Ghul

Great ghuls are undead elemental relatives of the genies, the vilest members of a lesser order of jann. Most are female. In true form a great ghul has heavy hair, bushy brows drooping over the eyes, clawed fingers, and a jutting, heavily muscled jaw. Its skin is pale white, always cold and clammy, and it shares the stooped posture of its lesser kin. Its feet, and sometimes its ears, are a donkey's. Most stand over 7 feet tall, and mages reach about 10 feet, though they often take smaller forms.

Aware of their ugliness, they hide behind makeup, fine clothes, jewelry, and heavy perfumes such as rosewater, attar of orange, and cloves. Whatever shape they take, the donkey feet remain, so they favor long robes or special boots.

A great ghul fights with claws and powerful jaws and can be hit only by magical weapons. At will it can use shocking grasp, polymorph self, and bestow invisibility. Like most undead, it ignores sleep, charm, hold, and cold magic and is unaffected by paralysis and poison. Holy water deals 2d6 points of damage, and in daylight it suffers -1 on attack rolls. Great ghuls are turned as ghasts, mage ghuls as wraiths. Falls deal ghuls only half damage, and genie-binders cannot bind or capture any ghul.

About one in six is a wizard of up to 7th level. Some become genie-binders and so gain a measure of control over other genies. Others study the elemental provinces of flame, sand, or wind; students of sea magic are very rare.

Only jann killed by a great ghul become ghuls. Every other victim simply dies and is eaten, the ghul eating its flesh and sucking marrow from each bone.

Great ghuls dwell alone in ruins or caves in the most desolate deserts and on the highest peaks. Mountain ghuls can climb sheer cliffs with their claws and great strength. Desert ghuls climb less well but can burrow through sand and soft rock. Mages live alone, while others may form packs with their siblings.

Feared by humans and scorned by genies, they rarely wear their true shape even at home, and years of disguise among humans have made them superb actors and liars. Boredom drives them to pranks and risky exploits that can expose them. Their favorite cruelty is joining nomads or caravans and leading them off course, often to their deaths and the ghul's dinner table.

Great ghuls serve genies when they must but look down on ghouls as crude and unreliable. Those who become genie-binders keep it very quiet, for other genies fear and resent that power, and such ghuls are often destroyed once their homes are found. Most avoid other races, since contact tends to turn violent, yet they sometimes help humans against other genies or join a quest that interests them, asking no reward.

Lesser ghuls are meek, smaller versions of the great ghul, usually serving noble efreet, slayer genies, and other powerful beings, and sometimes ghul mages or great ghuls. They look miserable and grief-stricken; some weep without end, and others hide their faces in silent mourning.

Most great ghuls were once jann, but lesser ghuls were once human. A mage ghul who kills a human can create one by sitting beside the corpse all night with its hands on the dead one's head; at dawn the body rises as a lesser ghul. Certain beings, such as noble efreet, can turn humans into lesser ghuls and lesser ghuls into great ones.

Lesser ghuls can fight as fiercely as great ones but avoid combat unless cornered or threatened, and they suffer -2 on attack rolls. In every other way they share the great ghul's magical powers and weaknesses.