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I am getting ready to run a certain module that prominently features ghouls. Normally not a problem, but one of my players (my girlfriend actually) has a phobia of zombies, specifically the Night of the Living Dead kind. So, how do I make this ok for her? I know I'm going to make a certain aristocrat ghast look and act more like a vampire, but what can I do about the generic ghouls? Any ideas?
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Did she watch a zombie movie when she was a little too young, and it gave her nightmares?
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I am getting ready to run a certain module that prominently features ghouls. Normally not a problem, but one of my players (my girlfriend actually) has a phobia of zombies, specifically the Night of the Living Dead kind. So, how do I make this ok for her? I know I'm going to make a certain aristocrat ghast look and act more like a vampire, but what can I do about the generic ghouls? Any ideas?
I have arachnophobes in my group. It made the encounters with giant chittering spiders in a forest all the sweeter. :3
Ghouls aren't like zombies at all though. They're too smart and cunning for that. I'd say they are far more like vampires. Disable their foe then feed. Night of the Living Dead style zombies are better represented with Plague Zombies who infect others with their attacks and/or explosively delicious exploding death! :D
While ghouls do turn other creatures into ghouls by biting them, they simply have more in common with vampires and such. They're highly intelligent and just generally superior to their living counterparts, so while I could imagine some being very feral, I would imagine it would be more of indulging in the joy of being a predator. Maybe even a bit of sadistic roleplay on their part.
The Civilized Ghoulishness feat can be used for some extra fun. It gives a +10 racial bonus to Disguise checks appear to be a normal humanoid, non-magical, and allows ghasts to suppress or resume their stench as a free action.
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Go with the look Pathfinder has gone for more civilized ghouls and ramp up the severe wrongness of their civility combined with their appetites.
This alienly handsome, chalk-white, solid-red-eyed, hairless elf with just a touch of animal hunger etched permanently upon his face dressed in absolutely clean, fine clothing greets a PC to sit with him for dinner in an overly bright, overly clean hall of marble with marble tables and marble chairs and marble everywhere that feels part dining hall/part mausoleum.
The cleaness of everything make the rare errant specks of blood and gore about the room and the ghoul's clothing himself stand out that much more.
He's polite, prodding the PC more and more with questions. He's genuinely interested in learning all there is to know about his guest, ever hungry for more details. Perhaps he's looking for an appropriate companion. Perhaps he simply wishes to know one of his next meals, out of what he considers genuine respect.
The conversation goes on. Certain things begin to come out about the furnishings and decor after a while. A lot of ivory. Except not ivory. Human femurs and fingerbones shouldn't be crafted with such care and taste, most might think...
The host remains calm at all times. Or at least he seems to be, to an almost supernatural degree. But in the eyes there's always that hunger when they look upon flesh, living or dead. He's asking you where you learned the bard's trade and he's smiling at the joke you made, but the eyes say he'd love to run across the table on all fours and tear you apart. But he doesn't. He savors the thought and waits. Proper ghouls wait until the meal is perfect. Perhaps after dinner. Perhaps in an hour. Perhaps after years of friendship when he knows you more than he knows himself.
And he'll use it all. You were a good friend. You were a perfect meal. Your skull is a fantastic goblet. And your other bones make for a delightful centerpiece sculpture for the dining hall.
A wonderful point of conversation between him and his future guests.
Repostan:
the new take on (ghouls) rocks. You get to have the classic rotten ones for those that like them, if they chow down regularly. But the civilized ones? Those are so much creepier.
It's one thing to have moving corpses with bits falling off feasting on people like feral beasts. It's another to have these unearthly, white-as-snow, handsome/beautiful beings plenty capable of reason, civilization, and possibly pleasant conversation who snack on people. These pale white beings living in clean, pale marble tomb-homes, with all the trappings of high culture, perfectly austere, with people bits on the dining table. That mix of beauty and absolute gruesome horror just works for a lot of chilling scenarios, making them potentially far more unsettling than any vampire. The whole scene just seems more insane with urbane ghouls, without the vampire's romanticism or familiarity to buffer it.
The theory about why they all look like elves was a very nice touch as well.
I really want to know more about that civilization underneath Osirion now. Take the civilized ghouls up above, heavily flavor them with their religious devotion to Kabiri with all the Egyptian-styled aesthetic and cultural trappings of Osirion... Wow.