Wretch

Two arms, two legs, a head, and a pair of piercing orange eyes — wretches are humanoid, yet far from human now. At least, no one in their right mind who sees one of these creatures would mistake it for the human it once was. There is no question where the wretch got its name: it is the living definition of vile and despicable.

The creature’s body is emaciated, yet muscles stretch tight over its entire frame. The proportions of a wretch are off in other ways as well. Fingers and toes now end in razor-sharp talons capable of ripping into all but the hardest metals. Their arms are also longer than those of a human, allowing them use an ape-like lope to quickly run down prey.

A close look at a wretch reveals that the skin and blood of the creature have undergone changes as well. The skin has been hardened, reinforced somehow, with a lacework of tiny fibrous strands not unlike carbon fiber. Under the skin, veins have taken on a bluish-silver tint. If cut, the blood flows like mercury… only to evaporate after a minute or two of exposure to the air. This combination of fibrous growths in the skin and metallic-blue blood give the wretch a pale, death-like pallor.

As something in the wretch's disgusting physiology forces it to crave the flesh of sentient creatures, its most fearsome feature likewise fits the bill perfectly. The jaws of the wretch have become stretched and dis-articulated to accommodate a mouthful of over-sized fangs. Powered by amazing force, the teeth of the wretch can puncture metal just as easily as its claws can tear it — flesh and bone is no match against the wretch. Once disabled, a victim's brain and spinal column are ravenously devoured. Bones are cracked and the marrow sucked dry as well. Anything left of the flesh is tossed aside for scavengers to pick clean.

Wretches tend to run in packs ranging from as few as five to as many as eighty. There are rumors of one pack as large as three hundred ranging across the remnants of ancient Japan (the region now referred to as Jeitai). Wherever they are found, they seem to stay in and around Flux rift activity… never straying more than a few days' journey from one.

The reason for this affinity is unclear. Speculation on the cause varies from latent memories of the last place the creature knew peace to some intelligence existing within the rift that is directing the wretch to patrol the surrounding area. Whatever the reason, the more stable a rift the more likely an encounter with a wretch will be. There has been some speculation that some unknown substance may be leaking into our world from the rifts, and indeed it is definite that a rift has a sometimes-drastic impact on the area surrounding it. The longer the rift is open, the more profound this effect becomes.

Tactics: Wretches retain some of their former intelligence. Often a pack will have a designated leader and it will guide the hunt with rudimentary strategies. This "alpha wretch" often directs a large pack to split into organized groups of more manageable numbers, but if the pack is particularly hungry nothing will stop it from rushing in a headlong assault. Speed, strength, and terror are all it usually takes. Individually, a wretch's initial attack attempts to disable prey — slashes to the base of the spine or a hamstring are the most common approach, although anything that drops a meal while leaving it warm is acceptable. If the undead are outnumbered, once one victim is incapacitated it will be ignored until all remaining companions are removed as threats.

Special Note: DEEPDIG, an ASEAS High-bred pE-DRP (pre-Event Data Retrieval Program) recently uncovered a historic video record (see below) which seems to show a wretch PRIOR to the Event in London. This is a major discovery, as it indicates that the cracks between worlds may have existed before the Event (which, according to all current conjecture, caused those cracks) even occurred.

If this piece of data can be substantiated, it could very well change all conceptions of the Event and provide incredibly-valuable clues as to what happened during the Event itself. On a deeper and more chilling level, it hints of an infiltration of a smaller, secretive vanguard of wretches (or of a possible precursor "wretch-like" species). Their pre-Event appearance is likely anything but a circumstantial occurrence.