The Beast Fears Fire - Ghouls

Ghouls [Violence 2, 4 Gang]
Impulse - Close ranks, protect their own.
Ghouls are, by far, the most common and plentiful of their kind, to the point where they are referred to as standard, default and synecdoche. They are also the variety most likely to communicate with other creatures, though people find that they would rather ghouls not communicate with them - they are the kind of droll scavengers whose strongest apparent positive emotion is a quiet schadenfreude. Garrulous ghouls have determined that speculating on the quality of the remains you'll leave behind is a fine way to put you off balance and get what they want.

Ghouls can tunnel at respectable speeds and tend to make underground warrens for shelter when they visit our world for any length of time. These tunnels aren't designed for surface creatures to navigate (an average to small adult human will have a tight squeeze and no room to maneuver, and a larger person won't usually be able to enter at all). They have extremely keen senses of smell and excellent night vision. They are as strong and fast as an athletic person, decent free-climbers and terrible swimmers (ghouls are kind of afraid of water). Intellectually, they are very similar to humans, though less likely to show brilliance.

Harm - 2/Peril (Paralyzed) Ghouls gang up when they can, and coordinate well in a pack. They can use weapons, but do so only rarely, and usually only bows for distance. They much prefer to claw and bite. Ghouls have a paralytic venom in their saliva, and lick their formidable claws in order to transfer some of the effect.

Perilous Fight
When you are fighting something whose major attacks deliver Peril, face Violence.

On a Hit, things go as normal, but add the option to avoid the Peril as something you can pick.
On a Hard Hit, use the options from a Hard Hit for a normal face Violence.
On a Miss, suffer Harm as stated, with Peril.

Brains for every single meal
Ghoul venom remains potent for a few minutes, once exposed to air, and, yes, it is possible to harvest the venom and preserve it to use to coat weapons, if you're nasty. The stuff is a little tricky to work with, since it absorbs through the skin, so only experienced poisoners use it.

Ghouls also produce a preservative chemical in their saliva, which, when you can get it, is unmatched at keeping animal tissue fresh pretty much indefinitely. Ghouls who are tasked with selling things to other creatures usually have this as the mainstay of their merchandise.

Ghouls tend to, either by instinct or education, preserve organs and tissues from creatures that have value to magicians and philosophical scientists, and any ghoul in a coat probably has something really interesting to the right buyer in its pockets, preserved and kept just in case it needs to make a trade.
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Published on December 21, 2012 08:58
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