The Eater of Children

(Unique Entity)

It is something left over from the most ancient days. Not plant or animal or fungus but something else. If there were ever others of its kind, they are long gone. It alone survived the cataclysms throughout the aeons by learning and adapting. Now it is less a living thing now and more a force of cold, hungry nature. Its form is never fixed for long, always changing to better hunt and hide, thought it may wear one skin for millennia. In these final days it appears as dried, barren tree, its mouth gaping and desperate. Perhaps even this immortal being is coming to the end of its life.

You will find it just beyond the tree line in a park or near a playground, somewhere close to people. It appears to be naked, broken and decaying tree, sitting in the center of an irregular clearing, almost indistinguishable from any other rotting tree in the forest. Other trees at the edge of this circle of dead soil seem to bend away from it. 

In truth it is a predator that has drank the blood of animals since the first amphibians and proto-reptiles emerged from the oceans. Its spores can hypnotize any animal entering the patch of barren earth, drawing them into its hollow. This is actually a gullet full of grasping root-like tendrils. Once inside, the tendrils pull the victim deeper and slowly squeezes the blood from them. 

Its preferred prey are children, and anything else too weak to struggle or resist its hypnotic spores. 

CULT: There has never been an organized worship of the Eater of Children, aside from sporadic cults offering sacrifices. Such cults don’t last long. The Eater doesn’t desire or even understand worship, as likely to consume a cultist as it is any sacrifice. It is practically unknown in grimoires of occult and alien knowledge. 

Blend: releases an invisible cloud of spores that covers the barren area surrounding the monster, blinding any affected to its existence. The Eater spends one magic point per person it wants to hide from. The victim will be unable to see the Eater even if they are looking directly at it. In addition, they will be unable to recall where the Eater was located within the barren area, even if they knew beforehand. A successful POW vs POW roll negates this effect. 

Hypnotize: releases spores that can compel someone within 30 yards to enter its gullet by spending one magic point and making a POW vs POW roll. The victim may make a POW vs POW roll each round to resist. 

Animate Dead: the Eater raises the corpses its victims to defend itself. There are 1D4 corpses in the sour soil around it at any time and costs the Eater 1 magic point per reanimated corpse. The corpses will remain animated until they are destroyed or the Eater releases control. For child zombies, halve the stats found for zombies in Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook, pg. 335. 

Eater of Children, primordial vampire

STR 200 CON 100 SIZ 200 DEX 0 INT 45 POW 70

Hit Points: 30

Damage Bonus: 4D6

Build: 5

Magic Points: 14

Move: 0

Combat

Attacks per round: 1

While the Eater has only one true attack, it will use all of its special abilities to defend itself if forced into combat.

Ensnare: Root-like tendrils will wrap around anyone entering the Eater of Children’s gullet. The victim may attempt a STR roll each round to escape. If the Eater is threatened or if a victim is puts up a fight, the roots will crush them for 4D6 points of damage. Each day the victim is held, the Eater of Children will drain 2D10 CON points in blood each day.

Bruce Priddy

Bruce is a sociology student and co-host of The Crypt Keepers podcast