Ghosts and Pneuma

Mechanics for Catching, Growing and Caring for the Newly Dead. Also
101 things to do with the immortal soul you just sniffed. Taken from
the novels of Tim Powers and Clive barker.

The magic that affects ghosts (Or, in some cases, Demons) is
ritual magic: you don't need to be an adept to do it, and it doesn't
require charges.

However, Adepts have remarkably more success using these effects.
The expenditure of a charge turns what is otherwise a useful trick into a
 tool.

**Section the First: Ghosts, Demons, and things that go 'bump' in the night.**

 The last breath contains the soul. That's not news to anyone. So
it should come as no surprise that, over time, people have come up with
ways to take advantage of this fact.

 The soul, once free of the body, generally has a short life.
Allusions to spiderwebs in the wind or dew evaporating in the sun
populate the available literature on the subject. Certain souls,
however (sources disagree on which and why) linger. By force of
personality, by cannibalizing other souls, by virtue of their fame or
the strength of the livings' faith in them, certain souls just last
longer. Those souls, which can possess the living, animate corpses,
move large objects, and generally do all sorts of scary things - those
we'll call Demons.

 Ghosts become demons if they stick around long enough. They gain
sustenance, as said, by eating other ghosts, but also from a variety of
other sources. Blood, spit, semen, fresh meat, liquor... contact with
these helps to make a spirit coalesce and gain a physical presence.
Eventually, spirits learn to either assemble such things into a body, or
 to just forget about the assembly nonsense and animate a conveniently
pre-assembled body, found at your local morgue, graveyard, or at certain
 particularly nasty traffic accidents.

 Demons who've been around for a while get fairly good at possessing
people. They also need fresh spirits to eat. Those two facts, combined
 with the detail about how the possession happens after the victim
inhales the Demon, should explain why it's an unusually good idea to
hold your breath when you're driving past a graveyard.

 Not everyone who dies becomes a demon. Therefore, you have a sort
of after-death food chain. The wispy cobwebs of the recently dead are
plankton. And the chain pyramids up to those Demons who have consumed
so much as to become like Gods. The Orisha of Nigeria, like Catholicism
 and the Haitian Voodoo which combined the two, generally deals with
spirits of this magnitude. Historically, the Persians under Solomon had
 something of a knowledge of Genies, as well. The whole "Djinni in a
bottle" thing.

 Just for the record, it's impossible to ascend if you're already dead, and spirits can't be avatars.

**Section the Second: Ghost: The other ectoplasmic meat**

 Ghosts, before they approach Demon-level status, are pretty stupid
things. People have, however, learned to catch, bottle, and consume
them.

Why? It's a refined taste - an elegant and forbidden drug, to some. It
 rejuvenates the consumer, granting immortality to someone who is
willing to live an eternity of sucking on empty bottles that taste like
dust and dried blood. And, of course, since a spirit is a breath,
spirits are used to fuel the collection of tricks known, collectively,
as pneuma.

 Catching a ghost is difficult in inverse proportion to the power of
the Ghost, as you may imagine. For those on the 'Plankton' level of the
 pyramid, shiny objects, palindromes, or puzzles will do. A handful of
change left out in a haunted area will invariably invite passing spirits
 to stack the coins by date, denomination, or any other bizarre ranking
system the departed soul may be obsessed with. The traps can be baited
 – candies and rum, cocaine or cigarettes, baseball cards, or Yoohoo.
Since its humble beginnings being sold by Natale Olivieri out of New
Jersey, the fat-free chocolate beverage has been spreading throughout
the underworld of spirit chasers. An opened bottle at the scene of a
haunting is almost certain to draw the attention of spirits. Strange
but true, and if there's a reason behind this phenomenon, Natale isn't
talking.

 So. You've found a haunted area, or you've made one. It isn't hard
 - start in a place where lots of people die nearby. I.E., pretty much
any city, anywhere. There are specific minor rituals to make a place
more palatable to spirits, and significant rituals to specify the
spirits attracted, but at base just leaving stuff out for them seems to
work well enough. What people disagree on, mostly, is what to leave
out.

Anyway, you've got a room with some spirits in it. How do you catch
them? In general terms they must be coaxed or coerced into a vessel.
Specifics vary and there are any number of rituals available in the
Occult Underworld for doing this. Again, the difficulty varies
inversely with the power of the spirit, and involves beating the spirit
in a Soul contest.

 Spirits must be kept in glass, and the glass must be kept under
fresh (in the sense of running) water. Salt water is fine - many
spirit chasers keep their stores in the holds of boats. Others just
keep them in bathtubs with the water running. Contact with the land
decays the strength of the spirit. Burial practices may have something
to do with this. Or it might be that crazy so-called hygiene
explanation they want you to believe. Whichever. Spirit's soul stats
decay while they drift over land. Therefore, most spirits, still on the
 ‘Plankton’ level, have soul stats ranging from five to fifteen.

At this level, they barely have personality or memories. So don't feel too bad about eating them. Cows are smarter.

When you drink the Ghost, whether it's bottled or fresh, the Ghost gets a
 chance to possess you. A minor charge lets you flip flop either your
roll, or the Ghost's, whichever favors you.

**Section the Third: Pneuma.**

 Pneuma, as a term, describes a variety of tricks passed down through
 the Occult Underworld: superstitions and habits which, fueled by the
power of the spirits of the departed, give a little edge to people here
and there. Pneuma refers to both the singular and the plural. Pedants
and scholars may use pnuemon as the singular. They are ritual spells,
and don't require adepthood or anything beyond just knowing about them
to use. Well… that, and having recently inhaled a spirit.

 When using a pneuma, the spirit consumed is exhaled during the
pneuma's use. The Soul stat of the spirit determines the power of the
pneuma. Being exhaled and being used as fuel for a magical feat
destroys the spirit's personality. One spirit, one breath, one pneuma.
 Sources refer to Dukes of the past who could work pneuma without the
bother of eating ghost. It's right. A charge works instead of a
spirit. A minor charge lets the Adept use their magical school skill
instead of the soul stat of the spirit. The effects of significant and
major charges are discretionary.

 So, here's a (partial) list of pneuma in circulation. The names are
 descriptive - the source from which the PC learns the Pneuma will
undoubtedly have a funnier and more interesting and appropriate name for
 each.

**Concuss:** Exhale the spirit into a cupped fist. The spirit's soul stat
adds to the damage of your next punch, provided you strike open handed,
with the heel of the hand.

**Elbow Grease:** Spit the spirit into the palm of one hand. Rub both
hands together. The spirit's soul stat is now a bonus on your next
skill involving tool use with both hands. Anything from playing the
piano to using a shovel.

**Spit Ball:** Hold your fist to your mouth, thumb towards you. Exhale
sharply. The spirit is now a projectile weapon that uses its soul stat
for any relevant rolls. *(Nota Bene: This is, in essence, a ritual*
blast. It is not playtested. Be wary. An alternate effect would be to
have the spirit attempt possession.)

**Shhh:** Touch one finger to your lips as you exhale the spirit. The
target will have to beat the spirit in a Soul contest to be able to
speak.

**Sticks and Stones:** Mention someone, by name. Turn your head to the left
 and spit the spirit onto the ground. The spirit will travel to the
target and wreak whatever misfortunes it can. Common wreakings include
the soul stat of the spirit as a negative shift on one roll, on all
rolls until sunset or sunrise, or attempted possession.

**Eeny Meeny Miney Moe:** When faced with a choice between a small number of
 alternatives, close your eyes and hold your breath. Recite a rhyme
without breathing out. Open your breath and exhale the spirit as you
point to one of the choices. The Spirit's Soul stat adds to the chance
that you have just picked the right choice.

There are also very specific Ghost-based rituals. Inhaling a ghost, if
you don't use it for a pneuma, prevents aging for as long as the ghost
is in your system. That's in general. The following ritual makes the
spirit last longer (Remember the bit about spirits decaying when they're
 on land. This is true even if they're in a body)

**Elixir of Life ("Retro" Version):** In a vessel made of clay mixed with
the blood of the caster, mix one egg, fertilized by a black rooster,
with unrefined cane sugar and blood from the first menstruation of a
twin. Pour this into the bottle containing the spirit of a man unjustly
 executed. This must be done out of sight of land on a night when there
 is some kind of rare astrological phenomenon. Drink the potion and
your life will be extended until the next time the phenomenon happens.

**Coke is Life ("Modern Rock" Version):** Take one bottle Coca Cola bottled
before 1920 (Or whenever they stopped putting Cocaine in). Chew a
piece of bubblegum while reciting the Toys’R’Us song until the flavor
has left the gum. Spit the gum, along with the spirit of a woman who
died while pregnant, into the bottle. Bury it in an anthill under a
swing set until the ants have eaten the gum. Dump the ants out into a
pestle. Grind them up, cook the paste up with Holy Water, and inject
the solution.

Eighty year old bottles of Coca Cola are rare. If someone in the OU
goes looking for one, there's only one reason to do so, and there are
lots of people interested in making sure that whoever it is, he doesn't
get the ritual finished.

**Copyright Gaston Phillips, posted on the official UA website July 17, 2002**