d20 4e Open Design Empire of the Ghouls.pdf
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Wolfgang Baur
A Cannibal Adventure-Campaign
for 9
th
to 12
th
Level Characters
Written as a private commission for the sole use of its patrons
By Wolfgang Baur
Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
This product utilizes updated material from the v.3.5 revision.
Credits
Designer and Author:
Wolfgang Baur
Editor:
Bill Collins
Assistant Editor
: Randy Dorman
Cover Artist:
Jonathan Hodgson
Interior Artists:
Aaron Acevedo, Johnathan L. Bingham, Darren Calvert, Jonathan Hodgson, Kraig Horigan,
Jeff McFarland, and Jeffrey K. Richard
Cartographers:
Andreas Reimer, Andrew Garbade, Andrew Nuxoll, Benoist Poiré, Greg Volz
Typesetter and Layout:
Stephen David Wark
Calligraphers:
Shelly Baur, Ward Dunham
The Honorable 1st Playtest Company
Pillaging 2nd Playtest Company
Randy Dorman, DM
Grayson Richardson, DM
Jason Grenier
Amy Grenier
Roger Aradi
James Sexton
Curt Chadbourne
Kenneth Dorman
Emilio Englade
Kai Robertson
Green and Gold 3rd Playtest Company
Black Hammer 4th Playtest Company
James Patterson, DM
Ben McFarland, DM
Jason Isolda
Ross Clifton
Blake Stovall
James Parks
Sam Stien
Paul Soutner
Ryan McGrew
Ben Ossenfort
Jason Murphy
Raina Strausman
Elizabeth Sweeney
Fortunate 5th Playtest Company
Erich Schmidt, DM
Chad D’Angelo
Robin Balmer
Brent Koester
Teri Koester
Monster Wrangler:
Mark Gedak
Feat Review and Development:
Sigfried Trent
Revised Roper Design:
Randy Dorman
Sepulchral Stalker:
Clay Fleischer, James Patterson
Empire of the Ghouls
is © 2007 Wolfgang Baur. All rights reserved.
Reference to other copyrighted material in no way constitutes a challenge to the respective copyright holders of that material. Castle
Shadowcrag, Arcane Collegium, Open Design, Free City of Zobeck, Steam & Sorcery, and all proper names and their associated logos are
trademarks of Wolfgang Baur.
Cover art © 2007 Jonathan Hodgson. Used with permission.
Interior art © 2007 Aaron Acevedo, Johnathan L. Bingham, Darren Calvert, Jonathan Hodgson, Kraig Horigan, Jeff McFarland, Jeffrey K. Richard.
Used with permission.
Cartography © 2007 Andreas Reimer. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Interior Calligraphy © 2007 Shelly Baur. Used with permission.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® and Wizards of the Coast® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and are used with
permission.
The following text is Open Gaming Content: the spells and feats sections of Chapter 3, and Appendix A. All other text is Product Identity.
Email
: open_design@livejournal.com
Open Design Web site:
wolfgangbaur.com
ii
Empire of the Ghouls
Dedication
Thank you to everyone who made this descent into the depths possible.
Aaron Acevedo, Bourgeois Alain, Wesley
Allison, Kristina Amaloo, Brian Armstrong,
Jason Aults, Justin Bacon, Mike Badolato,
Andrew Baggott, Mark Baker, Peter Ball, Chad
Barr, Jonathan Bauder, Kathryn Bayne, John
Baxter, Patrick Benjamin, Joel Berger, Johnathan L.
Bingham, David Blizzard, Christina Bogan,
Brian Borawski, Bret Boyd, Ant Brooks,
Daniel Brumme, Joshua Burke, Ronald Caine,
Fran Carelli, Shawn Carlsen, Jeremy Chee,
James Chrisman, Aaron Clancy, Jez Clement,
Ross Clifton, Bill Collins, Brad Colver, Aaron
Cooke, Thomas Cooper, Mark Corsi, Brian
Cross, Christopher Cumming, Matthew Cutter,
Jesse Dean, Aaron Derer, Sean Donohue,
Robert Doran, Randy Dorman, Graf Douglas,
Frank Dyck, David Eitelbach, Rom Elwell,
Robert Emerson, Patrick Enders, Joshua
Fishman, Clay Fleischer, Johnn Four, Scott
Gable, Tod Gagliano, Andrew Garbade, Mark
Gedak, Georg Gerleigner, Richard Green, Ed
Greenwood, Andrew Gristina, Allan Grohe,
Brian Gute, Gary Hackathorn, Lucas Haley,
John Hall, Patrick Halverson, Guenther
Hamprecht, Geoffrey Hart, Kristian Hartmann,
Ron Hawkins, Benjamin Hayward, Morgan
Hazel, EP Healy, Louis-René Hébert, William
Hein III, Ian Hewitt, John Hofmann, Ronald
Hopkins, Kraig Horigan, Eric Hortop, Mark
Jaeger, Ken Jelinek, David Jenks, Christian
Johnson, Jay Joyner, Alex Kanous, Michael
Kasuba, Joshua Kaufman, Soren Keis Thustrup,
Andrew Kenrick, Ian Keyes, David Keyser,
Jon Kinarthy, Alan Kohler, Jason Kramer,
Daniel Krongaard, Kevin Kulp, Joe Kushner,
Robert Lawrence, Philipp Leutiger, Bill Lewis,
Larry Lindeman, Martin Long, Troy Luginbill,
Gary Lutz, Richard Lyon, Michael Machado,
Ken Marable, Adam Marafi oti, William
Maranto, Anthony Markesino, Ari Marmell,
Gary McBride, Benjamin McFarland, Craig
McNamee, B.T. McTeer, Philippe Antoine
Menard, Charles Metts, Jon Michaels, Sam
Miller, Sean Molley, Brian Mooney, Robert
Moore, Andrew Morris, Christopher Mortika,
Paul Munson, Brian Mursch, Charles Myers,
Paul Nasrat, Alexander Neufeldt, Michael
Niswander, Aaron Nuttall, Andrew Nuxoll,
Cormac O Foghlu, Shane O’Connor, Lance
Ofenloch, Matthew Olivia, Prashant Panavalli,
James Patterson, Kevin Patterson, George
Peckham-Rooney, Matthew Pennimann,
Daniel Perez, Patrick Plouffe, Nigel Pope,
Charles Powell, Daniel Gago Prieto, Callum
Prior, Joshua Randall, Craig Rasmussen, Phil
Reed, Wayne Reid, Andreas Reimer, Bryan
Rennekamp, Kevin Reynolds, Jeff Richard,
Grayson Richardson, Kelley Rodgers, Sion
Rodriguez y Gibson, Daniel Rosenberg, Peter
Rosenburgh, Douglas Russell, Dave S, Rob
Sanders, Erich Schmit, Alexander Schroeder,
Benjamin Sennitt, Del Shand, John Sharp,
Andrew Shiel, Sean Silva-Miramon, Richard
Sims, Bret Smith, Jason Sonia, Trevor Stamper,
Jim Stenberg, Joshua Stevens, Ronald Stewart,
Anthony Stiller, Ryan Stoughton, Stefen Styrsky,
Brian Summers, John Tanzini, Laura Teddiman,
Constantin Terton, Wout Thielemans, Paul
Thomas, Timothy Thomas, Sigfried Trent,
Wayne Tripp, Keith Unger, Martijn Vellinger,
Giorgio Vergani, Gregory Volz, Robert
von Allmen, Oliver von Spreckelsen, Mark
Wadlington, Phil Ward, Stephen Wark, Michael
Welham, Michael Welker, Steve Weston, Daniel
White, Brian Wiebeler, Michael Wilson, Adam
Windsor, Eric Wisdahl, W. Mark Woodhouse,
Beau Yarbrough, and James Zack.
iii
Empire of the Ghouls
Designer’s Note: Sequels
I was pretty sure that “Kingdom of the Ghouls”
was never going to be published. I’d left Lake
Geneva, Wisconsin, behind for the bright lights of
Renton and Wizards of the Coast. In the mid-90s,
TSR was imploding. Anyone going to work for the
TCG company was not just suspect, but tainted. So
the submission I had in at
Dungeon
magazine was
not one that I expected to see embraced.
I was glad to be proven wrong; editor Dave Gross
gave it the go-ahead.
Like many writers, I had no perspective on my
own work, but I remember I was pretty obsessive
about this theme. I loved ghouls ever since I read
Lovecraft’s short “Pickman’s Model” and C.A.
Smith’s “The Charnel God.” I wrote “Kingdom”
in a new city, a dark and rainy place, and at a time
in my life when everything was changing. It was
accepted (to my surprise) and published with
a cover by Brom. I was very pleased with the
reception it got. I compressed a sourcebook worth
of material into 20,000 words or so.
And that was that. It was acclaimed and voted
one of the best
Dungeon
adventures, and ghouls
kept popping up in various bits of my campaigns.
Libris Mortis
brought much of “Kingdom” into 3E.
Editors asked me to add ghouls to adventures like
“A Gathering of Winds” for Paizo,
Dungeon
#129,
and I was happy to oblige. I pitched a sequel to
Dungeon
. Chris Perkins accepted the query, but I
never wrote it.
Eventually, I told myself that I’m just not cut out
to write sequels. My attention span is too short.
In some ways, I think it’s just better to start with a
fresh sheet of paper for each project.
Sequels are diffi cult. The things that made the
original exciting are still there, but they are no
longer fresh. The elements that a DM brought to
the table may be cut or altered by a sequel. I became
reluctant to revisit the topic. WotC didn’t want it
and I needed more space than Paizo could allot to a
Dungeon
adventure.
With
Empire of the Ghouls
, the community of
patrons convinced me to revisit the theme, even
while the rights to “Kingdom” stayed with WotC.
This was the fresh start I needed. Not only was
Empire
not going to be a direct sequel, it couldn’t be
one. I could reinvent the social ghouls as more than
an feudal undead realm. I could reinvent them as
an imperial society, with enough space to describe
a society, monsters, and magic. It would be the
sourcebook that I always wanted the original to be.
Designers write sourcebooks in their imaginations
that are always ideal, complete, and without fl aws.
(Oh, and written without sweat or toil!) The reality
is that I loved writing this project, and I love its
quirks. This new take on the greater ghouls is much,
much closer to my original vision of a massive
society than “Kingdom” could be.
Better still, nothing presented here directly
contradicts the material in “Kingdom.” It’s not quite
a sequel, (since no characters are common to both
works), but they are certainly works of the same
hand and mind. You may recognize a few elements
from Lovecraft, Smith, and other ghoul lore, but
you’ll also fi nd much to surprise and terrify players.
I also discovered that I had learned a few things
since the last time I visited. I hope that makes it a
better and stronger work.
I never would have attempted
Empire
if you,
my patrons, hadn’t asked for it, pushed for it, and
supported it. For that, I am profoundly grateful.
I hope you and your players enjoy the results.
Go forth, and conquer.
Wolfgang Baur
Kirkland, Washington
October 7, 2007
iv
Empire of the Ghouls
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