Rules - The Ghostwalk Campaign

Tread lightly friends, for you will soon find yourselves traveling upon the Wulfpath! A game designed to further expand your knowledge of the Pathfinder rules and universe, the Wulfpath is a campaign setting of Eanwulf's own creation. Dedicated to aiding players to better understand the newly devised Pathfinder rules-system, the Wulfpath is a game of epic adventure and non-stop fun! Starting players will undergo an intensive Boot Camp which is designed to give them a full feel on how their characters came to be and how they wound up working together as a whole. As for adventures themselves, well let us say that Eanwulf has LOTS in store for you, gathering resources from some of the gaming worlds most underrated and unappreciated module series as well as a couple of creations of his own design. All in all, treading along the Wulfpath should be an ordeal to remember. So start lacing up them soft leather boots today!
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Rules - The Ghostwalk Campaign

Post by Eanwulf » Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:15 pm

Starting a Ghostwalk Campaing
There are many new and unique aspects that set the Ghostwalk setting apart from other D&D worlds. Consequently, running a campaign using this material can be challenging. Yet at the same time, for the same reasons, running a Ghostwalk campaign can be extremely rewarding for both you and your players.

'œWhen you die, you don't have to stop playing''€"that's the core idea behind Ghostwalk. When characters die during an adventure in or near (or under) Manifest, the PCs immediately become ghosts that the players can keep playing. This is a new facet to playing the game that creates all sorts of interesting situations.

Dungeon Masters should always keep the core idea in mind when running a Ghostwalk campaign. Don't let this unique aspect of the setting become commonplace and unspectacular to your players.
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Re: Rules - The Ghostwalk Campaign

Post by Eanwulf » Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:22 pm

Beyond the Veil
All things must eventually come to an end, and all living things eventually die. Ghosts give up their will to carry on and cross the Veil of Souls, a god can be slain by a rival, and even the animate force of an undead goes somewhere when it is destroyed. However, for a city on the edge of death itself and inhabited by a thousand ghosts, the people of Manifest are still ignorant of what exists beyond the Veil of Souls. People brought back from the dead have no memory of what happened during that time, spells to commune with the dead fail to give any information on the deceased spirit's surroundings, and even the deities cannot or will not divine what lies beyond. Some say the Deathwarden dwarves know, but they remain silent on the matter.

At some point, the heroes in a Ghostwalk campaign may feel they have explored all of the mysteries of the living world and seek adventures in other places'€"and an obvious new frontier is the True Afterlife, for no living creature has gone there and returned. A group of adventurers may need information from a long-dead person whose body is absent or too deteriorated to use speak with dead or from someone who refuses to be raised from the dead. They could even be looking for a powerful magic item pushed through the Veil with the body of its owner (perhaps the missing one of the Seven Crowns). No matter their reasons for going, anyone so brave or reckless as to undertake this journey is going to encounter a lot of opposition.

Be aware that if heroes make it beyond the Veil and back and tell about what awaits people there, it will change the face of the Ghostwalk campaign. Much of human (and humanoid) nature is driven by the fear of the unknown, particularly the fear and uncertainty of what happens after death, and without that ignorance people will act differently. Those who refrain from evil out of fear of punishment in the Afterlife may revel in their secret nature if they find that eternal torture does not await them after death. Those suffering in life may choose to kill themselves and their loved ones if they find that in death their suffering ends. Religious dogma may twist and shatter when the myths and lore about the Afterlife are proven to be supposition or even falsehoods. Unless the Dungeon Master is willing to deal with the repercussions of this knowledge becoming public, strange things may happen and the campaign can lose its flavor. Because of this, adventures beyond the Veil should be considered a heroic end to a Ghostwalk campaign, and the source material included here is designed for highlevel characters so that when the adventure is completed, the heroes can retire and the DM can take time to adjust the campaign or change to a different campaign.
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Re: Rules - The Ghostwalk Campaign

Post by Eanwulf » Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:24 pm

The True Afterlife
There are many contradicting legends and stories about the nature of the True Afterlife in the Ghostwalk campaign, but at its simplest it can be described in this way: death is much like life. The truly dead feel real to each other and can interact in much the same fashion as they did when they were alive or ghosts. There are some changes that take some getting used to, but overall it works similar to the world of the living. Some sages among the dead theorize that this is because a humanoid mind is configured a certain way, and because of this the mind interprets the metaphysical environment in a way that it can understand. These sages estimate that animals experience the afterlife in a manner more accustomed to their own senses, undead perceive it according to their unnatural senses, and so on. While this theory cannot be proven with any certainty (for one would have to experience life as a humanoid, then die, then live again as an animal or undead, then die again and retain memories of the previous visits to the True Afterlife to make comparisons), it gives the dead sages something to do in the infinite time they have remaining.

Suffice it to say that if a person dies and passes on to the True Afterlife, under the best circumstances they still look like their living selves, can communicate with others using what is apparently normal speech, interact with objects and creatures as if they were solid, and even draw upon magic as they did when alive. Of course, not all people arrive under the best circumstances, and the effects of this are described below.
The Veil of Souls is a one-way gate from the world of the living to the world of the dead. When a person's soul passes through the Veil and enters the True Afterlife, she instantly appears at the exit end of the gate. After a moment's disorientation while she adjusts to her surroundings, she is able to act normally. Given the humanoid population of the world and the rate of people dying, at least a thousand people enter the world of the dead every day, meaning that this gate brings a new visitor at least once a minute. Add to that the countless spirits of animals and other creatures that cannot form ghosts in the physical world, and realize the entryway to the True Afterlife is incredibly busy (even the dark souls of undead pass through this gate). Almost all of these new arrivals are without the benefit of bodies (see Without a Body, below).
Many people in the world of the living believe that transporting a dead person's body to the Veil gives the deceased's spirit some sort of benefit or advantage in the True Afterlife. This belief is true, and to a greater extent than the living know. A creature that enters the True Afterlife without its body is a ghost, essentially the same as the ghosts who appear in the living world around Manifest. As with the living world, the space near the Veil of Souls (even this back side of it) causes incorporeal creatures to manifest fully. This space, which is still called the Manifest Ward from force of habit, even though there is no evidence of the city in the True Afterlife, has a variable radius of effect from the exit point of the gate that is at least one mile in every direction.

A ghost who enters the Veil appears in the True Afterlife exactly the same as it did before.

Undead that are slain (or incorporeal undead that physically pass through the Veil) appear in the True Afterlife as incorporeal versions of themselves. For undead that were incorporeal in the living world (such as shadows and spectres), this means there is no change whatsoever in their status. Naturally corporeal undead with an incorporeal form in the True Afterlife are hampered by their incorporeality, as they gain no ability to manipulate corporeal objects, including weapons, spellbooks, and material components, and they have their own incorporeal miss chance when making attacks against corporeal creatures. Of course, within the Manifest Ward these undead are forced to manifest fully, so these problems are irrelevant there. Most corporeal undead choose to remain within the Manifest Ward to avoid these problems.

A creature that could not form a ghost in the living world (any non-humanoid) arrives in the True Afterlife as little more than an intangible shade (even within the Manifest Ward), incapable of affecting the world around it. These poor creatures are called the bodiless by the other dead. The bodiless can make no attacks, can cast no spells or use any extraordinary, spell-like, or supernatural abilities. They fly at a speed of 30 feet (perfect maneuverability) but cannot speak in anything but a whisper (a moot point for creatures that could not talk when alive), and cannot influence or manipulate solid, incorporeal, or ghost touch objects, even within the Manifest Ward. Any attack or spell used against them automatically hits and causes them to disperse for one year, even if it is not an attack that causes damage. Spells such as ghost companion allow such a creature to appear in the True Afterlife as a ghost version of its previous self rather than bodiless.

The bodiless normally flit about for a few days before abandoning consciousness, which in effect is a permanent form of self-dispersal. Some of them join the ranks of servants of the other dead in the True Afterlife, acting as messengers and spies. They have little ambition or purpose, and their greatest hope is that someone may eventually send their bodies through the Veil so they can be more complete.
When a creature's body is sent through the Veil, that creature's spirit'€"the ghost, incorporeal undead, or bodiless version of that creature'€"is immediately drawn back to the exit of the gate and reunited with its body. The spirit has no choice in the matter and cannot resist this pull or be stayed from this path. This merging of body and spirit occurs even if the creature has been destroyed in the True Afterlife or the bodiless has been dispersed. The reunited dead creature is immediately awake and feels well rested. The newly bodied dead creature has access to all of the abilities it had when alive (or undead, if the creature was undead) and in all respects functions exactly like it did when it was alive. Any eidolon levels the character has are immediately converted to class levels as if the creature had a life epiphany. Unlike ghosts in the world of the living, these bodied-dead (simply called 'œthe dead' by the other inhabitants of the True Afterlife) gain no additional abilities other than what they could do when they were alive (for example, they do not gain the ability to fly or immunity to critical hits).

An undead creature that regains its body resumes its original undead form, not its living form. A naturally incorporeal undead (such as a shadow) that regains its body in this way is transported to the exit of the gate and is fully healed, but does not form a body or otherwise change its incorporeal form.

Not every person gets his entire body back. Some families can afford to send only the deceased's bones, or the cremated ashes, the skull, or sometimes just a handful of ashes or small bones. These dead people gain a body in the True Afterlife as if they had been given their entire body, but they gain negative levels equal to half their total hit dice. Even creatures not subject to negative levels (such as undead) take this penalty, so a 12th-level wizard lich that was destroyed and its remnants sent through the Veil would gain an undead body and six negative levels. These negative levels cannot be removed, suppressed, or overcome in any way, including with magic. The only way to restore the person to full functionality in the True Afterlife is to transport the rest of their remains (at least 75% of their original body) through the Veil.

As transporting a dead person's body beyond the Veil is primarily a humanoid convention, most of the bodied dead in the True Afterlife are humanoids. Most of the remainder are animals sent through the veil as part of an important dead person's entourage or at the behest of a druid or ranger, although a few monstrous humanoids have arranged this care for their dead.

Any items sent through with a person's body appear with or on the body. The dead person can use them as well as she could when alive. Often, the living include an entourage of mementos, food, and other gifts with a dead person. The dead person can bring these with her, but more often than not the dead leave behind what they cannot carry. The abandoned items are quickly picked up by other new bodied dead or fade into nothingness if left alone for more than a few days (this means that the dead do not have rooms full of gold and jewels, for these things vanish if not looked after on a regular basis). Ectoplasm still fades to nothingness after 10 minutes, even if carried by a creature. Bodies and body parts are the only physical objects that never fade away (so a person imprisoned with trap the soul or on an extended journey with a magic jar spell does not need to fear losing her body to neglect, although it may still be damaged or stolen by others while she was away).

Even the bodied dead can will themselves into dissolution. Children without parents, old kings without children, and all sorts of madmen have given themselves up to the quiet non-being rather than face an eternity of loneliness, despair, or madness. The items of these sad souls remain behind after they vanish and are picked up by others or fade themselves just as any other item sent through the Veil.
A living being who passes bodily through the Veil of Souls is a special case. Her body and soul come through at the same time, so she exits the gate exactly the same as she entered it. She has a body in the True Afterlife and can interact with her surroundings normally. However, the living were not meant to exist in the land of the dead. A living creature in the True Afterlife immediately gains a negative level, and gains another negative level every day spent beyond the Veil. These negative levels cannot be removed, suppressed, or overcome in any way, including with magic. If a creature's negative levels equal her actual levels or hit dice, she dies (see Death in the True Afterlife, below). All of the above also apply to any corporeal undead creature that passes bodily through the Veil.
Undead exist in the True Afterlife, and they are an active force for evil there. Fortunately, undead rarely have someone willing to send their bodies through the Veil, and the Deathwardens confiscate and destroy any remains that they recognize and can confirm as belonging to an undead creature, so the number of bodied undead in the True Afterlife is small compared to the number of the actual dead, and few have any of the magic items they had in life. Mindless undead (mainly skeletons and zombies) do not appear in the True Afterlife after their undead forms are destroyed in the world of the living, but sending their remains through the Veil does benefit the ghost of the living person that once used that body.

Undead cannot create spawn in the True Afterlife. A creature slain in a manner that would (in the world of the living) cause the target to become a new undead creature is simply slain and the spawning does not occur. Similarly, undead cannot be created in the True Afterlife, whether with animate dead or more powerful spells. Such magic functions only in the world of the living, and any undead in the True Afterlife seeking to acquire servants must make do with the undead that are already there.
When Life Hands You Razorblades. You Make A Baseball Bat Covered In Razorblades!

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