I am looking for advice, ideas and anecdotes please. Regarding ghostly antagonists.
I want to prepare for bringing one of my player's major Flaw into play - Supernatural Nuisance: Ghosts (presumably Magic aligned).
His character is a Flambeau mage whose casting sigil is the smell of burnt hair. We said something along the lines that it has spiritually stained him with the stench of burnt hair, that particularly affects ghosts wakening them from their eternal slumber in an irate state.
I haven't really applied this in game yet. Apart from unintentionally waking the citizenry of drowned Ys, whose ghosts were about to mob him until they realised that Princess Dahut as an internal twin-tailed mermaid was nearby performing a diabolic ritual to turn the entranced local mermaids into a demonic force to damn the souls of all sailors.
But a major Flaw shouldn't help.
So I need to correct this. Sooner of later he will walk over a major battlefield with unshriven bodies. Or something else
But he has a PM that might stop an average Ghost. Though that won't help his turb grogs.
any suggestions?
Subqueries:
Should his Flaw affect non-Magical ghosts?
Do diabolists leave behind magical ghosts? Or infernal ones?
Ghost often have unresolved issues.
You can use this to your advantage and bring him ghost he doesn't want to kill but feels honour bound to help. They can still be filed with angriness, it doesn't have to be against him.
Otherwise, they can be old enemies of the Order of Hermes intelligent/knowledgeable enough about the order to realise they're no match for him and flee to plot with his more living enemies...
A nuisance doesn't have to seek to harm. It also be annoyingly helpful. Or just annoying. Having something around that is immaterial, beyond his ability to harm, and very helpful or constantly seeking his approval is also a plot point...
Indeed, even a Major Story Flaw. But remember, the primary purpose of a Story Flaw is meant to drag the character into stories; if it's a Major Story Flaw mostly by inconveniencing the character.
Well, of course there's the occasional non-average ghost, the occasional ghost with powers that do not need to penetrate to affect the magus (think sling of Vilano, or creating a thin sheet of slippery ice just were the magus is about to step). Even a ghost who can just make itself heard can be really annoying if he complains loud and often enough. Or he can appear helpful, and feed the magus dangerous information. And there's more than turb grogs. The ghost(s) can start harassing local animals (imagine trying to work in the lab with every animal in the neighborhood constantly barking/meowing/mooing/cawing etc.), hide or move important objects (did I just say lab?), spoil food and/or drink (after a year everything tastes of ashes, most magi would be willing to embark on epic quests to get rid of the pestering nuisance), possess important mundanes (the baron's daughter might suddenly lament an offense to her virtue, with the magus or an important ally as the perpetrator), or just complain with some local supernatural entity (including a powerful Tremere necromancer seeing his recently raised ghostly army going on a strike until he takes action against the Flambeau).
It certainly can. Faeries love dragging characters into stories, so this Flaw would just be a magnet for Faerie ghosts. And Infernal ghosts love dragging characters into ... bad stuff, so again, this Flaw could well be a magnet for Infernal ghosts.
I guess magic, infernal, or faerie ghosts are all possible.
For example, a diabolist who regrets his actions but does not repent might well leave behind a magic ghost repeatedly trying and failing to avert whatever doom the diabolist lost his life in. Or a faerie ghost that tries to drag other people into some sort of quest to set things right. Or an infernal ghost who tries to drag other people to the same fate of damnation.
