Monday, February 9, 2015

Ghost Story- Battle, Sussex

Battle, Sussex
William the Conqueror built an abbey to commemorate his victory over King Harold. Even better he built the abbey on the battleground, complete with an altar right where King Harold was slain.
The abbey is a ruin now, but every so often a fountain gushing with the blood of William and Harold’s soldiers appears, and the bloody figure of King Harold haunts the site, an arrow sticking out of his eye socket.

That’s a bit gory for a haunting, but it’s still pretty good. Harold can provide exposition or be a bogyman for an archeological adventure looking for treasure in the Abby’s remains.
The Abby itself could be a ghost. So many spirits have lingered as ghosts here, that even the destruction of the Abby leaves a spiritual mark. The players enter the abbey’s crumbling walls and find it completely restored, but can they figure out how to leave the abbey haunted by medieval ghosts?
While it lacks subtlety, the ghostly blood fountain can be adapted to the site of any grisly crime.  If a player has committed a murder in cold blood, why not increase the anxiety of being caught with a pesky blood stain or have their shoes leave bloody footprints. Start with only the character noticing, but NPCs might complain about the mess they are making over time.
Maybe the players have gotten off track or accidentally burned a clue; a vanishing blood stain is a great arrow in the right direction.



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