Ghoul

"The madness and monstrosity lay in the figures in the foreground- for Pickman's morbid art was pre-eminently one of demoniac portraiture. These figures were seldom completely human, but often approached humanity in varying degree. Most of the bodies, while roughly bipedal, had a forward slumping, and a vaguely canine cast. The texture of the majority was a kind of unpleasant rubberiness."

Ghouls are sentient (but often feral) humanoid undead that haunt graveyards and devour corpses. A rare few ghouls rise above their feral instincts to become horrifyingly civilized cannibals.

Appearance

Ghouls have a somewhat human appearance, sharing the basic frame of the humanoid they were created from, although up close it is almost impossible to mistake a ghoul for a still-living person. Firstly, all ghouls look emaciated and hungry and despite their frequent feasting, ghouls never put on any weight, always looking wiry and under-weight. Their skin also takes on the hue of bruised, pallid flesh. The facial features of the ghoul change subtly as well; the most obvious addition is the teeth which increase in both size and sharpness. The rest of the face also changes with the ears becoming larger and ending in a pointed tip, and the face becoming more elongated. Scholars have noted that these changes give ghouls a more elven appearance; some suspect that this is not a coincidence and indicates some ancient shame perpetrated in the ancient depths of elven history.

Ecology

One of the most interesting and disturbing things about ghouls is that despite being undead, they harbor many of the needs that drive the living, though admittedly these needs are normally perverted in some sinister way. Hunger is a ghoul's primary motivator, despite being dead with stomachs that long ago stopped working. This hunger is constant, never rising or falling, and only ceasing during the actual consumption of flesh. Eating has no biological benefit and a ghoul can go for years without eating and suffer no negative consequences. While this hunger drives ghouls to always be on the look out for prey, ghouls are also intelligent creatures; they have other needs apart from hunger, needs that can be sated. The only product of a ghoul's flesh consumption seems to be that it is absorbed directly into the body to replace the ghoul's own decayed, necrotic flesh. Strangely enough, ghouls only shed this necrotic waste when there is enough food to resupply it. Though they prefer rotting bodies and often bury their victims for a while to improve their taste, ghouls will eat fresh kills if they are hungry enough.

Creation

The creation of a ghoul can happen in a number of ways. Strangely, only one of these involves the ghoul itself passing on its condition. The bite of a ghoul can inflict ghoul fever, as can consuming a ghoul's flesh (though few would ever do this willingly). Ghoul fever causes the victim to suffer from great hunger, yet they are unable to keep down any food and the hunger drives them to manic behavior, eventually racking them with agonizing spasms. Unless cured, the victim slowly starves to death, rising the next midnight as a ghoul, for only in the darkest hours can such a foul metamorphosis occur.
While ghoul fever may be the most common method of creating ghouls, other ways also exist. necromancers know how to use the spell create undead to awaken a ravenous hunger within a corpse turning it into a ghoul. A rarer, less well-understood transformation sometimes occurs when a sentient human is forced to resort to cannibalism. Whether they starve to death or die sometime after matters little, for the foul deed has stained them often causing them to rise again as ghouls.
Another strange method of creation occurs only in the Darklands. The unique magical ore lazurite gives off a necromantic radiation that can cause any corpses left nearby to spontaneously rise as ghouls or ghasts. This spontaneous creation accounts for many of the non-humanoid ghouls found roaming the darkened caves and this method of creation is unusual because in some cases the newly created undead retains the knowledge and skills it possessed in life.

Habitat and Society

Ghouls are most commonly found on the outskirts of larger population centers, often in and around graveyards and sewers. This gives them access to a steady supply of food. Wherever they dwell, ghouls gather in communities, as they possess the same need for companionship, diversion, and entertainment that humans do. Ghoul warrens can be surprisingly large, encompassing miles of tunnels and only limited near the surface by the size of the graveyard they lie beneath, though some ghouls are also known to dwell in the depths of the Darklands.
Despite their ravenous, bestial nature, ghouls are as smart as humans, if not smarter, as they are able to devote centuries to their dark studies. This intelligence allows ghouls to form large, sometimes intricate social groups. At its most basic, ghoul society consists of a small pack, often led by a more powerful ghast, while at its most advanced, ghoul society has carved for itself a metropolis in the Darklands realm of Sekamina that rivals the greatest of the human cities above.

Variants

Barnacle Ghoul

Far more powerful and dangerous than most ghouls, barnacle ghouls are the risen corpses of veteran sailors who fell overboard or of bloodthirsty pirates who died from keelhauling. Too rugged and hate-filled to stay dead, these seafarers return with bluish, water-bloated bodies.
Barnacle ghouls have a supernatural command over barnacles; a simple touch from a ghoul causes the crustaceans to adhere, grow, or release. The ghouls cultivate clusters of barnacles on their hands and feet, using the lumpy shells to more easily climb and grab at prey.
Barnacle ghouls keep their lungs filled with brackish seawater, which they exhale onto their victims. Breathing in even a few drops of this tainted seawater can be deadly, as it magically expands in a victim's lungs. A creature that can't expel the seawater eventually drowns and rises as a new barnacle ghoul. Barnacle ghouls have many abilities of standard ghouls.

Ghast

Ghasts are more powerful versions of ghouls, strong enough to paralyze even elves, who are normally immune to a ghoul's paralysis. Ghasts roam in packs of their own kind or lead groups of common ghouls. The stink of death and corruption surrounding these creatures is so overwhelming that it threatens to sicken any living creatures in close proximity. Ghasts normally occur when a ghoul would be created from a creature more powerful than humans or elves, creatures like bugbears or troglodytes.

Leng Ghoul

Leng ghouls are the ghouls of the nightmare Plateau of Leng, more powerful, intelligent, and erudite than their cousins dwelling in the Material Plane. Unlike common ghouls, Leng ghouls have a canine snout and hoofed feet.
The ghouls of the nightmare dimension of Leng are far more powerful and more intelligent than their lesser kin that haunt and caper in the lonely graveyards of the Material Plane, yet they are also more prone to discussion and debate with intruders. Ghoul warrens that burrow deep enough can inexplicably cross over from this world to Leng, allowing the ghouls of that realm access to this world. Leng ghouls delight in feasting on dead flesh and consider themselves gourmets of rot and decay, treating a full coffin as a sumptuous banquet table. Leng ghouls maintain complex societies and extensive warrens when they colonize reaches of the Material Planes, digging deep below the surface graveyards they choose to haunt. These creatures are not only driven to gather victims to slaughter and bodies to ripen—they also seek out forbidden texts and magical scrolls to augment their ever-increasing stores of knowledge, which often rival the greatest of wizardly libraries in size, although their subject matter tends to be limited to necromancy and the study of forbidden rites. A Leng ghoul can sometimes be convinced to let a particularly delicious-looking intruder go (relatively) unharmed in exchange for new lore.
Most Leng ghouls venerate the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones, most often Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep and Mordiggian. A rare few of these creatures retain more of their humanity than merely their living intellect.

Yareesh

Yareesh is a Leng ghoul who lives in The Sunless Grove beneath Carrion Hill. The Fellowship encountered him while trying to track down the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth. He provided aid and access to the Pnakotic Manuscript in exchange for bringing him the "Eyes of Yog-Sothoth", a component of the creature they sought.
After defeating the Spawn, the Fellowship returned to Yareesh to deliver to him Keeper Myre for questioning as they were unable to secure to component he asked for. Yareesh further bargained with the group for the capture of a hag that was last seen at the Festival of Lanterngeist in Illmarsh, but seemed out of place there. Yareesh also Drago a multicolored feather to contact him.

Geographic Distribution

• Carrion Hill
• Dreamlands
• Thrushmoor
• Versex

Related or Referenced