Chu-u

The chu-u, or legless ghost, is a greater spirit that searches for kindly travelers willing to plead its case so it may be freed from its sad existence. From the waist up it is an aged human, man or woman, its face deeply wrinkled and set in a permanent frown, its skin greenish and its eyes milky slits. It wears red clothing and a crown of mint and thistles. Below the waist there is only a swirling pool of mist about 5 feet across whose color cycles through red, white and black. It drags itself along with its hands, a grueling effort always accompanied by wails of pain. It speaks every language it knew in life.

The ghost may use ghost light once per round at any range, usually shaping a beckoning human figure. Travelers who follow it without panicking are led to the ghost, which immediately starts pleading, pointing to its wretched state and begging them to hear how it came to this.

Its tale covers its whole mortal life in exhausting detail: bad choices as a child, miseries as an adult, and a death usually caused by cowardice or incompetence. The telling lasts 2d4 (2-8) hours. After the first hour, every listener must save vs. spell or be so overwhelmed with pity that despair saps them for the next 24 hours, imposing -1 on all attack rolls.

At the end it asks the listeners to testify for it before the Spirit Magistrate and guides any who agree to the court of spirits; scholars argue whether this is a real journey or a dream the spirit induces. If travelers refuse to listen, interrupt the story, or decline to testify, the chu-u swears revenge, turns to mist (which it can do at will), and is sucked down into a fissure or some similar opening. If attacked at any point, it simply vanishes.

A spurned chu-u bides its time, sometimes for years, and strikes when guard is down, most often during sleep. Its arms can become vapor and extend without limit, each creeping over the ground, through cracks, beneath doors and past shutters until it unerringly reaches its quarry. Since it has two, it can throttle a pair of victims simultaneously, however far apart they are. It makes a normal attack roll, and on a hit begins to choke the victim for 1-4 damage, repeating automatically every round without further rolls. The victim cannot pry the hand loose. The hand has AC -2, and it lets go and withdraws if it takes at least 10 points of damage from +1 or better weapons or is negated by dispel magic or similar magic.

A careful target can avoid this fate entirely. A wandering eastern priest can perform a purification rite for this purpose, and if it succeeds, the chu-u never takes its revenge.

These ghosts wander the banks of a mist-shrouded river on the edge of the spirit world. In life they were neither good enough to pass the spirit judges' trials nor wicked enough to deserve further punishment. When a traveler does testify, the Spirit Magistrate hears him and sends him on his way, and the chu-u never troubles that traveler again. He may never learn the outcome, since the Magistrate may deliberate for up to 100 years before ruling.

Tears from a chu-u, gathered in an opaque flask, can serve as oil of etherealness.