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Dire wolf

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Dire wolves are beasts with some notable physical differences from wolves, particularly their size.

Description[]

Dire wolf - Dave Allsop

Depiction of a dire wolf, by Dave Allsop from D&D Monster Manual, 4th ed., p. 264.[art 2]

A dire wolf is exceptionally large for a wolf, with a shoulder height of nearly eight-and-a-half feet, and it has bony protrusions from parts of its body.[4] They have long fangs.[5] One pack of dire wolves, mutated by contact with shards of something that fell from the sky, stood between eight and ten feet tall at the shoulder, with red burning eyes.[6]

Dire wolves in the Summit Peaks of Tal'Dorei have wintry white fur coats.[7]

Abilities[]

The following is all drawn from the 2014 Monster Manual, 5th Ed., p. 321, but some abilities have been demonstrated on-stream.

  • Skill proficiencies: Perception, Stealth
  • Keen Hearing and Smell: Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks relying on hearing or smell.[8]
  • Pack Tactics: Advantage on attacks when a non-incapacitated ally is within 5 feet of the target.[9]
  • Bite: On a hit, deals piercing damage, and the target must succeed at a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.[10]

History[]

The Chronicles of Exandria - The Legend of Vox Machina Volume II[]

In Whitestone, soon after the early 730s PD,[11] the dowager Lady de Rolo, Melanie von Musel, had been trying to expand the city after a third of it was destroyed in the Great Whitestone Fire. However, the process of occupying land in the Parchwood Timberlands was plagued by accidents, wild animal attacks, and even supernatural phenomena. Lady Melanie's cousin, the cleric Ivan von Musel, determined that the expansion attempt had offended the Lawbearer, so he spent days meditating until the gods sent a sign: the fog outside Whitestone parted, and Ivan entered the forest, and fought and defeated a huge grey dire wolf as part of the challenge sent by the goddess of civilization. Ivan would later explain how, in a vision, the Lawbearer had allowed the city to keep expanding, but only until it reached the spot where he had bested the beast.[2]

Campaign One: Vox Machina[]

In Vasselheim, when Vox Machina was split up for trials to join the Slayer's Take, half of them—Grog, Percy, Scanlan, and Vex'ahlia—were teamed up with Lyra and Zahra Hydris and assigned to slay an adult white dragon. While searching for clues to the location of such a creature, the team spoke to Dagon at the Midnight Breath Tavern. Dagon told an oft-repeated story about being surrounded by a pack of four dire wolves while on the Glasswalk Road heading to Muldire, when a white dragon flew in, snatched one of the wolves, and scattered the rest.[12] Following this rumor, the team traveled up the Glasswalk Road in search of the dragon. Overnight, a raiding party of orcs, accompanied by an orc-ogre hybrid (called an ogrillon[13]) and a dire wolf, attacked the camp. Grog slew the dire wolf with his greataxe.[14] After the battle, Vex'ahlia extracted one of its canines, and Zahra thanked the dire wolf out of respect for its life.[15]

Later, when Vox Machina began its surprise attack on Sir Kerrion Stonefell as part of the liberation of Whitestone, Keyleth Wild Shaped into a dire wolf, rushed into the room, and pinned one of Kerrion's allies.[16]

In the Dreemoth Ravine, Keyleth saw Vorugal, an ancient white dragon, tearing apart a large furred creature that might have been a dire wolf or a dire bear.[17]

The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade[]

The Darrington Brigade scared off some animals that had ventured into a crater in the Cyrengreen Forest near Deastok.[18] The animals that returned were dire wolves, but with strange mutations, and the party fought them.[19]

Liam's One Shot: The Song of the Lorelei[]

Aurra Lorelei, a druid, used her Wild Shape ability to briefly transform into a dire wolf, somewhere between the size of a pony and a horse, to try to subdue her ancestor Geneviève Lorelei, who had been raised as an undead.[20]

Exandria Unlimited Prime[]

Fearne Calloway Wild Shaped into a dire wolf in her early adventures near Emon.[21] She turned into a distinctive-looking version of one in Niirdal-Poc in the Rifenmist Jungle,[22] where she gruesomely killed multiple of the elves with Myr'atta Niselor,[23] and once again turned into a dire wolf during the climactic fight in Niirdal-Sarqet.[24]

Campaign Three: Bells Hells[]

Bells Hells investigated rumors of dire wolves attacking people in the streets of Jrusar, but the responsible party turned out to be Gurge Kisgregg, a werewolf.[25]

When Bells Hells was separated by events around the Malleus Key in the Hellcatch Valley, some of them ended up in northern Wildemount. When they, along with Deanna Leimert and F.R.I.D.A., traveled to the ruins of Molaesmyr, they encountered several bizarre, stretched-looking, dire wolf-like creatures that could join into one mutated abomination.[26] They were later chased by these creatures.[27] Chetney Pock O'Pea, who had spent time in the Savalirwood, had previously encountered dire wolves in the forest farther from the ruins.[28]

Fearne returned to using a dire wolf form after arriving on Ruidus to aid with travel through a dust storm.[29][30]

Trivia[]

  • When dire wolves were believed to be responsible for attacks in Jrusar, one local wondered how they got up into the spires of the city, but did not express surprise at dire wolves being in the general area,[31] so they presumably exist in the Oderan Wilds.
  • Shadow sorcerers, like Laudna, can eventually summon a Hound of Ill Omen, which uses the stats of a dire wolf, with some alterations.[32][33][34]

References[]

  1. ↑ See "Whispers" (1x29) at 2:56:21.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Chronicles of Exandria - The Legend of Vox Machina Volume II, p. 92.
  3. ↑ See "By Goat or By Boat" (3x56) at 1:37:50.
  4. ↑ The dire wolf Grog Strongjaw encountered was almost as tall at the shoulder as Grog's full height, which was 8 feet, 7 inches.  See "Trial of the Take: Part 1" (1x18) at 1:22:56.
  5. ↑ See "Trial of the Take: Part 1" (1x18) at 1:38:13.
  6. ↑ See "The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade" (Sx49) at 2:06:30.
  7. ↑ See "Whispers" (1x29) at 2:56:21.
  8. ↑ See "The Gift Among the Green" (E1x06) at 3:05:24.
  9. ↑ See "Trial of the Take: Part 1" (1x18) at 1:41:20.
  10. ↑ See "Whispers" (1x29) at 2:57:59.
  11. ↑ See "The Legend of Vox Machina Episodes 10-12 Q&A" at 47:49. Taliesin Jaffe mentions Lady von Musel's deeds "80 years ago", presumably from the reference of the episodes set in the early 810s PD.
  12. ↑ See "Trial of the Take: Part 1" (1x18) from 0:52:51 through 0:56:31.
  13. ↑ See D&D: Monster Manual (2014), 5th ed., p. 238.
  14. ↑ See "Trial of the Take: Part 1" (1x18) from 1:21:33 through 1:49:16.
  15. ↑ See "Trial of the Take: Part 1" (1x18) from 2:16:38 through 2:17:45.
  16. ↑ See "Whispers" (1x29) at 2:56:21.
  17. ↑ See "Vorugal" (1x71) at 1:42:11.
  18. ↑ See "The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade" (Sx49) at 1:53:24.
  19. ↑ See "The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade" (Sx49) at 2:06:30.
  20. ↑ See "Liam's One Shot: The Song of the Lorelei" (Sx36) at 3:26:44.
  21. ↑ See "The Oh No Plateau" (E1x02) at 3:21:40.  See also at 3:33:22.
  22. ↑ See "The Gift Among the Green" (E1x06) at 3:04:53.
  23. ↑ This happens over the course of much of the remainder of the episode.
  24. ↑ See "What Comes Next" (E1x08) at 1:02:31.
  25. ↑ This happened over the course of much of "A Woodworker's Quandary" (3x08) and the beginning of "Thicker Grows the Meal and Plot" (3x09).
  26. ↑ See "The Sorrow of Molaesmyr" (3x57) at 2:36:51.
  27. ↑ See "Escape From The Past" (3x58) at 1:40:44.
  28. ↑ See "By Goat or By Boat" (3x56) at 1:37:50.
  29. ↑ See "Doorways to Darker Depths" (3x86) at 3:54:30.
  30. ↑ See "Arrival at Kreviris" (3x87) at 0:18:54.
  31. ↑ See "A Woodworker's Quandary" (3x08) at 2:53:49.
  32. ↑ See D&D: Xanathar's Guide to Everything, 5th ed., p. 50.
  33. ↑ See "An Ancient Flame" (3x75) from 3:28:51 through 3:31:42.
  34. ↑ See "True Heroism" (3x91) at 2:02:14.

Art:

  1. ↑ Depiction of a dire wolf, by Borja Pindado from D&D Monster Manual, 5th ed. (2025), p. 352. This page contains unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
  2. ↑ Depiction of a dire wolf, by Dave Allsop from D&D Monster Manual, 4th ed., p. 264. This page contains unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
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