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2Gen - Correspondence

Unread postPosted: Mon May 07, 2007 3:06 pm
by Kai
Ms. Sparrowmoon,

I was flipping through Strange Occurrences (A Practical Guide to Dealing With the Unexpected, Unnatural, and Just Plain Weird in Everyday Life) the other night, and I had a question. You mentioned that it's possible to separate a ghost from its focus by placing a persistent blessing on the object or place to cause a... well, comparable to an allergic reaction in the ghost.

I think you're absolutely right about that, and have tried it with some success. Here's another option that I've found has been fairly reliable. Due to a peculiar quality of my aura, it's pushed almost entirely off the astral plane and onto the shadow plane. This is mainly due to a combination of a sort of astral birth defect and an occupation that's causing a few changes.

What's really interesting is that I applied the principle you mentioned above to another situation. I started keeping a few weak healing potions around, and told my familiar to administer one at the next opportunity. Ordinarily he helps push them away by force, but the next time I had a problem, I managed to weaken the group of ghosts' hold by drinking the potion. Made my aura just toxic enough that they weren't interested and I was able to get things stabilized again.

My question has to do with the effectiveness of this technique on normal people. I've not had an opportunity to experiment on a live subject, so all I have is a hypothesis. I'm guessing that it would be more effective on a live subject, since their aura is better equipped to absorb the positive energy than mine is.

However, the reason I'm not certain is that a normal person's aura is already a little closer to the positive energy plane in the first place. Perhaps without the jarring introduction of a radically-opposed energy type, the ghosts in possession of the body wouldn't be weakened as significantly.

Do you have any data on this? I think I've gone as far as I can without test subjects of my own, and so far I haven't found any humanoids wandering around possessed by whole gangs of incorporeal undead that I can take home and experiment on. Maybe you've had better luck or some other ideas. Either way, I'd love to hear back from you.

Thanks for your time,

Zea H. Mazuo

Unread postPosted: Mon May 07, 2007 9:33 pm
by FlameRaven
Ms. Mazuo,

Thank you for writing. I am always interested in hearing about any new situations involving 'strange occurrences', and am happy to offer whatever advice I can.

As for your question, your hypothesis is correct, at least to my knowledge. The situation you described is rare, but I have come across it once or twice. As you've said, most people's auras are more closely aligned to the positive plane than you've described yourself to be, but the result is similar, if a bit weaker. I don't know that drinking a simple healing potion would scare off the ghosts entirely, but it would certainly give them pause, and that hesitation is often all one needs to take action and get a better hold on the situation. Of course, more powerful potions could well have a greater effect.

I hope this answers your question. It is not a situation I have had occasion to research thoroughly, so there may be more information out there that I simply don't have. If you do find out more in the future, do write back and tell me about it. It's an intriguing possibility and one I'd like to learn more about, if at all possible.

Sincerely,
Ode Sparrowmoon

Unread postPosted: Tue May 08, 2007 12:59 am
by Kai
Ms. Sparrowmoon,

So I gave some more thought to what we were discussing and unfortunately am still having some trouble finding an appropriate subject. The kind of person I'm looking for would have a relatively normal aura and would therefore theoretically be somewhat less likely to be a victim of possession anyway. I'll keep my eyes open and maybe someone will just sort of fall into my lap, but I strongly doubt it.

I did have another opportunity to test the potion idea, and I do believe that a stronger potion will give a much more marked jolt to any spirit attempting to possess the mortal who consumes it. I don't have anyone to cast healing magic on me, so I can't say one way or the other whether the positive energy has to be introduced orally or what.

It's probably not too relevant whether the healing spell could simply be cast by another mage with relative efficacy, because at that rate the mage may as well simply cast such a harmful spell on the ghost in question and eliminate a lot of uncertainty. It is possible that the potion vial could be broken on the victim in question, since that would cast the spell contained within without the need for a mage present.

Similar limitations to before come up, though. with no test subjects but myself, opportunities are a little limited.

In the interests of better understanding the process, I'm considering learning to induce the condition. I'm fairly certain that I can call ghosts with some degree of effort, but it's always been the sort of thing I tried to avoid rather than pursue. I think that if I am to make any more progress with my work I'll need to learn to create the necessary conditions.

So, here's a question for you. I'm familiar with some very basic bindings on ghosts and other incorporeal undead, but most of the really good ones deal with positive energy. Granted, there's nothing better for the task. But my real issue is that I can't have too much of that in or around my lab, since it could interfere with the stability of my experiments.

My goal is really just to contain the ghosts to one area of my house so that if they get loose and wreak havok, it will be minor havok at worst. Do you know of anything sufficiently effective that doesn't involve positive energy?

Thanks,

Zea

Unread postPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:14 pm
by FlameRaven
Ms. Mazuo,

My apologies for the delay in sending this letter. I was recently called away on a trip which took far longer than I originally planned for.

As for your question, I believe I have an idea of something that may work. It took some time to find--I know quite a number of binding methods for spirits and ghosts, but most of the strongest do use positive energy, as you mentioned. However, there are other possibilities. Specifically, your proposal reminded me of an artifact, a mask, which I used for some time. The mask created a blind spot, I suppose is the best way to describe it, or a certain type of forgetfulness in ghosts.

The effect is not quite the same, but with that enchantment as a base, it should be possible to create a similar spell that would anchor wherever you wanted it to (for example, in a room in your house), that would basically cause the ghosts to forget they were able to leave that area. This should provide the effect you need without using positive energy, so your experiments would not be disrupted.

Let me know what you think of this proposal, and if it would suit your purpose.

Sincerely,
Ode Sparrowmoon

Unread postPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:20 pm
by Kai
Ms. Sparrowmoon,

I read your last letter a few times before it finally hit me. I'd been so stuck in looking at wardings based in some standard energy, but now I realize that may not be necessary. There are plenty of schools of magic I've left untapped, and the likeliest candidate right now seems to be a combination of a couple of effects.

When you mentioned that the masks can create a limited forgetfulness, I was reminded of an effect I read about in one of my roommate's old school texts. He's never been much for these sorts of effects, so it was only by sheer luck that I'd found it on my own. Certain mental mages who also specialize in illusion can do a variation on a basic invisibility illusion that depends on the subconscious compliance of the observer.

It's an effect that causes a targeted person or object to repel an observer's mind. Unless the observer is specifically and actively looking for the object, it's like it's not even there. Now, there is a minor problem in that I have little to no expertise in either illusion or telepathy. Certainly not enough to experiment with it that way. Not directly. However, based on a few elementary principles I could devise an experiment with another caster.

This would be an extraordinarily useful effect, and could be related to the workings of the mask you mentioned. A couple of changes would need to be made. For one thing, I would need to apply it to an area and not a person or specific object. For another, it would need to be keyed solely toward incorporeal undead, or else I'd become hopelessly lost inside my own lab. That would be a pain.

This is where things become a little sticky. I do happen to be acquainted with someone who can create illusions on that scale, and while I'm a little concerned about seeking her assistance, I think I can convince her to assist me. Her name is Sadie, and she's extremely skilled at creating illusory landscapes.

The problem is that she's a ghost I knew when I was young. We had a brief falling out several years ago after which my familiar nearly destroyed her. Since then she's cooled down a little bit, and I think she would be interested in this if only to take away some of my dependence on my familiar (whom she, like many ghosts, dislikes fairly strongly). If I could explain to her what I needed her to do, she might be able to hide me from other undead by adapting her normal tricks.

Now, if she's able to do that I'll know that I have someone around who can duplicate the effect on your mask. That's step one of several, really. My mind is racing; I just have to get all this down. If she can hide me from other ghosts-- which I think I can help her do-- we could potentially tie the effect to some sort of border instead of using her as its center. Sadie is the type to use it to create some form of persistent playground from which we could leave and return, and that may be the best start.

Next hitch? Sadie was never tied to me specifically, and summoning her to my lab might even be a little dodgy. If I break her connection to her bonded location, ensuring that she ends up with me and not... anywhere else in creation could be... a little dodgy.

This means I have to go back home. She's tied to my grandfather's house in the Netherworld, which means that's where I'd need to be. The energy balance on that plane tends to be a little different, but the higher saturation of shadow energy has made my work easier mechanically even if ghosts tend to give me more trouble.

I mentioned to you in a previous letter that I plan to use my own condition as an opportunity to learn more about the management of possession, and that I needed some sort of energy-neutral barrier to contain any problems I might cause. That will give me a little more freedom to work, and is absolutely essential to some long-term goals I'm working on.

I would never have thought of this without your assistance. I really appreciate your advice on this, and I can finally move past an obstacle that's been plaguing me for some time now. I'll be leaving this address shortly to pursue my work elsewhere, but written on the back of this sheet are instructions for getting correspondence to me at my grandfather's house. As you can imagine there'll be a substantial delay, since the interplanar post is not quite as reliable as one might like. If nothing else, I'll contact you when I've made some progress.

Thank you again. You've been absolutely invaluable.

-Zea

Unread postPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:33 pm
by FlameRaven
Ms. Mazuo,

I am glad my suggestion was of help to you. Obviously some changes would need to be made for your purpose; the mask I mentioned had a quite specific enchantment on it, whereas you are obviously looking for something more general in effect. However, it seems you are well on your way to a solution.

Please contact me again if you have any other questions.

Sincerely,
Ode Sparrowmoon