IC Story Thread: Ch.1,Ad.2 - The Far Reach

As you all ready yourselves for... anything... to emerge from it. The door swings open and, much as Cirion or Seonaid might have surmised, the room appears to be a cabin for crew. There are two hammocks - one strung up high, and one low - dangling between the fore and aft walls on the port side of the room, and on the starboard there are two closed wooden crates on the floor side by side, and two rows of shelving above that.

The most notable thing about this room is... it seems to be very much unused, in a long time.

There is dust and cobwebs gathered on every surface and corner. It smells of dry, musty and stale air, like this door has been closed for a long time, unmingled with either sea-air or animal stench. The hammocks have no pillows, no sheets, the shelves are empty, no personal effects anywhere.

It is barren...

But then, you all hear a voice speak from behind you. There was no audible opening or closing of a door. No creak of stair, nor floorboard. Nothing that preceded the voice, except a noticeable chill in the air.

As you turn at it's sounding, you see a figure, standing opposite you all toward the aft end of the hold betweent you all and the stairs up. The figure stands in the shadow, and the shaft of light from the mid-day sun intervenes between your two places.

The figure and voice is that of a man. He is dressed in rough woolen shirt, vest, and trousers, feet bare. And... your first impression is that he looks... unwell. And he is illuminated rather strangely ... by the light of the sun? He seems to be cast in a rather unnatural looking pale green light...And the words he speaks are as follows...
"You... ...you are not he... ...Who. Are. You.", they come out in a trembling, rasping, croak, that starts out rather weak, but grows in strength and authority by the time the question is issued.

Eothain has heard many tales of ghosts.

The folk of Rohan revere their ancestors - actively remembering them through poem , song and tale - and he also knows all too well that according to those histories, the dead do not always rest peacefully.

There are many different words and conceptions of the once-living; phantoms, ghosts, wights, wraiths... Each word conveying something slightly different about the manifestation, but whether any of it is a real, meaningful distinction, or just a literary device, he doesn't know.

Usually, it is said that those who linger on after death, do so because they died in the act of, or having done something, evil or having wronged another which they never atoned for in life.

But, unusually, there is also the belief that dark sorcerers can gain mastery over the undead.

...

The figure gives a single shake of his head at Duinhir's question, but it's less like a 'negative' response to the question, and more like he's trying to clear his head after waking from a sleep - struggling to understand the question.

"NO!!", he growls, ".... nay the captain... ... you... Who!?

Who are YOU!", he seems to have gotten quickly agitated.

And as you've all had a few moments to look upon him now, it grows on you WHY he really looks unwell.

First, he appears to be sodden, wet. His clothes heavy and dripping with water (although no water pools on the ground). And also, his face and skin is bloated, and his eyes, and patches of his skin splotched with the dark blue of burst blood vessels full of spent blood.

Duinhir issues his question again, and the apparition goes to reply but at first instead clutches at his chest, grimacing in apparent pain, and instead of words coming out he doubles over and coughs out a lung-full of water.

He recovers, swiping at his mouth with his sleeve, and shouts, "No! No... you go!!"

And then he moves to lunge at you all....

Eothain's mind continues to race with recollections of the ancient tales of phantoms and wraiths...

Some of the common themes of these tales are that ghosts are cursed to dwell on in the world of the living, with the unceasing torture of their dishonor and yet also unable to affect the world of the living in material ways, cruely keeping atonement forever out of reach.

However in some tales the undead are also able to inhabit or manifest a physical form or effect...