Basaltine (pron. "bazzle tine") is a character. He is a hellhound of debatable heritage.
He is the bonded familiar of Suitov Iceheart of Applestone. Basaltine's full name is Basaltine by-Rover-out-of-Brimstone bound-to-Suitov.
He is a Twine Wars viewpoint character written by Herm.
This character used to be called Baskerville before Herm decided "author surname = character name" wasn't cool. Herm has posted under the nickname Baskerville in the past, notably at the SciFi Vine.
His coat feels like that of a normal medium-shorthaired dog. It is short and straight, except for one curl on a flank (left or right, can't remember which). His breath smells of dog breath, not smoke and brimstone. He is generally slightly warmer than his surroundings, as you'd expect when touching a mammal. To infra-red senses his core temperature is similar to, or only slightly higher than, a normal dog of his size when at normal temperatures.
Basaltine's bark is that of a youthful large dog. His growl is fearsome. His voice when 'speaking' is an animated, slightly rough adult male's voice, not overly gravelly, with what we can think of as a mid-North-Atlantic accent. His howl when in full voice is supernaturally chilling and terrifying, and sets up odd echoes that seem to amplify rather than diminish, until he stops and it dies away. He can also yowl normally if he makes a conscious effort.
His nose is superhumanly sharp: a normal doggy nose, in fact. He is a strong runner and swimmer. He can sit, stay, roll over, fetch, play dead, beg and crush a person's windpipe with his jaws.
He speaks demonic language, which allows him to understand most things said to him.
Basaltine is not tone deaf like his human is, in fact having a much more sensitive ear for pitch than any humanoid, but cannot carry a tune. This does not prevent him from singing with enthusiasm. His singing does not constitute a howl, but often causes terror and panic for more quantifiable reasons.
Basaltine is a hedonist by nature. He likes red meat and peanut butter, which taste better when stolen. His appetite for cuddles (from appropriate persons, of course) is every bit as bottomless as his stomach.
He dislikes cats, people who remind him of cats, angels and most typical kinds of hell creature. He views elves and winged humanoids with a great deal of suspicion.
He loves fire. And explosions. And lava. And explosions. And fire.
Basaltine has been known to drink alcohol to excess. He gets drunk in stages, usually starting with speech impediment, continuing through sluggish stupidity, aggression and eventually ending up in loud off-key singing. His family's innovative hangover cure is to roll in a fire until the alcohol is burned out of the bloodstream.
Given the properties of hellhounds, it is assumed that Basaltine will die when Suitov does.
There are a few things Basaltine's writer needs to know if you're roleplaying with him. Aside from the usual speech, actions, body language and so on, it's helpful if you mention scent information where you think it could be relevant. This can be anything from "the sandwich she's carrying is mango and coleslaw" to "he's feeling aggressive and stressed". Basaltine gets most of his information about the world from smell, and can tell certain things about mood, levels of stress and general health from it - though, obviously, that's dicey when it comes to alien species.
Basaltine can detect things that are poisonous to him or to Suitov by smell.
When writing I'll generally assume that an alien with different morphology has different smells that Basaltine may not be able to interpret. If your character doesn't have any smell at all, he's stumped - which means I definitely need to know that information!
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