Those who travel the Saltway that links Velmire to the rest of Saldis know to set watches at night. They say it's worse than vorn or even sharruk, what makes pilgrims vanish. Tales tell of shining eyes, pale, gaunt faces, teeth too many and too sharp.
In a cave shrouded by undergrowth, sheltered from the road, they hide from the sun. One mad enough to track them back from their night attacks might discover it.
Encounters
Ghul Plague
Incubation: 1d3+1 days.
Progression: 1d3 per day. 1-2: sickness persists, 3: sickness progresses.
Stage 1: Fatigue, aches. Take sickness as a burden.
Stage 2: Fever, weakness, severe muscle pain. Incapacitated.
Stage 3: Death on 2-in-3. Otherwise, begin transforming into a pale ghul.
Stage 4: Fever breaks, pain continues. Impaired vision, photophobia, eyes begin to cloud visibly. Intense craving for fresh meat.
Stage 5: Pyrophobia, worsening photophobia. Skin becomes pale, sunlight becomes intensely painful. Teeth, hair, and nails begin to fall out. Cravings for meat intensify, eating becomes compulsive. On 5-in-6, progressive amnesia, aphasia, loss of behavioral control.
Stage 6: Final transformation. Sharp teeth and claws grow in. Muscle pain recedes, bringing enhanced strength (d8). Characters who suffered mental symptoms become feral and can no longer adventure. Those who retain their minds may continue playing, but no one can resist the hunger for long.
Map Key
> < - Narrow tunnels. PCs must remove packs and spend a round to squeeze through. The ghuls can squeeze through as part of normal movement, but still only one at a time.
1. Entry Cave
Empty. Damp, still air stinking of decay and filth. 50% chance of firelight visible from 3 (see below).
2. Ghul Den
Recesses piled with scraps of rotting fabric, animal hides, leaves, and mosses, forming crude bedding.
3. Kitchen
Animal skins spread out around the floor. Large firepit ringed with rocks against the north wall, with a rusted metal spit, equally degraded cooking implements strewn nearby. 50% chance the fire is lit (light visible from 1 and 5) and Cugel is here with 2 feral ghul sous-chefs. Cugel is berating the ferals to come closer to the fire, which he fears less than they do, while turning a skewered human leg over the flames--he still likes his meat cooked. He wears a battered cylindrical hat that might have been white once. The smoke and light from the fire cloud all the ghuls' senses; the PCs can remain unnoticed with a skill check.
4. Holding Pens
Branches and reeds roughly lashed together to form two enclosures. In one lies Lanya Kiriona, still human, clothes stained and torn, bloodied from multiple bites and claw scratches. She is weak, near death, and feebly begs for rescue, promising reward. She is a successful textile merchant from Kyther, captured from the Saltway en route to Velm. Her promise is good; if rescued, she will contact the PCs a few weeks later with a generous reward and lifelong discount. By that time, she will have turned and be taking to her new hunger with surprised relish.
Stench of blood from 6.
5. Ghul Den
Recesses piled with scraps of rotting fabric, animal hides, leaves, and mosses, forming crude bedding. Especially powerful stink from 7. If Nona has not been encountered yet, she is here, huddling in her bedding and avoiding the other ghuls.
6. Abattoir
Stench of blood as the PCs approach. Within, nearly every surface is covered in the stuff, some dried, some fresh. Dead bodies hang upside down from hooks hammered into the walls--mostly animals, a few human.
A small pile in a recess contains 30 Đ, 4 wheels of fine cheese worth 5 Đ each (pungent, attracts predators), 3 coin-sized rubies worth 70 Đ, 50 Đ, and 40 Đ, and 3 pouches of powdered semmec spice that have been spoiled by the damp.
7. Midden Heap
Piled bones--animal and human--mixed in with torn, rotted clothing and shit. The stench is overpowering. If the PCs can bear it, digging through the heap reveals (1d6, 1 per turn): 1. 40 Đ, 2-5. a silver bar worth 50 Đ, 6. a gold circlet set with sapphires worth 100 Đ.
8. Unused Cave
Empty. Narrow fissure in the floor leading down into 9.
9. Tomb Ritual Bath
Old mortared stonework, tiled floor, plastered ceiling. A rectangular bath in the center, 4' deep, is half full of polluted water. A stone counter on the north wall holds a tarnished silver censer worth 90 Đ, a pair of silver mirrors worth 30 Đ each, and three ivory combs set with garnets, worth 12 Đ each, among broken clay jars and long-spoiled incense and perfumes. On the south wall, carvings in a pre-Old Kingdom style depict a bird-headed deity presiding over a procession of skeletons.
The east doorway is partly blocked by a large stone. It looks like it was levered out of the way.
10. Tomb Antechamber
A small stonework room. The north wall bears pre-Old Kingdom carvings of a crowned person leading a hunt against a menagerie of beasts. The south wall bears carvings showing a crowned person holding a scepter over a prostrate person without a crown.
11. Tomb Mausoleum
A stone sarcophagus on a low dais dominates this room, already open. Within lies an ancient, withered corpse. A black residue has leaked from its mouth and coats much of the sarcophagus around it. Anyone touching it contracts ghul plague on 5-in-6.
The rest of the room is filled with clay jars and stone chests, some already looted, others unsealed with the contents spoiled by moisture. Still present and intact are 400 Đ, 60 bronze javelinheads (5 Đ each, 25 Đ each to a collector), 2 fine robes with gold and silver embroidery worth 80 Đ each (ruined by moisture), 3 coin-sized beads of raasi amber worth 50 Đ each, and a bale of silver silk worth 100 Đ (ruined by moisture).
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