Proto-Ghoul

The gaunt creatures creeping toward you from the darkness reek of death and decay. Their flesh appears badly diseased, their faces are little more than grey skin stretched tight over malformed skulls, and the rags they wear are falling apart. Salivating mouths and hungry looks directed toward your meatier parts betray the intentions of the ghoulish beings.

Proto-ghouls are cannibalistic humanoids that live in the upper areas of Sigil's catacombs, mostly under the Hive and the Lower Ward. They look, smell, and act like true undead ghouls, but are really living sods who've developed a taste for corpse flesh.A proto-ghoul is as tall as a typical human, and about half as heavy. It speaks Planar Trade, and some specimens occasionally learn other languages of the planes.

Proto-ghouls ambush anything that moves through their subsigilian hunting grounds. They prefer to err on the safe side, so they carefully surround and swarm over anything larger than a rat. However, they are not the most organized or disciplined of combatants, so those moved by hunger (as if they all weren't) may break formation.As creatures well on their way to undeath, all proto-ghouls have a +4 racial bonus on Fortitude saves against disease or poison, and on Will saves against mind-affecting effects. These bonuses are already included in the stat block above, which represents a 1st-level Warrior proto-ghoul.

Disease (Ex): Bite, Fortitude DC 12, incubation period 1 day, damage 1d3 Con. The save DC is Constitution-based.There is a 50% chance that an afflicted humanoid who dies of this disease rises as an undead ghoul within a few days. A humanoid who becomes a ghoul in this way retains none of the abilities it possessed in life. It is not under the control of any other ghouls or proto-ghouls, but it hungers for the flesh of the living and behaves like a normal ghoul in all respects.

Proto-ghoul communities are small, primitive, and usually nomadic; most consist of no more than a few dozen specimens. The creatures can feed on any carrion, but as one would expect, they prefer sentient humanoids. Most groups sustain themselves by setting traps for Undersigil's wildlife - anything between a dire rat and a trocopotaca is considered a fine catch -  and occasionally hunting packs go up to raid the least populated parts of the Hive. One tribe is known to have somehow trapped a fledgling vampire, and is using it as a self-replenishing food supply.

Like most humanoids, proto-ghouls mate and breed, and the wee ones are the same depraved abominations as their parents. However, semi-reliable sources mention an explorer that took a small proto-ghoul child up to the surface and raised it as a normal sentient; supposedly the only remaining trace of its heritage was its gargantuan appetite and preference for raw meat. It is believed that any proto-ghoul can safely expect to return as a full-fledged undead ghoul a few days after dying, regardless of the manner of its death.

Originally mentioned in Faction War, © 1998 TSR