The Ghost Trade

By Earl Wajenberg

Happy Halloween! In honor of the occasion, I present this small extension of the In Nomine setting, based on Fault Lines, the modern horror-fantasy novel by Tim Powers, combining his two other novels, Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather.

In canon, there is a fairly random lapse of time between a mortal's death and their appearance at the gates of either Heaven or Hell. In canon, there are also descriptions of the place-bound and mutilated souls that are ghosts. But those are just one kind of ghost.

There is another (okay, non-canonical) population of free-range ghosts, consisting of souls rattling around between their physical deaths and their ascensions to the Celestial Plane. Lots of people wind up in this transient state, more than you might realize -- though there is an excellent chance that someday you will...

Ghosts

When you die, you're supposed to be met by some angels of Death (those famous Beings of Life spotted in Near-Death Experienced), who escort you to the Celestial Plane (if you don't disband). But the Archangel of Death has a chronic staffing problem and a lot of souls get missed. The result is a disembodied soul wandering the Corporeal Plane, usually in a state describable as "walking Trauma." They are punch-drunk, scatter-witted, and occasionally missing some Forces, which are generally waiting for them somewhere in limbo (or Limbo), to re-join when they finally ascend.

Speaking of Limbo, these spirits have something like the power of a celestial in Limbo to generate their own vessels. They have a smidgen of corporeal manifestation. The Symphonically aware, or the "lucky," can see them as little wisps of vapor, usually about hand-sized. These wisps are solid enough to trap in any water-tight container. They can also be destroyed by, say, fire, which causes the soul to ascend immediately.

Ghosts also manifest as images, drawn from the ghost's life. Like the wisps, these are always visible to the Symphonically aware and sometimes visible to mundanes. Different observers may see the same ghost at the same time as different images -- say, a young girl and an old woman.

Finally, ghosts have an electromagnetic aspect that is perfectly detectable by mundane equipment. They cause wild magnetic fluctuations that can be detected with ordinary compasses. They cause little cold spots that any skin or thermometer can detect. They cause power fluctuations and radio static, with characteristics that the cognoscenti can recognize as ghostly.

Solid Ghosts

If a ghost hangs around the Corporeal for months or years, it may become even more material, instinctively cobbling together a make-shift "vessel." This is an animated heap of dirt, dead leaves, litter, what-have-you, pushed into the shape of a human body with more or less skill, clothed in castoff clothing, and somewhat disguised with ghostly glamour. To casual inspection (and most of the inspection they get is VERY casual), they look just like living street-people. They mumble and rant like them, too.

These creatures have their distinctive appetites. Liquor and candy are favorites, though they can't digest anything, so the stuff passes through inertly or leaks out of orifices. They also eat the stuff they use to cobble their bodies together, i.e. dirt, etc. Some kind souls in the know go so far as to put out plates of smooth pebbles and clean sand for them, the way other folk put out milk and kibble for stray cats.

Animations

Sometimes, Sorcerors will get hold of a ghost and, using a variation on a Song of Possession, force it to animate some object, so they can drag it around and use it as a servant. (Fault Lines includes an animated burlap sack wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, used by a witch-gang as a supernatural bloodhound.)

Walking Dead

Sometimes, a ghost retains a lot of lucidity when it dies (though it may not realize it is dead), and sometimes such a ghost decides to stick around and animate its corpse. The result is a sort of natural undead, probably the inspiration for Saminga's artificial ones. The result also looks a lot like a zombie from GURPS Discworld -- someone who walks and talks, but is, nevertheless, dead and decaying.

The whole effect lasts until the first time the Walking Dead falls asleep and has a nightmare. (The chances of its having a nightmare are excellent, considering its probable history.) Then the body flares up in a case of Spontaneous Human Combustion and the soul is released, to become a "normal" ghost or to ascend.

Ghost-Eaters

There is a market for ghosts. It has spawned its own sub-culture, like the drug culture, only even more secretive. All ghost-eaters are Symphonically aware.

Recipe:

Coax a ghostly wisp into a jar, test-tube, or similar container. Make sure it is at least partly transparent; in a light-tight container, the ghost quickly "rots" into a psychically "poisonous" muddle of forces.

Mix in a dash of laughing gas, ether, or your favorite incense for flavor, if desired.

Snort it up your nose.

(Solid ghosts, animations, and walking dead are useless for this.)

The ghost-eater then gets a drug-like rush lasting 5 times the ghost's total Forces, in minutes. If the ghost has any Ethereal Forces left at all, the ghost-eater also has someone else's life pass before their eyes, which some find entertaining or useful (though only high points and general impressions are retained after the rush is over). If the ghost carried any Essence at all, the ghost-eater acquires it. Finally, the ghost-eater does not need to eat or drink for 1 to 3 days (roll a d6 and divide by 2; round up) after a "meal."

As a result of this last feature, frequent ghost-eaters may become reluctant to eat normally and develop eating disorders.

Ghost-eaters must also beware of "rotted" ghosts, caused by light deprivation. These give convulsions instead of a rush, and make it impossible to eat any more ghosts until they have been dislodged from the spiritual esophagus. Also, all the ghosts they have already eaten start to become restless and rebellious, resulting in mental confusion.

When ghost-eaters die, all their ghosts explode out of them, unless they are eaten very quickly by someone else. Then it is *their* turn to be the prey, of other ghost-eaters and, eventually, of Angels of Death.

Ghost-Hunters

These are the folk who supply ghost-eaters. They are usually ghost-eaters themselves, and they are always Symphonically aware. See Lures and Traps.

Ghost-Bound

Anyone can become ghost-bound, usually by strong social contact with the ghost, especially at the time of its death. Bring a ghost-bound near a ghost -- especially their ghost -- and the ghost starts to become "excited," manifesting as phantoms, electro-magnetic effects, and sometimes as poltergeistery.

The ghost-bound is also affected. They see the ghost, or hear it. If they are in a place that was significant to the ghost, that place may briefly appear as it did in the significant period. During an excitation, ghost-bound often become somewhat dislocated in time, and may react to sudden events just before they happen. This can let them dodge blows and bullets, but it also puts them at -1 on Agility.

Excitations always happen between a ghost-bound and their own ghost. If other ghosts are around, the ghost-bound makes an involuntary Perception roll; if they succeed, an excitation ensues.

Ghost-bound need not be Symphonically aware, but usually become so after several closely-spaced excitations. If they are aware, they can see ghosts as wisps or as phantoms even without an excitation going on. In the absence of an excitiation, there are no temporal effects.

Even when they are Symphonically aware, ghost-bound, along with ghost-eaters and ghost-hunters, may not be aware of the War. They are focused on ghosts. If they spot a celestial in celestial form, they often dismiss it as a bizarre ghost. Similarly, they dismiss far-off rumbles of Disturbance as distant ghostly events.

Lures and Traps

Most roving ghosts are so muddled, they are easily attracted by various simple lures. Examples:

Jigsaw pieces -- The ghosts will try to fit them together, though they lack the concentration to do so.

Scattered coins -- The ghosts will sort and stack them, or try to.

Palindromes -- Ghosts will read them backward and forward for hours, even days.

Escher prints -- Many ghosts are fascinated by them.

Targets -- Particularly fuddled ghosts will accumulate in a bull's-eye pattern painted in an old back lot.

The ghost-hunter can then make the rounds of their trap lines and bottle up the day's catch.

Lucid Ghosts

Lucid ghosts can think just as clearly as when they were alive. Most Symphonically aware mortals become lucid ghosts, if they become ghosts when they die. Lucid ghosts are not subject to lures and traps unless they are very tired or inattentive.

Masks

To avoid the effects of being ghost-bound, or to hide a ghost from ghost-hunters, use a "mask." This is some object or setting, designed on the principles of sympathic magic, that hide things from ghosts or hide ghosts from the Symphonically aware. Examples:

To stop a ghost from tracking you, throw live firecrackers at your feet to "blow up" the trail.

Change your name and move away, to break or suppress ghost-binding.

Bizarre architecture makes a very effective mask.

Uniquely personal effects of other ghost-bound act as masks. (In the novel, these were plaster casts of Houdini's hands and his actual mummified thumb.)

Ghosts and Celestials

Egging on the ghost trade would be a natural activity for combined teams of Fleurity and Saminga demons.

Ghosts are a natural way to bring the Archangel of Death into your game, if you wish to do so. Several good write-ups are available for this being. None of them would look kindly on the ghost trade.

The ghost trade involves massive cruelty to ghosts, which would attract Gabriel's attention.

Ex-ghosts and ex-ghost-bound in Heaven might well want to come back as Saints, to put a stop to the trade that afflicted them for so long.

People in the ghost trade are a natural recruiting ground for Samgina.

Ghosts means mortal characters are not necessarily out of the game when they die. If they are lucid ghosts (as Soliders and other aware mortals would be), they'll have much the same mental characteristics as before. Even if they are not lucid, they could still be interesting. (E.g., imagining an angel trying to interview a recently dead mortal servant, who is now muzzy with death-shock.)

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