Ghoul Shock Trooper

ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary, gang (2–6), or pack (7–12)

In ages past, ghouls shunned society and haunted cemeteries and city sewers. However, ghouls are more likely to live in cities, especially settlements inhabited primarily by undead. Ghouls are resourceful and hardy, and make good workers across a variety of industries. Their adaptability is striking even for undead creatures, and ghouls who are patient and dedicated can become excellent researchers, scholars, soldiers, laborers, and more. Ghouls of all proficiencies and backgrounds are especially populous on undead planets.

Ghouls spread—sometimes purposefully—a virulent disease known as ghoul fever through their saliva. As creatures that die of ghoul fever often rise as ghouls themselves, a population explosion can easily result. However, even in ghoul society, it is frowned upon to inflict ghoul fever on large numbers of living creatures. Such behavior leads to unwanted attention from authorities.

Rather than spread the undead scourge they carry inside them, ambitious ghouls instead seek training and self-improvement in pursuits that interest them. Many of these ghouls become ghoul shock troopers. Others find that technology suits them and become mechanics or technomancers, fusing their shrewd understanding of their own organic biology with the elegance of machinery. Ghoul envoys are rare, since undead are stubbornly independent as a rule, and few living crew members would follow the commands of someone so off-putting as a ghoul.

Certain powerful ghouls known as ghasts can affect even elves with their paralysis, and exude a powerful stench; these undead usually hold important positions in ghoul society. Ghouls that lurk underwater and in coastal areas are called lacedons.