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Ghoul

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Ghouls are corporeal undead driven by hunger for humanoid flesh, distinguished from zombies by their greater intelligence and paralyzing claws.

Description[]

Vox Machina encountered a few ghouls (led by a ghast) that had a sulfurous, rotting smell, and appeared like humanoid corpses that had died in a struggle—even with bone poking out of their skin—but in a not-advanced state of decay. When they stirred, their facial expressions betrayed an insidious intelligence much greater than a typical zombie's.[3]

Abilities[]

Three slightly different versions of this creature have been encountered in Critical Role media. The first, encountered in Campaign One, was based on the 2014 Monster Manual, page 148, and its abilities are as follows:

  • Damage immunities: Poison
  • Condition immunities: Poisoned, charmed, exhaustion, poisoned
  • Actions
    • Bite: Deals piercing damage
    • Claws: Deals slightly lighter slashing damage, less likely to hit than Bite, but on a hit, if the target is not an elf or undead, it must make a Constitution saving throw; on a failure, the target is paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end this effect.[4]

An aquatic version of ghouls, called lacedons, have a swimming speed in addition to the usual ghoul abilities.[1]

More ghouls have appeared in Campaign Four, which uses the 2024 rules. The ghoul in the 2025 Monster Manual (page 132) has slightly different actions; its Bite attack deals necrotic damage in addition to piercing, its Claw only paralyzes the target until the end of the target's next turn,[5] and it has one additional action option:

  • Multiattack: Two Bite attacks

History[]

Aramán[]

Campaign Four Arc 1[]

House Tachonis, which was deeply involved in necromancy, launched a surprise attack on a vassal of House Royce, with Ethrand Tachonis silently commanding six ghouls.[6] The ghouls slew Occtis Tachonis and opened him up to allow Ethrand to replace his heart with the Stone of Nightsong. Ethrand then commanded them to throw Lady Aranessa Royce from a balcony of the tower.[7] Sir Julien Davinos raced up to try to rescue her from the ghouls.[8]

Exandria[]

"Yug'Voril Uncovered" (1x09) and "K'Varn Revealed" (1x10)[]

Vox Machina, along with Clarota and Kima of Vord, approached Yug'Voril on a quest to defeat K'Varn, a beholder empowered by a Horn of Orcus. As they neared the island deep in the Underdark, they found an inlet leading into a tunnel, and there they saw a broken-up camp with four apparently dead, rotting bodies. The bodies stirred, and turned out to be three ghouls led by a ghast, a more cunning kind of ghoul. The ghouls surrounded Vax'ildan, landing a few hits that paralyzed him, but Tiberius and Vex'ahlia swiftly slew the creatures.

Adventure hooks and encounters[]

In a mid-level adventure hook set in the Shadebarrow, which can be set in 812 or 836 PD, a wraith claiming to be the spirit of an archdruid raises an army of ghouls and ghasts that spill out into the Dividing Plains and take over the Silvercut Crossroads.[9][10]

In the Unwelcome Spirits adventure, one possible encounter in the Brokenveil Marsh involves an aquatic variety of ghouls called lacedons that have a swimming speed; these ghouls are goblinoids.[1]

Trivia[]

Exandria[]

  • In the lore written for the 2014 Monster Manual, the origins of ghouls and ghasts trace back to Orcus.[2] Though Monster Manual lore is outside of Critical Role canon, Orcus is clearly connected to two appearances of ghouls and ghasts in Exandria: via his horn on K'Varn's brow,[11] and via his interest in the Shadebarrow.[9][12]
  • The Lash of Shadows in its Awakened State can inflict a paralyzing poison called Ghoul's Blood.[13]
  • The characters of Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, and Luis Carazo were the casualties in a battle against ghouls in the Shadowfell, in the campaign Matthew Mercer was GMing before starting the one that became the story of Vox Machina, around 2010-2011 (the characters of Sean Manzano and Chloe Dykstra were the only survivors).[14][15] Because of that, these three players found very funny how their former DM's character had to face the same monster in "Stone-Faced" (4x04).[16]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 253.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 See D&D: Monster Manual (2014), 5th ed., p. 148.
  3. ↑ See "Yug'Voril Uncovered" (1x09) at 2:47:48.  See also "K'Varn Revealed" (1x10) at 0:21:40.
  4. ↑ See "K'Varn Revealed" (1x10) at 0:29:45.
  5. ↑ See "Stone-Faced" (4x04) at 1:41:01.
  6. ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) at 4:58:38.
  7. ↑ See "Stone-Faced" (4x04) at 1:11:18.
  8. ↑ See "Stone-Faced" (4x04) at 1:26:14.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 56.
  10. ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 87.
  11. ↑ See the Horns of Orcus.
  12. ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 86.
  13. ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 276.
  14. ↑ See "Talks Machina #24: 'Taryon, My Wayward Son'" (TMx24) at 36:06.
  15. ↑ See "Ghouls are just bad news".
  16. ↑ Beacon logo (tiny) CR Cooldown C4 E004 at 5:13 (subscription required) (Transcript).

Art:

  1. ↑ Depiction of a ghoul, by Andrey Kuzinskiy from Monster Manual (2025), p. 132. This page contains unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
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