The Wretched
“They leapt from the shadows, hitting us like starving beasts. Their ferocity wasn’t human. It was primal, desperate.”
The Wretched are fast, feral Blightborn most often associated with starvation, isolation, and places where survivors turned on one another before the end.
Appearance
Wretched bodies are emaciated almost beyond recognition. Ribs and joints stand sharply beneath the skin, while the abdomen may remain swollen or distended. Hands are worn raw, fingers curl into permanent hooks, and the jaw is frequently damaged by frantic biting.
They rarely remain upright for long. A Wretched drops onto all fours when it runs, throwing its weight through shoulders and hips in a gait closer to a hunting animal than a human being. The space one occupies in a fight can be deceptive because its limbs spread wide and its rush carries it across ground with startling speed.
Pack Behavior
Wretched are most dangerous in groups. They rush the same target, crowd around fallen prey, and exploit openings created by one another. What looks like coordination may simply be competition, but the distinction matters little to someone on the ground beneath them.
Their speed changes the usual survival calculus around the Blighted. Distance that would be safety from a Shambler may be only the length of a Wretched charge.
Their preferred attack is a violent charge that knocks prey down before the pack closes. Once momentum is lost, a fight against Wretched can become a struggle simply to stand again.
Hunger
Old accounts describe Wretched abandoning a chase for exposed meat or becoming absorbed in an existing carcass. That behavior is common enough that travelers still throw food as a desperate distraction, but it is not considered dependable.
The name is often linked to the starving people from whom many early examples arose. Whether hunger caused this particular form or merely shaped the behavior of the first recognized Wretched is unknown.
Field Knowledge
Open ground offers little safety because Wretched can cross it quickly. Travelers instead value barriers, height, narrow approaches, and anything that prevents several of the creatures from reaching the same person at once.
A feeding Wretched may ignore nearby movement for a time, but approaching one is widely considered foolish.