Hound of Mortis

Ask any member of the Watchers on the Cusp of Oblivion and they will tell you the 'Hounds of Mortis' do not exist. They are a fairytale invented by enemies of the Church. A Watcher might go on to say that if such a group did exist, its activities would be wholly condoned by the church of death, but never would he admit to their existence. The Watcher would, of course, be lying.

The existence of the Hounds of Mortis has long been suspected by other churches, kings and common folk. Their infamy is legend, and in many places they have passed into folklore as supernatural, demonic creatures. The stand of the Watchers, combined with the rumour of the Hounds' existence is sufficient to convince almost all of Urovans of the horror and the evil of resurrection magicks.

For the Hounds of Mortis are the strong arm of the Watchers. They are blessed by Mortis and tasked with the duty of hunting down and slaying anyone who has been brought back from the dead by magic. The Hounds do not openly attack churches that cast resurrection magicks (that is a matter of politics), they go after the resurrectee with mad vigour. Because no one can be raised from the dead against their will, all such individuals are culpable of a great sin against Mortis. The entry on the Watchers themselves explains the stand the church of death takes on resurrection, but suffice to say they see it as an affront to Mortis and a theft from their god.

Hounds are dedicated, single-minded and emotionless. They do not allow feelings such as sympathy or compassion get in the way of their job. It doesn't matter who has been raised – it could be their child, their lover or their parent – to a Hound their quarry is all ready dead. They are living on stolen time.

Not all individuals who are raised from the dead will have the misfortune to have a Hound of Mortis on his tail. There are few Hounds, even compared to the minuscule number of people who are raised. However, once a Hound starts a hunt it is highly unlikely that the quarry will escape alive. Everything the Hound does, all his training is geared toward the hunt and the kill. He has no other interests, no other desires in life but to find his prey and 'return it to Mortis'.

Game Rule Information

Hound of Mortis is a new prestige class created for the Iourn setting, although it is easily adapted to other settings. The following game related statistics apply to the Hound of Mortis. Note that these statistics make use of my house rules, and some work may need to be done to convert the class into standard D&D.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

To qualify to become a Hound of Mortis, a character must fulfil all of the following criteria. A first level Hound is therefore, at least a seventh level character (or eighth if originally a sorcerer or wizard).

Base Attack Bonus: +4
Gather Information: 5 ranks
Knowledge (religion [Mortis]): 5 ranks
Move Silently: 5 ranks
Wilderness Lore: 5 ranks
Feats: Endurance; Track
Special: The candidate must be a loyal member of the Watchers on the Cusp of Oblivion, although he need not be a cleric. He must believe whole-heartedly in Mortis's role as guardian of the dead, and must despise the very notion of resurrection or artificially extending one's life. He also must pass a series of tests before he can become a Hound of Mortis – the DM has details of these.

Class Skills

The class skills of a Hound of Mortis (and the key abilities for those skills) are as follows: Climb (Str); Concentration (Con); Gather Information (Cha); Handle Animal (Cha); Hide (Dex); Intimidate (Cha); Jump (Dex); Knowledge, geography (Int); Knowledge, religion (Int); Listen (Wis); Move Silently (Dex); Search (Int); Sense Motive (Wis); Spot (Wis); Survival (Wis); Swim (Str); Use Rope (Dex)

Skill Points at Each Level: 5 + Int modifier.

Class Features

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: I use the rules for Weapon Group Feats. Hounds of Mortis gain an additional two weapon group feats of their choice. They also gain the feats Armour Proficiency (Light), Shield Proficiency, Ignore Spell Failure (Light Armour) and Ignore Spell Failure (Shields) if they did not already possess them.

Access to Spells: Hounds gain spell points as listed in the spell point section. If the Hound could originally cast spells as a cleric of Mortis then these spell point totals and his caster level stack. However, levels of cleric of Mortis and Hound of Mortis do not stack when determining access to spells. Hounds gain their own spell list (listed before). For example a cleric 12/hound 7 would have a base spell point total equal to 85 (cleric spell points) + 7 (hound spell points) and a caster level of 19. However, their spell list would contain all spells of levels one to six on the Cleric of Mortis list and spells of levels one to four on the Hound of Mortis list.

Hounds gain access to first level spells from their list at 1st level, and to each additional spell level at each odd numbered level thereafter to a maximum of fifth level spells at 9th level. These spells use the rules for divine magic, and taught to the Hounds by the church of the Watchers. Wisdom is the governing attribute for their spellcasting and is used to determine bonus spell points.

Fast Movement (Ex): The Hound can move faster than a normal member of his race. Increase his base movement by +10 feet if wearing no armour or light armour. This ability functions in exactly the same manner as the barbarian ability of the same name.

Mental Immunities (Su): No mind-affecting spell can ever make a Hound let off someone who has been raised. For example, a Hound has no special resistance to a charm person spell, but he cannot be charmed to let someone go if they have been resurrected. At best he may be slightly more polite as he kills them.

Righteous Guidance (Su): Mortis grants his Hounds a sacred bonus on Listen, Spot and Survival skills, as well as to weapon damage rolls. The bonus is +1 per class level to a maximum of +10 at tenth level. Righteous Guidance only applies against beings who have been raised from the dead. So a Hound would get the bonus when tracking down his quarry, but not when tracking down a rabbit for supper. In all other respects this abilitiy ressembles the ranger's 'favoured enemy'.

Scent of the Damned (Su): Those who have been raised from the dead have a particular odour that is unmistakable to a Hound. The Hound can track down those who have been resurrected by smell alone. And can rescognise resurectees he isn't looking for. The Hound follows the rules for tracking by smell laid down on p314 of the Monster Manual.

Unfailing Hunt (Ex): A Hound's fatigue is greatly reduced whilst on a hunt. They can move without rest for one day per level as long as they move at normal walking speed. At the end of this time, the Hound is fatigued (cannot run or charge, –2 to Strength and Dexterity) and must rest for a eight hours to recover. While on an Unfailing Hunt, most Hounds can cover up to 112 miles per day. However, they tend only to use this ability if they are sure of catching up with their prey within the hunt's duration, otherwise they risk being impaired when they reach their target.

Shape of Retribution (Su): When a Hound reaches fifth level he is able to take on the form of a huge dog. Like a druid's wildshape power the change is a standard action and the Hound is not disorientated. The dog form can be assumed 1/day at fifth level, 2/day at seventh level and 3/day at ninth level. From tenth level the Hound can choose to assume the shape of a dire dog instead. In either form the Hound may not cast spells or use weapons. An increase in consitution does not grant extra hit points. Changing form restores a hit points in the same way as a polymorph self spell.

• Dog Shape: Medium sized creature (4 ft at shoulder). +4 Str; +4 Dex; +4 Con; +4 Survival checks when tracking by scent. Bite attack does 1d6 base damage. Base speed is 50 ft.
• Diredog Shape: Large creature (7 ft at shoulder). +14 Str; +4 Dex; +6 Con; +4 Survival checks when tracking by scent. Bite attack does 1d8 base damage. Base speed is 50 ft.

Find the Path (Sp): From sixth level the Hound can cast the spell Find the Path (PHB p230) as a spell-like ability once per day. This rises to twice per day from eighth level.

Discern Location (Sp): From ninth level the Hound can cast the spell Discern Location (PHB p222) as a spell-like ability. He can do this once per day.

Movement of the Moons

Hounds of Mortis are also somewhat affected by the waxing and waning of their governing moon. The Hount of Mortis's spells continue to be affected in the same manner. His other abilities are altered as follows:

• Extraordinary abilities (Ex) function normally regardless of the position of the moon.
• Supernatural abilities (Su) do not function during the dark of the moon, but are not enhanced when the moon is full.
• Spell-like abilities (Sp) are enhanced as spells during the full moon, but are not diminished when the moon is dark.

See Also:

• Religions of Iourn
• Watchers on the Cusp of Oblivion
• Spell Points