Vorr

A vorr resembles a hyena about 3 1/2 feet tall at the shoulder, with heavy front quarters, a back that slopes steeply toward the hips and a long, hairless, rat-like tail. Its coat is short, coarse and mottled black and gray, and wherever skin shows, on the lips, gums, foot pads and tail, it is black and leathery. The face looks oddly thoughtful, though the jaws can still crack bone.

One vorr is about as bright as a dim human, with far sharper ears and nose and good night vision. Their real gift is teamwork: they track and coordinate hunts superbly, and bigger packs grow bolder and more vicious. Born in the howling caverns of the plane of howling winds, they have swarmed outward into the wilds of the neutral planes and parts of the lower planes. A lone vorr is little threat to an armed traveler, but they are almost never alone.

Keen ears and noses mean a vorr is caught off guard only on a 1. Each claws with two forepaws for 1d3 apiece and bites for 2d4. A bite that hits by 4 or more forces a Strength check; on a failure the target is hauled to the ground, where foes gain +4 to hit him and he suffers -4 on his own attacks until he spends a round getting up. Every vorr nearby converges on a fallen victim.

They move silently 60% of the time and hide in shadows 50%. A vorr that surprises its prey makes a silent spring that works like a backstab, +4 to hit and double bite damage.

Their dark home plane gave them one more trick. Once per night a vorr can become a living shadow for up to ten minutes, unable to attack but immune to physical harm and 90% invisible (75% while moving). Vorrs use it to creep close or to escape a losing fight. Casting light or continual light on a shadowed vorr snaps it back to flesh and blinds it for 1d3 rounds, with no save.

Packs cover ground fast and favor open plains and scrub over dense forest or mountains. They den by day in a safe cave or thicket, hunt through the night, and readily raid homesteads and outposts. Pack life is a constant round of squabbles and tests of strength. The oldest, strongest female, with at least 20 hp, rules, and her mate (also 20 hp or more) leads and coordinates the hunt.

About a third of packs are led by a shaman instead: an aged female of at least 24 hp, guarded by two males with 20 or more hp apiece, who casts spells as a 3rd-level priest with the Divination, Protection and Animal spheres. Vorrs dimly sense that some greater power protects them, and they honor it with ritual kills and howling. Most observers believe that power is the gnoll demon lord.

Meat eaters and scavengers, vorrs like fresh kills best but eat carrion without complaint. Rumor claims their guts can draw nourishment from stone, which stretches the truth. When game runs short, packs band together to chase bonespears, leomarhs and other predators off their kills. On the lower planes they mostly avoid native fiends, though a hungry pack sometimes brings down a least tanar'ri or a similarly lowly creature.