Bound Shadehound
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Look it up on WowheadHow to get it
Reward of the quest Feral Shadehound, the end of a secret in the Maw. With Ve'nari's Stygia Dowser and Partial Rune Codex, solve the rune puzzle on the Altar of Domination for the Crumbling Stele, find the three codex pages, take the Soulforger's Tools from Soulforger Rhovus and a Willing Wolf Soul from the Stray Soul on the River of Souls, siphon 200 Stygia Dust and 200 Stygia Sliver from Stygia Nexus nodes, forge them into an Armored Husk at the Soulsteel Anvil, and join husk and soul at the Binding Altar in Cocyrus. That makes the Feral Shadehound and starts the quest: summon it and press the runes in the order the stele gives.
Time there about 10 min a visit
Guides wow.gg: Bound Shadehound · Warcraft Secrets: Bound Shadehound Secret Mount Guide
Before you go
- Appreciative with Ve'nari, her top standing, at which she sells the Stygia Dowser and the Partial Rune Codex: 42,000 reputation from nothing, shared across the warband. It comes from the Maw's daily quests (75 each), her weekly quests (850 each), the hunts in the Beastwarrens (525 each), and the rares and events of the Maw (40 to 100 each) · about 14 h over 2 weeks
- Ve'nari's quests Rule 5: Be Audacious (offered at Tentative, opens Perdition Hold) and Rule 6: Concealment is Everything (offered at Ambivalent, opens the Beastwarrens): two of the codex pages and the puzzle lie in those places · about 1.5 h over 2 days
- 4,550 Stygia for Ve'nari: the Animated Levitating Chain, which gives the grapple points (1,050, sold from Tentative; skip if already bought), the Stygia Dowser (1,500) and the Partial Rune Codex (2,000)
- The Crumbling Stele: grapple up the Altar of Domination in Perdition Hold (points at 23.1, 68.4 and 24.0, 75.5), press the extra action button by the Runed Chest and swap the runes above the chest until they match the runes on the spikes, starting with the spike on the left and going clockwise, in four swaps at most. A failure locks the puzzle for two hours · about 0.5 h
- The Intact Rune Codex: read the three pages into the Partial Rune Codex. Forging at the back of the cave Death's Howl in the Beastwarrens (51.6, 84.0; cave mouth 48.8, 84.6), Souls on a platform in Perdition Hold (27.2, 72.3), Binding on the platform above the Tremaculum (24.6, 12.6, by the rune teleporter at 27.6, 17.4) · about 0.75 h
- Soulforger's Tools from the rare Soulforger Rhovus at Zovaal's Cauldron (35.9, 41.5), killed with the Intact Rune Codex in the bags, and a Willing Wolf Soul from the Stray Soul, a ghost wolf that runs the River of Souls from the south-west to the north-east · about 0.5 h
- 200 Stygia Dust and 200 Stygia Sliver, siphoned with the Stygia Dowser from Stygia Nexus nodes around the Maw (0 to 4 Dust and 1 to 3 Sliver a node; moving breaks the channel and the node is lost) · about 8 h
- At the Soulsteel Anvil on top of the Altar of Domination (20.0, 66.8, up the grapple points) forge the 20 Stygia Bars and, with the Soulforger's Tools, the Armored Husk · about 0.25 h
In all: about 25.5 h of play, spread over 2 weeks, starting from nothing.
Getting there
/way The Maw 45.2 48.3 - Take the portal from Wizard's Sanctum to Oribos*
- Jump into the Maw from the Ring of Transference
- Ride the rest of the way
- Take the portal from Pathfinder's Den to Oribos*
- Jump into the Maw from the Ring of Transference
- Ride the rest of the way
/way is for the TomTom addon. Travel times are estimates: flying at 55 yards a second in a straight
line and 30 seconds for a portal. A star marks a portal that needs a quest or other unlock done first.
Notes and sources
Nobody gives the quest: making the Feral Shadehound at the Binding Altar starts it (quest 63684), and the place given is that altar. The journal says only 'Quest: Feral Shadehound'. Do the ritual itself wherever there is room, Ve'nari's Refuge by the wiki's advice, because the hound runs off on its own while the runes are entered.
The rune order is on the Crumbling Stele once the Intact Rune Codex translates it, and is the same for everyone (wiki). A failed binding can be tried again after a minute (wow.gg, Warcraft Secrets). Rhovus has a daily lockout, so have the Intact Rune Codex before killing him (Warcraft Secrets). Stygia in total, by the wiki's page for the mount: 3,500 for the Dowser and the Codex, 4,550 with the chain.
Two things in the Maw can stand in the way for days. First, the Covenant Assaults of patch 9.1: the rune puzzle cannot be started during the Necrolord Assault, and Soulforger Rhovus is not there during the Kyrian one (Warcraft Secrets; a 2025 Wowhead comment lost a week to the two in a row).
Second, a bug reported in a 2026 Wowhead comment: on entering the Altar of Domination area, Kleia and the extra action button of an old Bastion quest (Condolent Assault) appear in place of the puzzle's button, so the puzzle cannot be done. The writer's ticket was answered that the bug was known, and two later replies of 2026 report the same with no cure. Which characters it strikes was not established; it is the main risk for this mount.
Older reports of missing grapple points (2022) were cured by leaving the zone and coming back, or by buying the Dowser again.
The node farm is the long part. The nodes come back on set spots every 5 to 15 minutes, only one player can tap a node, and the addon HandyNotes: Shadowlands marks the spots (comments of 2021, 2024 and 2026); the Beastwarrens has five spots close together. Siphoning raises the Eye of the Jailer for a character that still has it (a 2021 comment); by the wiki, as given for the Soulbound Gloomcharger, the Eye stops after the campaign quest Focusing the Eye.
Ve'nari's reputation has been a warband reputation since patch 11.1.5, and her wares have been open to the whole account at the best standing on it since a hotfix of 6 April 2021 (wiki). Since patch 9.2.5 the Ve'nari at the Refuge is a vestige of her (wiki). The wiki gives level 60 for the quest, wow.gg asks for level 80.
Coordinates differ a little between sources. The Forging page is at 51.6, 84.0 in the wiki and Warcraft Secrets, and at the cave mouth, 48.8, 84.7, in wow.gg and Wowhead's top comment. Rhovus is at 35.9, 41.5 (wiki), 35.8, 41.8 (wow.gg) or 35.8, 42.6 (Warcraft Secrets).
The mount was one of three that could be ridden in the Maw before patch 9.1 and is an ordinary ground mount now. Flying is not possible in the Maw. Added in patch 9.0.2 and made obtainable in 9.0.5 (wiki).
Wowhead has no guide of its own for this mount; its top comment (2021) is a full walkthrough. wow.gg's guide was updated in 2026.
Confidence in this entry: medium. Looked up in 2026.
Sources