Despite the hatred of werewolves in Darkmoon Vale, those who live in the region realize that most lycanthropes are also people. As such, most captured werewolves can expect to face a quick and painless beheading from a silvered axe.
Not all Valers treat their lycanthropic enemies with such reasoning and mercy, though. One movement in particular devised a cruel and excruciating way of both torturing and killing captured werewolves. Calling themselves Silverers, members of this group (all of them common folk with a bit of wealth, such as landed farmers or merchants) concoct a suspension consisting of silver and wolfsbane. When a known (or suspected) werewolf is caught, Silverers infiltrate wherever it is held and force the creature to drink the elixir. If a werewolf is too strong for the Silverers to overpower and force-feed the elixir, the Silverers first throw a dose of the liquid into its face, taking the fight out of all but the most powerful lycanthropes.
A werewolf (or other lycanthrope) subjected to the Silverers’ elixir dies in a most excruciating way. The silver in the elixir attacks the werewolf ’s body, causing an intense burning pain wherever it contacts exposed flesh (such as the lycanthrope’s esophagus). Like a mild acid, the silver eats away at the werewolf ’s digestive tract, ripping away its stomach lining and causing blood to pool in the creature’s stomach. Through the werewolf ’s weakened stomach walls, the silver leaches into its bloodstream, where it quickly spreads throughout the creature’s entire body, causing severe internal hemorrhaging that leads, eventually, to death. The entire process takes roughly 2 minutes, during which time the werewolf is subjected to such intense agony that most pass out after the first 30 seconds or so. Even after death, the uncontrollable spasming caused by the werewolf ’s body ripping apartfrom within continues for hours. The wolfsbane in the elixir serves no real purpose other than as insurance against the creature’s survival.
When Silverers first made themselves known to the people of Darkmoon Vale, the commonfolk initially celebrated their arrival. At last, the Valers reasoned, someone was going to stand up to the werewolves and show them how it felt to live in fear. That reaction changed to horror upon the Silverers’ first public demonstration of their technique in Falcon’s Hollow. When the test subject finally stopped screaming and lay silently dying on the stage, the people of Falcon’s Hollow rose up in protest. No one complained about the death of a werewolf, only in the method and gruesomeness of its death. Today, Silverers stay hidden to avoid persecution from those opposed to their practices.