Amarok
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Lore
Amarok is a solitary, monstrous wolf of Inuit lore — a hulking cryptid predator that moves like a shadow across the tundra. Smell: a damp, animal musk cut with ozone and the faint metallic tang of old blood. Sound: a low, resonant growl that vibrates through frozen ground and a single, remote howl that carries farther than any ordinary wolf. Temperature: despite the Arctic air, it gives off palpable animal warmth; its breath steams in the cold and its coat is often rimed with hoarfrost where it brushes snow.
Origin: Inuit • Arctic (Greenland, Canada, Alaska)
Classification: Cryptid (Monstrous Wolf)
Field Notes
Observations
- A single line of enormous pawprints—far larger than a wolf's—appearing without pack tracks and often leading to a place where the snow has been pressed flat as if by a great weight.
Encounter Advice
- avoidance: Travel in groups; avoid lone journeys at night or across wide, open stretches of tundra. Keep to known routes near settlements, maintain a steady noise level so you do not pass silently through its hunting ground, and never follow a lone set of large prints.
- defense: Do not run alone. Put distance between you and the animal while moving toward shelter or a defensible, elevated position. Use light, steady fire, flares, or bright lanterns to deter approach; make yourself large and noisy to signal non-prey status. If forced to hold ground, prioritize escape and seeking human habitations rather than confrontation.
- offering: None reliable — the safest 'offering' is respect and distance. Attempting to feed or placate a predator is dangerous and discouraged.
Abilities
- Lone-Tracker's BaneSupernaturally senses and fixes upon solitary humans at night, relentlessly pursuing and isolating them from any group.
- Howl of IsolationUnleashes a spectral, far-carrying howl that chills courage and causes confusion, increasing the chance victims separate from companions.
- Silencing MawDevours victims in a way legends describe as leaving no cries or obvious traces, erasing signs of struggle from the snow.
Weaknesses
- Cries of a PackAvoids groups and is driven off by the presence of wolf packs or multiple hunters acting in unison, preferring lone prey.
- Communal CampfireWell-lit, occupied camps with shared watches deter attacks, as Amarok targets solitary individuals away from communal light and vigilance.