The Beast Fears Fire - Gholes

Gholes [Malevolence 3]
Impulse - Conceal, Eliminate all Trace. Knowledge of gholes is a relatively new thing, as people begin to spread out from their homes, looking to see if neighboring settlements and communities weathered the epidemic. There are some records floating about in old grimoires about ghoulish heralds of the forest that help the forest swallow up what had once been settled, but it's only since people and ghouls have started to come into conflict over settlements abandoned or wiped out that gholes are trying to reclaim for the forest that those records have appeared in any kind of numbers.

Gholes live in the forest and in the trees, unlike their cousins, they are always fully dressed, wearing tattered capes and coats and scarves, dark bandages wrapped around their limbs. Gholes have somewhat more developed claws than ghouls, particularly on their feet, and slightly longer arms. They travel almost exclusively in and through the trees, possessing the same transportation magic that wood witches have, likewise, they have the ability to control the growth of plants and cause them to move. This they do extensively for the purpose of destroying or concealing abandoned places.

Harm - 2/Entangled, Flowering. Fighting a ghole and fighting a wood witch are fairly similar and similarly unpleasant experiences. Gholes bend the plantlife around them to fight on their behalf, lashing with limbs, entangling and strangling with vines, making harmless plants grow irritating thorns and shoot them at people. They have no compunction about attacking anyone who interferes with their work, in order to drive them off, but save their big guns for the determined foes. Ghole venom, in conjunction with their magic causes vines and flowers to sprout from those they have poisoned. A person who falls under this Peril has their body consumed and becomes flowers.

Gholes are somewhat more aggressive than ghouls because humans are naturally resistant to a lot of their land reclaiming powers, and the presence of a single person, even one not magically trained, in a territory they are trying to reforest can prevent them from accomplishing their goal.

Garden, City
When you are in an area that a ghole is trying to reforest, face Malevolence.
On a Hit, reforesting stops for as long as you remain in the area.
On a Hard Hit, the power rebounds on the Ghole, and it Harms itself as stated.
On a Miss, the forest continues unabated, you suffer 2 Harm and are Entangled.


Suddenly I stop. I know it's too late. I'm lost in a forest, all alone.
Gholes are no less enemies of spirits of the dead than other ghouls, and have a particular method for fighting the evil dead. Their strategy involves growing ghostwood persimmons into cages around the spirts, entrapping them. A ghostwood-entrapped spirit, in the right hands, can become a very impressive battery of mystic energy, and, at worst, is probably full of crystalized spirit in the middle.

So far, no one has witnessed a feud between a ghole and a Lich. It would likely be interesting.