[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] Chimera's Findings on Rake Ghuls (March 2, 2015)

For Today’s post I wanted to bring something more recent.  The week of 2 March 2015 my former apprentice Chimera was investigating a case of undead scavengers lurking in the run-down Trinity Cemetery in Jamestown, North Dakota. STARK saved the research on what she identified as Ghuls.  And not just Ghuls, but a sub-species called Rakes. 

((Out of Character (OOC) comments are in ((  ))s.  As a Chronicle Storyteller for Mage: The Awakening this is my own personal take on the The Rake from the Slenderman universe as a subspecies of Ghouls (Ghuls)  Hope you enjoy.))

STARKnet Transcript:

Subject: Recorded findings of research into previously unknown cryptids discovered in derelict Jamestown ND Cemetery of unspecified reanimated corpses.

Updated Subject: Recorded findings of "Rake Ghuls" Cryptids in Jamestown, North Dakota

((:::MECHANICS:::

Note: I’m doing my own version of the extended actions as described in the God-Machine Rules to work better for this task/online posting.

Bonuses:

A.      Library Necromancy OOO – gives a +3 to the rolls as equipment modifier.  A more general occult library may yield more dice but being specific to the topic removes a lot of the penalties to the obscurity of the material as well.

B.      Geomantic Nexus Intelligence O – character rolls as if +1 intelligence higher

C.      Azazel Boost: +5 average Intelligence every hour at the cost of 1 Essence each…. (every two rolls)

D.      Gain Skill Occult: Gnosis 2 + Mind 2 + HS 2 = 6 = 2 successes each time average; Cast each hour at the cost of 1 Mana.  First 5 are Free from Hallow… permission granted by Casstiel to use it.

E.       One Mind Two Thoughts – One mind assists the Other, Free and cast each hour.

F.       Aspie - +1 bonus to mental skill checks when not in realtime interaction

Note: Since its book research this COULD be gathered using Academics.  Unfortunately the sources are obscure and esoteric.  If they used some academic organization system that could be used.  Since its

Chimera Intelligence 3 + Augment 5 + GeoNexus + 1 (total Int 9) + Occult 2 + Gain Skill 2 (Total Occult 4) = 13 Rolls max

Rolls:

Rolls: Fully Boosted = 13 + Library 3 + Aspie 1 -1 Obscure info = 16

Two Minds Boosted Roll = 13 + Library 0 + Aspie 1 – 1 Obscure = 12 = +4 to each roll.

Rolls: No Azazel Help: 11 + 2 help from second mind each roll))

((:::RESULTS:::))
((

1.       (30 Mins) Rolls 20 = 6 Successes, adds 4 successes (10 total successes)))

Before you even really get started your phone buzzes and the polite British voice of the STARK VI interjects into the silence. 

“Apprentice Chimera, if you are indeed trying to find information on the creatures that may be the traditional ghouls of lore you may wish to start with what information exists in the internet’s subconscious.  I have loaded four links onto your phone for viewing.”

<While the truth of the supernatural gets watered down and mixed up for time, there are grains of truth in every monster story.  I would still focus on these books of necromancy for a undead bestiary, what he offers may provide some insight on what we are looking for.  I can’t touch the stuff, too much like lies.

On your phone you may travel to the following links: 
((5 Successes))

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/ghoul.htm

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoul

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghouls_in_popular_culture

 http://www.laughingsage.com/macabrefiles/fiendentry_ghoul.htm

((10 Successes))

You start flipping through books and using spells like Universal Language in order to read some of the obscure texts.  Some parts are in High Speech, choppy but conveying deep meanings.  Others are in ciphers that STARK can sometimes break and other times cannot.
You focus on the sections of some of the moldering texts that talk about reanimation of the dead, bypassing the supernal spells but looking at the concepts, the truths behind the process.  Then you focus on any evidence of non-supernal methods of raising undead minions. 

There isn’t a lot on fallen methods of reanimation unfortunately, there does seem to be quite a bit about conditions and non-supernal phenomena that can and does cause the dead to rise and you follow that trail.  So far so good.

((

2.       (1 Hour): Spends 0 Mana & 7/10 Essence Remaining

a.       Rolls 20 = 6 successes, adds 4 (20 total successes)))

((15 Successes))

You luck out.  One of the books has a lot of hand-drawn depictions of the undead.  They are horrid and unnatural and turn your stomach.  The resonance around the book is pretty vile, it reeks of undead stink but they were screened to be safe.  The pictures you do find that look close to what you say are as follows: (Images attached at the end of the Blog)

The inhuman and human aspects of these drawings do imply the sort of full body warping and transformations that they would have had to undertake in order to become the cryptid you faced.  What is wrong though is the size, this appears to be child-like in build, and the lack of enormous claws. 

((18 Successes))

The word at the bottom is in a laughable caesarian cipher which you crack quickly.  It says simply: Ghul.

((20 successes))

Now that you know what you are looking for you can chase down references to Ghuls.  Your extra thread of thoughts churns through speculation and implication.  You start hitting descriptions and details.

Ghuls have been known to take up residence in derelict graveyards or where mass amounts of dead people have been buried and the ground was never blessed such as unmarked graves.  In cemeteries that fall into disrepair the resonance of hallowed ground may dissipate, allowing corruption and desecration to sink in and mess up the mystical geometries of the site.  In this environment Ghuls are more likely to start appearing.

((

3.       (1.5 Hours) Rolls 20 = 4 successes, (24 total successes)))

((24 Successes))

Written descriptions seem to line up and confirm that this is at least related to the creature you killed.  Ghuls were the decayed bodies of people that are changed by exposure to necromantic energy or certain types of necromantic resonance.  They may spring up nearly spontaneously, something happens and this energy becomes a life of its own inside of the husk like how spirits congeal from resonance motes in the shadow.

Their bodies are altered by the animating force.  Their hair continues to grow and also fall out.  Their nails continue to grow and become very thick and sharp.  Their skin takes on an ashen pallor and vestigial parts of the body rot off such as the genitals, ears and nose.  Modern embalming doesn’t seem to have any effect on the creature’s strange anatomy.

The final effect is a creature that is more comfortable quadrapedal than bipedal, tends to have a slouched stature.  This is thought to be the result of the animation not being strong enough to regain dexterity or balance in the dead tissues.  Some of their facial features become vaguely animalistic and they have been compared to hyenas in both behavior and appearance many times by occult scholars.

((

4.        (2 Hours) Spends 0 Mana & 6/10 Essence Remaining

a.       Rolls 20 = 5 successes, adds 4 (33 total successes)))

((28 Successes))

After animation, Ghuls claw their way out of their coffins with their tireless strength and extremely well adapted digging claws.  Ghuls’ are scavengers and their primary source of sustenance is the dead and rotting flesh and they tend to stink heavily of rotten meat.  While some still wear the funeral clothing they were buried in most lose it all during their many sessions of burrowing. 

Timid when solitary, a single or pair of ghouls won’t leave the borders of the graveyard, close to the easiest and most readily available food supply and bathed in the resonance that sparked this animation.

They dig down to a corpse with impressive voracity and plunge their bodies through the loose solid as they go.  As with many undead they have no need for air and do not tire.  They usually retire to their graves or the source of the resonance that spawned them.  They may also take residence in any hidden place safe from sunlight.

((31 Successes ))

The Ghuls also become carriers for the same psychic stink or “taint” to any graves they spend time near.  Devoured creatures do not animate as Ghuls, whatever element in the dead body that sparks reanimation is devoured to fuel the Ghuls.  Its speculated that the Ghuls don’t even need the flesh and usually corpses are not completely devoured.  A Ghul may return to a body its feasting on many times before they move on but leave the body buried so as to keep its predations from being noticed.

((33 Successes))

As the pack grows it becomes bolder.  Ghuls do not fight or devour each other, they are linked by what they are and while they might provide sustenance if food grows scarce they always band together quickly, even from other graveyards, solidified in the instinct that there is power and safety in numbers.

((

5.       (2.5 Hours) Rolls 20 = 7 Successes, adds 4 (44 total successes) ))

((35 Successes))

A body too far decayed and with too little flesh still attached has a very low chance to animate.  Skeletons or bodies that have fallen apart never reanimate as a Ghul.  However, modern embalming techniques actually keep the body preserved for well over 15-25 years of time where a body could animate, depending on the environment and how the body was buried.  Bodies left to rot in open air do not animate.

((37 Successes))

The pack mentality of Ghuls has been studied and the closest approximation to how they operate in a pack is that of a pack of hyenas, wild dogs or wolves.  Their coordination is very good and while there is no alpha, they all read each other’s body language to queue of each other.  It is unknown if they have some extrasense or communication method between them.

((40 Successes))

An emboldened pack begins to create a patrolling radius into the surrounding areas.  This usually occurs once there is 4-6 of them.  This may happen faster if the food supply in the cemetery is scarce.  If the graveyard is close to a town or city it is common for pets and livestock to go missing or are found half-eaten.  If they come across a child or someone feeble they may attack.  They become infinitely more skittish when there is more than one person to deal with. 

They almost never pass up an infant or someone in a wheel chair by themselves.

 ((44 Successes))

Ghuls are very good at stealthily sneaking around the shadows for their dedicated nocturnal behavior.  It has been speculated that they employ some sort of mental, illusory or physical camouflage. 

A contrary entry in another book:

Ghuls may camouflage themselves using detritus, mud and dark materials.  However their ability with near-silent movement and stalking in shadows is chillingly skilled.

Ghuls intelligence is thought to range from that of a wild dog or wolf.  Other behaviors indicate they retain enough processing in their dead brains (in some cases) and may have the cognitive reasoning of a chimpanzee or gorilla.

((

6.       (3.0 Hours) Spends 0 Mana & 5/10 Essence Remaining)

a.       Rolls 20 = 6 Successes, adds 4 (54 total successes) ))

((47 Successes))

Ghuls are very good trackers, by smell, and can stalk their prey using scouts to narrow down a location of new food and reduce the chance of being observed.  They are vulnerable but they can also track in packs if stealth is less important.

A large Ghul pack will attempt to scout out other cemeteries nearby and spread the infectious taint to the undesicrated graveyard, producing more Ghuls and a source of more food. 

It is believed the pack communicates through body language only.  But other instances suggest some sort of subliminal telepathic connection.  Another observation was made in which it was discovered that the Ghuls were communicating through sort sounds that imitate the noise of the environment, this masks the communication and keeps them from giving up their positions if they are trying to sneak up on someone in force.  A bird chirping maybe be one behind a tree, another may imitate a babbling brook or the whistle of the wind when no wind is apparent.

((49 Successes))

The boldest packs (around a dozen or more) will target more slower moving animals, mostly people.  They will lure and devour house pets.  They will gang up on a solitary person (women over men), the infirm, the elderly and children.  Some may become so bold as to enter houses looking for sleeping victims, especially infants.

((51 Successes))

You discover references to ghul sub-types, which may explain the misleading information.  Azazel would point out that the supernatural has done well in most cases to avoid detection from mortal authorities.   Cryptids are historically good and leave little evidence behind.  These books may be dated, there may be sub-types that act differently or the writers of these books never studied a ghul long enough to figure it out, too busy destroying them or getting stalked and forced to relocate.

((54 Successes))

GHUL Sub-type: Rakes

With some more research you find a handful of different types of Ghuls.  They are more or less described with minor differences in behavior.  They go by slang to match their function.  The one that catches your eye is discussion on “Rake Ghuls” or simply “Rakes.”  Rakes are known for their oversized claws used to digging and self-defense and may grow up to three feet long.

Rakes are extremely good at burrowing to safety or to food through frozen ground.  This explains which they have a niche in colder environments.  Despite their ungainly claws they burrow extremely fast, precise and with a very small profile.  It’s been noted that Rakes leave behind little bigger than a gopher hole.  It is not understood how they could manage that but other experts in necrozoology speculate that the dirt is pushed up behind it to recollapse the soil and its grass behind it or the creature has the ability to squeeze through such a space by breaking or folding its collar bone or ribs. Another aspect of the body alteration of Ghuls in favor of evolution.

((

7.       (3.5 Hours) Rolls 20 = 6 successes, adds 4 (64 total successes)))

((56 Successes))

When cut open a Ghul may reveal dried tissue, brackish and stinky fluid or acrid embalming fluids.  They do not use most of the organs in the torso.

(( 60 Successes))

This is where we get a little side-tracked.  It is likely that understanding burial desecration works will give insight on how to kill Ghuls and preventing more of them from animating later.  To accomplish that you must figure out what “desecration” means outside of a religious ceremonial act to bless sites and something firm from a practical occult standpoint.

What is grave desecration? Grave desecration in the preternatural framework is negative resonance from emotions, neglect, exposure to necromancy or exposure to black magic (fallen primarily).  On neglect, if the spiritual landscape shifts the meaning of the place in order to reclaim it to nature the graveyard starts losing a fundamental barrier and resonance build up by the resonance of the grieving people there, resonance from the recently vibrant dead and  blessings.

Other ways a cemetery may start to become compromised is having a high concentration of violent deaths and deadly or insane criminals clustered together in the graveyard.  The resonance that bubbles up can corrode the hallowed ground in that spot erodes like acid on stone.

((

8.       (4.0 Hours) Spends 0 Mana

a.       Rolls 13 = 5 successes, adds 4 (68 total successes)))

((65 Successes))

Things get a but obscure in the lore when it comes to looking for sources of grave desecration.  The list of things that might cause such a thing seem to indicate that once understanding crosses into the non-supernal the Moros don't seem to really understand the mechanics of what actually happens to cause a grave desecration.

Holes in the spiritually blessed geometric barriers that disrupt the normal death resonance and corrupt the aspect of death and lead to cemetery desecration.  Profane rituals, bad luck, cursed items, burying an unbaptised or someone who doesn't receive a proper burial, any number of vampire or gypsy related fates such as a body being burried face down.

Most commonly, a practitioner of the arcane, Voodun Bokour, Mamba, or any number of magicians might become a ghul after their deaths.  These are supposedly more awake, more lucid, more intelligent, and more powerful than others, careful of spawning more larvae.

((

9.       (4.5 Hours) Rolls 13 = 1 success (69 total successes) ))

The last  bit you can find down this research path talks about different case studies of grave desecrations and common elements between them, possible signs for spotting the onset of the crawling "grave taint."  Signs like dead grass, ground that has become barren (hard clay, peated soil), corrupted resonance (includes lengthy description of the resonance you have already encountered: death, decay, negative energy, corruption, reanimation, tumorous undeath), occult ritual markings left over from the rituals of the desecrators, sometimes 'burned' circles in the ground, radiated lines, rings or bursts of spoiled grounds.

Ghul Sign on the other hand includes loose soil, sinkholes or disturbed ground and small burrow holes, pieces of broken coffins, empty coffins, bones, and dead animals.

Ghuls hideaway the day in basements, mineshafts, graves, tombs, catacombs, they are not completely dormant during the day but can appears corpselike and immobile.  True sunlight will very quickly tear the animating force out of their bodies, suggesting a tie with darkness or shadows or shadow people or spirits as a component of the animating force.

((

10.   (5.0 Hours) Spends 0 Mana

a.       Rolls 13 = 2 successes (71 total successes)))

((70 Successes))

They are not restricted to clustering together and tend to separate out to find separate places to bed down for the day.  They also do not necessarily need to return to their graves or the cemetery to dodge the day.  Sometimes destroying a colony of entrenched Ghuls can be very difficult if they have maturated and grown confident and comfortable enough to control a large area with many places to hide.  In long drawn out hunts Ghuls have been found out in hollowed out old hot water heaters, closets of empty homes, inside walls of abandodoned buildings, sleeping in garbage cans or bins covered and protected by refuse, buried in the muck and mud of an underwater lake bed.  The Rakes, of course, are best known for burrowing into the earth with their small and inconspicuous "badger holes."  Ghouls Burrows can be a lot of trouble without Geomancy. 

((

11.   (5.5 Hours) Rolls 13 = 4 successes (75 total successes)))

((75 Successes))

Okay, now you're really getting somewhere.  After finding the coding system for how an old magus codified cyptids into tables containing associations and truths you are able to translate a table ascribed to creatures very much like the ghul sub-necro type.

According to the table.  The following are strengths associated with such cryptids:

They are very stealthy and make little to no noise when they move.  They are fast and agile, excellent "pakourists" able to free run and crawl with a fly-like gait.  Their physical strength is based largely upon how fresh they are when they first animate.  On the whole they tend to appear desiccated but with the strength of an average man.  But without the limitations of endurance or the biomechanics that prevent a person from destroying their body through over exertion.  The result is a critter, sure, as strong as a man, but a man hopped up on PCP.

Further notes indicate that bullets and other metal fragmentation weaponry are largely ineffective, they don't seem to use their organs enough for tiny holes to matter.  While their regenerative capabilities are slow and limited, through eating dead flesh.  There has even been a case of a dead mage turned Ghul who could replace lost limbs with the limbs of a corpse.

Intelligence varies, usually between the level of a coyote/hyena brain and tend to grow smarter in a pack construct.  Some, those with talent in life have displayed some human problem solving but little more.  They are excellent trackers and can follow the scent of dead flesh for miles.

((

12.   (6.0 Hours) Spends 1 Mana

a.       Rolls 13 = 5 successes, adds 4 (80 total successes)))

((80 successes!))

Jackpot. Paydirt.  Weaknesses of undead creatures similar to Ghuls!

Their greatest weakness is perhaps that they are timid.  In ones and twos they are easily startled but will return in greater numbers.... said Obi-Wan right?  Their numbers and timid behavior limits their actions, ring of expansion, and their prey.

They strongly dislike bright light and in bright flashes and loud noises this can drive them off.  Confusing them or tricking them into thinking you are a greater threat than their estimation or that you have reinforcements tends to have them flee the situation for the time being.  They do get smart on these tricks however.  There seems to be some simple math in that undead gray matter, if they lack the numbers to guarantee they can take down their game with ease they won't attack.  If they are cornered or attacked in their burrows all bets are off.

They have displayed a noticeable fear and aversion to fire.  Their dry, desiccated bodies seem to yield more readily to the purifying element of flame.  One occurrence involving Adamantine Arrows displays highly effective tactics involving flamethrowers.  Once on fire its best to stay clear, they don't just drop but will run blindly around, spreading the flames and trying to put of the fire.  The smell is terrible.

Hollow point or magnum ammunition, high caliber and other rounds that ensure massive tissue damage can be effective in copious amounts.  Decapitation or massive head trauma (say, using the effective ammunition) works well.  In theory, if the mandible and throat are destroyed then the creature cannot take in the nutrients it needs to regenerate itself and will slowly wither away, even if it escapes.  Severing the spine or other common nerve paths paralyze those limbs from directed control though the limbs may continue to twitch and grab things.

High explosives over fragmentation, once again conventional grenades and mines don't work all that well though landmines can limit a ghul's mobility,  Ghuls are more common in war-torn nations such as the middle-east where they were first recorded. 

Close-quarters combat is not advised and blunt weapons are only useful against the head at high-velocity.  Slashing weapons that can dismember such as machetes, axes or kukri knives work better.

Holy water and holy symbols is not confirmed effective.  Sometimes animated corpses of Ghul-like descriptions turn out to actually be spirits animating the bodies and in that case these may work.  Abjuration and Exorcism work better and are inconclusive against Ghuls.

The three best known Ghul-killing tactics remain:

1. Use of slaughtered animals or cadavers left with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) inside them near Ghul territory.  Collateral damage is possible.

2.Track them to a building they use to hide from the day and burn that building down during daytime hours.

3. Direct sunlight destroys the animating energy.  They collapse, return to that of a deformed corpse, and suffer burns as exposure continues.  Sunlight is not an effective means of disposing of a corpse and leaves too much evidence of human immolation behind.  Hunters will corner Ghuls with hooks and nets and drag them into sunlight.

The true connection between Ghuls and the more common undead Vampire is not fully understood but they are at least cousins on the undead family tree.

((

13.   (6.5 Hours) Rolls 13 = 5 successes, adds 4 (89 total successes)))

A small book falls out from between two books in the stack as you take another tomb of moldering books from the "safe" pile.  What is curious about this smaller leather book is how the yellowed vanilla scented pages are completely blank.  The only markings beyond the white magic circle with seven points on the cover is a black ink teardrop the size of a hand in the center of the first page and a blending of a single high-speech sigil meaning a blend of "sorrow" and "desire". Strange..

Images below found during research or sighted during the events the week of March 2-10 2015.  If you want more information, please seek Chimera.  Send me comments if you need contact information for her.