Have you seen the
Teratic Tome by Rafael Chandler? (reviewed
here and
here) It's a fantastic new bestiary designed with Old School D&D in mind, but the monsters are brilliant and evil and really could be used in any game (with some fiddling to translate between systems of course). The book is Open Game Content and the PDF is pretty cheap (only 6.66 from
rpgdrivethru). One that caught my eye which could be of particular use in a Call of Cthulhu game is the Thrallborn. Check out this description:
When the physicians of Miravell were approached by
an elven sorcerer who claimed to know of a cure for
insanity, they were skeptical. But she proved herself;
under her ministrations, a dozen lunatics were cured in
as many days.
The physicians had no idea that she had extracted the
madness in physical form, and transported it from the
insane asylum. These beings are her thralls: shiny wads
of black tissue covered in barbed tentacles and
appendages. Madness incarnate, they slither and clamber
across floors, walls, and ceilings until they have captured
a live humanoid.
After wrenching off the victim's arms and legs, a thrall
tunnels into the abdomen and latches on to the spinal
column. It is now able to see through the eyes of the
dying victim. As the victim bleeds to death, the corpse's
teeth elongate, and its eyes redden.
In its new body, the monster swings from ceilings, clambers
across walls, and scuttles across floors with alarming
speed.
The sorceress, Catarina Tenaglia, vanished years ago,
but the thrallborn continue their endless hunt.
The corresponding picture is a fantastically gruesome limbless woman with dozens of dark tentacles protruding from her torso, vampiric fangs and pure evil in her eyes. This is just ONE example from the book. So great.
It struck me as both fun and devious to insert a monster whose creation cures madness but whose existence creates terror into a Cthulhu campaign.
