ECOLOGY

Environment any rivers or marshes
Organization solitary, pair, or clutch (3-6)
Treasure standard

Cunning and aggressive, vooniths are amphibious nocturnal predators with voracious appetites and mild intelligence. A voonith's howl is said to freeze the blood and is more than capable of stopping a creature in its tracks. Vooniths usually howl when they see prey too far away from the water's edge to ambush. While the vooniths are native to the strange Dimension of Dream, many have found their way out of that realm and into the waking world to take up lairs in the swampy fens and remote coastlines of the world. How the vooniths originally managed to make this transition between worlds is unclear.

Although they look like little more than wild beasts, vooniths are actually rather intelligent. While certainly not as sharp as the average human, a voonith is smart enough to know how to speak and often does so with others of its kind. Vooniths do not often choose to communicate with other creatures, giving rise to the misconception that they're little more than dumb animals, but on occasion, travelers in swampy regions tell tales of overhearing strange piping voices speaking among the reeds. Those few who know the secrets of the Aklo tongue can understand these words, although understanding of what the vooniths whisper in the night when they think no one else can hear is not always for the best.

While not evil, vooniths have a decidedly dark sense of humor, and take great pleasure in concocting violent poems or grisly jokes. Punch lines in which non-voonith creatures particularly humans, cats, and gnomes meet gory and ironic fates are the most entertaining to vooniths. Some tales speak of canny travelers who, with the ability to speak Aklo, manage to strike up unlikely conversations with lurking vooniths. In truth, vooniths are quite social, and when one breeches the awkwardness arising from interspecies conflict, a friendship with a voonith can be an unexpected reward. Vooniths who befriend travelers often escort them, quietly and unseen, through dangerous bogs, and when such travelers fall prey to other dangers of the swamp, a friendly voonith will provide what aid it can.

Vooniths are 4 feet long and weigh 70 pounds, yet rumors tell of vooniths that have grown to much larger sizes than this.