Kezef the Chaos Hound

Kezef the Chaos Hound is a fictional creature in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game who is based on Fenrir of Norse mythology, and his name is taken from the first of the five Archangels of Punishment in Hebrew lore. He is a unique being who roams the Outer Planes constantly hunting the Faithful, which are the souls of those who have chosen to venerate one god above all others. He has no taste for the Faithless or the False and is sickened by the taste of the unripened spirits of the still-living. When Kezef destroys one of the Faithful, the maggots that make up his pelt swarm away from his jet-boned skeleton to devour the corpse. The gorged creatures then mill slowly over Kezef’s body, making him appear bloated. Any of the Faithful who are eaten in this fashion are forever and truly destroyed, beyond even the recall of the gods.

The Ravager of the Heavens relishes the scent of hatred, and he sometimes pauses and becomes substantial so that he can savor a particularly juicy emotional scent. In his wake, he leaves screaming nightmares particularly cherished by Dendar the Night Serpent. He is nauseated by the scent of cloying, reckless happiness.

Kezef appears as a huge mastiff with unearthly malevolent, red eyes and a ratty tail. Maggots teem in his fur, which makes the coat shift incessantly over barely covered sinews and bones. His flesh oozes like pus from an old sore, and his paws leave burning prints in the ground that spread into pools of burning ichor in his wake. Pointed teeth glitter like daggers of jet in the light. His blood is a dark, corrosive, liquid ooze, and he radiates a pestilent aura of decay. The fetid air of his breath extinguishes all nearby fires, and he reeks with the sweet stench of ancient death. Those with a sense of smell can catch this scent from many miles away. The Chaos Hound speaks in a low and rumbling growl.

Kezef was imprisoned for centuries within the howling depths of Pandemonium by an alliance of Faerûnian gods when the Circle of Greater Powers forbade traffic by deity or mortal with the beast. After he was hunted down, the powers bet Kezef he could not break a leash forged by Gond the Wonderbringer. Kezef allowed Gond to place a short length of sturdy chain around his neck in exchange for Tyr placing his right hand in the Chaos Hound’s slavering jaws. Gond anchored the chain miles deep into the rock of Pandemonium, and Mystra wrapped the beast in an unbreakable, glowing curtain of magical energy that automatically repaired itself. From these two traps Kezef could not escape, and no one could reach him. When Kezef discovered he was truly fettered, he bit off Tyr’s hand and feasted on its divine essence for centuries as he strove to free himself. Kezef was eventually freed, by Cyric’s machinations, to once again hunt the souls of mortals and gods alike.

Kezef