tradition. In addition, you retain the ability to 
  True Skinchanger You lose the Skinchanger Curse trait; 
  however, you retain the talents and traits you gained from 
  becoming a skinchanger.
  
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