Funeral Stalkers

Hello, everyone! Although Primordial Power’s Kickstarter is now in full swing, you can still expect the regular complement of weekly articles to continue as normal. Today’s article is a monster from last month’s Storyteller playtest, the Soot Ghoul, a beefed-up undead which began to appear in cities as their environments became more suitable for these ghouls’ hunts.

Soot Ghoul

Abyssal Hunters

Named for the black powder which flakes off of their skin, soot ghouls are an incredibly dangerous threat to unaware prey. Unlike other ghouls, which hunt in packs, soot ghouls are typically solitary, territorial hunters, driven to consume cremated ashes. To do this, their bite injects a fast-acting accelerant into the veins of their prey, which they then incinerate and consume their victims’ ashes.

Environmental Adaptation

Originally, soot ghouls were not native to the prime material plane – planar travelers initially discovered (or were discovered by) soot ghouls in obscenely hot locales such as the elemental plane of fire or hotter layers of the abyss near volcanic vents. However, as some cities began to industrialize, soot ghouls became more at home in industrial areas such as coal-burning factories and foundries. Crematoria in such industrialized towns must be extremely cautious to clear their furnaces properly, lest the ashes and heat attract soot ghouls, which is how this dangerous undead earned its other nickname, “funeral stalkers.”

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