Entering the Spook Zone
As the party enters the dilapidated house, they each experience a sudden chill, coupled with an inexplicable sense of watchfulness. There is a pervasive sense that something is in their vicinity, yet no Perception check can help them; the entity whose attention they've unwittingly drawn is not one of flesh, nor even of concentrated spiritual matter, but a far more subtle and complex mingling of substance and memory, purpose and regret. Overcoming the challenge it presents will require a combination of wit, curiosity, and personal strength.
Introduction
Tabletop games can have a problem of "monsterifcation", of treating every problem as a concrete barrier or puzzle to be defeated or solved. While there is much enjoyment to be had from this approach, applying it to every scenario can become tiresome. The concept of a ghost is esoteric, vague, and obscure of purpose; encountering one as a storytelling challenge should be approached in a similar way, and rather than treat it as a monster to be fought, it can be seen as a more environmental, more pervasive, and more personal threat.
My objective in writing this is to present a way of turning a ghostly encounter into a more involved experience. In particular, I envision a situation on the scale of a single play session; however, by adjusting some of the details, you can easily truncate the encounter to a more minor encounter, or stretch it out into a larger plot arc within a campaign.
This document is largely written with a system-agnostic intent; however, some specific references to D&D are included. It is left as an exercise for the reader to adapt these statistics to other systems if desired.
What is a ghost?
The concept of ghosts exists in almost every culture, and from one culture to another, their traits, powers, and weaknesses also vary. This provides us with a wealth of folkloric traditions from which to draw, and you may wish to shun some of the preconceptions that dominate conventional media to create a more idosynchratic ghost, or one that conforms to the expectations of a different folkloric idiom.
For this scenario, I'm assuming a ghost that operates on the following principles: it is a spirit of a deceased person (or, alternatively, a conglomeration of the remaining emotional baggage and attachment of such a person), bound to a specific location because of a lingering sense of need that prevents it from departing the material world and moving on to whatever plane of existence is more appropriate. It may or may not be intelligent, but for the sake of presenting a threat, its actions are dominated by instinct and emotion, and it is seldom motivated by rational arguments or goals.
The ghost is normally incorporeal: under normal circumstances, it has no physical form or body to engage with. Instead, it has a domain of haunting, a place associated with the spirit, either as a place it visited in life, or where its body died. It may be a house, a clearing, a cave, or any other environment. This domain is a prison to the spirit, which cannot willingly leave; but it also acts as a kind of extended body, with the ghost able to exert its will to influence things and people within that area.
Initially, the ghost has no monster stats per se, and is more like a force of nature than a creature. This will change as the party makes progress (hopefully) in learning its secrets, and otherwise draws its attention.
At the beginning of the creative process, I recommend giving the ghost certain pieces of specific information, in tandem with whatever you develop for its backstory. These are the core concepts that will determine its activity and effectiveness. The first is its Goal. This is similar to a 5e character's Ideal, but more encompassing: the ghost is driven by the urge to complete its goal, and cannot willingly act contrary to it, though it may lack the sophistication to recognize opportunities to complete its Goal. If you want a more minor challenge, the ghost may disappear as soon as its Goal is achieved; if you want a greater challenge, completing the Goal may be just one necessary step to resolving the haunting. Some example Goals are in the table below:
| d8 | Goal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Last Rites |
| 2 | Placement of Personal Effect on Tomb |
| 3 | Proper Burial |
| 4 | Discovering Cause of Death |
| 5 | Acknowledgement of Personal Achievement |
| 6 | Recognition from Surviving Loved One |
| 7 | Absolution of False Accusation |
| 8 | Vengeance upon murderer |
In addition to this, you will need to create a series of connection points that hold the ghost to the mortal realm; these are its Anchors. And as the ghost's threat becomes increasingly imminent, its actions will be dominated by a stat called Anger. More details on these mechanics to follow.
The Adventure
Treat your ghost as you would a major NPC, with emphasis on understanding how their Goal came to be, what kept them from meeting it in life, and what can be done to satisfy it. The haunting domain is an extension of the character and should be developed with a similar attention to detail.
Construction
The core game experience in this scenario consists of the PCs exploring the domain, putting together clues about what happened to the person whose spirit now remains, what's holding them back, and what can be done to move them on. In many ways it is similar to a murder mystery (and can easily become one entirely), and the storytelling can be approached in the same way.
Develop the ghost as fully as possible, including their personality, motives, and history, ranging from their formative years to their final moments. As you create the ghost's story, choose a number of items or locations (or even other NPCs) within the haunting domain that are strongly connected to it, representing important events in their life, both good and bad. These are "Anchors" that will be used to influence the ghost's behavior. Distribute them widely throughout the area, some obvious and some inconspicuous or even hidden.
You may wish to include other NPCs, either to provide clues, or to impede progress, intentionally or otherwise. They may or may not have known the deceased.
Investigation & Purification
The party's job is primarily to find out who the ghost is and what happened to them. Mental skills are essential to find and understand clues, and social skills are important to interact with the ghost, and with others in the area that have encountered it. If you want, physical/combat skills may be important in order to deal with some of the ghost's more intense attacks, and it might even summon or attract other monsters from time to time.
Clerics: Having a religious personage in the party is a major asset in this adventure, possibly to the detriment of the other players. Letting their powers instantly solve the plot would be anticlimactic, but at the same time, preventing them from being of help could foster frustration in the player. A cleric's spells and divine connections can be used both to manipulate the spiritual world and to learn more about the situation, but cannot simply remove the ghost, as it is not a creature in the conventional sense, and doing so draws more attention toward the cleric themselves. If they overuse their powers, they risk becoming the primary target of attacks.
Safe and Unsafe Zones
If you want a clear sense of tensions and peril in the story, consider designating specific locations as safe or unsafe, the former being those that the ghost cannot enter, the latter being those that will automatically trigger an attack if entered. The PCs can create safe zones by drawing a circle with salt or magically-attuned chalk, or by casting a spell that sanctifies the space, but creating more than a few of these will draw the ghost's attention, and possibly increase its Anger as well.
Manifestation
The ghost will physically appear and be able to talk whenever the party makes a major breakthrough in its mystery or solves one of its major Anchors. The PCs can attempt to trigger a manifestation at other times by making a Persuasion check.
Anchors
The ghost's connection to the mortal realm is similar to the HP of a living creature, but dispersed across the environment that it haunts, in the form of Anchors. These can be items, locations, NPCs, or even monsters, but they have a deep connection to the ghost, and their presence and current condition is what fuels the haunting. Anchors can be major or minor. Major Anchors include the body, the murder weapon, the murder location, the next of kin, or the remains of the deceased's life's work. Minor Anchors include favorite books, clothes, rooms, or childhood toys. While all of these have power, the major Anchors will always draw the ghost's attention if the PCs interact with them, and it may make efforts to prevent them being discovered. At least one major Anchor should be directly related to the ghost's Goal.
Each Anchor will have a specific action that can be done to it to remove the connection associated with it. For instance, finding the bones of the deceased and placing them in the family tomb may be the ideal solution for that Anchor. If the PCs understand and commit the proper course of action, the Anchor will become a normal item and the ghost's power is depleted; otherwise, the Anchor will remain in force. If the PCs desecrate or destroy the items, the connection may be removed, but the ghost's Anger will greatly increase.
As the ghost's Anchors are removed, its connection to the mortal world wanes. It will have a harder time manifesting in areas where no Anchors remain, and may become uncertain, less able to remember its history, less quickly driven to anger over its condition. When all Anchors are removed (give or take a couple of minor ones), the ghost dissipates, either ceasing to exist or migrating to a spiritual plane, depending on which ghost theory you prefer.
Anger
As the PCs continuously attempt to weaken the ghost's attachment to the world, it will naturally become more frustrated, both with their specific actions, and by being forced to confront its situation. As the story progresses, it will lash out both more frequently, and with greater power.
Any time a PC insults or disrespects the ghost or one of its Anchors, increase its Anger by 1. Also increase it when an Anchor is destroyed (2 points for minor, 6 for major), and at regular intervals over the course of play.
The PCs can reduce the ghost's Anger whenever it manifests near them, by placating it with social abilities. Give a bonus or advantage if the PCs reference specific elements of the ghost's history or personality or try to forge a compelling emotional connection with it. Give penalties or disadvantage if they carelessly remind it of bad memories or otherwise offend it. A successful attempt will reduce Anger by a point or two, while failure will only increase its Anger and may trigger an attack. Repeated attempts of this method may cause the ghost to become confused or sulky and stop manifesting for a while.
The ghost's Anger begins at 1 (unless you decide that an NPC has recently riled it) and increases whenever you decide that something in the story has aggravated it. Every time the PCs move to a new location, interact with an Anchor, or attempt to talk to the ghost directly, roll a d20. If you roll above the ghost's current Anger value, it attacks. Make this roll with disadvantage if the ghost's Anchors in the current location have all been removed.
The ghost can attack using any action listed in the table below. It can use any action with a value less than or equal to its current Anger.
| Anger | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Lesser Telekinesis. The ghost moves an object weighing no more than 10 lbs. up to 60 feet. |
| 2 | Spectral Image. A threatening incorporeal image or message appears. |
| 3 | Lesser Alteration. A detail about the environment changes, such as the color of a piece of furniture. |
| 4 | Frighten. The ghost makes an Indimidation check against a creature. If successful, target becomes Frightened for one hour. |
| 5 | Withering Touch. The ghost makes an attack with its Charisma modifier against a target, dealing 2d6 necrotic damage on hit. |
| 6 | Totemic Aversion. A target Anchor becomes shrouded in a dark aura for the next hour. Any creature moving within 5 feet of it must make a DC 10 Constitution save or take 1d6 necrotic damage. The effect can be removed by dispel magic or any effect that can turn undead. |
| Anger | Action |
|---|---|
| 7 | Unknock. All exits from the current area become sealed, and can only be breached with a DC 15 Strength check or 20 points worth of damage. |
| 8 | Tremor. All creatures within a 30-foot radius of a chosen point must make a DC 12 Dexterity save or be knocked prone. |
| 9 | Totemic Incursion. A creature that is touching an Anchor takes 1d8 necrotic damage. |
| 10 | Greater Telekinesis. A creature of medium or smaller size, or an object weighing no more than 200 lbs., is thrown up to 20 feet, causing or taking 2d10 bludgeoning damage for a creature that fails a DC 13 Dexterity save. |
| 11 | Memory Alteration. A target creature must make a DC 11 Intelligence save, or forget one piece of information it has learned in the last hour. |
| 12 | Terrify. A target creature must make a DC 12 Wisdom save, or become Paralyzed for up to one minute. It can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end the effect. |
| 13 | Greater Alteration. A target creature or Anchor is teleported to an empty space up to 120 feet away that is within the ghost's domain. |
| 14 | Mass Frighten. The ghost makes an Intimidation check. All creatures within 30 feet of its manifestation or a point of its choosing must make Wisdom saves or be Frightened for one hour. |
| 15 | Phantasm. A target creature must make a DC 12 Wisdom save or become Frightened. On each of its turns, it takes 1d6 psychic damage and can repeat the saving throw to end the effect. |
| 16 | Heart-strike. The ghost makes an attack with its Charisma modifier against a target within 5 feet of its manifestation or Apparition, dealing 4d10 necrotic damage on hit. |
| 17 | Total Alteration. An area containing a major Anchor becomes impossible to enter or exit by nonmagical means. |
| 18 | Totemic Domination. A creature that is touching an Anchor must make a DC 13 Wisdom save or be compelled to use its next turn to either steal, protect, or destroy the Anchor. |
| 19 | Possession. A target creature must make a DC 13 Charisma save. On failure, the ghost's manifestation or Apparition disappears, and the target is filled with a compulsion to complete or prevent a specific course of action. If the target ends a turn without attempting to meet the compulsion, it takes 1d10 necrotic damage. The possession ends when the target becomes unconscious, or is subject to an effect that can turn undead. |
| 20 | Soul Seep. A target creature must make a DC 13 Wisdom save, taking 4d10 necrotic damage on failure and half on success. If an Apparition is present, it gains HP equal to half the amount taken. |
The Final Confrontation
It's possible to run the story such that the ghost simply dissipates as soon its Anchors are all gone. If you want a more climactic ending instead, ramp up toward an actual combat-like scenario. Once the ghost's Anchors are almost all gone, it retreats to the specific area where its most significant major Anchor remains (preferably one connected to its Goal), and will attempt to prevent the party from reaching it. It can still attack as the party continues to move and investigate, using the rules above, but can no longer manifest in other locations and will ignore attempts at communication.
When the party enters the final location, the ghost will manifest and, following a dramatically appropriate dialogue, initiate combat. At this point, it can be treated as a pesudo-creature, using the guidelines opposite.
Optional Scenario. If the ghost is seeking revenge for its murder, consider a conventional murder mystery in which several suspects are presented. When the culprit is finally identified, they become the ghost's final Anchor; it manifests and tries to kill them, but its overflowing anger means it is likely to attack the party as well.
Apparition
Medium Undead, any alignment
- Armor Class 14
- Hit Points 45 (10d8)
- Speed 0 ft., can hover.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA N/A (-) N/A (-) N/A (-) 10 (0) 12 (+1) 16 (+3)
- Saving Throws CHA +4
- Skills Intimidation +4
- Senses Blindsight 30 ft.
- Languages Any Languages It Knew In Life
- Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
Incorporeal Motion. The Apparition can use its movement action to teleport to a location within 30 feet. While doing so, it can move from the Material to Ethereal Plane, or vice versa. It can end its turn occupying an object or creature with no penalty.
Conceptual Entity. The Apparition cannot be affected by Conditions, attacks, or effects that deal damage. A creature within 10 feet can attack it with any weapon by making a Wisdom or Charisma check, of their choice, dealing damage if their total exceeds the Apparition's AC.
Material Connection. Any damage dealt to an Anchor is also suffered by the Apparition. Each time such damage is dealt, its Anger increases by 1d4.
Actions
Anger Attack. The Apparition attacks using the Anger table above. It can divide its Anger among multiple attacks; for example, if it has 12 Anger, it can make an 8-Anger attack and a 4-Anger attack. Each attack must target a different creature.