People can be haunted. Places can be haunted. In Gray Harbor, anything can be haunted - and, sometimes, it seems like everything is haunted. But by what?

In Gray Harbor, there are a few different types of "ghosts."

• Restless Spirits - The memories a person has of someone or something that died.
• Haunted Places - Locations where numerous psychic echoes linger.
• Manifestations of the Veil - Things that have semi-permanently taken of residence in a location, having slipped out of the Veil.

Restless Spirits

In the real world, conventional wisdom - if there is such a thing when it comes to ghosts - suggests that they are leftovers from people with unfinished business, those that died with things left undone. These are the ghosts with which most people are familiar, and they're the ones that are most common.

"Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable - and life is more than a dream." - Mary Wollstonecraft

Restless spirits can haunt a certain place, such as a building or even a neighborhood, or they may be attached to a significant item, like a piece of jewelry or a beloved car. They can also follow a single person, typically a loved one or an enemy. The ghost isn't the actual person that died, rather they're the memory someone has of that person. They're a psychic imprint of an individual, not the individual's mind or soul. The imprint may even be the blended memories of different sources; for example, the recollection a family or group of close friends has of someone, haunting only those people. Restless spirits can have whole conversations, even appear visibly and audibly to the person or persons they're haunting, and for all intents and purposes, they're real to those being haunted.

Despite this, restless spirits have no powers in and of themselves, nor can they interact with reality in a direct fashion. In order for them to effect the real world, they have to use someone with Glimmer. This is a limited form of 'puppeting', a manipulation of the person's psychic energy. This can happen without that person's knowledge (for a player character this is entirely at their discretion), or, with them as a willing donor of power. It's important to note, though, that this isn't the ghost using Glimmer--it's the ghost causing the person to use their own. The rules for this are as follows:

• The level of power the ghost can wield is limited to their target's Aspect levels (since the target is the one actually doing it). For example, a ghost can't cause someone to use Physical 8 abilities if that person only has Physical 4.
• They can only manipulate one person at a time, but, they can cause that person to use any of their Glimmer. So, if their target has Mental 4 and Spirit 4, they can trigger use of either or both, but if that person lacks Physical, they'll have no Physical Aspect to make them use.
• If someone else in a scene wishes to detect the use of Glimmer by a ghost's manipulation, they would be rolling against the haunted individual being manipulated. If they succeed in detecting its use, it will seem that individual is doing it.
• The target can choose to resist the ghost's manipulation. If they choose to, Composure or Presence are good options for a roll mechanic (left vague to allow for GMs and players to tailor this interaction to their narrative needs).

Haunted Places

Some places have had so many psychic imprints left there that the place is just flat-out haunted. Here, the ghosts are... different. These aren't the memories a single person has, but the shadows left by the experiences of those who walked there.

"Ghosts could walk freely tonight, without fear of the disbelief of men; for this night was haunted, and it would be an insensitive man who did not know it." - John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat

These are places where the Veil is letting the memories seep through and collect. Here, anyone can feel the residue of those experiences, whether trauma or delight, even if they don't necessarily believe what they're feeling. Everyone has had that sense of the hairs raising on the back of their neck and not knowing why; we usually manage to explain it away, but even still... there's always that nagging doubt... what if this place really is haunted?

Known Haunting Grounds

The places below are considered "haunted." Characters with Local Lore or Local History probably know about these places.

• Addington House
• Saint Mary's Church
• Firefly Forest
• Gray Pond
• Abandoned Sawmill

There are others! If you want to dig a little deeper, put in a job with staff. 🙂

Agents of the Dark Men

Haunted places in particular are favorite traps of the Dark Men. They can coax spirits into inhabiting a place, let rumors that it's haunted spread, and then reap the harvest of those that come to be afraid - even knowing that they'll be afraid.

Even those who don't Glimmer give off just enough trickle of dread that it can be worth the effort of maintaining a ghost. If they can scare those who Glimmer, though? So much the better.

Manifestations of the Veil

Sometimes, "ghost" is a misnomer. There are things that seep out from the Veil and seem to haunt a place, and ghost is just the most convenient way to classify it. But these are neither wandering spirits nor true hauntings.

At places where the Veil is thin, these are all too common: a specter that people swear they see on the same street night after night, a creature witnessed from the corner of too many eyes for it to be a real ghost. There's no term for these manifestations of the Veil, so "ghost" gets thrown around. Even if it's not technically correct.