ECOLOGY

Environment temperate or warm deserts
Organization solitary/pair/pack (5-24)
Treasure none

Vicious predators and tireless trackers, cinder wolves are a relentless threat to travelers and native tribes. Ravenous creatures that endlessly hunt to fuel their fiery metabolisms, cinder wolves attack nearly any creature, from well-armored ember scorpions to barbarians and even stone giant warriors. Fleet footed and fearsome in appearance, these tenacious pack hunters thrive. An adult cinder wolf stands just over 3 feet tall and weighs up to 200 pounds. What little fur they have is often singed and black, but can also be ash-gray. Their eyes are frequently bloodshot red with yellow irises.

Cinder Wolf Pelts

The hides of cinder wolves prove exceptionally useful in the creation of heat resilient armors. By making a DC 16 Survival check, one can successfully skin a cinder wolf, leaving its coarse pelt in quality good enough to work into armor or other goods. Should this pelt be used later in the creation of a suit of hide armor (in addition to all the normal materials, DC 13 Craft [armorsmithing]), that armor can be enhanced with the fire resistance, improved fire resistance, or greater fire resistance special abilities at 75% of the normal price. A cinder wolf pelt is an uncommon commodity and can rarely be found for sale, the bristly fur being uncomfortable and hard to work with and the demand—despite their usefulness in magic—is limited. Even when found in markets, the cost is typically upwards of 600 gp. Thus, most who desire a cinder wolf pelt are forced to either find and skin a cinder wolf himself, or trade with natives.

Habitat & Society

A typical cinder wolf den might have as many as a dozen adults, with as many as double that number adolescents and cubs. When threatened, all but the cubs fight, the older wolves doing all they can to bring down or lead off danger.

Cinder wolves build their lairs in hot places: near gas fields, on the edges of cinder cones, and within rocky outcroppings exposed to the midday heat and frequent emberstorms. The predators favor such lairs as they suffer near constant pain from their skin splitting and rupturing in cool air. Aside from finding smoldering dens, their only relief from this pain comes from licking themselves—thus exposing their skin to their fiery breath—but it is a very small comfort at best.

Training Cinder Wolves

The constant hunger and pain cinder wolves endure make them hard to manage and even more difficult to tame. Taming a cinder wolf requires 6 weeks of work and a DC 25 Handle Animal check. This DC decreases to 20 if the beast is trained in an area that is constantly 100 degrees or hotter. Even after this initial training, though, the DCs of all attempts to further train a cinder wolf are 5 higher, unless they’re again made in areas of extreme heat. Although difficult to teach and quick to disobey, cinder wolves make excellent trackers and are widely coveted by hunters.