Runic Warmaw

Rune giants have specialized talents and magical abilities to command other giants, yet giants are far from the only creatures they favor when it comes to guardians. The first runic warmaws were created by Runelord Alaznist in –5780, not long after she perfected the fleshwarping techniques she learned from the qlippoth lord Yamasoth, in response to her rune giants' repeated requests for some form of powerful guardian they could deploy against her enemies on the field of battle. In the following years, as with sinspawn and other fleshwarp creations, other runelords capitalized upon these methods to create runic warmaws as well.

A runic warmaw looks somewhat like an immense, elephant-sized hound, yet with horselike heads that have large, toothy jaws well suited to rending flesh. Strange patterns of shifting red runes appear on their black-furred bodies—runes containing latent sources of magic that rune giants can use to access some of a runic warmaw's magical powers.

Specialized Warmaws

The runic warmaw presented here has been specially bred by rune giants to foster magical powers that serve well in combat, but others with a focus on different types of magical tactics, such as research, defense, or travel, exist. These warmaws have differently themed innate spells—replace the three combat-associated spells listed in the stat block as appropriate for the warmaw's theme you desire for the encounter you're building.