Monster Menagerie: Lurkers in the Dark by Jeff Lee is a role playing game supplement published by Rogue Genius Games for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is part of the Monster Menagerie series of themed bestiaries; in this case, covering dark folk.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a PDF for $3.99, as a softcover print on demand book for $9.99 or as both PDF and softcover for $10.99. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. It has 26 pages, two being the front and rear covers, one an unlabelled map, one the Table of Contents and Credits and one the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs explain the introduction of the dark creeper and dark stalker, which later became known as the dark folk, and how new members of the race were introduced in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 3 and 4.
History and Origins has several explanations for the origins of the dark folk. As a degenerate form of humanity that was driven underground, as a derro experiment, created by the owb of the Plane of Shadow or by the proteans. The dark folk worship the owb and consider that story to be true.
Next are the creatures, each of which has its own unique death throes, tied to its nature. The Dark Dweomerthief can steal magic from magic items and use it.
Dark Pipers play bone flutes and captivate creatures with the music.
Dark Reekers stink and spread disease.
Dark Regents are created by summoning an owb to possess a dark stalker to lead the dark folk in dangerous times.
Dark Tatterdemalions use their clothing to attack others.
Finally, the Darkhound is a dog-like creature the dark folk use.
Dark Folk Items has some new items; a poison, bottled reek from dark reekers, an elixir that makes dark folk more capable of withstanding light and a net constructed from the clothes of a dark tatterdemalion. There is also a trap made from fungus.
Fermeundlashamshe is a dark folk colony. The unlabelled map at the beginning is a player map of this place. A full page is taken up by a labelled map for GMs.
Dark Folk as Characters has two options. One is to play dark folk without character levels; each player simply playing a specific dark folk, getting a new one when their existing one is killed.
The second is playing dark folk as a race. This presents dark folk in a standard manner, with a sidebar stating that death throes are a racial weakness. This is because when a dark folk dies, all the leave behind is clothing. This means a dead dark folk needs 9th level magic to bring back from the dead; even disintegration can be overcome through resurrection, and that isn’t the case with dark folk.
There are two racial archetypes, Piper and Tatterdemalion, based on the monsters. Finally, there are some new racial rules.
Monster Menagerie: Lurkers in the Dark in Review
The PDF is very well bookmarked, with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth. Navigation is very good for a short supplement. The text maintains a two-column full colour layout and appeared to be free of errors. Each monster has its own colour illustration, which is a bonus, and the colour map of the sample colony is also decent. Presentation is excellent.
This supplement is one of the more diverse ones in the Monster Menagerie series and, as a result, there are only six monsters. Five interesting new variants of the dark folk and a bog-standard dark dog. Not that there are really many options when it comes to creating a dark-themed pet for humanoids. Perhaps a cat instead. The included colony is a nice mini dungeon and there are a few new optional items. The dark folk race is an interesting attempt to create a playable race from a creature that is actually not that well designed to be such. It’s not perfect, but the material to work with was always going to make this difficult. Monster Menagerie: Lurkers in the Dark is a nice collection of new dark folk options and it can be found by clicking here.
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