Cannibalistic crew / ghouls


Skull & Shackles


I am running skulls and shackles and one crew member is an Orc/cook who butchers the crew of taken ships and servers them to his unsusbticing crew members on a ship where nothing else is around to eat. It has been a year of game time and under ghouls is speculates that ghouls where once cannibalistic humans.
I was thinking of having the crew make saves for ghoul fever but was wondering how often I should make them save and if this would be to much of a punishment for canniblism. Also if there is anything other ideas out there.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder LO Special Edition, PF Special Edition Subscriber

Did you give them a chance to realize this was human meat? I'd have given them a regular heal check, sense motive, or knowledge (nature) to figure it out's not beef he's preparing.

That being said, I'd probably make it a low-ish DC save once a week.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder LO Special Edition, PF Special Edition Subscriber

OH! And if you spring it on them, make it not all at once... have them start to be annoyed by the sun, growing very long fingernails very fast... eventually just give them free claw attacks. You could also have their hair fall out...

A gradual curse is much more scary than all at once, and it gives them a chance to discover the cause and redeem themselves (if they want to).


A sailor walks into a bar. Orders seagull. Waits patiently for the cook to prepare it. Eats the meal. Thanks the cook. Leaves a big tip and then shoots himself.


Thanks Andrew, I like idea of the slow Incubation period and the symptoms. The pc's all know or have decided to ignore the problem and some like the captain opt to only eat the salad or ship rations if they have recently taken the ship. As for the dc I believe it is 13 for ghouls Fever.

I was going to give a lower dc for those that have tried to not eat all of cookies (Orc/cook) cannibalic creations. In which I have given a knowledge nature check or perception now if its human. Some pc's have just shrugged and say they will eat what cookie places in front of them and not worry about it. Which is why I was thinking of ghoul fever.


Now if it was just a once in a while thing I would shrug it off, but cookie has gone out of his way to provide the crew with all types of intelligent species (except the noble flesh of Orc of course).


Yeah, I think the ghoul thing is a fair response. There aren't any hard and fast rules in the books for this sort of thing, but then I doubt the developers were expecting PC's to be munching on long pig morning, noon, and night.

Personally, if they persist, I'd forgo a saving throw at all.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.
gyggles wrote:

I am running skulls and shackles and one crew member is an Orc/cook who butchers the crew of taken ships and servers them to his unsusbticing crew members on a ship where nothing else is around to eat. It has been a year of game time and under ghouls is speculates that ghouls where once cannibalistic humans.

I was thinking of having the crew make saves for ghoul fever but was wondering how often I should make them save and if this would be to much of a punishment for canniblism. Also if there is anything other ideas out there.

This seems to be a question that is not specific to pathfinder society. Can it be moved to the proper board?

Thanks.

Nathan Meyers
NYC PFS GM/Player


Sure. No idea how to move it.


gyggles wrote:
Sure. No idea how to move it.

Click FLAG in the post appropriate, then select "wrong forum". Done now!


I had a similar encounter prepared for Ravenloft, a long time back, based on an Edgar Allen Poe story:

The party run into a ship at sea, a massive hoary thing whose Captain has driven much of his original crew to death (or undeath) in his quest to reach his goal (Van der Veckan style). The ship is huge and complex, it will rescue any shipwreck victims (but they get press-ganged as crew), and will demand supplies and crew from any ship they encounter (although these will be paid for meticulously if given voluntarily, and taken by force if not).

The captain and senior officers had become Mummies, the raiders that storm ships are ghouls, and so on. As much as half the crew are not undead, but living humanoids, and the PCs are likely to join them...


In your place, I would ask myself "Do I want to be running this sort of campaign?" and discover that the answer is NO. I'd tell them in no uncertain terms that that's horrific and if that's the game they want to play they need to find a different GM.


lol I have the same kind of thing going on. The cook in my game is a Sweeney Todd on the quiet too. I let it fly though as hes so much fun (plus the thought is there but he hasn't done it to the crew..yet. Only to a vegitarian elf in senghor, the persuaded him to eat a elf burger laced with pech. I have a plan the next time they visit the port, the Elf that ate the meat has turned into a Jack the ripper type and has killed quiet a few people so far and turned demonic he he he).


Just a quick note :
Slaughtering anything on board of an average sized pirate ship.... out of sight to boot... is.... yeah, extremely hard, if not impossible to start with.

There are no bulkheads on a wooden man-o-war, giving a plain view down the decks on any deck (excepting the captain's cabin, and, yes those bulk heads were dismounted too in combat), so butchering humanoids..... happens in plain view. Nevermind the serious bloodstains and amount of offal on the deck(s) with the blood soaking into the planks - the reason why navy decks were scrubbed each day... to remove bloodstains, moss, algae...
Who takes care of the skeletons/bones etc. after flensing and helps the cook dispose of his heavy cadavres and the buckets of slosh, guts etc..? If the cook slaughers the corpses in the kitchen or another enclosed space.... think slaughterhouse or abbatoir, with all the distinctive aromatics

And I wonder whether the crew ever asked where the fresh meat (pretty distinctive from salted meats out of a barrel) just suddenly appears from ? Any cows, pigs or other livestock aboard which mysteriously survive all the meat being served ? Why does no-one ever buy any other food or gets the readily barreled stuff from other ships, or nets something from the sea ? To quote from "LotR . the Two Towers" There is meat on the table again....

Or human meat (going by anthropological sources) carrying a distinctive taste/flavour....so much, that Polynesians' and Micronesians' refered to it as "long pork" ?
Did no-one ever put u that question ?

so basically, the only solution is a ship of voluntary canibals (in the sense of the devouring sentient humanoids)....
....in a way, that fits the tales of debauchery, evil and consumption of "living" flesh as a measure of corruption so much better than the unspecified ghoulish origin stories listed in the Bestiary.
But that would really would put the campaign deeply into Call of Cthulhu or Kult territory... not everyone's favourite playing style

just my 2 cents... the situation looks rotten with peril, especially if some of the players' object to the abse of their characters...


yeah all joking aside I have to agree there, the odd one here and there he might be able to get away with but whole surviving crews?


gyggles wrote:

...and some like the captain opt to only eat the salad...

Laugh of the Day, gyggles. ;D

That said, I concur with PoB-W. If this is your cup of tea, carry on. If not, it might be time for a GM-to-Player heart to heart talk. (No pun intended.)


By all rights the orc is bucking hard for wendigo, not some mere ghoul.

Easiest way to ghoul the crew is in print already. Maroon them on a certain island, come back after a month or so.


A quick look at "Companion : Classic Horrors revisited" might show that for one a ghoul to be has to die first (in a state of hunger,or in the desperation of eating his own kin ) and/or having been infected by ghoul fever previously. So it's madness or sickness..... As long as the PCs (and other crew) haven't died yet, and not being infected by ghoul fever or are in full knowledge of what they eat.... Nothing much will happen, except a prelude to some nasty mutinee or lynching

Just quoting the expanded information from the Chronicles, which is not immediate core by RAW, but sensibly elaborates on the odd creation process. Otherwise by my take and YMMV, any humanoid race eating other sentient humanoids (and I don't see orcs, goblins or other goblinoids, trolls or many giants etc. not doing so) would commonly turn into ghouls, simply due to their diet. Nevermind the greater witch hex of cooking up humanoids for buffs, which would be a really easy way of mass-producing ghoulish undead, besides all its other benefits.


So what did they do with fishguts? Turn him into soup? Seems to me this is turning the AP on its head and I would question why a DM would allow a player to run an Orc in the first place. In Book 2 they are going to need his knowledge in some parts to get through the AP.


Thanks dabbler for moving the post.


brvheart wrote:
So what did they do with fishguts? Turn him into soup? Seems to me this is turning the AP on its head and I would question why a DM would allow a player to run an Orc in the first place. In Book 2 they are going to need his knowledge in some parts to get through the AP.

Fishguts died in book 1. The Orc was made his sue chef and found that fishguts had a drinking problem. So he kept feeding fishguts alcohol until he blacked out then put a tube down his throat and poured more alcohol in and let him die from alcohol poisoning. He was going to make fishgut stew but didn't want to bring notice to himself right away.

I used Sandra Quinn for the info about slippery squibs port.


Anyone could be the know-it-all veteran sailor that Fishgut is scheduled to become. Sandara is a fine choice, but any member of the crew could be upgraded to a major NPC with relevant pirate-knowledge.

If your players are in danger of becoming ghouls, I'd give them some subtle hints and warnings. Tell them that their enemies dead corpses start to look delicious, that they have a craving for taking just a single bite, stuff like that. Give them fair warning to abandon the road they're on (maybe allowing some know. religion checks for direct warnings), before you have them start rolling saves.

For the crew, give the cook and captain warnings as well. Have them spot a crewman eating the slain enemy on the deck of a newly conquered ship. If questioned, he just sort of lost it, and can't really explain why he felt that strange urge. Have the crew start to change appearence, becoming pale, grow clawlike nails.
In short, give them fair warning what is going to happen unless they change their ways.

I think it sounds like both you and your players are having fun, and going all-out for the "evil experience" that this AP allows. :)


I had a similar idea bzali, I started last week by having a npc crew member make a comment to the captain who ordered a prisoner released that he would take the prisoner to cookie for some rations "wink wink suggestive lip smaking". The captain himself walked the halfling off the ship and onto the dock. So I started to have the lower level crew showing signs of craving for sentient flesh.

Next step is to have them show other signs, I like your idea of having someone start eating a down enemy before cookie even gets to them. Maybe thicker fingernails or just a ragged look. I have also told the captain that they have lost crew at ports due to the strange things that happen on the ship. I was thinking in this step I would have the pc's having strange cravings for raw meat like some of their crew currently seem to have. So even if they fail a religion check they will see what lies ahead if they stay the current course.

Not sure if I said this earlier but cookie specialty is sushi... He doesn't believe in cooked meat. He also has said he pickles the meat he doesn't use to insure the crew will always have his delious cooking.


Other signs can also show such as flinching from holy symbols other than say Urgagothoa.

Complaining about working in the daytime(Possible sunlight aversion)


Thanks Andrea1, I am writing a list of signs to slowly build up to change and if the pc's wish to stop it ill let it up to them.


Is this a PC who is embracing the game with relish?


And mustard and peppers and salt ... indeed, an entire spice rack from the sound of it. ;)


Indeed frank and Turin. I don't want to stomp out any creative juices.
, but also don't want the pc's to think they can do anything without any consequences.
Thanks everyone I am running tonight so i am greatful for all the great feedback.


In an interesting turn of events, the only real cannibalism that's occurred in my campaign is that my character ate that Ghast on Bonewrack isle to contract Ghoul Fever on purpose. We were going to try to feed force either Plugg or Scourge to eat the other on pain of death, and then feed the survivor to the Ghast as a sort of human turducken, but they got killed by giant BEEEEES first :-(.


updates? Want to know where this has gone.


For the record, I play a NE captain who's a cannibal. He is a ruthless, avaricious man who disregards the lives he ruins to fulfill his goals and only cares for his own progress. The closest thing to a virtue he has is that he takes very good care of his crew and allies and even considers a few (the other players) "friends" (not that that would keep him from killing them if they became way more trouble than they're worth with a clean and unrepentant conscience. Still evil, after all.).

That said, even he would find this sort of thing grossly reprehensible. For one, it is neither smart nor practical to try to secretly feed your crew living humanoid. Not everyone is a worshiper of Urgathoa and not everyone holds the belief that, viewed scientifically, meat is meat regardless of the animal it comes from. Second of all, in the grand political scheme of things, word of this WILL get out to the rest of the Shackles, and while it'll make for a fierce reputation, it might make allies like Tessa FAR less willing to turn to that particular ship for aid. Lastly, unless the players are particularly good at disassociating in-character with out-of-character (and even then are ok with such dark and horrifying attributes being included in the game - which CAN make for an impressive story, mind you, but require a good deal of maturity to pull off), you're going to see a lot of very bad drama.

Supporting a cannibalistic lifestyle and keeping it tolerated by the crew requires two things: honesty and reward. The orc in question is not being honest nor is he being particularly charitable to the crew ("fresh meat" meals notwithstanding) and, as vikingson's reasoning presents, will inevitably be discovered. Once he is, he'll be readily mutinied against and keelhauled or worse.

As far as the curse of the wendigo or ghoul fever are concerned, there's no real risk of it for them. The wendigo curse is incurred by the guilt and darkness caused when someone, due to harsh environments, is forced to cannibalize another (and go insane from the act). Ghoul fever is an actual disease, and unless whatever the person is eating carries it, they aren't in danger of contracting it, though spiritual affliction of it or a supernatural degradation into one is purely up to GM discretion.

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