Hell hound

Hell hounds were fiery beasts found within Acheron and the Nine Hells.

Description
Hell hounds resembled monstrous dogs with powerful physiques, standing between high at the shoulder and weighing about. Their fearsome forms were covered in short, rust-red or red-brown fur and their eyes glowed red. The markings on their bodies as well and their fangs and tongues were the color of soot, and they reeked of sulfurous smoke. Nessian breeds were the size of draft horses, coalblack canines normally equipped with infernal chainmail shirts.

Personality
Hell hounds, being intelligent beasts of law, could be trained and commanded by various entities across the planes, but their inherent malice limited their versatility. Outside of retrieving specific objects, hell hounds could only be trained to kill, abandoning or betraying masters that forbade them from sating their merciless hunger. Even if not specifically trained, they stole items from their deceased victims to use as playthings, such as noisy bags or pouches containing a victim's treasures, toying with them until the flammable components eventually turned to ash and the remains littered their dens.

Combat
Unlike ordinary dogs, hell hounds did not howl when hunting instead quietly stalking their prey and surrounding them in a ring. One or two hell hounds would immediately use their scorching hot breath to drive their quarry into the waiting, fiery fangs of the other pack members, unafraid of harming their other infernal companions. Cunning and efficient, they targeted the weakest of prey, slowly surrounding those that refused to retreat and only baying when in the determined pursuit of fleeing victims.

Society
Hell hounds were not native to the Material Plane, instead having been brought there by a plethora of evil entities for various uses, namely hunting or guarding. Although they had difficulty mating on the Prime Material Plane, many wicked beings bred indigenous populations. Summoned hell hounds had a tendency to escape into the wild and even those domesticated as puppies had a small chance of going rogue later in life.

Azers were known to use them as faithful pets but fire giants and devils in particular were known for their use of the infernal beasts. Appreciated and favored for their keen senses, fire giants used hell hounds as watch dogs and bred their own populations millennia ago to create an instinctively loyal breed. Having been artificially selected for size and skill, firebred hell hounds were far more powerful and utilized more cautious tactics, able to charge up an even more dangerous version of their fire breath that they saved for when surrounded. The archdevils kept their own kennels of hell hounds and Asmodeus himself kept his own fearsome breed, the Nessian warhounds, under his palace.

Locations
Hell hounds were found in the Elemental Plane of Fire, the Nine Hells, and the Abyss.

They were also found in the Peaks of Flame in Chult, where there were portals to and from the Plane of Fire.

Notable Hell Hounds

 * Kurkle, a canomorph whose natural form was a hell hound.
 * Narthor and Zerebor, two pet hell hounds kept by the fire giant Duke Zalto.

Notable Appearances
During the Time of Troubles of 1358 DR, a pair of hell hounds were summoned at the House of the Moon, a temple of Selûne in Waterdeep, while a false avatar of the goddess resided there (in fact Shar). High Priestess Naneatha Suaril left the hell hounds to attack Onyx and Timoth when they were caught infiltrating the place, but they slew the beasts and carried on.

Appearances

 * Comics
 * Lunatics
 * Lunatics


 * Computer Games
 * Eye of the Beholder
 * Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon
 * Gateway to the Savage Frontier
 * Secret of the Silver Blades
 * Treasures of the Savage Frontier
 * Treasures of the Savage Frontier


 * Novels
 * Ironhelm
 * The Gossamer Plain
 * The Last Mythal trilogy
 * Son of Thunder
 * Son of Thunder