Bálnafarkas

Description

Howls fill the air in the deep and dark forests of the Swamps of Vörövisz.
Combining a powerful canine body with a long swaying tail and powerful teeth, the bálnafarkas, or whalewolves, stalk the land. They are (semi-)amphibious creatures that are well-suited to surviving in this swampy terrain, with very thin webbing between their toes reaching about halfway along the length of a toe. They can absorb oxygen by absorbing it from water through their skin, but they are too large to gain all the oxygen they need this way, which means they can only stay underwater for a limited time. Outside of the water they keep moist through mucous secretions, which make them slimy and slippery as well, allowing them to evade predators (and especially living branches and trees) quite well.
Whalewolves are notably aggressive predators, both on land and in the water. On land they use their powerful legs and pack tactics to hunt down and tire out prey, before descending on them and tearing them apart with their large teeth. When they come upon a stronger foe or a large group, they apply hit-and-run tactics until they see a weakness. In the water, they instead use their large whale-like tail to swim around and catch fish. They are capable of breathing underwater for a significant amount of time and they use this to lie in ambush at the water surface, much like a crocodile would. They avoid the Nyr Woods, because those waters are infested with Nyr Algae that would paralyze and drain them.

Intelligence and Behavior

Whalewolves tend to live in packs of anywhere between three and fifteen individuals, and they hunt as a pack. It is effectively an extended family consisting of parents, offspring, siblings, aunts, uncles, and sometimes dispersers from other packs. Older whalewolves are taken care of by the younger adults, while the pups have to be educated. They raise their young together, and they continue to play together into old age. They also care for injured pack companions, and will defend them to the last.
Cohesion and order is usually maintained by a single pair within the pack, also known as the breeding pair or the alpha pair. Generally there is only a single breeding pair within a pack, and they are what keeps the pack together. The loss of an adult can be devastating to a pack, and the loss of an alpha can all but dissolve the pack entirely.
While they are ferocious and far from domesticated by nature, there have been cases where individual whalewolves were trained by hunters through a combination of bribery with food and incredible patience. When trained however, whalewolves make staunch companions that are loyal to the end. They are incredibly skilled hunters and their ability to move over land and water can be a significant boon to the hunter that trained them.

Statistics

[5th Edition D&D]

Geographic Distribution

• Swamps of Vörövisz