Dobhar-chú
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Basic Information

The Dobhar-chú or water hound is a creature from Irish legend, also known as the King Otter. Described as a cross between a dog and fish or an enormous otter, and possibly related to the afnac - it was said to be a voracious water dwelling predator, recorded as having attacked a woman doing her laundry.

It's not obvious what historical creature - if any - this could be based on but one potential contender may be the ambulocetus or some relative thereof: an Eocene carnivore that was actually a type of whale but could be summarised as being a lot like a furry crocodile. The only fossil record of them is currently in Pakistan, but something related could be an entertaining possibility. Frankly, it could also have been a prehistoric species of otter - the giant river otter of Brazil is known to attack humans and the historical record includes even bigger examples known only from fossils.

Sources

Dobhar-chú at the other wiki
Ambulocetidae at the other wiki

Bibliography
1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

  • Northern waters are mostly free of things that eat humans - use these to fix that.
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