Fire Ghosts

Difficult to cross the plains without a fire, difficult to start a fire without a ghost, and ghosts are difficult to deal with wisely and well. So, if you plan to journey on the lightning-haunted plain, and don't want death by cold or wolf, or just want to cook your food, then take somebody calm who knows their ghosts.

At night the plain cools like a flicked switch, the sun sinks, sweat freezes on bare backs, robes and wide-brimmed hats are swapped for hoods and dense black furs, horses shiver and steam, oasis’ crack and plink like burning glass as each one grows a cast of ice.

Someone starts a fire, nomads gather round the crackling wood hugging each other under their furs and looking at the stars through steaming breath for stealthy constellations of Grools. They listen to the passing yams. Then the Fire Ghosts come

Like shadows in the flame, faces in the fire, passing strangers silhouettes. Shapes. Azure-emerald twists of light in the helix of the blaze, shadows in the smoke before the stars, voices in the crackling wood, silent women veiled in sparks, old kings in crowns of burning spiralling leaves, ancient sorcerers, not all evil, breathing smoke and wearing robes of fire, holding burning books (which few can read) that teach great craft, if they can be tempted to stay, and understood if they do. Old knights and warriors, heroes of the burnt cities, ladies of great beauty, children and sometimes grinning monster-hearted men

Perhaps they are drawn by the heat of the flames, cold and lonely as the travellers who make the fire, perhaps created by them, gated from their sad, dead world, or brought in memory of their burning deaths.

They are not whole, great souls born of great memories but without a deciding mind.

It is to be hoped this ghost is friendly, or at least not wrathful, and that they speak, whispering from the fire in voices like cracking wood and popping sparks, that they can be appeased with a story, or by listening to one. Stories of their tall towers, now blackened spars, their pride and triumphs, their battles and tragedies, their heroes and monsters. Sometimes simply agreeing with their troubles is enough.

The reverie of the fire can be commanding, visions can be seen there of the cities of the plains, their bright pennants, their fierce legions of cavalry stamping in the bright sun

It’s to be hoped that a ghost knows what it wants and can ask for it, but old ghosts, primal, powerful, simple ghosts, have only needs, are only need.

A child of fire might want a toy which burns to pieces in its hands, a scholar might desire a book, smiling and turning the pages with bright fingers, leaving ash, a King, a crown, a warrior, a sword cast into the fire, (sometimes brave ghosts given swords have watched over sleeping travellers in the night and fought of wolves that came too near the fire, doing in death exactly what they did in life). A Queen may want a gown which incandesces as she puts it on, the ghost of a rogue may wish to steal something, no matter how large or small.

They might beckon you towards the blackened ruins, to avenge some slight or bury some ancient wrong. Sometimes bones must be interred, or names scratched on a rock as a tomb, climb a nearby ruined tower, hang a pennant from its highest room (you might find many pennants there, the ghost asking the same thing with each fire), or even sex sometimes.

The place can sometimes give you clues. The centrepiece of an old campsite might be pile of blackened daggers, or burnt lanterns, the remains of books, or human skulls. Some campsites are surrounded by stone after stone after stone, all bearing the same name in an ancient language, as demanded by the imperious ghost that haunts that place.

The darkest ghosts, the worse, who always seem to haunt the deepest reaches of the plain where a fire is needed most, want blood, or flesh, fresh bone, a human head, a living person thrown into the fire.

Again, as they did in life, they do in death.

It’s good if a ghost can ask for what it wants, even if it’s very bad, because if a ghost doesn't get what it asks for before the dawn, it won't let go, it will follow as you cross the plain. Every time you light a fire, wherever it is, the ghost will come for its answer, its object, its action, and every time the ghost comes it grows more dangerous in its alienation and more powerful in its wrath.

At first it can perhaps flick pebbles about, briefly blind with an illusion, reach wistfully from the fire and scorch your fingers with a touch, but the more times it comes back, night after night after night, the more times it comes back the more powerful it becomes.

First it can hurl stones, then rocks, then people. Its illusions, the reverie of the fire, become more powerful, more difficult to separate from reality, slowly brings you in to its forgotten world.

The most powerful dead, (not always evil), with deep souls and deep needs, will crawl forth from the fire in bodies of burning wood and bright flame, striding inexorably, imperishable, torching the scrub and forests in their rage, trapping you within a tightening circle of fire, banished only by the dawn.

The truly evil, awful ghosts, the monster-hearted memories, will even follow you once you leave the plain, sneaking into your life, hiding in candles or hearths, watching you and waiting to reveal their power. They do not want to be appeased. They want harm. In death, as in life. Every time you light a fire they will be there.

D12	Form of this Ghost
1	A King or Queen
2	A Sorcerer, Scholar or Witch
3	A Knight, Hero or Noble Lady
4	A Child
5	A lost Soldier
6	A Traveller, like you
7	An Ancient Tribesman
8	An Ancient Shaman
9	A Rogue or Adventurer
10	A Mother
11	A Lunatic
12	A Slave

D6	Do they talk?
1	They speak in a low clear voice.
2	They whisper if you listen close.
3	They speak, but in an ancient tongue.
4	They mouth words but no sound comes. They can gesture though.
5	They can neither mouth words or make complex gestures but only the simplest action relating to their need and nothing else.
6	They only sit within the fire with pleading faces and open arms, everything else is lost to them.

D6	What are they after?
1	It's simple and completely obvious object based on their appearance and actions alone. A King might be missing a crown, a Knight might be missing a sword etc.
2	It's a simple object but unless stated it might not be clear what. It might be a flower, some hair, a blanket.
3	It's a simple thing and not necessarily clear, but there might be evidence in the area if other people have had fires here. Horseshoes buried in the ashes, single cold coins left half-melted, burnt pages of poetry.
4	It's not simple, not obvious and there's no evidence, if they can't tell you and you don't know, the only way to work it out is from their actions as they grow more powerful. They will seem to be looking for it or doing it, it, or its absence will show up in the illusions they cast.
5	It's some fucking nearby quest thing in a tower, dungeon or ruin. It may be dangerous. Others may have done it before you. Them doing it might have made it more or less dangerous.
6	It's something bad or really bad, human flesh, lots of blood, a living being, something you will miss.

The Growing Power of the Ghost
Fire	Telekinesis	Illusions	Embodiment	Fire
First	Leaves & Smoke	Shapes in the fire
Second	Pebbles	Sounds & shapes in the night.		Stinging sparks
Third	Stones, small handheld objects	Things in the distance, even in daylight when no fires are present.
Fourth	Heavy objects like swords.	Things in mirrors, water, any reflective surfaces in day & night.	Can reach limbs out of fire.	Flecks d4 of fire, d4 damage
Fifth	Knock people off their feet	Full, simulated audio-visual living objects. At night they can touch you.	Can crawl short distance from fire.
Sixth	Throw people around like dolls	Fully tactile beings and objects in daylight. Flashes of ancient world at night.	Can leave fire and walk freely.	Equivalent of Burning Hands
Seventh	Boulders	Full-spectrum ancient world where you have an identity, are a character in the story and must play it through.	Inexorable Golem or Tulpa of fire.	Equivalent of Fireball spell.