Jaysehn (prime)/Ranshai's Guide to the Lesser Undead Chapter 3
=Chapter 3: Case Study: The Ghoul
Despite the warnings thus far in this book, it is not the 'home grown' menace that I would first caution simple folk against. Instead, be first on guard for that which is drawn into your community from afar. Like a carrion bird drawn to the remains of a mauled deer, so to must you be on guard for the arrival of a ghoul.
Keeping fast to our theme of pragmatic solutions to unfortunate realities, the clash of armies is a near certainty in the course of any mortal life. As such forces move, be they of civilized or savage origins, the very mechanisms of war will require them to pillage local communities of foodstuffs and basic goods. Warm beds and dry housing are luxuries even for commanders in such campaigns and it is therefore likely that when armies do meet in the field, the battle will often be not far removed from a settlement. Despite the poetry of optimistic bards, very few armies stop to dispose of their dead. The victors pick the corpses clean of all valuables while the losers flee for their very lives. What remains is, as the more honest storytellers will convey, a feast for crows. But when the crows have had their fill, a carrion eater of another sort may find their way to this grim feast. The ghoul, or creatures that Hunters collectively will dub 'ghoul' refer to a loosely defined classification of undead that shares a few common traits.
The Ghoul: What is Known
Firstly is the unfortunate vitality of their lean frames. All ghouls are desiccated in form, but move with a loping speed and bounding gait that is driven by unnatural hunter for flesh. Despite their forms, they are possessed of an unnatural strength and are prone to great leaping charges as they tackle their foes and drive them to the ground where they can feast most easily. This is compounded by the tendency of these monstrosities to be pack creatures, charging after a single target from all directions.
Secondly, ghouls are eaters of flesh. Though they will eagerly gorge themselves on rotting and decayed flesh, they universally prefer the warm taste of the still living. Such creatures, unless they have grown very old and cunning, will attack in a ferocity that is boundless. A ghoul will not tire. It will not relent. It's very existence demands that its never ending hunger be sated.
Thirdly, ghouls maintain a strange and unknowable hierarchy. Some among them can command the will of their lesser brethren. Perhaps they have somehow maintained more of their intelligence from their life. Some instances of these so called 'elder' ghouls can even manipulate powerful magics, including dark sorceries. I have heard old and respected Masters of my Order to say that such beings are a byproduct of a lich-ascension gone wrong or, even more terribly, a result of a deliberate process to claim a terrible place somewhere between life and undeath.
Lastly, for all their predatory instincts and savage cunning, ghouls are wary. A singular ghoul is almost certainly unwilling to attack a group of mortals, even commonfolk. They seem to have a certain sense of their own 'mortality' and will pick their targets with some degree of prudence. A ghoul that attacks superior numbers is the most dangerous of all. It is likely hunger-mad and is more than willing to be destroyed if it means its horrific appetite can be sated for even a fleeting moment.
The Ghoul: What is Unknown
Sadly, I have known of no clearly agreed upon explanation for the origins of ghouls. Many suggested origins are the result of deductive observation. Perhaps it is a curse borne of cannibalistic behaviors. Perhaps it is spread, like a disease, to those who are bit or harmed by the ghoul's filth covered nails. Indeed, so few survive such an attack that it would be difficulty to prove one way or the other. Fewer still who eat of the flesh of mortals would ever make such a loathsome practice known for study.
The Ghoul: Victory and Survival
A ghoul will likely be among the first tests of the novice Hunter's mettle. These creatures tend to be found in the places of the newly dead, particularly after a mass fatality event, such as the aforementioned battles or the passing of a plague. They can make burial grounds unusable as they pull up corpse after corpse to pick the bones clean.
For those who actively hunt ghouls, always presume the creatures are at least twice the number you observe. Look for visible tracks that they are unlikely to ever bother concealing. Ghouls will not bother to cover footprints, nor attempt to conceal their numbers by moving single file. They