Ghoul
Ghouls are a type of Undead that exist in the world of Pact.
Ghouls are individuals who’ve interrupted the circle of life and death, usually by eating the dead, coming back from near-death one too many times, or practicing necromancy badly and ending up out of balance, only able to keep going with periods of convalescence, like hibernation, and bursts of life or death voraciousness. Once awake they have a three hour window to find food or perish, and then rest for months or years. <ref name=":0">“Ghouls are supposed to be thin,” Rose said.
[...]
“Ghouls are individuals who’ve interrupted the circle of life and death, usually by eating the dead, coming back from near-death one too many times, or practicing necromancy.”
“Black magic?” I asked.
“Yeah. Maybe I should amend that to say ‘practicing necromancy badly‘. Using terms we’re mostly familiar with, they’re individuals who are out of balance. They’re the spinning plates that are only just hanging on, and that means they need a fine touch to keep going. They do that with periods of convalescence, like hibernation, and bursts of… hunger is the wrong word. Life or death voraciousness. Maddened with a need for sustenance. More like a rabid dog than human.”
“So they are basically super-zombies,” Evan said.
I heard Rose sigh.
“Sustenance? Feasting on human flesh,” Maggie added.
“The go-to way, yeah,” Rose replied. “If they have their wits about them, then they can use the necromancy they knew in life, or they just move between areas with an awful lot of death or life energy.”
“But they mostly manage by eating human flesh,” Maggie said. “Right?”
“Essentially. No warning, three hour window to find food or perish, rest for months or years. Depending on where their personal balance is sitting, they eat either corpses or they scarf down bits of still-living victims they’ve found in isolated spots.”
[...]
“They’re dead. They don’t feel the cold, they don’t get tired, the only thing that drives them is a need to gorge themselves with flesh. They aren’t going to move until they have a reason to move.” - Excerpt from Void 7.05 </ref>
Description
Ghouls are usually thin, resembling addicts or anorexia victims. They have an air of obsession or addiction in their eyes.<ref name=":1">A fat man, with two women and a man in his company, occupying a bus shelter when the buses had stopped traveling their routes days ago. All four wore winter clothes, but they had a demeanor like some of the sketchier homeless I’d run into, once upon a time. Little details that made me think of meth-zombies, cokeheads, or anorexic people. There was a kind of look in their eyes, as far as I could make them out, a dark gleam that had a way of working its way into people’s eyes when one single idea dominated their existence.
Except these things were Others. Their purpose was simple enough.
The fat one carried a dismembered arm, raising it to his mouth periodically to take a bite.
“Ghouls are supposed to be thin,” Rose said.
[...]
The Other stopped in its tracks.
It drew a charm from its pocket. A necklace or macabre rosary, dangling with finger bones.
It pointed at the ghoul lying on the ground, the one I’d cut with June.
The body moved.
Maggie stepped forward, swinging the sword, taking the head of the ghoul before the undead necromancer could do anything with the corpse.
Without waiting, she swung again, the blade biting hard into the pavement, and she took the ghoul’s head.
The braver of the two remaining creatures stared at us. The fat one, still bearing stubble on its face.
“If you attack,” I said, “We take you to pieces. If you run, I’ll come after you and take you to pieces. Can you communicate?”
It nodded.
[...]
t held up two fingers.
“Second choice?” I asked. “Agree never to harm another living soul?”
“I swear,” it managed. Even from ten feet away in the blistering cold, I could smell the breath. It was the aroma I might expect from a coffin being opened.
[...]
The fourth ghoul turned to go. Maggie stepped forward, swinging the sword with both hands. She took its head.
I met her eyes.
“It was a danger too, and weaker ghouls can’t communicate on that level.”
“What was that thing I just talked to?” I asked.
“Process of elimination says it was a greater ghoul.” - Excerpt from Void 7.05 </ref> They have white fangs.<ref>The skinnier male ghoul grasped in my direction, trying to get a grip on my coat, baring his fangs. I leaned out of the way. He stumbled forward, and I caught his neck with June.
The wound froze as I cut through flesh.
[...]
It drew a charm from its pocket. A necklace or macabre rosary, dangling with finger bones.
It pointed at the ghoul lying on the ground, the one I’d cut with June.
The body moved.
Maggie stepped forward, swinging the sword, taking the head of the ghoul before the undead necromancer could do anything with the corpse. - Excerpt from Void 7.05 </ref><ref name=":2">The fat one carried a dismembered arm, raising it to his mouth periodically to take a bite.
[...]
The ghouls noticed us, stirring. The fat one had been gnawing on the arm, and when he turned his attention to us, I saw the gleam of white fangs stained with blood. The bone of the arm had been gnawed, a little more pointed. Maggie wouldn’t necessarily have a problem, but the makeshift knife coupled with his natural reach threatened to let him fight me with more reach.
[...]
“I don’t know if that’s a concern. These guys don’t look maddened with hunger,” I commented.
“The contraction of the city is pushing locals out of their usual haunts,” Rose said. “They’re probably trying to find their way back, maybe grabbing some food to keep nearby while they’re at it.” - Excerpt from Void 7.05 </ref>
Greater Ghouls are comparatively fatter and capable of communicating, with some difficulty. Lesser Ghouls are thin and can't talk.<ref name=":1" />
They are immune to cold and never tire.<ref name=":0">Excerpt from Void 7.05</ref><ref name=":2" /> Some have flesh-rotting bites that never heal.<ref>For ghouls that… well, they pretend to be soldiers that die like anyone might, but when you let your guard down and search the body, they bite you and get a hungry kind of death into the wound?”
He raised his hand, showing off the cast.
[...]
The ghoul’s bite had never healed completely. Flesh had necrotized, turning black, and even now, bone was visible in places. He could cut at the rot with a knife, and it would be a red hot agony, or he could let it linger, and he would feel his strength slipping. It didn’t get worse, it didn’t get better, but the dilemma remained. - Histories (Arc 6) </ref> Some Ghouls (possibly limited to Greater Ghouls) retain the Necromancy they knew in life, which enables them to make use of more abstract ways of feeding, as well as necromantic magic like raising corpses.<ref name=":1" /> <ref name=":0">Excerpt from Void 7.05</ref>
Hunger
Ghouls cycle between months- years-long periods of convalescence (although they will still snack on humans if they encounter them) and brief bursts of mad, rabid hunger that must be sated or they will perish. Depending on where their personal balance is sitting, they eat either corpses or they scarf down bits of still-living victims they’ve found in isolated spots.<ref name=":0">Excerpt from Void 7.05</ref><ref name=":2" />
Weaknesses
They can be staved off temporarily by reintroducing them to the cycle of life, using menstrual fluids, using plants connected with life and death like Holly, or funereal rites, done over the prone body or at a distance if you have the ghoul's name.<ref>“Conventional wisdom is that you stave them off by reintroducing them to the cycle of life.”
“Meaning?” I asked.
“The go-to answer is menstrual fluids,” Rose said. “Drawn on their forehead, fed to them, ‘poison’ a weapon with it.
[...]
“Some plants are tied to the cycle of death and rebirth. Holly.”
“We used holly against the Hyena,” Evan said. “See? I know stuff. You can tell me stuff. No need to leave me out because I’m a kid.”
“No holly near here, as far as I can tell,” I said. “Not sure how that would work, either.”
“Funereal icons,” Rose said. I heard her turning a page. “Either done over the ghoul’s prone body or you can do it from a distance if you have the full name of the ghoul. Not going to work. Don’t have any of that.” - Excerpt from Void 7.05 </ref> Eggs may or may not be unpleasant to them. <ref>“Ugh,” Evan said, then before I could reprimand him, he said, “What about eggs?”
“What?” I asked.
“When my mom told me about that stuff, I remember not getting it, and she said something about it being like chickens laying eggs. It confused me more.”
[...]
whipped an egg at the first one to step outside of the bus shelter. I missed, hitting the edge of the glass enclosure.
The ghoul stopped in its tracks, and the one behind it collided with it.
It was hard to say whether it had worked.
Maggie landed a dead-on hit.
It seemed to startle them more than anything. Part of it might have been our relative lack of fear.
[...]
Maggie egged the thing, holding three eggs in one hand and whipping them at him one after the other.
“It’s not really working,” I said.
“I think it’s working a little,” Maggie told me. She flashed a grin, not taking her eyes off the Other. “He doesn’t like it.”
[...]
“The eggs totally worked, didn’t they?” Evan asked.
I wasn’t so sure they had, but it was hard to say. Maybe the other stuff worked because it was human, and the ghouls were closer to humans than not. Were eggs too far removed?
“Maybe,” I said. </ref> Beheading them or cutting their throat also does the trick.<ref name=":1" />
Known Ghouls
- Toronto ghouls led by a greater ghoul
- WWI ghouls, one of which bit Aimon Behaim
References
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