RR5 Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts (2e)
2e
Ghost, Spirit, Apparition, Restless Spirit, Phantasm, Typical Ghost, Incorporeal Dead, Ghostly Undead, Ghostly Dead: The instant of a ghost's creation is intense. Just as the shock of birth is overwhelming to a child, so too is this sudden plunge into the frigid, black waters of unlife. The intensity of this shock is based wholly upon the emotional and karmic energies of the transformation. In other words, the stronger the emotional state of those present at the ghost's creation, the more powerful the spirit that arises.
In many cases, persons who die from a ghost's draining energy attack may become ghosts themselves.
Their origins, powers, abilities, and weaknesses are numerous and varied.
Ghost, Ethereal Horror, Incorporeal Creature, Spectral Undead, Incorporeal Being, Incorporeal Spirit, Unliving Creature, Ethereal Creature, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Ghost, Light: ?
Ghost, Image of Light: ?
Undead, The Dead, Undead Creature, The Unliving: In approximately half of all ghostly cases, an apparition has the ability to cause those it kills to rise as some form of undead, not necessarily the form of another ghost.
In general, a ghost is only able to employ this power when it slays someone with its primary special ability. Thus, a ghost capable of draining life energy might have this power in addition to the drain life energy ability. If so, those who died from this ghost's special ability—that is, who died from having their life energy drained away—would rise again as lesser forms of undead.
Baron Metus, Horrible Vampire, Fiend: ?
Vampire, Dread Vampire: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Child Vampire, Dark Beast: ?
Carriage, Eerie Glow, Horrific Conveyance, Macabre Vehicle: ?
Skeletal Steed: ?
Coachman, Gaunt Skeletal Fellow: ?
Ghost, Supernatural Enemy: ?
Most Powerful of Ghosts, Most Powerful of All Ghosts, Most Powerful Apparition: ?
Ghost, Most Powerful of Horrors: ?
Most Unusual Mass Haunting: ?
Ghost First Magnitude, First-Magnitude Ghost: The least powerful of the incorporeal undead, these creatures are created when there is just enough emotional energy available to empower the transformation.
Ghosts of the first magnitude are created the same way as are other ghosts, but they tend to have less dramatic origins.
Ghost First Magnitude, Least Powerful of the Incorporeal Undead, Most Common Type of Spirit: ?
Loud Man of Lamordia, Ghost First Magnitude, Ghostly Fisherman, Specter, Fellow: ?
Ghost Second Magnitude, Second-Magnitude Spirit: In order for a ghost of this type to form, the dying person must be in a state of some emotion. The emotion need not be overly consuming or of great duration, as is necessary for the more powerful spirits to form. For example, someone who dies during a spousal quarrel might have enough emotional energy to attain the second magnitude of unlife, as might an artist who is working on a painting that means a great deal to her. It is sometimes even possible for a man who knows he is going to die—by the hangman's noose, for example—to become a second-magnitude ghost.
Kateri Shadowborn, Ghost Second Magnitude: ?
Ghost Third Magnitude, Third-Magnitude Ghost: In order for a ghost of the third magnitude to form, a person must die while in a highly emotional state. Take, for example, a man who is forced to watch his beloved family be cruelly slain by brigands and is himself then killed while still in the grip of his overwhelming anguish. The karmic resonance of this tragedy might be strong enough to create a third-magnitude ghost. Similarly, someone who is in the throes of passion or who is truly horrified at the point of death might attain this status.
Ghost Third Magnitude, Much More Dangerous Foe: ?
Ghost Fourth Magnitude, Fourth-Magnitude Ghost: Among the most powerful of apparitions, ghosts of the fourth magnitude are created only through scenes of death that involve great emotional stress or energy. Spirits of this type are generally warped by the power of their emotions, becoming highly aggressive, evil, and cruel.
Rare indeed are the circumstances surrounding a person's death powerful enough to create a ghost of this type. In my travels, 1 have encountered only a half dozen or so of these evil and dangerous fiends. In each of the cases I came across, the ghost had once been a person who had either 1) embraced death with great fervor or 2) felt himself so powerful that death could hold no sway over him.
Ghost Fourth Magnitude, Most Powerful of Apparitions: ?
General Athoul, Ghost Fourth Magnitude, Incorporeal Leader: It is said that his devotion to Azalin was so great that even death only meant a new manner for him to serve his beloved commander.
Martyr of the Moors, Ghost Fourth Magnitude: The second is perhaps best illustrated by the infamous Martyr of the Moors, a man who sought death as the ultimate step in his devotion to a dark and evil deity, only to find that he had been cursed with an eternal unlife.
Lord Wilfred Godefrey of Mordentshire, Ghost Fourth Magnitude: ?
Ghost Fifth Magnitude, Fifth-Magnitude Ghost: The emotional intensity needed to create a ghost of this power is so rare that it happens but once in a very great while. I would dare say that whole centuries might pass without a ghost of this type being formed—something for which we can all be grateful.
Tristessa, Ghost Fifth Magnitude: ?
Phantom Lover, Ghost Fifth Magnitude: ?
Incorporeal Ghost, Incorporeal Spirit, Ethereal Ghost: ?
Ghost, Incorporeal Creature, Ethereal Being, Incorporeal Being: ?
Ghost, Fiend, Fearsome Creature: ?
Semicorporeal Ghost: ?
Semicorporeal Ghost, Specter: ?
Strangling Man of Gundarak, Semicorporeal Ghost, Specter: ?
Corporeal Ghost, Corporeal Spirit: ?
Ghost, Nightmarish Creature: ?
Semicorporeal Ghost, Semicorporeal Spirit: ?
Mutable Ghost, Mutable Spirit: ?
Vaporous Ghost: ?
Vaporous Ghost, Vaporous Form: ?
Spectral Ghost: ?
Spectral Ghost, Spectral Phantom: ?
Humanoid Ghost, Humanoid Spirit: ?
Humanoid Ghost, Faceless Horror: ?
Bestial Ghost, Beastly Spirit: ?
Bestial Ghost, Phantom Hound: ?
Bestial Ghost, Ghost Shark: ?
Bestial Ghost, Wolf Spirit: ?
Monstrous Ghost: ?
Monstrous Ghost, Gruesome Medusa: ?
Object Ghost: I believe that ghosts of this type are formed when an individual is greatly attached to or associated with a physical object. Upon the individual's death, he is anchored to that object so strongly that the object itself is transformed into a ghostly state.
In half of these cases, the ghost object is physically transformed so that it bears the countenance of the individual. Needless to say, this can be a difficult type to identify. In other cases, the object itself appears ghostly.
Phantom Axe of Gildabarren, Object Ghost: Gildabarren had been exiled from his community as a young man, and he had returned to haunt it upon his death. His spirit had focused its energy on the axe, which was an heirloom of great importance to his family. The karmic resonance surrounding his tragic drowning death was so strong that the axe itself became, in effect, Gildabarren's spirit.
Preserved Ghost: ?
Corrupted Ghost: ?
Distorted Ghost: ?
Beauteous Ghost: ?
Unusual Ghost: ?
Ghost, Translucent Creature: ?
Spectral Figure, Strange Ethereal Creature: ?
Preserved Ghost: ?
Apparition of a Man Who Died in a Burning House: ?
Corrupted Ghost: In some cases, where the body has been preserved, the visage remains unchanged though the ghost is, in fact, corrupted. I have heard stories from a reliable source in the distant land of Har'Akir of a ghost who rose from the body of a mummified priest when the rituals surrounding his death and burial were not correctly completed.
Distorted Ghost: These creatures are nightmarish reflections of what they were in life. I have heard it said that they are aspects of the madness that must surely exist in the tortured mind of a ghost.
Baying Hound of Willisford, Distorted Ghost, Foul Creature, Great Mastiff, Great Hunting Dog, Man
Whose Body Was Warped So That it Resembled That of a Great Canine: Its origin remains a mystery to me, as does its fate, for I don't know if it still exists or if some brave adventurers have been able to dispatch it.
Sudden Death Ghost: A ghost can be created when an individual unexpectedly dies. The spirit of the doomed person simply doesn't realize it is dead.
The Laughing Man, Sudden Death Ghost: The Laughing Man was a hunter who often set traps in the woods near his home. Tending the trapline required him to spend the night in the woods, something many folk—myself included—are reluctant to do in that land. Because of this, the hunter would often go into the woods with several of his neighbors in the mistaken belief that there would be safety in numbers.
One night, the group completed the chores and settled down to an evening of stories around the campfire. While the hunter was consumed with laughter following the telling of a joke by one of his companions, a group of bandits attacked them. The hunter was slain by a single arrow that struck the back of his head.
Magical conversations with the spirit of the Laughing Man reveal he did not know what happened to him by the fire. He watched the massacre, unable to affect anything in any way, as the bandits swept down and killed his friends. Only in the end, it is said, when he turned and saw his own body lying at the edge of the campfire, did the awful truth become clear to him.
Dedicated Ghost: Some ghosts are drawn from beyond the grave out of devotion to a task or interest. A learned scholar who has spent her life researching ancient tomes in an effort to decipher a lost language might return to haunt her old library if she died before completing her studies.
Steward Ghost, Steward, Sentinel, Sentinel Spirit: ?
Steward Ghost, Most Fascinating Spirit: ?
Steward Ghost, Wandering Spirit: ?
Justice Ghost, Ghost Who Seeks Justice: ?
Headless Gypsy, Justice Ghost, Swirling Cloud of Sparkling Shimmering Dust, Vaporous Apparition: ?
Vengeance Ghost, Vengeful Spirit: This is the unresting soul of someone who suffered a great wrong in life. Unable to avenge himself in the mortal world, this apparition rises from the grave to harass or destroy those who maltreated him in life.
It matters little, I believe, whether the wrong that has caused such a spirit to rise from the dead is real or imagined. Indeed, in many cases the most evil and powerful of these spirits thrive on the belief that they have been slighted when no evidence of prejudicial treatment exists.
Reflection of Evil, Vengeance Ghost: It seems that there was a young woman named Keni who was prone to jealousy whenever her husband Drakob even spoke to another woman. I have never found anyone who would even begin to suggest she had cause for this, for Drakob was as devoted and loving a spouse as any woman could want.
Her jealousy became so consuming, however, that she was unable to stand the thought of his being gone from their home for more than a few hours at a time. One day, while Drakob was going about his business in the town of Viktal, a fire broke out in their home. Unable to escape the sudden, horrible blaze, Keni died.
Reincarnation Ghost, Reincarnation Spirit, Descendant Spirit: A reincarnation, or descendant, spirit can occur when an ancestor of exceptional willpower chooses to return to "life" by usurping the body of a descendant. The victim of this assumption must be a direct relation, and the importance of blood ties in this diabolical relationship cannot be overstated.
Cursed Ghost: Ghosts of this type may be created by a curse that is external in origin. For example, a man may offend an ancient and powerful Vistani woman who chooses to retaliate with the dreaded evil eye of the gypsies. Under the power of such a spell, the offender might be condemned to live out eternity at the spot where his misstep was made until the gypsy takes pity and releases him from the curse.
Ghosts may also be forged by a curse brought upon them by wrongs committed during life. These curses are far more horrible than those laid on by an outside party, for there is no quick solution by which the victims may be released from their suffering—suffering they themselves caused. Further, those who condemn themselves in this manner are uniformly evil and seldom repent in the afterlife.
Counting Man of Barovia, Cursed Ghost, Spirit of a Wealthy and Powerful Man Who Had Been Miserly and Stinting All His Life: ?
Dark Pact Ghost: The final method by which ghosts can be formed is something that I shudder to mention. But the truth is that there are those who trade away their humanity for the eternal life of the undead. They make a pact with the dark side.
It is my belief that, without exception, these people cannot even begin to understand the scope of their thirst for immortality. The ramifications of this desire to survive beyond one's own death are staggering. That, coupled with the weight upon one's mind of the centuries of ghostly life that follow, are far too heavy for any man to bear. In the end, madness and destruction loom up to claim he who would barter his life away in so vain an attempt to cheat the master of death.
Of course, entering into a pact with some being or force is difficult, for creatures capable of bestowing the gift (or curse, rather) of immortality in any form are rare. Most commonly, these pacts are made with the vile creatures that lurk in the Outer Planes. Those who seek to strike a bargain with these forces of the supernatural must first locate such beings and attract their attention. This in itself is a dangerous and foolhardy thing to do. In almost every case, dealing with such powerful, evil creatures results only in tragedy and death.
Once someone makes contact with a creature capable of granting his wish for immortality, he
must offer some payment for the "boon." In many cases, this favor will take the form of a service, as material wealth means little to fiends of this power. Often, the task will do nothing to further the goals of the beast, but will instead provide the fiend with chaotic amusement.
Eldrenn Van Dorn, Dark Pact Ghost, Sparkling Transparent Ghost: Over the course of the next few years, he began to study wizardry. His powers grew slowly at first, but he found he had a natural affinity for the working of magic. Eventually, he became quite powerful. In fact, he found he could learn nothing more from his studies and set out to contact the only man who seemed a suitable mentor to him—the dreaded Azalin. My poor friend seemed hesitant to say the name, and he was slow in telling me of the foul pact of obedience he swore to the dark lord.
Eldrenn spent months under the guidance of this powerful figure. All the while, he learned more and more—not only about magic, but about Azalin himself. It was through my talk with Eldrenn that I learned the horrible truth about the Lord of Darkon's true nature.
What Eldrenn did not know, however, was that Azalin was teaching him powers he could never fully contain. In the end, those powers destroyed my friend—consuming his flesh and blood and stealing the magical power he had accumulated in his life. Tragically, death was not a release for Eldrenn. The powerful oath he had sworn anchored him to the servitude of Azalin for all time, even beyond death itself.
Anchored Ghost, Anchored Spirit: ?
Personal Anchored Ghost: This anchor connects a spirit to an individual. In some cases, a ghost's relationship with its anchor is adversarial, in others symbiotic, or—on rare occasions—even beneficial.
The majority of personal anchors are formed when a person has served as steward to a family line. If the karmic resonance surrounding the faithful servant's death is strong enough, his soul is transformed into a ghost. His magnitude is dependent upon the emotional energy at the time of death, and he is also a ghost whose origin is that of stewardship. Likewise, in this instance, he is an anchored spirit, for he is anchored to the family he swore to serve.
Occasionally anchored spirits can form from those who seek revenge against a single person. Such spirits are obviously hostile.
Personal Anchored Steward Ghost: This anchor connects a spirit to an individual. In some cases, a ghost's relationship with its anchor is adversarial, in others symbiotic, or—on rare occasions—even beneficial.
The majority of personal anchors are formed when a person has served as steward to a family line. If the karmic resonance surrounding the faithful servant's death is strong enough, his soul is transformed into a ghost. His magnitude is dependent upon the emotional energy at the time of death, and he is also a ghost whose origin is that of stewardship. Likewise, in this instance, he is an anchored spirit, for he is anchored to the family he swore to serve.
Place Anchored Ghost: ?
Place Anchored Ghost, Lingering Spirit: ?
Place Anchored Steward Ghost: ?
Place Anchored Ghost, Guardian Spirit, Guardian Spirit of Har'akir: ?
Item Anchored Ghost: ?
The Gray Lady of Invidia, Item Anchored Ghost: This woman seemed tied to a small cameo she wore constantly. I believe the brooch had been given to her by her young son as a birthday gift. But the boy was killed in an accident that very day, and her mind became fixed upon the item as a last link to her lost child.
When the woman died some years later, her will requested that the trinket be buried with her. Her sister, however, had always coveted the pretty brooch, and she removed it from the body just before the casket was sealed.
Ghost Who is Triggered by the Passing of Time: ?
Cyclic Ghost: ?
Tragic Bussengeist, Tortured Spirit, Cyclic Ghost: ?
Lowest of First Magnitude Ghosts, Rudimentary Apparition: ?
Lesser Ghost: ?
Greater Ghost: ?
Most Powerful and Deadly of Ghosts: ?
Ghost of a Young Woman Who Died When an Avalanche of Snow Swept Away Her Mountain Chalet, Apparition of the Alpine Girl: ?
Ghost of a Dwarf ?
Ghost, Phantom, Phantom Beauty, Foul Ghost: ?
More Powerful Ghost, More Powerful Spirit: ?
Bowlyn, The Dread Spirit of the Sea: ?
Lesser Undead, Lesser Horror: ?
Misty Apparition, Misty Spirit, Evil Specter, Evil Spirit, Vile Creature: ?
Knight Haunt: ?
Living Scarecrow: ?
Groaning Spirit, Banshee: ?
Ghost Child: In Staunton Bluffs, there was a young child who died tragically at the hands of a transient rogue. The child was so horrified by the attack and so ridden with anxiety over separation from her mother that her spirit returned to haunt the meadow where she had been slain.
Ghost Child, Tortured Spirit: ?
Apparition, Grinning Shade, Shade: ?
Less Powerful Spirit: ?
Powerful Spirit: ?
Weakest of Ghosts, Least of Spirits: ?
Vampire, Corporeal Undead: ?
Corporeal Undead: ?
More Robust Spirit: ?
Truly Dangerous Ghost: ?
Valachan Miser, Ghost, Spirit, Tortured Spirit: This spirit was all that remained of a large and powerful man who had, over the course of his life, brought great suffering to many people. He was a merchant noted for greed and treachery in his business practices. When he died, his tortured spirit continued to stand by the counting house where he had conducted his business in life. So strong were his ties to this establishment that no magical force seemed able to expel him from it.
Walking Dead: ?
Very Powerful Ghost: ?
Minor Ghost: ?
Ghost First Magnitude, Minor Ghost: ?
Ghost Second Magnitude, Minor Ghost: ?
Undead Animal: ?
Undead Man: ?
Spirit of a Dwarf: ?
Spirit Vulnerable Only to Weapons Carved of Yew Wood: ?
Apparition Harmed Only by Blades Fashioned From Seashells: ?
Spirit of a Blacksmith: ?
Foul Spirit of the Damned, Shadow: ?
Desmiand l'Strange, Minor Vampire, Vampire: ?
Malevolent Spirit: ?
Evil Spirit: ?
Cruel Cunning Evil Spirit: ?
Spirit, Ancient Evil, Withered Shade: ?
Spirit, Nightmare: ?
Unnatural Terrifying Spirit: ?
The Phantom Army, Mass Haunting, Moaning Suffering Spirits, Fiendish Spirits, Spectral Army, Ghoulish Army, Shades, Fierce Ghosts, Ghosts, Spirits: The origin of the Phantom Army dates back decades. Nearly half a century ago, a pack of twisted mongrelmen from the dread domain of G'Henna fled from their native land and entered the southern reaches of Darkon. Here, they did their best to melt into the forests and live undisturbed.
Although those who lived near the mongrelmen knew of their existence and avoided them, the mongrelmen kept to themselves and did not harass the common folk. The locals feared the mongrelmen, however, for there were stories that told of their inhumane treatment of prisoners and wild, cannibalistic feasts held under the light of the full moon.
In time, the mongrelmen became the masters of their recently claimed land. They came to know every aspect of their wooded refuge and were able to move quickly and quietly through the trees and brush. Some even said they had mastered the power of invisibility and could render themselves unseen.
Eventually, the dread Kargat took an interest in these intruders. A legion of Darkon's most fearsome warriors journeyed south from Il Aluk and came, at last, to the woods of the mongrelmen. The leader of the legion was a dark and sinister man, a fellow known as Karuk Abjen. His men feared him and trembled at the mention of his name.
Abjen ordered his men forward into the forests. They found no sign of the mongrelmen in the outskirts of the forests, and they pressed inward. They did not know that the mongrels were watching their every move, waiting to learn what these armored men wanted in the woods they called their own.
As night fell, one of the scouting parties happened upon a lone mongrelman and captured him. The prisoner was brought before Abjen and brutally tortured for information about his kindred and their purpose in Darkon. Abjen ranted and accused the pitiful creature of being a spy sent by Yagno into Darkon to learn the secrets of Azalin's power. In the end, the mongrelman died from the abuse.
At the instant the creature's body stiffened and went slack, the last vestige of life drained from its broken form, and a long and terrible howl went up from the woods surrounding the camp. It lasted for many minutes, echoing like the lingering cry of some great, wounded beast. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the cry stopped. A sullen, ominous silence fell across the Kargat legion.
Abjen ordered his men to stand ready for battle. All that night, the watches waited eagerly in hope of earning favor with their vile commander by being the first to spot the mongrelmen massing for attack. Dawn came, but still there was no sign of the beastly men who had made the pitiful howling.
The Kargat commander called his men together and gloated before them. Abjen cried out that it was fear of the Kargat and its great lord Azalin that kept the mongrelmen in check. They would not dare to attack, he said, for none who challenged Azalin's powers could survive. Finally, Abjen ordered a company of his men to move into the woods and set it afire—the mongrelmen and the forest they had defiled would be reduced to cinders.
As the troops dispersed, the mongrelmen attacked. But they did not attack in sweeping waves of the horribly twisted creatures; instead they attacked in silent strikes against individuals. The company of men sent to light the fires vanished, never to be seen again by their companions.
At sunset, another ringing cry went up from the mongrelmen. Their echoing howl drifted through the woods, stilling all conversation and sapping the morale of Abjen's legion. His men were on the verge of panic, but the fiendish Abjen would not let them flee. He took command of a second company and forced them into the woods to discover what had happened to the first company. All night long they moved about, searching for their lost companions. At every step, they were met with flickering shadows, sounds of movement, and lingering traces of the mongrelmen, but never did they actually come across one.
As the pink glow of sunrise spread across the sky, Abjen and his men returned to camp. They had lost not a single man, but neither had they found a single body or seen so much as one mongrelman. To their horror, they found no sign of the dozens of men they had left behind. The camp was deserted. Abjen chose to believe the mongrelmen had struck again, for he had vowed to kill any man who deserted him.
As Abjen ranted and raved at the dark woods around him, another of the mournful cries rolled out through the trees. Morale among Abjen's men collapsed utterly. They scattered and ran, hoping to find some safe passage through the ranks of the mongrelmen.
Abjen himself was captured by the mongrels he had vowed to destroy. It is said that they tortured him for days before he finally died. Those who lived near the woods of the mongrelmen reported that his cries of pain and suffering were heard all through the night, and that his sobbing pleas for mercy and death filled the days. None moved to help him.
Mass Haunting: I have selected the story of The Phantom Army for this purpose because it depicts a most horrible phenomenon: the mass haunting. It is very rare and happens only when many individuals share some common bond that links them in death as it did in life.
A mass haunting always centers around some individual. It may be that this person is the only true ghost and that the others are merely reflections of its own curse, dragged into unlife by the power of the central figure. In almost every case, the ghost at the core of a mass haunting is of fourth or even fifth magnitude.
Mass Haunting, Most Horrible Phenomena: ?
Karuk Abjen, Ghost, Dark Ominous Figure, Leader, Spirit, Villain, Master, Commander, More Formidable Foe: The origin of the Phantom Army dates back decades. Nearly half a century ago, a pack of twisted mongrelmen from the dread domain of G'Henna fled from their native land and entered the southern reaches of Darkon. Here, they did their best to melt into the forests and live undisturbed.
Although those who lived near the mongrelmen knew of their existence and avoided them, the mongrelmen kept to themselves and did not harass the common folk. The locals feared the mongrelmen, however, for there were stories that told of their inhumane treatment of prisoners and wild, cannibalistic feasts held under the light of the full moon.
In time, the mongrelmen became the masters of their recently claimed land. They came to know every aspect of their wooded refuge and were able to move quickly and quietly through the trees and brush. Some even said they had mastered the power of invisibility and could render themselves unseen.
Eventually, the dread Kargat took an interest in these intruders. A legion of Darkon's most fearsome warriors journeyed south from Il Aluk and came, at last, to the woods of the mongrelmen. The leader of the legion was a dark and sinister man, a fellow known as Karuk Abjen. His men feared him and trembled at the mention of his name.
Abjen ordered his men forward into the forests. They found no sign of the mongrelmen in the outskirts of the forests, and they pressed inward. They did not know that the mongrels were watching their every move, waiting to learn what these armored men wanted in the woods they called their own.
As night fell, one of the scouting parties happened upon a lone mongrelman and captured him. The prisoner was brought before Abjen and brutally tortured for information about his kindred and their purpose in Darkon. Abjen ranted and accused the pitiful creature of being a spy sent by Yagno into Darkon to learn the secrets of Azalin's power. In the end, the mongrelman died from the abuse.
At the instant the creature's body stiffened and went slack, the last vestige of life drained from its broken form, and a long and terrible howl went up from the woods surrounding the camp. It lasted for many minutes, echoing like the lingering cry of some great, wounded beast. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the cry stopped. A sullen, ominous silence fell across the Kargat legion.
Abjen ordered his men to stand ready for battle. All that night, the watches waited eagerly in hope of earning favor with their vile commander by being the first to spot the mongrelmen massing for attack. Dawn came, but still there was no sign of the beastly men who had made the pitiful howling.
The Kargat commander called his men together and gloated before them. Abjen cried out that it was fear of the Kargat and its great lord Azalin that kept the mongrelmen in check. They would not dare to attack, he said, for none who challenged Azalin's powers could survive. Finally, Abjen ordered a company of his men to move into the woods and set it afire—the mongrelmen and the forest they had defiled would be reduced to cinders.
As the troops dispersed, the mongrelmen attacked. But they did not attack in sweeping waves of the horribly twisted creatures; instead they attacked in silent strikes against individuals. The company of men sent to light the fires vanished, never to be seen again by their companions.
At sunset, another ringing cry went up from the mongrelmen. Their echoing howl drifted through the woods, stilling all conversation and sapping the morale of Abjen's legion. His men were on the verge of panic, but the fiendish Abjen would not let them flee. He took command of a second company and forced them into the woods to discover what had happened to the first company. All night long they moved about, searching for their lost companions. At every step, they were met with flickering shadows, sounds of movement, and lingering traces of the mongrelmen, but never did they actually come across one.
As the pink glow of sunrise spread across the sky, Abjen and his men returned to camp. They had lost not a single man, but neither had they found a single body or seen so much as one mongrelman. To their horror, they found no sign of the dozens of men they had left behind. The camp was deserted. Abjen chose to believe the mongrelmen had struck again, for he had vowed to kill any man who deserted him.
As Abjen ranted and raved at the dark woods around him, another of the mournful cries rolled out through the trees. Morale among Abjen's men collapsed utterly. They scattered and ran, hoping to find some safe passage through the ranks of the mongrelmen.
Abjen himself was captured by the mongrels he had vowed to destroy. It is said that they tortured him for days before he finally died. Those who lived near the woods of the mongrelmen reported that his cries of pain and suffering were heard all through the night, and that his sobbing pleas for mercy and death filled the days. None moved to help him.
Vampire Who is Impervious to Wood But Who Can be Impaled With an
Icicle or Shaft of Silver: ?
Ghost, Spectral Axe Murderer: ?
Ghost, Lamentable Figure: ?
Spirit of a Departed Husband: ?
Jacob Marley, Ghost: ?
Shadow: ?
Wight: ?
Wraith: ?
Spectre: ?
Moaning Spirit of Darkest Night: ?
