I'm running a heavily modified 5E version of "Dungeon of the Fire Opal" from J. Tweet, for a group of young players (6 to 10). I changed the backstory and had to change a lot of monsters, but I kept all the ghouls (love ghouls...). Anyway... The kids found the ghoul which had been captured by the giant spiders. They only removed the web cocoon over its face to see what the spiders had captured. One was almost bitten by doing so, but instead of killing the thing, they decided to feed it whatever they found (spider remains at first, then fish and crabfish from the underground pool...). I told myself, "Whatever... let them do it".
I tried to do my best impression of a ghould as completely feral and insatiable as possible, as though whatever they feed it, it still wants to devour them all.
One character, a Goliath Barbarian, realized that this ghoul was once a Goliath too (it still had faded tattoos from a long lost, almost forgotten, clan) and decided that he would do whatever is needed to tame the ghoul, bring it along, and have it resurrected eventually.
I would assume that this would need a True Resurrection spell, and that the soul of the Goliath-turned-ghoul be willing and free.
It's a kid's idea, but it's somewhat fresher than just splatting the helpless (still held in cocoon) ghouls brain on the floor. I would let them try it, I just don't know how to go about making this possible for them to try.
Now I just need to find a way for the players to be able to restore the creature's intelligence. Would Greater Restoration work? Now they would need to find someone to cast it for them...
Perhaps have them encounter some paladin or fey prince wandering the forest, who detected the foul presence of undead. This NPC demands they destroy the ghoul, but if they refuse then he can point them towards the hut of a (conveniently) nearby and friendly necromancer/witch type NPC who will offer to awaken/calm the ghoul in exchange for some trivial "collect 10 flowers" type of quest. Sounds like a fun little guy to have following them around, jumping into the story to do something inappropriately ghoulish whenever opportunity arises. Then near the end of the campaign they can arrive at a temple where they would be able to return the ghoul to full life, heart-warming family reunion scene, and fade to black. Fin.
Hi,
I'm running a heavily modified 5E version of "Dungeon of the Fire Opal" from J. Tweet, for a group of young players (6 to 10). I changed the backstory and had to change a lot of monsters, but I kept all the ghouls (love ghouls...). Anyway... The kids found the ghoul which had been captured by the giant spiders. They only removed the web cocoon over its face to see what the spiders had captured. One was almost bitten by doing so, but instead of killing the thing, they decided to feed it whatever they found (spider remains at first, then fish and crabfish from the underground pool...). I told myself, "Whatever... let them do it".
I tried to do my best impression of a ghould as completely feral and insatiable as possible, as though whatever they feed it, it still wants to devour them all.
One character, a Goliath Barbarian, realized that this ghoul was once a Goliath too (it still had faded tattoos from a long lost, almost forgotten, clan) and decided that he would do whatever is needed to tame the ghoul, bring it along, and have it resurrected eventually.
I would assume that this would need a True Resurrection spell, and that the soul of the Goliath-turned-ghoul be willing and free.
It's a kid's idea, but it's somewhat fresher than just splatting the helpless (still held in cocoon) ghouls brain on the floor. I would let them try it, I just don't know how to go about making this possible for them to try.
Any ideas fellow DMs?
Cheers!
Found this in the homebrew contet: Ghoul-folk
Now I just need to find a way for the players to be able to restore the creature's intelligence. Would Greater Restoration work? Now they would need to find someone to cast it for them...
This has also some nice ideas on how to play an "intelligent ghoul": Ghoul character class from Libris Mortis
Perhaps have them encounter some paladin or fey prince wandering the forest, who detected the foul presence of undead. This NPC demands they destroy the ghoul, but if they refuse then he can point them towards the hut of a (conveniently) nearby and friendly necromancer/witch type NPC who will offer to awaken/calm the ghoul in exchange for some trivial "collect 10 flowers" type of quest. Sounds like a fun little guy to have following them around, jumping into the story to do something inappropriately ghoulish whenever opportunity arises. Then near the end of the campaign they can arrive at a temple where they would be able to return the ghoul to full life, heart-warming family reunion scene, and fade to black. Fin.
Hit it with a stick...with a nail in the end.