Phantom

A phantom is an imprint left by an especially violent or shocking death, much like a solid moving picture replaying endlessly at the place it happened. It often shows the dying person, transparent, reliving the final moments, but it might instead show what filled the victim's thoughts at the end: a killer, or an unfinished goal. It reaches every sense, all of them faded.

Phantoms cannot harm or be harmed. Weapons and spells pass through without disturbing the image, and no argument reaches it. It has no mind or purpose, so avenging the death or finishing the quest does not end it. Though often taken for haunts, groaning spirits or ghosts, phantoms are not undead and cannot be turned. Only remove curse cast by a 12th-level priest dispels one.

Its danger lies in the awe it inspires. The effect works on mind and senses together, so beings without minds, undead among them, are unaffected, as are the rare beings who cannot perceive it at all; blindness alone is no protection. A witness must save vs. death magic at -2 or flee in panic as from a fear spell. With a particularly vivid phantom, anyone who fails must also attempt a system shock roll, at +10, and failing that is fatal, though raising the victim works as usual. Panic is doubly dangerous because whatever caused the original death, a trap or an undead guardian, may still be waiting after centuries.

On the other hand, a phantom can warn careful observers of nearby peril or point the way to a lost treasure.

A character's death may rarely leave a phantom. For 0-level and very weak characters, or anyone who saw death coming (the elderly, soldiers in war), the odds are tiny or nil. A sudden, unexpected end for a character of 4th level or more might carry a 1-2% chance, or 5-6% if the character was bound by geas or quest or pursuing a vital mission. The chance should never exceed the character's level. Those slain by undead that drain life energy seldom leave one. The game master decides exactly what the image shows, and murder victims who leave phantoms might come back as revenants too.

Some phantoms touch only one sense: a vision, a sound such as an explosion, moaning or whispering, or a smell. Most still demand saving throws, with varied results. A gloomy murmur of danger might cause despair as the symbol spell, a stench the retching of a ghast, and crushing pressure, sudden heat or cold, or the noise of a bat swarm other consequences.

Worse still are evil phantoms, left behind when a mighty evil being from another plane is 'killed' in the material world and hurled back home. 35% of the time they manifest at that being's command, and they can badly mislead or endanger anyone who meets them. Detect evil exposes such a phantom, and dispel evil shuts it down for one turn per caster level.