Introduction

James: Angular

Freeman: Curvy

Source: Bestiary 2, pg. 146

Reading List: The Hounds of Tindalos, Weird Tales Volume 30

Pathfinder Lore

Appearance

·         “Lean and athirst…”

·         One can barely call them canine. They even have almost feline features in a way.

o   They are certainly emaciated in appearance.

o   The most canine leaning feature is their instincts to catch the scent of a mortal and pursue it relentlessly. Even calling other Hounds to join in the hunt.

·         Their targets are those who tamper with time or mess up its flow.

o   Someone travelling through time, through use of magic or alchemical drugs that can send thoughts or perception forward or backward through time.

o   They hunt their targets through all space and time as needed.

o   Powerful spellcasters can draw them from the Dimension of Time via a powerful ritual, but the ritual itself also draws their ire. So anyone who tries it seldom lives long enough to achieve their goals or even spread their knowledge of the ritual of time.

·         The hounds have sharp and cruel minds, and pretty much never interact with other creatures. They only hunt their targets, slay them, and devour them.

o   The only way to avoid them is avoid obvious angles of any kind. Because travelling through time is one thing, but the way they travel through space is within the physical angles of it.

Sidebar

·         Ancient texts refer to the creatures as the Hounds of Tindalos, but never go into detail about what Tindalos itself might be.

·         Some imply Tindalos is one of the Great Old Ones or the Outer Gods. But it must be among the most obscure since nothing seems to be known.

·         Others suggest Tindalos is a place or location. Maybe a City or Nation that from before Time began. And reaching it would be impossible for anyone who is bound by the Laws Time (unlike the Hound itself).

·         The most likely answer is all and none of the above. Tindalos is probably something that is impossible for mortal minds to comprehend.

1e

·         The physical description offered in 1e is pretty great.

o   Like a foul mixture of a humanoid and a sleek big cat.

o   No fur, but flesh that is pallid and muscular

o   Their fore arms were a lot longer, but they still walked on all fours.

o   These arms also end in sharp flesh shredding claws.

o   Their face is brutally alien, with huge, black soulless eyes, a wide, deep mouth filled with broken, razor teeth.

·         According to the Steward of Stethelos, a powerful Oracle who guides visitors to the Dimension of time (and possesses a powerful hourglass artifact called the Glass of Stethelos), the name Tindalos refers to a place beyond the Viridescent Jungle (a place within the Dimension of Time). Where “those who flow with time in one direction” have no place.

o   Only the hound and their masters dwell there.

·         Their ability to travel within the angles of reality means they can travel incredible distances at incredible speeds. Plane hopping and crossing as they see fit.

o   Their thoughts are  impossibly alien, and attempts to read them causes your mind to be assaulted.

o   Their very gaze is capable of ripping through the very fabric of reality, leaving horrible wounds in their targets.

·         Variants: There is a six-legged mastiff of Tindalos variant known as a Thing From Beyond Time (these typically served Denizens of Leng), and a three-headed variant called a Ravager of Tindalos.

Mythology and Folklore

·         The Hound of Tindalos was created by Frank Belknap Long, jr., an American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books and non-fiction.

o   Horror and scifi are what he is best known for, including contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos.

o   He was a longtime friend of H.P. Lovecraft, a frequent contributor to pulp magazines, and sold his first short story to the old Weird Tales magazine.

·         The Hound of Tindalos itself was actually codified into the Cthulhu Mythos by August Derleth who was responsible for publishing the many stories of Lovecraft and his circle of writers/contributors (who also coined the term “Cthulhu Mythos”).

·         The first appears was in a short story simply called The Hounds of Tindalos which was published in Weird Tales in March 1929.

o   Lovecraft also mentioned them in his short story The Whisper in Darkness from 1931.

·         The original story deals with the main character experimenting with time travel through the use of psychedelic drugs and esoteric artifacts.

o   The hounds were said to inhabit the angles of time, while humankind and all other common life come from the curves.

o   Their name is meant to be a “veil for their foulness”.

o   They are often depicted as canine-like, but neither Frank Belknap Long nor Lovecraft ever gave them a complete physical description. Instead, they were considered too foul to be described.

o   However, they were said to have long, hollow tongues or a proboscis to drain bodily fluids from their victims. And they excrete a strange blue pus or ichor.

o   They materialize through any sharp angled corner (120 degrees or less), starting with smoke pouring out of the corner, with the head followed by the body slowly emerging.

o   Attracting the Hounds’ attention is done through travelling through time, and it will pursue its target through anything.

Comparison

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Mechanics

Hound of Tindalos: AoN Link

Ravager of Tindalos: AoN Link