[UA] Ritual Magic: Ghosts and Pneuma (sort of long)

[Gaston Phillips]

(Sources: I just spent an hour reading the 1st hundred pages of Tim Powers'
_Expiration Date_, and read _On Stranger Tides_ last weekend.  In addition,
Clive Barker's _Imajica_ is where the pneuma come from)

The magic that affects ghosts (Or, in some cases, Demons) is ritual magic:
you don't need to be an adept to to do it, and it doesn't require charges.
However, Adepts have remarkably more success using these effects.  The
expendture of a charge turns what is otherwise a useful trick into a tool.
Effects should be scaled appropriately to the magnitude of the charge.

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 posessing
people.  They also need fresh spirits to eat.  Those two facts, combined
with the detail about how the posession 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 that they become like Gods.  The Orisha of Nigeria, like the Catholics,
and like the Coodouns who combined the two faiths, all deal with spirits of
this magnitude, generally.  Oh, and Genies, too.  The whole "Djinni in a
bottle" thing.

    Just for the record, I'm going to say that it's impossible to ascend if
you're already dead, and spirits can't be avatars.  That seemed worth
mentioning.


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 bizzarre 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 rituals to make a place more palatable
to spirits, but pretty much just leave stuff out for them seems to work for
everyone.  People disagree, mostly, on 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 hygeine explanation they want you to believe.  Whichever.
Spirit's soul stats decay while they drift over land.  Therefore, most
spirits which are easily caught have soul ranks between five and fifteen.
At this level, they barely have personality or memories.  So don't feel too
bad about eating them.  Cows are smarter.


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.
They are ritual spells, and don't require adepthood or anything beyond just
knowing about them to use.  Well, knowing about them, 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 feul for a  magical feat destroys the spirit's
personality.  One spirit, one breath, one pneuma.  The source material talks
about Maestros 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.  Significant and major charges are pretty much wasted on
pneuma, but would let the adept flip flop or roll lots more dice, or double
things, or something like that.  One of those Role Master guys, Im sure,
will thing of a 'pretty motherfucking elegant' system for this.

    So, here's a (partial) list of Pneuma which are in circulation.  The
names are descriptive by mechanic - 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.  

Shhh: Toush 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.

There are also very specific Spirit-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 general.  The following ritual makes the spirit last
longer (Remember the bit about spirits decaying whne 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 fertilized egg parented 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 "Don't burn out, don't fade away," 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.


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