What They Don't Tell You About The Ghouls - D&D

hey guys just wanted to let you all know that we've got new shirts on the merch store we have a cenotar shirt which just looks amazing and i'm really excited for you guys to try also by popular demand we have turned the orcish sip up jacket into a shirt definitely my favorite piece of art so far that we have done now that it is getting cold over here i have started using the jacket all the time it's amazing check out the store at mrracks.com now today we continue on on our quest to attempt to make sense out of the impossibly long list of undead that exist in those dragons from zombies to skeletons to ghouls and gas to shadows inspectors and race and ghosts it is a very confusing thing the undead but today we're going to talk about your favorite kind of undead even if you might not necessarily know it based on their name when you think of zombies in popular culture you're probably thinking of the ghouls conversely in many fantasy tropes when you think about intelligent on dead that possess their own culture and civilization you're also typically thinking of ghouls the thing is ghouls are severely underused in turns and dragons and we never get to see the full extent of what they're capable of in terms of storytelling but before we go full blast on these creatures though we should talk about our sponsor today this video is brought to you by the questonomicon a book designed and written by our fellow content creators xp to level 3. experience what can only be described as a ton of quest with a book holding over 30 different adventures for you to partake in a track down treasure on the high seas ride through the wild west to catch a train of fight dragons in urban areas the book is designed to have a large variety of encounters and missions set in a multitude of different environments furthermore the adventures presented here in the book are tailored so that you can choose which villains your players will have to fight and depending on which villains you choose the 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and decomposing organs and when he cannot feed on the dead he pursues living creatures and attempts to make corpses of them and though they gain no nourishment from the courses that they devour ghouls are driven by an unending hunger that compels them to consume a gruels on dead flesh never rots and this monster can persist in a creeper tomb for untold ages without feeding see that that last part about ghouls being able to persist forever without eating is very interesting because that is well i guess it was not always the case it thematically changes them a lot as you can imagine but we'll talk about that in a bit it does continue on by saying that at edgul traces their origins to the abyss thor saying the first of their kind was an elf worshiper of orcus turning against his own people he feasted on humanoid flesh to honor the demon prince of on death as a reward for his service orkus transformed dorsen into the first ghoul now torsane served orcis faithfully in the abyss creating rules for the demon lord's other servants until an inquirtion of jinoku the demonic null lord robbed the dorsaine of his abyssal domain when orcas would not intervene on his behalf dorsane turned to the elf gods for salvation and they took pity on him and helped him escape certain destruction since then elves have been immune to the ghoul's paralytic touch see the lore actually states that whatever the elvish gods did to help dorazine they didn't actually prevent genogu from actually ruling and controlling dorzan for a while there in the story ginogue ruled that the kingdom of ghouls and the white city of dorsein until janoga got distracted and basically just lost interest or got driven back centuries later in any case we do have a special kind of ghoul in here called the gast it says that orcis sometimes infuses a ghoul with a stronger dose of abyssal energy making a ghast whereas ghouls are little more than savage beasts a ghast is cunning and can inspire a pack of ghouls to follow its commands now here are the stat sheets for the two creatures one clearly just being the exact same as the other but slightly stronger now the first thing that i need you to pay close attention to is the high level of intelligence unlike zombies who are literally brain dead ghouls are fairly intelligent for being undead and guys are well quite as intelligent as any human at the claws of a ghoul can infect you with paralyzation unless you're an elf which of course we now know why thanks to the little blurb up here though it is also important to note that the claw attack from the gas does affect the elves many people miss that now lastly the gas carries with it a stench that poisons those around it but that's honestly basically it these are very basic creatures conceptually and you wouldn't know it by just looking at them but these creatures are incredibly important and having them in your world would dramatically change what your world could turn into see we have a lot to get into so without further ado let's talk about what the 5th edition monster manual did not tell you about the ghouls i think by far the most important thing completely left out of the monster manual is that ghouls create ghouls getting attacked by ghouls of course have a chance at paralyzing you but it also can afflict you with a disease called ghoul fever which effectively weakens you over time quote an afflicted humanoid who dies of ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight a humanoid who becomes a ghoul in this way retains none of the abilities he possessed in life it is not under the control of any other ghouls but it hungers for the flesh of the living and behaves like a normal ghoul in all respects end quote this is unbelievably crucial and not talking about this effectively changes in its entirety what a ghoul can do and the real dangers that they carry with them and you cannot just let ghouls be and if your kingdom becomes aware that there are ghouls about it must be dealt immediately because otherwise it can quickly turn into an epidemic this is why i said in the beginning that when you think of zombies in popular culture you're probably thinking of the ghoul in dnd because when a ghoul bites you you will eventually turn into one yourself the transformation into a ghoul is said to be particularly traumatic so much so that it destroys your personality and mind shattering it into oblivion and when you come out of the other side as a ghoul you would only remember fragments of your previous life but more than anything you will simply be a starved out flesh-seeking monster quote the process which transforms a man's soul mind and body into a ghoul leaves a little left of what was once the man its face takes on a canine aspect developing an extended muscle full of sharp discolored teeth even so those who knew the victim may still see the man within the monster hands and feet become claw-like while rank oozing source erupt on the body scabbing over scale-like hardness in the ghast these scaly sores exude an odious nauseating carrion stench so powerful that it causes wretching and nausea in those nearby and likewise the ghoul's mind is warped out of shape a cunning predatory semi-sentience overrides the victim's personality essentially replacing what is lost by the horror of transformation remnants of the creature's mind remain intact but the ghoul or even the ghast rarely realizes nor accepts that it is dead the last vestiges of the mind cannot accept that it thrives upon human carrion the subsequent transformation to ghast reawakens the creature's intelligence some might actually be personable more prone to conversation than conflict though they are still undeniably evil and more than a little insane so long as one avoids discussing the ghoulishness or insisting that they have died end quote this is where things get even more interesting a gas actually get to retain the full personality and intelligence that they had in life allowing them to continue well being themselves there are still some limitations that have to be observed for this particular type of undead for example a person that gets transformed into a ghast cannot retain much of their skills and abilities from their previous life and the only ones that get to do that would be the true ghouls also known as the shadow rules or the greater ghouls now these guys function basically like living people except that they're all technically undead but these guys have cultures and cities religions that they literally for all intensive purposes are just another race now that brings me to that other point that i made at the beginning of the video that when you think of a fantasy trope of the you know intelligent undead that has its own culture and cities you are actually thinking of the ghoul if you wanted to create something like i don't know dark souls in your campaign then the undead would be these type of ghouls i hope that now you see why it is crazy that the 5th edition monster manual wouldn't mention just any of this considering just how archetypal and important ghouls are to the general state of fantasy in the underdark of greyhound there is an entire empire of true ghouls where the king is an avatar of dorizane that guy that they mentioned on the monster manual that very same one in this kingdom of ghouls the ghouls have houses they have art advanced engineering hopes dreams fears i mean the idea for the ghouls in fallout was probably taken from these type of ghouls because they function very similarly now these types of undead are interesting because they don't really have anything necessarily to do with necromancy see the type of undead that you create by animating the dead with arcane magic is called a zombie and what you're really doing there is animating the bones of that undead now ghouls are very interesting you can still create them with powerful magic of course but generally speaking they happen naturally see zombies are manipulated that something or someone is moving those bones even if the magic is automated something is technically pulling the strings the ghouls on the other hand are fully sentient creatures that exist on their own merit technically a zombie or a skeleton should just collapse under an anti-magic zone whereas ghouls would not a ghoul is created naturally when a living person embraces evil in their lives by taking advantage of others or abusing them or generally being extremely greedy most often than not though the main triggers tend to be when a person embraces cannibalism in life or is glutinous to an obscene amount when these people die their life is ended but their evil persist if these people die without a priest blessing them or their grave is not sanctified then that's when they become cursed to own life as a ghoul if the person was powerful in life then there is a higher chance that they will wake up as a ghast instead of a ghoul this is actually the reason why foul towns or cities that reject decency and embrace evil behaviors tend to be more prone to undead now even though ghouls can be created naturally in this way it should be pretty obvious to anybody that most ghouls actually tend to come from other ghouls because of course ghouls create more ghouls oh i guess i should also mention that even though it is fairly obvious as well a ghoul only turns other people into ghouls when those people get infected but survive and generally speaking a ghoul will just try and eat you and of course you cannot be raised as a ghoul if you are devoured or killed or in the tummy of another ghoul a person that is dead cannot be turned into a ghoul you have to slowly transform and then let the disease actually kill you you should also know that normal ghouls actually have no desire to transform people they really just want to eat anything that looks humanoid but true ghouls will definitely go out of their way to purposefully infect people in order to of course reproduce and swell their ranks now to turn a ghoul into a ghast you basically just need power i mean it's that simple if you blast a ghoul with enough abyssal energy or negative energy you would turn it into a ghast further enhancing his abilities and opening up his intelligence and memories of his previous life realistically if you cast a spell negative energy flood from cenatar eventually over time you could actually turn a cool into a cast that's effectively how it works now this process can also happen quite naturally for any ghoul that makes its way into the abyss they automatically turn into gas basically now getting a true rule to form is a lot more complex because it requires the help of the gods of death the lord states that only the ghoul disease that comes from a true ghoul who is a priest can transform you into a true ghoul so kind of weird but basically you cannot just turn into a true ghoul normally you would need the assistance of a god of death particularly demigods like dora saying the king of ghouls or an entity like orcas those entities would bless a particular true ghoul with clerical power then that ghoul would have to infect you further the infection could not be allowed to progress naturally without the accompanying rituals the rituals themselves are secret but it is known that if those rituals are interrupted or not followed to the letter then you will turn into a normal ghoul or ghast instead for all these reasons civilizations of true ghouls that exist are extremely religious to their dead gods because without them their culture and civilization could not truly reproduce and prosper it should also be noted that because of the natural protections that elves have against cool attacks it is said that the transformation into a ghoul is much more painful to an elf any warm blooded creature can be turned into a wool but the part of the transformation where you are suffering and then dying of the ghoul fever is most often than not sleeped off if the disease weakens you in such a way that you basically just lay feeble until you sort of pass out and then presumably die in your sleep an elf cannot sleep and hence they suffer the excruciating pain of the death which also happens slower because of their natural resistance so they're pretty screwed further again because of this resistance elves rarely ever are transformed into full-blown true ghouls the dwarves on the other hand are said to transform rather easy for whatever reason but that's why ghoul kingdoms that exist in the underdark would tend to attack uruguay kingdoms more often than drow whenever they need to expand now the monster manual in 5th edition claims that ghouls are effectively immortal because they don't actually need the sustenance from the food that they eat however this is only technically true for gas but only for gas that specifically exists in the abyss according to the undead book for the forgotten realms quote ghouls and ghast are not immortal because they are physical beings they are subject to eventual decay most ghouls do not exist for more than 200 years even so uncommon specimens have been found over 1 000 years old the evil enhancement of the ghast allows them to exist for 500 years or more though casts will remain in the abyss are nearly immortal end quote unless you're talking about a ghast in the abyss you can indeed starve out a ghoul it takes 7 days for ghouls to feel the negative effects of starvation and after that the creature will start losing 1 hit point per week without food this is why it makes sense why someone would think that ghouls do not need food to eat since it would take several months for a ghoul to actually die of starvation but once a ghoul loses all of his hit points in this way it would simply cease to exist and its soul will pass unto torment in the abyss quote ghouls and gas exist only to eat all else is secondary to a hungry ghoul or ghast the ghouls and ghasts must have human flesh to survive they attack the living only when corpses are not to be had or in self-defense they find animal flesh on palatable the flesh they eat maintains their physical bodies and their energy connection with the negative energy plane end quote this food requirement is a bit different for true ghouls however who are more perfectly aligned with the negative energies from the outer planes quote the ghouls diet is a subject of considerable interest few undead need to eat in the usual sense digesting and excreting a ghoul's feeding is more spiritual than physical while it must eat just as vampires do a ghoul is nourished by the link to the flesh of sentient creatures not by blood if ghouls do not eat they cannot heal their wounds in addition prolonged lack of sentient flesh breaks the strength of the ghoul's undead state eventually returning the ghoul to a purely animal cunning for ghouls to retain their intelligence over time they must feast on the brains of sentient creatures ghouls have overwhelming effects on surrounding communities of creatures they eat until all major sentient and animal species are exterminated or driven away and they transform humans darrow halflings and half elves into ghouls increasing the hunger of the ghoul community when there are too many of the undead and not enough living things for them to feed on the ghouls enter a frenzy of madness killing and slaying one another until their numbers are reduced to a level their environment can sustain and quote it should also be mentioned that the connection between a true ghoul and the negative energy planes are so strong that when a true wool dies its soul stays and becomes a specter while still retaining his memories and intelligence also unlike some other kinds of undead you cannot resurrect or reincarnate a person that has been turned into a ghoul see for that to have happened in the first place the person would have had to have died without being blessed or have its burial site consecrated by a priest so it's always already forfeit basically oh by the way i feel like you would get a kick out of this to actually repel a ghast you need cold iron as a material component for your protection from evil and good spell a holy water or silver will not do the trick the reason that gas has things like resistances to being turned is for that exact same reason a cold iron is just so rare that people don't use it but that's what you need there's also a water version of the ghoul called the lacedon it functionally is the exact same thing as the ghoul except that they are typically found on ghost ships and ship racks and of course they have swimming speeds and they appeared on first second and third edition but then got yoked out of fourth and fifth let's pay homage to our poor water boys with a like on this video that that they would like that a lot thank you guys for watching the video make sure to go over to mrexcel.com and check out our cool shirts please consider buying that orcas jacket man i promise you that you're gonna love it it looks and feels amazing a true banger and it is getting cold so you will appreciate it 100 so as many of you know i have been working on some pdfs for a while now that i have felt particularly inspired to do i'm working hard on something of a redesign of the danish and dragon's armor system in order to fix a lot of the issues that we have regarding most of the mundane armors feeling useless and uninteresting as well as giving players a reason to want to spend money on their armor now for this project and some others that i have in the works i'm in need of professional artists if you're an artist seeking to do professional work in the buildings and dragons sphere then please send me an email at rexart gmail.com the link is in the description if you want to apply draw me a dungeons and dragons character in a full set of played armor and send it over to me on the email alongside whatever link that you might have where you keep your other art so that i can 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so much for watching thank you guys for being here you guys are awesome you guys are the best and i'll see you all next time

Channel: MrRhexx

Views: 184,557

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Id: nffKZaxlvYI

Length: 21min 44sec (1304 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021