Twilight Hound

Rochester Bestiary miniature with dogs. — Garamantes and Dogs, Rochester Bestiary, Royal MS 12 F XIII / Wikimedia Commons.

Armor Class: 3 [16]
Hit Dice: 5 to 9
Attacks: Bite (1d6+1)
Special: death-bite poison, see invisibility, cannot be blinded or sleep, planar return
Move: 12
HDE/XP: 7-11/600-1,700

Description

A Twilight Hound, also known as Orthrus, is a large two-headed canine from another plane of existence brought over to act as guardian of a place or a treasure. It has a serpentine tail that might not be noticed at first. Whenever the twilight hound is mortally wounded, the snake tail will bite the nearest creature viciously; the victim must make a saving throw against poison or die, after which the hound will dissolve into nothing as it returns to its native plane.

It is said that one of the heads can see invisible objects and beings, while the other head can never be blinded. While in this world, a twilight hound requires no nourishment and never sleeps, as if unaffected by the passage of time.

Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.