Minor Spirits

This grab bag covers spirits born when mortals dwell on everyday misery. Each is under 1 Hit Die and most are little more than nuisances, though some can grow into bogeymen or worse. They get no statistics, since they can barely touch the real world, and they carry no XP of their own; resolving a plot built around one should still earn story awards.

Apparitions arise from trauma such as a murder or execution and from a living person's brooding over it. As long as that person lives, however far away, the apparition replays whenever events echo its origin: on the eve of an innocent man's hanging, the cries of an earlier wrongly condemned victim may ring through the courthouse or market because someone still struggles with guilt. They count as 1/2 Hit Die, lack will or independent action, and harm no one. They are always present at their home but visible only 1d10 times a year.

Breathstealers, perhaps the deadliest minor spirits, grow from the mind's hunger to explain why frail infants die. They haunt nurseries and the houses of the frail and aged, hiding in corners until night, then taking the shape of sleek black cats with faint green glowing eyes. Perched on a sleeper's chest, a breathstealer bends over his mouth and draws out his breath, smothering him. Like bogeymen they are born of mortal fear, but they never exceed 1/2 Hit Die. About 2% can sponsor the spiritualist's death candle spell; these usually lurk in orphanages or hospices, where they may have killed dozens.

Forgotten ancestors appear when a tribe is destroyed or 'civilized' and its people forget their forebears. Many fade away; some twist into beings like legendary dark faeries, recalled as wicked, and others haunt their old holy places, feeding on the fear and stories they inspire. They use ordinary ancestor statistics at 1/2 Hit Die, minus all spells and boons, and they look like gaunt, twisted versions of their old selves, matching how people now picture them. Odds of finding one: home 90%, a shrine 9% (any place now tied to them counts), elsewhere 1%. With little to offer a shaman beyond information, they keep fading toward nothing.

Grave spirits grow around corpses from the ill will felt toward the dead, especially after a violent death or when the deceased left many people betrayed or furious. They are rare overall but common at the graves of greedy merchants, heartless judges, traitors, assassins, moneylenders and thugs. A grave spirit guards its grave against anyone who would defile it or disturb the dead. When provoked, it shows itself as the dead person's rotting face, and every onlooker must save vs. paralyzation or flee as from a fear spell. That is its only attack. Nothing harms it; it ends only when all resentment toward the dead is gone, which is almost never. Each year on the burial anniversary it may roam the whole graveyard, tormenting any living visitors. A corpse can have only one, but the tales it spawns may strengthen it into something far deadlier. Lacking hit points and Hit Dice, a grave spirit is met only at its grave, sponsors no spells and rarely offers anything worthwhile.