Dessicate

Depending on what emotions they absorb from their hosts, wendigoes are capable of taking on many forms. Wendigoes that absorb feelings of gluttony, greed, or hunger can transform into dessicates, taking on the form of emaciated humanoids when outside their hosts. They have a very specific feeding pattern that capitalizes on their host's insecurities and flaws.

Feeding Pattern

Like all wendigoes, dessicates use temptation to coax their hosts into handing over power to them. With dessicates, however, this process takes on a specific pattern. When the dessicate absorbs greedy energy from their host, they make an offer the host can't refuse; they promise the host that they will be able to eat all that they desire without gaining a single pound. Given the kind of people these hosts usually are, they typically agree to the deal.

As the dessicate feeds, they fulfill their promise to their host, in a way. The host will indeed be able to eat everything they want without gaining any weight. Unfortunately, this is because the dessicate gains the weight in their stead. As it gains this weight, the dessicate grows in power, slowly taking over the host's life.

Worse, as the dessicate grows more powerful, the host begins to lose weight at an alarming weight. They will suffer from constant hunger, but everything they eat will only feed the wendigo. Eventually, the host will become so weak that the dessicate will be in full control. "Overfed" dessicates, as they are called, appear to be morbidly obese when outside the host's body, in contrast to their normal counterparts.

Bad as this is, dessicates usually have the wisdom not to outright kill their hosts. They will allow the host just enough nutrition to survive, at least until they have no more use for them.

Countermeasures

Like all wendigoes, dessicates are averse to Undifferentiated Anima. Ridding a host of a dessicate usually involves use of a Spectral Cake, a small cake or piece of bread made using Spectral Water. When the host eats it, the Undifferentiated Anima from the cake will drive the dessicate out, allowing others to fight it off and banish it.

Dessicates that have reached the "overfed" stage will be substantially harder to defeat than those that have not. However, these dessicates have a massive weak spot: their bloated bellies. Inside is all the Anima they have stolen through feeding. If an overfed dessicate's belly ruptures, it loses all of its power.

Keeping this in mind, the easiest ways to defeat an overfed dessicate are either to feed it Undifferentiated Anima until it explodes or to trick it into running itself into something sharp. Once it bursts, one can easily banish it back to the Flipside.