The Beast Fears Fire - Ghasts

Ghasts [Hardship 4]
Impulse - to kill the dead (also the occasional living).  Ghasts are, well, they are not very subtle.  Stealthy, yes, but not subtle at all.  Ghouls tend to mix fairly easily among varieties, and prefer to be in groups (goolies can't not be in a group), but ghasts are solitary and other varieties of ghoul do not like them.  Ghasts have a very distinctive appearance compared to ghouls, with round ears, long, shaggy hair (black or white or gray), and huge, round, lambent eyes that dominate their faces, making them look a little like nightmare tarsiers.  That said, their visual appearance is not the first thing that witnesses remember, however.  Ghasts are surrounded at all times by a faintly visible miasma, an odor so terrible that it affects the soul as well as the body, weakening and sickening both. 

Ghasts are, by all accounts, a sort of constabulary force for the ghouls.  While they are able to subsist for a while on carrion, their diets require guhal, and for that, they have to prey upon their fellow ghouls.  Ghasts get dispatched to the world to hunt ghouls who have, somehow, gone off the straight and narrow, as well as to face down spirits that the ghouls need destroyed.  Their spiritual targets can be any kind of spirit, but the evil dead are constant marks, if not on purpose, then of opportunity.  This makes them a sort of auspicious figure to living folk, or it would, if their presence didn't make everyone desperately ill and they weren't occasionally sent to murder mortals that offend the purpose of the ghouls.  Which, unfortunately, they do.

Harm - 3 and Peril (Sick).  Ghasts have an ability similar to that of breakers, allowing them to physically (and violently) interact with spirits regardless of their current level of manifestation.  They are strong, clever and resilient enough to kill ghouls for a living, and though they lack the paralytic venom common to their bretheren, they more than make up for it with their godsawful stench.

He who Smelt It
When a ghast shows up in the scene, anywhere, for any reason, face Hardship.
On a Hit, choose the Harm or the Peril to suffer.
On a Hard Hit, well, it's not pleasant, but you aren't harmed.
On a Miss, take harm as stated.

Prince of the Land of Stench!
Ghouls are nothing if not extremely loyal to their purpose, so whatever transgressions they can make that warrant a ghastly visit, people haven't quite figured that out.  That said, it is safe to assume that on the rare occasions that a ghoul has been induced to give information to non-ghouls, they are putting in a transfer for a new career as ghast intestinal-occupant.

Ghast's bodies contain sizable deposits of Miasmite, but the strength and elusiveness of ghasts as well as the inherent danger of just being in the same locality as them makes folks willing to go looking for the creatures to harvest for magic crystal number in the zeroes.  Some witches have been able to mix guhal, crushed miasmite and some other assorted herbs and spices in order to create ghastly stench.  Opened in the vicinty of a, well, anything, it has the same effect as a ghast's presence.  If used to coat a weapon, that weapon gains the ability (for the scene) to hit unmanifested spirits, though using it is kind of a trick.  The stuff is highly volatile, so any dose sublimates totally once exposed to air.  The black wind does not blow the smell away, but earth witches have been able to crystalize the stench of a ghast into miasmite.

Hero scarves do help to protect against the effects of the stench.