ECOLOGY

Environment temperate rivers and marshes
Organization solitary, knot (2–12)
Treasure none

The ferocious hunting packs of aquatic fey, these amphibious menaces often serve such masters as river trolls, lorelei, and nixies. Predatory beasts as dangerous on land as they are in the water, the hounds are themselves a type of fey, sharing their masters' capricious cruelty and vulnerability to cold iron. The hounds' chilling hunting cries inspire their masters to a killing frenzy as they pursue foes, both on land and in the water. Few other creatures appreciate eel hounds' lithe power and cruel grace, instead noting only their grotesque form and unnerving savagery.

In the wild, eel hounds typically nest among marshes, rivers, and beds of seagrass and reeds. They mate in spring, the females giving birth to litters of small, almost legless young. These pups remain near their parents for several months, their parents eventually driving them off to join a new pack or start one of their own. Pack members are protective of their young, all adult hounds raising them in common.

Eel hounds are ambush predators, their packs preferring to hide among the muck and algae of riverbanks, only to suddenly burst forth burst in a massive pack of wriggling, darting forms. One or two watch from concealment, with the rest of the pack hidden among the water's miry depths until their leaders' calls signals them to attack. Quickly slithering along their prey's flanks, they rapidly surround it, latching on with their powerful jaws. Non-aquatic prey is dragged into the depths, there to drown. Similarly, eel hounds often force aquatic prey up onto dry land, letting such creatures die of suffocation.

Possessed of a low cunning, they prepare ambushes by vomiting forth their slippery spittle near locations where land animals come to drink or along game trails, surging forth to attack prey while it is off balance. Eel hounds understand Sylvan, with those dwelling near the habitations of humans or other races picking up a few words in other tongues. They communicate with each other using a guttural Sylvan dialect, but few other creatures can decipher any meaning from the hound's garbled vocalizations. Even their fey masters find it nearly impossible to understand their incomprehensible attempts at speech.