d20 4e Open Design Empire of the Ghouls.pdf

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

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.

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

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

Empire of the Ghouls

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