Haunt

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Haunts are manifestations of spirits created by anguish, despair, and pain, too weak to form into true undead but strong enough to form trap-like hazards. Though their origins are dire, and many are harmful to the point of lethality, haunts themselves may be neutral or even helpful to those who know how to properly entreat them. While haunts can be destroyed, they will manifest once more after enough time has passed. To put a haunt permanently to rest, one must fulfill a particular contrition and appease the restless spirits.

Creatures and curses

Some creatures are connected to or similar to haunts.

• Frightful haunter: Incorporeal undead created from malevolent bugbears capable of splitting off parts of their own being to form haunts.
• Ghost: Much like haunts in both creation and function, ghosts will rejuvenate after their destruction unless steps are taken to put them to rest.
• Remnant of Barzillai: Spectral remnants of Barzillai Thrune capable of creating and drawing power from haunts.
• Soulbound ruin: Instead of manifesting as individual haunts, spirits may merge into a singular force that imbues an entire structure.

Types of haunts

Erasmus looks on while Valeros unwittingly activates a haunt as he wishes for more ale.

Several ghostly hands reach out from a haunted pile of rubble.

Below is an incomplete list of haunts that can manifest on Golarion.

Baleful manifestation

Horrific and fear-inducing sensory hallucinations that can take many forms. Shadows shift into monsters, mirrors reflect rotting visages, bile oozes between floorboards, blood drips from walls, dying wails echo through the air, and countless other horrors manifest to the senses of their unfortunate victims. These manifestations are usually the psychic residue of traumatic events rather than a particular spirit and can be put to rest with a hallow spell.

Choking hands

Choking hands can manifest from both serial murderers and their victims as ghostly hands that strangle victims and bolster themselves with the dying gasps. They can be put to rest by bringing a set of blessed manacles within the haunt's area, which capture its essence and must be thrown into running water to permanently destroy it.

Cold spot

Colds spots manifest from victims of violence who lacked the strength to manifest as true ghosts. Unlike most haunts, which are stationary, they can roam free within their home structure and manifest as an area of bone-chilling cold capable of killing the ill-prepared. They can typically be put to rest by casting heat metal on an object in the area of manifestation. The object will then absorb the spirits and must be quickly buried on hallowed ground to permanently dismiss the haunt.

Ectoplasmic miasma

The result of gruesome multiple murders, the spirits of the victims manifest as a single nightmarish amalgam of ectoplasm that harms those it passes through. They can be put to rest by discovering the name of every spirit that makes up its being and calling them out while it rejuvenates, causing the spirits to separate and pass on.

Fall of the house of haunts

When a location is saturated with a great number or power of haunts, it can make a final self-destructive effort to ensure those who have uncovered its secrets take their knowledge to the grave. The weather tears itself into violent storms, foundations shatter, and the entire structure tears itself down in a torrent of screaming rubble, putting a final end to the location's ghastly history. By its nature there is no need to put such a haunt to rest, as such a tumultuous finale releases the restless spirits within, but a hallow spell can effectively dismiss any lingering spirits.

Ghastly whispers

The crescendoing whispers and ravings of spirits driven to madness elicit a sympathetic affliction in those who hear them. They can typically be put to rest with a holy smite.

Gjenganger

Manifested from spiteful suicides, gjengangers form cruel and twisted duplicates of the intruders they confront. They do little to kill intruders outright, but their touch leaves blue and sunken marks, a trait known either as "dead man's pinch" or dødningeknip. This touch quickly grows into a virulent illness that kills the afflicted individual. A gjenganger can be indefinitely prevented from rejuvenating by painting a religious symbol in tar in its territory. To permanently put them to rest, their remains must be located, exhumed, carried around a church of a good deity three times, and passed over a churchyard wall for reburial.

Headless horseman

Spectral cavaliers who met their ends by decapitation, headless horsemen viciously guard the sites of their deaths. They can be put to rest by burying a holy weapon in the roadway they guard and provoking the horseman into charging over it on a full moon.

Hounds of Barzillai

This haunt is associated with the undead remnants of Barzillai Thrune, the former lord-mayor of Kintargo. Spectral hounds arise and pursue any creature not openly bearing the symbol of Asmodeus, and are visible only to their quarry as they tear it to pieces. An exorcism can permanently dismiss the hounds.

Mad monk

This haunt manifests as enigmatic spirits that appear to wounded visitants and offer a chalice. To some, their chalice holds a healing elixir, while to others it holds deadly poison. If a mad monk means to help, they can be put to rest if a good creature truly in need of aid turns down their offering. If they mean to harm, ringing a church bell permanently puts them to rest.

Orbs

Lazily floating clouds of glowing lights manifest in these haunts and inspire supernatural fear in those who witness them. Orbs cannot truly be put to rest because they are too diminished to retain a sense of identity that can be appeased or offended. Instead, they are permanently weakened each time they are forced to rejuvenate until they dissipate entirely.

Phantom bells

A form of haunt associated with Barzillai Thrune's undead remnants, these haunts fill an area with thunderous peals of diabolical bells that harm, and even kill, the living. Meaningful recitations against the power of Hell worked into an opposing musical performance can dispel the haunt.

Rapping spirit

Some of the weakest and most common haunts, rapping spirits manifest as a chorus of knocks and bumps that come from and within walls, floors, ceilings, and other surfaces that instill a disproportionally intense fear in those who hear it. Other haunts that are temporarily destroyed might manifest as rapping spirits while they rejuvenate. With effort, one cna establish a system of communication with rapping spirits to gather information from them. They can typically be put to rest by properly interring their mortal remains.

Shrouded lady

Women who carry spite concerning their lost youth all the way to the grave might manifest as a haunt of spirits that siphon the trait for which they lust from the living. They can be put to rest by presenting a mirror so that they can behold their true appearance and witness the eternal futility of their efforts.

Slamming portal

Typically manifesting as a protest against intrusion, slamming portals are spirits that close or lock doors, windows, and other methods of entry. While this can bar further passage, they can also serve to bar retreat from deadlier hazards. These haunts can typically be put to rest by sprinkling holy water on the area of the spirits' influence.

Spectral carriage

Ghostly carriages manned by cackling ghosts, spectral carriages repeatedly replay their final, fatal accidents, though they also eagerly drag others with them down the road to death. To destroy these powerful and chaotic haunts, one must bring a living mare to the haunt and send it to the Ethereal Plane, where the carriage's horses will give chase and become lost forever.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.