Ouija Table

A ouija table, named after the talking boards favored by spiritualists in a genteel southern domain, is less a creature than a haunting phenomenon. It arises when a table or similar furnishing serves again and again for nonmagical fortune telling: cards, crystal balls, tea leaves, talking boards, automatic writing and the like. No real magic is involved, but the hopes and fears of the people at the table leave psychic residue. Over hundreds or thousands of tries at reaching the other side, that residue can gain a will of its own and settle into the nearest object. Even a fraudulent fortune teller can create one, as her clients' emotions pile up like psychic driftwood.

The result looks exactly like any other furniture of its kind, plain or lavish according to the owner's taste, and shows no sign of magic. A psionicist who uses sensitivity to psychic impressions on it must make a madness check.

The table cannot move and is nearly defenseless. In extremity it can telekinetically fling anything resting on it up to 30 feet, most household objects dealing 1d4 to 1d8, but it does so only when attacked or about to be. Most have AC 7 and hit points equal to 2 Hit Dice, varying with the object, and it is entirely immune to life and mind magic.

Its true menace is the curse. Anyone sitting at it during divination or spiritualism, even a deliberate hoax, risks being cursed with any curse up to troublesome strength, chosen by the DM. Nothing marks the curse, and the victim seldom realizes anything has happened until it strikes. These tables seem naturally spiteful, often lowering a prime requisite or planting bizarre, out-of-character desires. Their curses have no escape clause, but destroying the table lifts every curse it has laid. It can curse without limit each day.

Though the table is clearly aware, nothing interests it except spreading fear and misfortune. It cannot talk with anyone, but it can subtly steer any reading performed on it, not to send a message but to frighten or confuse; someone attempting automatic writing might find his hand scrawling 'DOOM' over and over. It is not very intelligent, yet it is cruel enough to tailor its curses, sensing a victim's weak points without actually reading minds.

It generally spares the fortune teller and torments her clients instead, since she is the one bringing it victims. Sadly, when misfortune piles up around her customers, the neighbors usually blame her rather than a harmless piece of furniture, so the table passes from owner to owner, trailing tragedy behind it.

It is a creature only in the loosest sense: an intelligence without any other trait of a mind or spirit, a sentient knot of psychic energy bound to an object. Apart from its curses it has no effect on its surroundings.