Bound Shadehound: Forging a Mount in the Maw

The Maw is not a place anyone wants to visit, but it hides one of the most involved secret mounts of Shadowlands. Steal a rune pattern from the Jailer's own altar, forge armour at a soulsteel anvil and bind the soul of a wild wolf into it.

Before you start

• Finish the Maw introduction and the quests Rule 5: Be Audacious (Perdition Hold) and Rule 6: Concealment is Everything (the Beastwarrens). Both have a daily lockout.
• Reach Appreciative with Ve'nari and save about 4,550 Stygia.
• From Ve'nari, buy the Animated Levitating Chain (lets you use grapple points) and the Stygia Dowser.

Step 1: the rune puzzle

At the Altar of Domination in Perdition Hold, use the grapple point (around 23.1, 68.4) to reach the top, then head south-east up the steps and grapple again to the platform with the puzzle. Use the extra action button to start it. Swap the runes above the chest until they match the runes on the pillars, starting with the pillar on your left and going clockwise. Solve it and loot the Crumbling Stele. A mistake summons a Mawsworn Runemaster who knocks you off and blocks the puzzle for two hours. The puzzle can't be reached during the Necrolord Covenant Assault.

Step 2: the Intact Rune Codex

Buy the Partial Rune Codex from Ve'nari for 2,000 Stygia, then find its three pages:

• Forging: at the back of Death's Howl cave in the Beastwarrens.
• Souls: on a platform in Perdition Hold.
• Binding: on the platform above the Tremaculum, reached through a rune teleporter.

Step 3: tools and a soul

With the codex complete, kill Soulforger Rhovus (around 35.8, 42.6) for the Soulforger's Tools; he has a daily lockout and doesn't spawn during the Kyrian Covenant Assault. Then find the Stray Soul, a ghost wolf that walks along the River of Souls from south-west to north-east, and talk to it for the Willing Wolf Soul.

Step 4: forge and bind

1. Use the Stygia Dowser on Stygia Nexuses around the Maw to gather 200 Stygia Dust and 200 Stygia Sliver; the Beastwarrens is the best area.
2. At the Soulsteel Anvil on top of the Altar of Domination, craft 20 Stygia Bars, then the Armored Husk.
3. At the Binding Altar outside Ve'nari's Refuge, combine the husk and the wolf soul into a Feral Shadehound.
4. Summon it and input the runes in the order shown on the Crumbling Stele. If you get it wrong, try again after a minute. When the binding holds, finish the quest for the Bound Shadehound.