Vulturehound

A vulturehound looks like a wild dog stitched to a vulture, perhaps by a meddlesome wizard-lord of a wizard-governed nation. Shaggy gray hair covers its body, but its head is bare, usually black or red. A hooked beak replaces the muzzle, small feathered wings sprout from its flanks, and its doglike legs end in sharp, curving talons. It bays like a hound. Vulturehounds scavenge across a frontier kingdom of dog-folk and the northern steppes.

Packs on the northern steppes lie beyond the reach of the crimson curse of the frontier coast, but those in the dog-folk kingdom do develop curse-born gifts, most often sleep, gaseous form, acid touch or gas breath. They never suffer the curse's deforming final stage.

A vulturehound beats its wings to rise onto its hind legs, freeing both front talons to strike alongside its beak; unable to rear, it can only bite. Speed and agility give it a good Armor Class. Past three-quarters of its starting hit points lost, it cannot fly. Clumsy alone in the air, packs still manage aerial fights, striking with front talons only.

Packs roam out from a den and haul their catch home, so a lair holds only the scant leavings of past victims. Half of all lairs shelter 3d4 pups with 1d4 hit points each; they are flightless and nip for 1d2. Captured early, a pup can be raised as a war beast or hunting animal, and with its superb nose a trained adult tracks as a 5th-level ranger or grants a ranger partner +3 to tracking.

Rank matters. The strongest eat first while smaller members wait their turn. Half of all vulturehounds carry crimson ticks.

They eat carrion and live prey, favoring the sick or straggling, frog-folk and hound-folk included, and hunt by sight and smell, often soaring to watch for vultures spiraling down to a meal.

Immune to redrot themselves, they supply the blood for its cure: 1d6 doses per carcass, brewed only by a mage of 9th level or higher with an alchemical laboratory. A single dose wipes out the infection in any creature up to man-size, and each sells for over 150 gp.