Resident

Even mid-attack a resident normally stays unseen, though it may reveal itself as a silent, vaporous humanlike shape.

Its spectral hands chill for 1d6 per hit, the blow it uses to punish or drive off people it does not need dead. To kill, it seizes a victim, which takes two successful hits. From then on it automatically deals 1d8 cold damage per round and drains 1 point of Strength, Dexterity or Charisma (random each round); each lost point comes back after an hour of rest. Any score drained to zero kills the victim, who does not return as undead. It holds on until driven away or until its surrogate's danger draws it elsewhere.

Only magical weapons hurt a resident. It shrugs off cold, poison, death magic, sleep, charm and hold, and holy water burns it for 2d4 per vial. Attacks aimed at a resident clutching someone hit the captive unless the roll beats the number needed against the resident by 4 or more (and the roll would hit the victim's AC).

Priests turn it as a wraith. Turning it, defeating it (holy water included) or casting remove curse only banishes it for 2d6 days. A remove curse also carries a 25% risk of backlash: half the time it tries to slay the caster and every companion but the surrogate; otherwise it unleashes a despairing wail that freezes everyone within 60 feet in place for 1d6 rounds unless they save vs. paralyzation, then departs for 2d6 days. Permanent removal requires proof that the surrogate wants it gone plus an atonement spell. A hero who knowingly lets such a bond continue soon faces a powers check.

Residents are souls who once were offered real love but were too timid to take it and turned bitter after losing it. A typical tale: a young man grows devoted to a woman but will neither marry her nor let her go; she weds another and raises a family while he buries his jealousy and self-loathing. Unable to forgive himself, he lingers after death in the overgrown ruins of her cottage, now shunned as haunted.

Most haunt one spot tied to the lost love, such as her home, a grave or where they met. Even so, a resident sometimes drifts through crowds of the living to remember what might have been, renewing its curse. Should it meet someone much like its lost beloved, it leaves its post to shadow that surrogate, whom it never harms. It wants a focus, not control, and lets the surrogate handle ordinary trouble alone, fighting only if the surrogate is truly endangered. Telltale signs include a bed found mysteriously made or a wished-for trinket on a pillow; it can move objects like an unseen servant spell. Anyone who wrongs the surrogate, particularly someone out of the surrogate's reach such as a rude noble, risks a sudden one-round attack. Annoy the surrogate and be punished; hurt the surrogate and be killed.

Only magic such as speak with dead lets anyone talk with it, and it cares for no one but its beloved.

It eats nothing, barely affects its surroundings, and seldom harms anyone unless its beloved is at risk. Mostly it is a nuisance.