The Dispossessed

When an evil force takes over a living person's body, the evicted soul lands in the shadow world, a dim mirror of the waking lands. There it drifts, searching for its own body, or for someone else's. A dispossessed spirit looks like an insubstantial copy of who it was, but it is wrapped in a constant aura of grief so strong that onlookers may freeze. It walks as it did in life, only slower, and can grip small and medium objects with psychic force. Characters with poor perception might mistake one for a normal, solid person. It has no bloodline or blood abilities; its perception is none and its fey glamour slight.

Anyone who sees one of these spirits, whatever its alignment, must save vs. paralyzation or sink into a crushing depression. Victims lose all will to act, turn listless toward friends and foes alike, and want only to curl up and sleep. While any dispossessed is within 100 yards, they move at half speed and suffer -3 on attacks and Dexterity-based actions, or -25% on percentile skills such as thieving abilities. Away from the spirit the penalty eases to -1 or -10%, and it lifts entirely after 4d6 hours, plus an extra hour per four hours the victim spent exposed.

Spirits keep their living alignment. Evil ones attack the living to steal a body, and any spirit that believes its own body is among the party also attacks; there is a 60% chance it mistakes a character for its former self, and then it fixates on that person. Its touch of despair deals 1d4 points of damage and saps the will to live. Once the number of touches equals the victim's Constitution, the victim's life force is pushed out, the spirit moves in at once, and the victim becomes a new dispossessed. A survivor stays despondent for one day per hit, easing slowly; each casting of remove fear cuts a day off.

These are spirits of bodies that still live, not undead, so turning, holy water and other anti-undead tools do nothing. They can still talk, and characters can question them, but each turn of conversation requires a fresh save against the depression.

They are natives of the shadow world now, and travelers there meet them often. Evil ones always strike when they can, but good or neutral spirits can share information or even help, as long as they don't stay with the party long enough to drain everyone's will. Stunned by their loss and the endless twilight, they tend to gather in small bands hunting for their bodies. Some settle in an empty house, inn or tiny village and act out the routines of their old lives like echoes.

A dispossessed spirit finds rest only when it returns to its own body or that body dies. Some try wearing a stranger's body instead, but it never brings the peace they hoped for, and they soon pass on.