The Wolf Stag

A Chimeric Creature post

Advisor Sir Ignace Vanorym, Court Mage for House Sandolin, was well known for accomplishing impossible tasks. He had turned lead to gold, crafted a glass that split white light into the colors of the rainbow, and procured a panacea that healed the child prince from a deathly malady. When all other cures have failed and no other options available,the mysterious arcane sciences of Vanorym are what the mighty and wealthy turn to, both for dire need and vain fancy. 

With so many accomplishments to his name, Vanorym’s success was also the cause of lasting consternation and burdens. It became vogue to commission his miracles in court. Nobles, dilettantes, ministers, and generals; the rich, bored, and vapid came to his door with a small fortune demanding the impossible, with little patience for timelines and stipulations and no understanding of the ramifications and limitations of his subtle craft. Though veiled promises of the headman’s axe at failure were empty threats and vain posturing, they were common enough to furrow Vanorym’s brow with worry, and further garner his reputation for being moody, condescending, and cantankerous.

The Miracle de rigueur that had been causing him ulcers presently lay on the table before him. The banner of the country’s flag, pride of the Sandolin Dynasty, showed a field of vert, with a fantastical animal displayed rampant. Wouldn’t it be a wonder, the King’s councilors bade him to ask Vanorym, if the mighty wolf stag, symbol of the prosperity of the nation and sign of the strength of the House Sandolin, was given flesh? Imagine the honor that would come from felling the great beast, the thrill of the chase of its fleetness made a reality. It would be the pride of every menagerie, the envy of every other nation.

Vanorym sighed heavily. Creating a beast that was part wolf and part stag was no small task, but with his alchemical wit and the coffers of the King at his disposal, he had managed to produce a breeding pair. 

The female was lithe and gracefully willowy.It took four generations of trials for its slender tapering ankle bones not to break under its weight. She was unpredictable and flighty, and difficult to keep caged. It was necessary to keep her alone, as she killed any other beasts kenneled with her. She was a proficient hunter, but often killed even when not hungry. She had a disquieting glare that hinted at a keener intelligence than most beasts, and seemed to lack any fear of man.  Her preferred meal was lapping still-warm blood from slain prey.

The male was robustly tall, with well muscled, sinewy haunches that painted the perfect image of the proud beast. His horns resembled an antelope’s rather than the antlers of a stag, an unintended fluke of its complex genealogy. Even still, he was appropriately intimidating and would make a fine trophy, as requested. The physical aspects of the wolf’s contributions were subtle, the creature resembled a powerful, if unique, horned game beast. But, as with his mate, the wolf inside showed itself through actions and behavior, resulting in the body of a large herbivore with the cunning of a hunter and the aggression and territoriality of an apex lord of the forest, resulting in a daunting beast with much more fight than flight. Its eerie howls mingled wolf cry and deer bellow that sent shivers up the spine and riled up any dog that heard it into a frenzied fit of mad barking. Worst of all, it produced a pungent musk that enraged and terrified other animals, making even tame horses impossible to control. 

It’s one virtuous attribute was it was quite gentle with its mate, who absolutely adored the cloying, queasymaking sweet and sour musk of the male. Perhaps it was coincidence or desperate necessity, as they were the first mating pair, but they behaved in each other’s presence with genuine, almost tender, docility.  Housing them in a menagerie would prove  a challenge though, as that docility turned to abrupt savagery with almost any other creature they encountered. As a final note, both male and females tasted horrid, judging by their prior iterations. They served their purpose as formidable game animals as far as the chase was concerned, but would never be desirable for eating.

The results were satisfactory, even impressive, even if the realities of their husbandry would be taxing and domestication out of the question. Despite their vicious quirks and unnerving predator instincts, the nobles would love them, appreciating the dichotomy of their chimeric nature and attribute fanciful poetic nonsense to their graceful image and inner savage nature. The difficulty in hunting and keeping them would add to their mystique. That was not the issue.

No, the issue was that they had escaped. He had underestimated their ability to leap. Now the breeding pair was loose in the countryside, and quite fecund. Their pedigree was a daunting trial by fire, their offspring were well equipped to grow fast and interbreed, with little worry of birth defects. Their bloodline was too hearty, he had built them too well. Their packs (herds?) would dominate the countryside within the year. What’s more, they had an inbuilt adaptability, with a high potential to successfully create subspecies to fit many varied climates and habitats, anywhere from desert to boreal forest and grassy steppe to rugged mountains.

His only hope was to hire experts, the adventurous sort, to bring back the breeding pair unharmed. Any offspring fawn cubs found must be culled. Any lucky few that escaped could be designated as an intentional part of his presentation to the nobles, the beginnings of a great hunt already in progress.
Yes, that might do. He may have unintentionally made monsters, but at least they were monsters that were  thrilling to hunt, in no small part because they dared to hunt back. He looked up at the taxidermied mounted heads of the prior generation of wolf stags on his wall, showing their progression from miserable to mighty. Yes, perhaps he would keep his own head yet.

-pefgis

Folio Entry

Despite its obvious magical origins, a wolfstag is a creature of the wilds—powerful, swift, and noble in stature. It is highly variable in form, though it always blends aspects of a stag or other fleet horned ungulate with the muscular frame and killer instincts of a wolf or similar canine-like carnivore. Its athletic prowess makes it ideal for navigating rough terrain or surprising foes in battle, leaping directly onto prey to break backs and tear flesh, and bounding over obstacles or on to cottage rooftops. Sporting pointed horns and an intense, predatory gaze, it has garnered a haunting reputation as a devilish bogey of deep woods and the lonely high plains. Tales endure of its uncanny persistence, having been known to stalk their quarry for miles or follow hunters and woodsmen home, prowling with an intense, menacing focus into homesteads and border farms to slay livestock, stray children, and the vulnerable or unaware. Unlike both its namesakes, it seems to possess a lack of fear of man and kills to satiate urges other than hunger, due perhaps to its hybrid nature or simply inborn enmity.

Although legend suggests a singular origin, many variations of this creature exist based on habitat and regional diversity. The plains variant, illustrated here, inhabits grassland, woodland scrub, and the forest’s edge. It bears the long legs and loping gait of a maned wolf and the coloration and horns of an antelope. It is known for its stamina and its tenacity.

Under The Hood

For the Pathfinder version, we used a little inspiration from the dire wolf, warhorse, and the stony goat, and were able to build a creature that can serve as a mount for a woodland villain or a nature-oriented player character. Though the stony goat and dire wolf offer more abilities, the wolfstags offer a more dangerous arsenal of weapons, and a fear/spooky vibe, similar to the Eikthyr-style spirits from Scandinavian mythology.

Don’t be afraid to go rooting around in the freely available monsters to make your own chimeric monsters. Everything we used for Pathfinder is available on Archives of Nethys, and the warhorse and dire wolf are part of D&D’s OGL, so you don’t even have to pay for a book to do a little research–though we do endorse supporting authors and artists by purchasing (non-AI-generated) products.

The stats for Pathfinder 2e and D&D 5e leave us with some pretty straightforward monsters that don’t require a lot of strategy to work into a battle at the table. They won’t serve well as a solo encounter, but when combined with a skill challenge (like a chase scene in the woods for a party trying to capture one alive) or a main villain (where they’ll serve as an excellent druid- or wizard-themed mount), they add a nice touch of flavor and mechanics that doesn’t steal the show or require a lot of brainpower to manage.

We chose to add the uncommon tag in Pathfinder 2e because it may not fit the vibe of all campaigns, and this forces players to ask the DM before acquiring one, and keeps them from summoning them with magic without explicit permission.

If you want to separate out the dimorphic female wolfstag in your D&D game, just remove the antler attacks.

Note: these statblocks were generated using the free tools available at https://monster.pf2.tools/ and https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-statblock.html, respectively. We highly recommend both, if you want to quickly generate your own blocks for printing. We don’t receive any compensation from either site, they just rock.

-sinset2