Phantom Hound

Phantom hounds are always big breeds, mastiffs, wolfhounds or Great Danes, twisted by the dark influence of the misty dread realm into jet-black horrors. Their ghostly eyes burn deep green, glowing foam drips from their jaws, and their snarling lips bare huge, needle-long fangs. They cannot speak but understand everything said to them in their dead master's language, and their mournful howls often fill the night.

A phantom hound leaves alone anyone who stays off its ground, but trespassers get no mercy. When intruders approach, it lets out a quavering, bone-chilling howl audible for miles, forcing a fear check from everyone who hears.

Its bite deals 2d4, and the poisonous foam forces a save vs. poison at +2 to avoid losing 1 Strength, which returns at 1 point per hour. Though it looks solid, the hound is intangible: only +1 or better magical weapons harm it, and lesser ones pass straight through. Mind- and life-affecting magic has no effect, but it can be turned as a ghost, and each vial of holy water deals 1d6-2.

These spirits have no society; they exist only to keep faith with their masters. If thieves carry anything off from a guarded site, the hound leaves its post to hunt them, and only killing it or returning the item ends the chase. Holding out the stolen object as a peace offering works 50% of the time, the hound taking it and going home.

Where a master kept many dogs, a pack may appear: 1d6 ordinary phantom hounds led by one of 3+2 Hit Dice and AC 5, whose howl imposes -2 on fear checks.

In death they repeat the habits of life. Visitors to a haunted estate might glimpse one digging in a flower bed, chasing ghostly rabbits, rolling in something rotten, or patrolling the edge of the grounds.