GHOULS! Help me scare the crap out of my players.

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So, I've got a paladin and three companions -- one or more of whom is probably a traitor and an assassin -- locked into a great metropolitan necropolis as a test of their worthiness. Oh, and the necropolis is overrun with ghouls.

Their task is to clear and resanctify (with rituals, not spells -- this is 3.5) five tombs sacred to their church. While the traitor is going to make all of this a little more interesting, I want these ghouls to make the players run screaming. Not because of mechanical reasons necessarily -- that's not really the type of fear I'm hoping for -- but more because "holy crap, this place makes my skin crawl."

Unload your ideas, ENWorld. Scare the crap out of my players. Bonus points if you make any of them actually soil themselves.

 

[Rechan]

First of all, THE scary thread.

Next, I would speed up the Ghoul Fever's incubation to perhaps an hour, and then play up the angle. If a ghoul bites you, you get... hungry. You find yourself nibbling on your fingernails and then your fingertips. You can just... smell how tasty your buddy's skin is. Just so tempting to lean over and sink your teeth into him like an apple...

But it depends on how you like your ghouls. Mindless super zombies (like 28 Days Later or the Dawn of the Dead remake)? Pathetic and cowardly scavengers who only kill when they have superior numbers? Ugly vampires that eat flesh instead of blood (thus being the "poor man's Nosferatu")? Ruthless undead killers that just happen to eat their kills?

Now. One idea I liked is to have Ghouls try to act civilized. They wear fancy clothes (and masks), they have nice, well decorated table with fancy china - and a corpse on the table they delicately slice pieces off of and eat. The PCs could walk in to find them having a dinner party, but the meal has not arrived yet. The ghouls could invite the PCs to dinner (or mistake them for food).

Remember that Ghouls, like people, might also have certain food preferences. Some might prefer just the skin, while others could fancy particular organs, and so on.

Another approach is to go the "Hills Have Eyes" route. Ye olde Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Wrong Turn - the ghouls are malformed redneck cannibals that just Won't Die.

Recently I saw an interesting twist on ghouls in the show Supernatural: ghouls are like corpse doppelgangers. If they eat a corpse, they can gain the memories/personality of the person, and can take their appearance. So they could eat someone the PCs knew (or perhaps an ancestor), and try to mess with the party.

If you like that idea, but want to go a different route, the ghouls could go all Silence of the Lambs - skin someone and wear their appearance like a suit. Or use cosmetics to cover up their undead-ness; pretend to be a victim about ready to get chomped on, and then leap on someone, clinging to them and biting.

Ghouls don't just strike me as pack hunters and madmen - they also might make great serial killers. One powerful one could stalk the players, playing hit-and-run, or hunt them like an archer, running across the roofs of crypts. They could find the ghoul's lair, with trophies from previous kills.

The PCs could walk into a ghoul's larder; think a butcher shop, with chains hanging down and clinking coldly, insects creeping and bubbling, rusty, blood-crusty knives hanging all around.

Then, there's giving some ghouls different powers. Some might be shadow-related; darting in and out of shadows (via teleportation). Becoming invisible or quasi-invisible. Others might be fast and skitter across the ceiling (spider climb). Maybe give these damage reduction and regeneration. This way they do something different.

If possible, I'd sprinkle traps throughout the place. Not traps designed to kill - but to capture. Portcullises to cut off exits and herd the Pcs in one direction. Snares and traps designed to hold players still while the ghouls come after them. The point is to feel like the Ghouls are prepared, they're closing in on them, and these traps are slowing the PCs down and making them vulnerable. This is the Ghoul's playground - make that evident.

 

[Bumbles]

Unload your ideas, ENWorld. Scare the crap out of my players. Bonus points if you make any of them actually soil themselves.

Word of advice...plastic seating will be important if this is your goal.

 

[Hand of Evil]

This is all about atmosphere, think outside of the hack and slash box.

the sounds the players will hear, the drip of water, the claws clicking on the floor as the ghouls follow the players, the sight of their cold hungry eyes as they watch the players from the edge of darkness.

How they move away from the characters if they approch them, the number of eyes growing in numbers, the sounds of feasting if the players kill some other creature.​

You can also dim the lights in the game room.
Create a clicking noise, like teeth clicking together and play it in the background.
Devolop patternes of attack that the players don't expect, such as the darting in of one only to pull back and aonther to acttack from a blind spot or even the ghoulds weeding out one player to attack in mass.

Oh, child on a string. a young child 2 or so is used by the ghouls; the child has a rope tied to it. When players get near the child the ghouls pull it into darkness.

 

[Rechan]

Here's an old DM trick:

Sit your players with their backs to an open space. An open doorway is best. Put your back against the wall. Periodically, look over their shoulders while talking. But don't make it obvious you're doing this; don't call attention to it.

It will unnerve them on a subconscious level, because it pushes buttons of anxiety.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, child on a string. a young child 2 or so is used by the ghouls; the child has a rope tied to it. When players get near the child the ghouls pull it into darkness.

Oh, best ever. This will make at least one player CRAZY.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I love Ghouls.

Some very nice suggestions there. I may have to borrow some.

Re. the Ghouls inviting the PCs to dinner. Make the dinner less obviously human(oid). Just a torso sans limbs that you describe as being 'like a side of pork about (measure the distance on one of the players with your hands) this long.' Maybe even have it cooked (I know, not very ghoulish) and refer to the pork like smell. The Ghoul 'father' can lean over the meat, carving knife and fork in hand, learing and beginning to drool, and ask the PC 'Light meat or dark?'

Not long ago I had my group lost in a labyrinth beneath a city. The bad guys were down there too, hunting them. They had no idea how to get out. They met a recently turned ghoul, still with many human traits. This ghoul was not a vicious killer but was very creepy and kept smelling the players and asking them for food. It ate all the dried meat they would give it. Because of the timing of things the PCs were needing to sleep and recuperate/regain spells/heal. But they also needed the ghoul to show them the way out of the labyrinth. They couldn't just kill it. So they ended spending a night sleeping in the same room as the ghoul. I played out the night's passing a bit, to build up the tension. You know, asking for very clear sleeping arrangements and guard schedule and then role playing parts of the characters' turns on guard. The ghoul never tried anything, it was a scavenger ghoul, preferred it's meat well dead. But creeped out my players.

Different powers: how about temporary (say minutes) blindness instead of paralysis? Blind the heroes then chase them through the necropolis describing nothing but sounds and bumping into things. Maybe only have one or 2 PCs blinded leaving the others to either slow down and help the blind or leave them behind and save their own skins.

Separate the party. I know, I know, breaks good gaming rule number 1. But it lets you bring in the dopplegangers Rechan mentioned. Or draw up a couple of (minor) ghouls for each of the players that can be brought in when their characters are not on screen. Thinking basic stat block with a note or two on personality traits. (Cunning, cowardly, vicious, back-stabber, gregarious, plays head games.) Thnik about the type of ghouls your players would like to play if they get the chance. If you want to be really mean to the PCs let the other players do it. They'll be meaner than the GM would ever dare.

Gregarious. Heck why not, have a ghoul who wants to be friends. At least until it gets hungry enough. It can be chatty and genuinely curious about the PCS. Why would they trust it? Cos it knows the way around the necropolis and is happy to play tour guide. And have a back up plan in case they kill it out of hand anyway.

If you're going to have some of the ghouls be people(ish) they need names. To extend the polite dinner party ghouls a bit further make them always use the honorifics 'Mister' and 'Missus' when referring to themselves or talking to the PCs. 'How do you do? I'm Mister Bowelrip. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.' I like the juxtaposition of genteel manners with cannibal serial killer.

Mix it up. Some of the ghouls are the civilised, but let's face it murderous serial killer, ghoul and others are the pack of killers ghoul. Have the polite ones look down on the pack ghouls as being uncouth.

Let us know how it goes.
Cheers,
Glen

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Oh and give them a couple of NPCs who can be killed of at your leisure for atmosphere. Useful for dopplegangers if they die off screen. Or they maybe died just off screen. The heroes heard the screams but didn't see and don't know for sure. Then the NPC shows up again. The doubt is good.

 

[Rechan]

DrunkOnDuty, you are my kind of fellow. I like the non-threatening scavenger coward (or tour guide). Give him a Gollum-like personality, and boom!

The nice thing about ghouls (in general) is that they don't have to be threats. PCs are walking murder machines - you could have a few that follow along behind the players, eating the monsters the PCs kill.

Said ghouls might also associate themselves with other scavenger/carrion eaters. The dinner party ghouls I ran once associated themselves with ravens - going so far as to decorate their masks with raven feathers, and referring to themselves as The Unkindness (which is what a flock of ravens is called).

Oh and give them a couple of NPCs who can be killed of at your leisure for atmosphere.

Like you suggest with regards to the blinded PCs (needing to be led around/helped), the same could be said for the NPCs; if they're not adventurers, then they need to be looked after and protected, and in some cases, carried/led by the hand. It makes things MUCH more challenging than just 'attack the monsters'.

They are going into a necropilis to sanctify some churches. Perhaps one or two priests or acolytes are still in the churches, holed up in a room with provisions.

Also, for the whole 'blindness and running around', you could have enemy ghouls that can cast spells. Nothing to vicious, but definitely anything that would allow them to kill the PCs' light sources. Suddenly plunging the party into darkness, with the sounds of nails and clicking teeth, certainly worth an 'uh oh' moment.

Aside from the Dinner Party, you could also have ghouls who still cling to their old lives. Take one of the churches needing rectifying; the whole congregation (or at least the priests there) could have been turned. So you could have the ghouls still living/working at the church, giving sermons, and... still eating people. The PCs walk in to find the place still active, suddenly confused, only to realize that they're not among friends.

 

[cmrscorpio]

Oh and give them a couple of NPCs who can be killed of at your leisure for atmosphere. Useful for dopplegangers if they die off screen. Or they maybe died just off screen. The heroes heard the screams but didn't see and don't know for sure. Then the NPC shows up again. The doubt is good.

If you are dead set on having one of the PCs be the traitor, adding a couple NPCs to the party is a great way to keep the players from suspecting each other as the traitor. When the PCs start to wonder if they are being sabotaged, their first impulse will be to suspect the NPC.