Ghoul
Select Subtype:
Description:
Ghouls are deranged undead humanoids who hunger for the flesh of the dead. They are drawn particularly to tombs, graveyards, battlefields, and plague-ridden regions. More intelligent that zombies, skeletons, or similar undead, a ghoul will attempt to conceal its nature - perhaps huddling under a ratty old cloak and shuffling past, or using some other simple deception - if it will get it closer to a meal. This minor cleverness enables ghouls to sometimes make their way into cities or other populated areas. While they are not interested in trying to eat the living, their continual exposure to disease and rot make them dangerous vectors for disease, and a ghoul that finds a way into a town or city can cause a lot of problems.
Special:
Ghouls are immune to normal weapons, poison, and disease though Blessed weapons do +25% damage to them. As undead, their attacks are considered magical. Ghouls are always infected with Black Rot, and anyone who is touched by a ghoul - even if not damaged - will have to resist the severe form of the disease. Any area which is frequented by ghouls, or in which a person has suffered through the progression of Black Rot, will be infested, and anyone making skin contact with surfaces, bedding, clothes or objects touched or used by a ghoul or an infected person will cause exposure to the mild form of the disease and also require a roll to resist infection. The roll to resist is made at the end of the day that exposure occurs, and is made against the single most virulent incidence of exposure.
Variants:
Ghouls hunger for the flesh of the dead, devour any corpse they find without hesitation. That said, they do not need to eat anything to 'subsist' - they are undead after all. It takes decades for a ghoul waste away from lack of eating - simply because without the rotting flesh of the dead inside of its belly it will eventually completely dehydrate and turn to dust.
Standard Ghoul
The most common form of ghoul is a grey skinned husk of a former person with rotting teeth and fingernails, they tend to be twisted and deformed with disease.
Emaciated Ghoul
Emaciated ghouls are ghouls have have gone many years without feasting on the dead - perhaps after having been sealed in a tomb and devoured all the corpses years ago. Emaciated ghouls are on the verge of disintegrating - they are weaker and more fragile - but they are also more deparate to feast, and will attack with a terrifying rage.
Engorged Ghoul
Engorged ghouls are ghouls that have found themselves an abundant supply of corpses and have been feasting continually on them for some time - perhaps having wandered into a plague-ridden town, or perhaps having gained access to a large barrow, or other burial site. Engorged ghouls can be enormous - with huge distended bellies - sometimes even burst open with the masticated flesh of their meals tumbling out of open wounds in their abdomens.