Publisher: Wintertree SoftwareHaunt all your mansions with these 1001 Ghastly Ghosts for a great Gothic feel anywhere.
1001 Ghastly Ghosts
It was a dark and stormy night. Or at least a soaking rainy night. The sodden adventurers, delayed by mishap after mishap and now caught out in the wet, trudged down the muddy East Road toward the town of Kempston, kept moving by visions of warm beds and hot meals in a nice dry inn. Then, ahead, they saw lighted windows.
Leader: That must be Kempston House; that would put us about five miles from town.
GM: Yes, it is. *rolls some dice* Kalthras, you recall that the library of Kempston House reputedly holds a copy of Belfel’s Voyage to Jalandia.
Kalthras: That’s a good reason to stop there even if we weren’t soaking wet.
Leader: We can’t just walk in and cadge a room, like the place was some sort of inn! It’s a noble’s country mansion, however minor a noble.
Jarmak: Um … Lady Kempston is my fourth cousin twice removed.
Leader: *looks surprised*
Jarmak: I’ve got some normal relatives!
They were welcomed by the warm-hearted (and more to the point, warm-hearthed) lordling and his family, eager to hear the news from far and wide. After a hasty but filling meal, during which the weather outside escalated from heavy rain to a major thunderstorm, Kalthras was granted permission to examine the book he sought in the Kempston House library. While Jarmak was catching up on family gossip with his cousin, Garin was drying and oiling his armor, and the others were likewise engaged, Kalthras settled in to study the book and talk with Lord Kempston, who was also interested in history. Suddenly, a movement where no movement should be caught his eye.
Only a few yard away, on the far side of the mansion library, was a luminous humanoid shape, wreathed in ghostly flames. Kalthras stood and took a step toward it. Before he could move closer, the ghost pointed to the south and vanished as if it had never been. Kalthras looked toward Lord Kempston, who seemed undisturbed.
Lord Kempston: Aye, that’s our family ghost. Every right mansion ought to have one, y’know? Family legend says he, or she, the legend’s not so clear, was a heretic a-burned at the stake by a traveling witch-finder in th’ first Lord Kempston’s day. Given that I’m th’ eighth lord myself, that’s a good few years back.
Kalthras: What was it pointing to?
Lord Kempston: Y’know, nobody’s ever found that out….
A motion in the doorway revealed Jarmak standing there, possibly sent to find Kalthras. He had seen the ghost and was wide-eyed.
Jarmak: Treasure! It must be pointing to where it hid some great treasure!
Welcome to the “1001 Things” collections
Ghosts and hauntings are essential for a gothic atmosphere. In a world steeped in magic and violence, it would be odd if there weren’t strange echos of the living anywhere that people have lived for any amount of time. But not all ghosts are the carefully-cataloged undead monsters of most game systems. Even more interesting, perhaps, are those which are mere phantoms, but which carry a message, even a warning, for the living.
That’s where 1001 Ghastly Ghosts comes in Here you have a thousand and one spooks to haunt your haunted mansions with. They might be merely atmospheric, an ethereal red herring as it were, but any one of them could also be the lead-in to an adventure. They’re all ready for the gamemaster to construct a story around.Price: $1.50
Go to Source
