Eldritch Fauna by Bethany Minchew is a role playing game supplement published by DRAKAT Games. The supplement is intended for use with Call of Cthulhu but parts of it are also system neutral.
This is a thirteen page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $0.75 but was received for free during a special promotion. One page is the front cover and one an ad for other supplements.
The first page of content is part front matter and part an introduction. The introduction states that the supplement is intended to add some unpleasant flavour to remoter parts of the world. The setting is DRAKKAT’s fictional British island of Darkisle, but there are no references to this or game stats in the animal descriptions. The creatures are perhaps normal animals that have been corrupted in some way.
The first part takes the form of a pamphlet written after the Great War by a natural historian, one who was following in the footsteps of a hero who disappeared (as did the writer).
There are five creatures described in the flavour portion of the supplement. Each has its common name, a Latin name, History & Nomenclature, Description, Habitat and Notes, as well as an image. These sections describe how the creature was found and named, its appearance, where it lives and behaviour.
The Cold Worm is an adder, but one that likes cold temperatures and whose poison is more dangerous than others in its family. Individually they are not too dangerous, but the snakes sometimes swarm and numerous bites can kill a person.
The Drage Eel is a singularly unpalatable eel, one which eats all the other fish and poisons the water at the same time. The eel enters a state of living decay (they are stated in the later notes to be swarming zombie eels).
The Munt Hound is a type of large wild dog that lives a single pack. Locals fear that harming a single hound will bring the pack down on them, so they hunt with impunity. The pack is supposedly led by a huge hound called the Shuck.
The Nussum Rat is unusually intelligent and cooperative, hunting as a pack and working together to hunt prey, as well as opening catches to get at food.
The Rilk or Deathcaller is a type of crow that sometimes congregates in flocks overnight on and near human abodes, behaviour that is rumoured to be connected with a human death.
Notes for the Keeper/GM is the second part of the supplement. This provides stats for the five creatures for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. Each creature also has some Eldritch Options, linking the creature to the Mythos.
Eldritch Fauna in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although short, these would have been appreciated. There is a Contents, but this lacks page numbers so is just a list of things. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are some appropriate public domain images for the creatures which would appear to have been tweaked to give them a sepia tone.
The pamphlet part of the book can easily be used as flavour for any system. Together with the front cover, it could actually be printed out and given to players as a prop. Each creature is quite thoroughly described in a unified way.
The second part is more useful for Call of Cthulhu than anything else, as it contains the actual game stats. However, the notes about the creatures and the Eldritch Notes will prove useful for converting the creatures to other systems. Most are based on a common animal – the Shuck has stats and is the most supernatural creature – and by reading this material it should be possible to tweak the requisite animal in other systems. Eldritch Fauna is a nice, inexpensive and flavourful supplement and it can be found by clicking here.
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