Mist Wolf

A mist wolf looks much like an ordinary wolf, only taller at the shoulder, lean and well muscled, with a gray coat whose hackles are frosted white. Its teeth are formidable, and its eyes are pure black, lacking the reddish gleam of wild wolves.

Packs hunt the way common wolves do, swarming a foe and pulling it down by sheer numbers. Being brighter than their cousins, mist wolves know when a fight is lost and break off rather than die pointlessly.

Twice a day, each wolf can breathe out a thick fog much like wall of fog, filling a 10-foot cube (1,000 cubic feet) and blinding all sight within it for five rounds unless wind clears it. The wolves cannot see through it either, so it serves only to cover a retreat from stronger enemies.

A mist wolf constantly and automatically senses evil, as detect evil. These lawful good beasts oppose evil wherever they find it and will risk, even sacrifice, their lives to shield humans and demihumans.

They attack people only when those people are behaving in plainly evil ways; more often they defend travelers from wicked creatures. Sadly, distrust of wolves is drummed into children through fables and sayings like "the wolf at the door", and mist wolves are always turning up where evil is on the move. Few folk grasp that they come to fight that evil, so they are frequently killed by those they meant to save.

A pack holds up to 20 adults, evenly split between males and females, led by its strongest member (usually, but not always, a male), who wins and keeps the post through nonlethal challenges. Their language of barks, yips and growls is rich; they understand the common tongue but their throats cannot form its words.

They gather in forests with dark reputations, where they can do the most good, which does nothing for their own reputation. Large populations roam an ill-famed southern wood and a cold northern forest, though they live elsewhere too.

Mist wolves pair for life and both parents rear the young. A pack met in its home territory, usually deep wild forest, has cubs numbering half its females. Cubs mature in 12 months and gain the fog breath at six months. Skilled, careful hunters with few natural enemies, they choose their prey with thought and never strip an area of game.