Creatures of Veneon – Mjolnir’s Hounds

“They think themselves his children, yet they are nothing more than a pack of cruel beasts playing a blasphemous game of dress-up.”

– Hruthus, 47th winner of the Thorsday Hunt.

Physical Traits

Deep within the dense vegetation of the Thundering Forest, a violent pack of humanoid monsters stalks the woods in search of unsuspecting prey. The creatures known as Mjolnir’s Hounds are bipedal, wolf-like creatures. They typically have thick furred bodies, ranging colours from pitch black to rich browns and blueish greys. Long, thin snouts filled with sharp teeth extrude from their slender wolfen heads and large, pointed ears push from beneath their wild hair. At the end of lengthy slender arms sit four-fingered hands that sport deadly 3-inch claws perfectly designed for the climbing of trees and the tearing of flesh.

A Sickly Imitation

In a cruel mockery of the realms creator, Thor, the Mjolnir’s Hounds don crude torn capes, stained red with the blood of their victims, and wield amateurish hammers that vaguely resemble the great Mjolnir. It is commonly believed in Norn and Dwarven culture that the creatures do this satirically, to mock the God, however, the Mjolnir’s Hounds genuinely revere Thor and seek to honour him by sending him new enemies to battle in Valhalla.

This has led to them strategically targeting the Norn, Valkyrie, and Dwarves in their chaotic hunts, seeking to find foes worthy of Thor’s time. Of course, Thor has no love for these beasts and those they slay will not be sent to battle him in the next life.

Beast or Man?

The Mjolnir’s Hound display aspects of both primitive, animalistic instinct as well as sentient, intelligent life. They live in small, family-sized packs within burrowed dens, yet they assign roles to their community members such as hunter, feeder, and scout. They violently hunt and slay any creature that enters their self-assigned territory, yet they cook their slaughtered prey into delicate meals. They communicate via growls, barks, and howls, yet can learn to speak a crude variation of common with surprising ease.

This strange clash of beast and humanoid tendencies has been the cause of much discussion within the Hammerlands. Are they a sentient race, choosing to behave in a violent and destructive manner? Or are they simply magically gifted beasts, giving in to their natural instincts? With people on both sides of the argument, the decision to leave them as they are and simply avoid them, or to eradicate them in a swift cull is an ongoing dilemma for the Norn.

Mjolnir’s Hound Stat Blocks

In this blog, I have three variations of the Mjolnir’s Hound. Each has its own abilities and strengths which are detailed below.

Mjolnir’s Hound Deathpledge

The Deathpledge variant of the Mjolnir’s Hound is a raging, volatile creature that would willingly sacrifice its life to slay its foe. Alongside its nasty bite and heavy hammer strikes, the Deathpledge has the inexplicable ability to release a blast of empowering lightning through its body, giving it a mere moment of intense power before being fried by its own magic.

The Deathpledge is your heavy-hitter in a Mjolnir’s Hound encounter. When its health is reduced by half and it suddenly empowers into a flurrying fur ball of violence, your party should freak out and begin panicking about whether there are any more of them in play! For optimum use, you want your Deathpledge to be knocked to half HP by one of the lower AC, melee characters in your group such as a rogue or monk. Even with their tendency to use hit and run tactics, the speedy Deathpledge should be able to close the gap with either its movement or bonus action dash. The worst-case scenario for this guy is to be locked in combat with a high AC tank or trapped by controlling magics when its Deathpledge feature triggers.

Mjolnir’s Hound Bloodgorger

A Bloodgorger is an annoying little critter that will do just about anything to stay alive and keep badgering its foes. They are more than happy to tear a chunk of flesh out of a friend if it means they get to live.

This little maniac might not hit very hard but it can be a real nuisance to put down. By feeding on the healthy members of the pack, they sustain themselves while chipping away at the party’s HP and resources. The Bloodgorger is best used as part of a bigger pack, as if they run out of allies to feed on, they can be quickly dispatched. You want to keep these guys near the healthier variants, somewhere where they can make use of both their Gorge and Pack Tactics features. Once their allies have fallen, have them scurry over to the nearest friendly creature. By the end of the encounter, your party should absolutely hate these stupid, healing pests!

Mjolnir’s Hound Hammerthrower

It’s the Hammerthowers than give some weight to the claim that the Mjolnir’s Hounds might really be blessed by Thor in some way. With shoddy hammer in hand, they throw the weapon and call it back to their hand much like the God himself. Upon detailed inspection it’s clear that the hammer itself is not magical so how do these creatures achieve this feat?

The Hammerthrower is the ranged support of the group. Whether by throwing their returning hammers or by locking down an enemy with their hooked chains, they can be an often-overlooked threat. You’ll want to keep your Hammerthrowers at the edge of the fight, harrying the characters that are already at risk of being overwhelmed in melee combat. When someone tries to run to the rescue, hook them up and pull them off their feet, leaving them vulnerable to those nasty advantage melee attacks from your melee creatures. It can be tempting to use your ranged options to deal with the parties ranged threats that might be hiding in the back but if you look at the Pack Tactics feature, nowhere does it specify melee attacks. That’s right, Pack Tactics applies to ranged attacks.

Group Tactics, Encounters & Lore Checks

When running a combat encounter with the Mjolnir’s Hounds you’ll want to ensure there’s a healthy mix of all 3 variants. They work incredibly well together and can be split into small units that each focus on an individual threat.

Try splitting the fight into different fronts. If the party has 2 melee fighters that rush to the front, send a Deathpledge, 2 or 3 Bloodgorgers, and a Hammerthrower against each of them, with a few remaining to distract the ranged characters and spellcasters. If someone tries to rush the Hammerthrowers, use your Barbed Hook feature to knock them prone and then have the nearby melee creatures pile on them. Ideally, the Deathpledges should be first to fall, followed by the Bloodgorgers, and finally, the remaining Hammerthrowers might try to flee into the forest.

These creatures are excellent climbers so try to give them places to climb and hide from the party. Put your Hammerthrowers safely on a ridge or in a tree. Make use of the terrain in a way the party can’t. Begin with a swarm of enemies and once they begin to fall, begin using hit and run tactics or split the party up so you can focus on just one at a time.

Some possible encounter groups could be:

Level 5 Encounter:

• 1 Deathpledges
• 4 Bloodgorgers
• 2 Hammerthrowers

Level 8 Encounter:

• 2 Deathpledges
• 5 Bloodgorgers
• 3 Hammerthowers
• 2 Wolves

Scouting Party:

• 1 Deathpledge
• 2 Bloodgorgers
• 1 Hammerthrower
• 2 Dire Wolves

Village Raiding Hoard:

• 2 Deathpledges
• 5 Bloodgorgers
• 2 Hammerthrowers
• 2 Werewolves
• 4 Wolves

Mjolnir’s Hound Lore:

Nature Check	Lore Learned
DC 10	Mjolnir’s Hounds are a beastial race of wolfen humanoids that live in small family communities in underground dens consisting of multiple rooms connected by tunnelled paths.
DC 14	Despite being animalistic in many ways, they implement deadly strategies in combat, such as isolating targets and killing them one by one.
DC 18	They are gifted with unexplained magical abilities including empowering themselves and emulating Mjolnir’s returning effects.

Final Thoughts

Hey! Thanks for reading through this post and learning all about the dangerous Mjolnir’s Hound! I hope these creatures will find their way into one of your own encounters and if so, let me know how it goes in the comments or in my discord. I had an attempt at doing some sketches of these guys myself which is why the featured image sucks so bad lol. These guys were created on my Twitch stream with the help of my community so shout out to those of you that helped put these together! I took a fair amount of inspiration from 4E Gnolls when designing these and I’m really happy with the results! God 4E monsters ruled!

Have a great day everyone and as always, may your next session be filled with glory!!