12: Little Red Riding Hood
And sometimes the beast you meet in the forest that talks like a person just wants to eat you.
A basic tale about not talking to strangers or telling them were you’re going in particular, Little Red Riding Hood has a girl who isn’t very focused enough on the task at hand, a smooth-talking wolf, an unconvincing disguise and a pretty high body count.
The basis for the likes of The Company Of Wolves that links it to retellings of werewolf stories as well as explorations of adolescent attraction and how that might not end great, it has the wolf as a trickster but more directly malign than something like a fox.
The red cloak is sometimes connected to vanity or used for victim-blaming. As a visual it shows up particularly well against snow, here and in the 2011 YA version Red Riding Hood which also does werewolves.
Sometimes Red Riding Hood escapes due to her wits, or her ability to see through a wolf wearing a bedcap as a disguise, or the timely intervention of a woodsman with an axe. And sometimes not.
We also have adaptations where she becomes an expert (were)wolf hunter.
Also, she also always seems to be walking, not riding. What up with that?
The Wolf
A rogue, powerful, seemingly intelligent wolf prowls the dark forest. Can the PCs find it? This may, ironically, involve disguising themselves as better targets. Possibly in red cloaks.
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