#phantom hound

Image by Anthony Carpenter, © Kenzer and Co.

[I’m trying to pull myself back into a more frequent schedule. Not sure how long it will last, but I’m feeling more focused creatively than I have in months. I’m trying to post Monday through Saturday, two monsters of each theme block per week. We’ll see how long I can keep it up.

As previously mentioned, Hackmaster 5e is a much more serious game than its predecessor, but bits and pieces of jokes, like vestigial organs, still crop up. For example, most of the canines in Hackmaster are no longer “dawgs”, but orcish wardawgs are, and other canine monsters have similarly mangled spellings. Like the fantom dog here.]

Phantom Hound CR 5 NE Undead This great black hound stands half as tall as a man at the shoulder. Its eyes are gaping pits with a pinprick of red light glowing within.

Phantom hounds, sometimes called black dogs, moor hounds, or hounds of ill omen, are cursed undead that hunt the living. They are believed to be created from the souls of mortals who were afraid of going to the afterlife to receive the punishment they had earned, and so dwell in between life and death. They are dimly sapient and hunt well together, but will gladly cooperate with a more intelligent undead master. Packs of these creatures can be found in desolate areas around the world, but prefer to lair close to caves where they can hide from the sun during the day. Being undead, they do not truly sleep, and may venture out at any time during storms or other weather that dampens the hated effects of sunlight. Many people who live in areas where phantom hounds dwell consider seeing any black dog at night, undead or not, as an ill omen.

A single phantom hound typically hunts by stealth. If packs of these creatures are present together, however, they begin combat with a howl in order to panic and flush out potential prey. A phantom hound runs along air, and so often attacks from cliff edges, over mud or quicksand, or otherwise takes advantage of terrain features to impede their targets. Their strategies are fairly simple—bite until enemies are dead—but if they cannot reach a foe, or if it proves difficult to bite onto, a phantom hound will curse it with terrible luck.

Black dogs are a type of ghost or spirit featured in mythology worldwide, but principally in Britain. As the name might suggest, they most often resemble large hounds with black fur, but some entities called 'black dogs' have white or other fur. Some are also shapeshifters, and can take on the forms of other animals, or even people.

Black dogs are usually nocturnal, and are often said to haunt lonely pathways or crossroads. Some are thought to be harbingers of the Devil, or other denizens of the underworld. A common belief about black dogs is that their appearance signifies that someone nearby will soon die.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Melelani got a dog (via a new spell) and it’s invisible to everyone but her so that means I can make it look like whatever I want

Ive been trying to come up with some sort of mega-fauna/monster for my story and I got really excited when I remembered that the Black Shuck is a thing so Im gonna be doing some doodling B)