24hrset-Ghouls

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This was a response to the 24-Hour Settings challenge from CasperLions

Ghouls[edit]

Those who have eaten the flesh of the (human) dead stalk the Earth, cursed to roam as all crops, soil, machinery, and beasts will crumble or flee from their hands. Unable to bear the light of day, less their disfigured faces been seen; repelled by mirrors, less they see their own horrid visages; driven away by torches and flame in fear.

The players are people who have eaten of flesh from a dead human being and subsequently metamorphized into ghouls: disfigured nocturnal humanoids whose very presence is polluting as to keep them from ever being able to establish civilization, agriculture, or even stable hunting/gathering grounds. Crops and soil are poisoned by their touch, machines break when they try to use them, animals run from or attack them. They are rejected by society as their ghastly crime is visible in their mutation and for the polluting presence that disrupts the endeavors of human survival. They have psychological compulsions that keep them from daylight, mirrors, and fire. Kept on the edges of society by both ordinary people and social policy, they are unable to get jobs or residence, and are often driven out by mobs of people. The closest thing to a stable life they could hope for would to be nocturnal homeless, emerging at night from tunnels and sewers to try to find some sort of sustenance. However due to being driven out by police and civilian mobs, most lead nomadic lifestyles. Travelling is dangerous for such beings that sleep during the day, hiding from the light and from being found attacked in their helpless state, hiding in whatever dark secluded place they can find. Unable to operate vehicles or get rides from strangers, they must make these perilous treks on foot. When they do find a place, the artificial lights of 24 hour minimarts, and the belligerent humans who operate such, keep them away from the most obvious sources of food. No, even when such wanderers come to a town they cannot seek a populated or operational, and no doubt lit up, place. Instead they seek the tunnels, sheds, garages, and abandoned places - scrounging in the dark, under ground, and in dangerous and decrepit buildings for anything that can be eaten or used. This is what they do, travelling like vagabonds from one wreck of human civilization to the next, "adventuring" in abandoned monuments of urban decay for a can of beans, a live rat, a dead homeless person, a sharp piece of metal or broken brick - anything they can eat or use. In these places their enemies are the danger of the location itself (hypothermia from water in the sewers, collapse in decrepit buildings, hazard of fire or toxic contamination) as well as any animals or humans they may come across, which loathe their presence.

They do this because they have to in order to survive. To have eaten flesh they were either insane, victims of extraordinary circumstances who did what they had to in order to survive once already, or tricked into doing so in a deliberate act to place this curse on them. In all of those cases the individual ghoul is likely to feel a compulsion; be it from madness, determination, or indignation at this having happened to them; to continue on - they are not likely to just give up and those ghouls that do die quickly.

Their opposition in this nomadic scavenging lifestyle, besides the random perils of wildlife and human bystanders they may come across, are the police and civil authorities who understandably detest having off limits areas such as steam tunnels, condemned buildings, or private sheds and barns searched, looted, and occupied by freakish ghouls - beings who are rejected by shelters and insane asylums. They seek to make these unsightly beings that shouldn't exist, a supernatural occurence that blemishes a natural world, dissapear. If they are honorable and by the books they will simply send them to prison. Being a ghoul is a crime enough - after all it's proof that you are a cannibal. Ghouls don't last long in prison. If they are mean-spirited they will leave you hanging by your ankles out for the sun to find you and drive you even more insane. If they are truly cruel they will just kill you then and there to be rid of the hassle. Due to churches decrying ghouls as the "Children of Caine", you also have to deal with religious fanatics, mental patients, and adventurous teenagers who want to go into the decayed urban sprawl and stake them a "vampire".

This is all taking place in the modern world, maybe a few years or even decades ago, or maybe today. It's the world of cities and subway tunnels and hidden places beneath the toes of modern society. A world filled with technology that won't work for these individuals, but also a world with cracks and corners and food that is neithe crop nor live game that might be able to be scrounged up in such urban haunts.

Extremely lonesome creatures by nature, it's incredibly uncommon to find a ghoul that would willing not group up with several others of his kind, though the implications of food distribution and stealth usually limit these groups in number to a handfull or so.

Perversely, the same supernatural curse that afflicts ghouls also gives them a means to survive through their Mark. These have no visible or detectable component, even among ghouls, and demonstrate themselves only in practice. However marks are usually bestowed on those best suited to using them (a large or well muscled ghoul getting a strength related mark, as he'll be able to make best use of it, and so on).

The Marks:[edit]

Lunatics can become temporarily invigored by an inhuman anger, making them go from a miserable ill-kept human to strongman, good for beating men or dogs, or trying to break down doors.

Delusionals can "make things happen", able to do things like give a mean mutt a cigar burn from across the room or make a security guard itch uncontrollably.

Tramps are the storytellers of the ghouls, whose tales can help you not feel so damp or hungry for a while.

Hermits can befriend the vermin not bothered by a ghoul's polluting presence, able to speak with rats and roaches for instance.

Derelicts are used to surviving in a friendless world and are good at patching up themselves and their buddies.

Vagabonds are the sneakiest and canniest at picking locks.

A rock or a bit of metal is a serviceable weapon in the hands of a Bum.