Well I'm tired of hunting and this was running through my head so I'm going to subject you all to another post on the subject!

I was pondering house ghosts. They would be a fun RP thing, but how would one go about buying a ghost? I figure you don't.

What I imagined was a shop. Curio shop idea. Filled with many rare and fragile items. You could ask the shop keeper about an item.... say a bardic flute. He could tell you how it was brought in by a bard (the guild the ghost would be from) and the cost. He could give warnings about how the flute was rumored to be cursed. Best to leave such things alone, but you insist and want to purchase the flute.

Now this could go two ways.
1: In your insistance you grab the flute, breaking it. The shop keeper screams at you and tells you he knows where you live and will curse your home. He would them demand payment for the broken goods, which are forceably removed from you, and then toss you out. When you get home you find that your home has been cursed with a ghost.

or...

2: You simply buy the flute and its deliverd to your home, complete with its own stand. It could be sold the same as any house piece of furniture we have now. Then you get home you discover that the flute has released a ghost into your home.

The first is fun. The second more workable I suppose. One could tap the flute to silence the ghost when needed.

There could be items representing each guild. A weapon of some sort for a Barb. A tiny shadowling statue for Moon Mages. Perhaps a fragile rolled up prayer mat for Clerics. A rare gem set in a stand for a trader. Ancient coins, goblets, mirrors, any number of items could hold a ghost curse.

When we grow weary of our house ghost and want a new pet the shop keeper could just say something like he would have to dispatch a Cleric to cleanse your home before a new pet could be deliverd. Maybe even charge a small fee for the Clerics time. After all a ghost is much more then a pet. Then he would inform you that the house was sucessfully cleansed and the new pet will be deliverd.....etc.


Just some rambling thoughts

~ Ithlia

Ithlia peers out from a pale blue moonbeam's window.

I like the idea of ghost but I think they should be like pets in all other manners except that ghost you would not just go and purchase like pet. Maybe have a special location in game (a sorta of 'pet shop') that somehow cost coin to get too; and once there, a mage (perhaps a necromancer or evil cleric) ask you take a riddle challenge. If you accept and answer wrong he/she curses your home (pet slot) with a ghost, and if you accept and answer correctly then you just get your coin back and are booted out. If you choose not to take the riddle chanllenge you get most of your coin back (this for if you don't wanna risk losing your furniture/pet that may already be in that slot) and you get booted out. Of course warnings like a sign posted or whatever means of communication should give you warning to possible furniture or pets being replaced.



______
Who overcomes
By force hath overcome but half his foe.
- John Milton

<<Perhaps once Necromancers come into being, it could be a personal quest type thing, where you and the Necro go into the graveyard, or a mausoleum, in search of a spirit, and he/she(the necro) binds it to you.

<<There could be many different variations of incorporeal beings. Ghosts, spirit, wraith, revenant, poltergiest, apparition, phantom, phantasm, spectre, shade, just to name a few. Ok, that was more than a few ;)


A really good idea. Matter of fact i might have to hijack this idea, if there are no objections and post something in the necromancer folder. :-) Like instead of it being a house thing it could operate like a war mages' familer. That would kick ass haveing a wraith or spectre to send messeges to people and what not.<g> Oh and to keep on topic i do agree we need more fantasy pets cus after all this is a fantasy game and that is a very interesting idea to get your house haunted.

~Future Necromancer of Elanthia

I was kind of thinking that it might be nice to have particular types of ghosts with different personalities. And you'd ask whoever the caretaker is about them, and they'd tell you a bit of their background, or maybe just how they died.

You know, perhaps the ghosts could be attached to a certain item that you buy. (I'm sorry if I'm repeating someone's idea).

Things such as..

ITEM - an old rockingchair
GHOST -A kindly old spinster woman - This Human woman fell in love once. She was engaged to a young man who sailed off in the boat "The Crazy Marie" never to be seen again. He never returned but for seventy years she waited faithfully for him until she went peacefully, sitting on her porch in her rockingchair, still keeping watch.

Particular effects this ghost has - Will turn on the lanterns/braziers at night, to keep the light on for her love. The rockingchair will go back and forth on its own. If someone is sitting in the rockingchair when the ghost would be sitting in it, they would get a chill up their spine.

ITEM: a highly decorated ship's plank
GHOST: The bawdy pirate - After his ship was taken over by some of the Red Sash pirates, he was forced to walk the plank, meeting his end in the shadowy deep.

Effects - Prone to singing drunken songs. Bumps and thumps as the pirate comes stumbling in.

ITEM: an old wooden barstool
GHOST: A saucy barmaid ghost - This buxom ghost was done in during a barfight at Zackes' Place. Getting clobbered over the head with a barstool may have marred her pouty face, but it surely didn't affect her feminine wiles any.

Effects - Really takes to men. Girly giggles. Kisses on the cheek.


Regards,
player of Syrath



"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup."

Kinsmen, Steel, Stone.
http://www.stone-clan.com

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