FREQUENCY: Rare
FREQUENCY: Rare
([Dungeon Level II])
FREQUENCY: Rare ([Cold
Civilized Plains])
FREQUENCY: Very
rare ([Cold Civilized Mountains], [Cold Civilized Forest], [Cold Civilized
Swamp], [Cold Civilized Desert])
FREQUENCY: Rare ([Temperate Civilized Desert])
FREQUENCY: Very rare ([Temperate Civilized
Mountains], [Temperate Civilized Hills], [Temperate Civilized Forest],
[Temperate Civilized Swamp])
FREQUENCY: Rare
([Tropical Civilized Plains], [Tropical Civilized Desert])
FREQUENCY: Very
rare ([Tropical Civilized Mountains], [Tropical Civilized Hills],
[Tropical Civilized Forest], [Tropical Civilized Swampt])
NO. APPEARING: 1-8
ARMOR CLASS: 10
MOVE: 6"
HIT DICE: 1-4 HP
% IN LAIR: 95%
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: Nil
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Nil
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Fear
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Invisibility; silver
or magic weapon to hit
INTELLIGENCE: Low
ALIGNMENT: Lawful evil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Undead <theory>
SIZE: M
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: II | 34 + 1
SAVES: 16.17.18.20.19
Although a wandering <portalgeist> is
infrequently encountered (in which case it can be turned
or destroyed by a cleric as if it were a skeleton)
this undead
creature usually remains in the room or corridor in which it was originally
'killed'
(and such is the strong bond between the
poltergeist and its surroundings that it is in this case treated
as a ghoul on the
cleric/undead matrix).
Invisibility: The poltergeist is invisible (-4 to hit unless the attacker can see invisible) <edit?> and non-corporeal;
Silver or magic weapon to hit: only silver and magical weapons can harm it. <...AA...>
Fear: The poltergeist attacks physically
by throwing an object -- any nearby object light enough to be thrown by
a man will suffice --
with a chance of hitting its target equal
to that of a 5HD monster <THACO>.
If the victim is struck he takes no damage
but must save against fear (spells) or flee
the AREA <> and run in random directions for 2-24 melee <edit> rounds
before recovering.
There is a 50% chance that the victim will
DROP whatever he is holding during his flight,
but not necessarily at the beginning (roll
to determine for how many rounds he must flee,
roll again to determine whether he drops
whatever he is holding,
and if so roll a third time to determine
in which of the melee <edit> rounds of flight he does so).
Once a person has made his save,
he is immune to further fear
effects from the poltergeist while in that AREA.
Sprinkled holy
water or a strongly presented holy
symbol <cross gif at center>
drives back the poltergeist but does not harm it.
by Lewis Pulsipher
Quote:
Originally posted by
Khan the Warlord
So, until then, let's *bump*
and ask more questions. 
Speaking of bumps, and now
specifically to those in the night, I experienced a real poultergeist phenomonon
one summer when I was about nine years old.
It's a tad OT, so I'll refrain
from details unless asked 
Gary
Seeing as how I was asked
One summer, likely 1947,
when I had just turned nine, my parents were heading out to California
whene my father had purchased some land (La Jolla).
Me go on a trip with parents
during summer vacation and miss the fun of freedom from scholastic incarceration?
Whoa, and how could I weasel
out of that?
My parents being good and
kindly souls, arranged for some friends to come up and stay at the house
during their absence.
Better still, those friends
just happened to be the parents of my oldest friend, a lad who lived next
door when we were in Chicago, whose mother had wheeled him in his carriage
next to my mother with me in a like buggy.
Hooray!
My bedroom had bunkbeds,
so Dave and I were really having a lot of fun the first night of his stay.
Ignoring adult admonishment
to go to sleep, we were horseing around at midnight.
That's when his parents
came up, heard the racket, and set things "right."
David was escorted to another
bedroom by his father as I was scolded sternly bu his mother.
Ah well, all good things
must end...
Just as I was dozing off,
perhaps 10 minutes after the dressing down, a tremendous crash shook the
house.
The noise came from nearly
overhead, My room was near the front of the long house, and it had a full
attic, six bedrooms on the second floor.
A second after the terrible
crash there followed six or seven great thumpings from the same location,
the attic.
These sounds came from the
place of the initial one, moved from there north to the opposite end of
the attic as if soneone with really long legs were stomping along up there.
In a minute Dave's mother
was in my room to see if I had anything to do with the noise.
Of course she discovered
me huddled under my sheet, quite unwilling to leave the "safety" of my
bed.
Meantime, Dave's father
checked on David, found him fast asleep in his bed in the room across the
hall frm my own--
incidentally that was almost
directly under the place where the initial crashing thump originated, but
he slept through that ant the following noise quite undisturbed.
Mr. Dimery, David's father,
roused him, and the four of us proceeded down the hallway to the attic
door.
Mr. Dimery had picked up
a baseball bat from my room, likely fearing the commotion was due to burglars
of the like.
Unkikely in the extreme,
but who at that hour of the night, morning, properly, would think of anything
but some such?
As we three stood at the
bottom of the steps, David's father turned on the lights, proceeded into
the attic, had a cursory glance, then came back down.
Too many dark corners and
unlighted portions to manage.
We locked the door, wedged
the key fast, and retired.
In the bright light of morning
all four if us preceeded to thoroughly search the attic.
Nothing was broken, no trunk
or box or crate disturbed.
All open windows were fully
screened, and those screens fastened in place.
In short, no possible physical
cause for the whole bizarre series of sounds could be discovered.
That was that.
Needsless to say, I was
thereafter somewhat charry about going up to the attic alone, even in daylight,
but that didn't last too long, and soon I was back up there playing.
That is until the next time
the "ghost" manifested itself in the house--a year later and when I was
absolutely alone.
Cheerio,
Gary
Quote:
Originally posted by Khan
the Warlord
:P
Entertaining story, Gary!
Thanks, amigo
Quote:
For a moment, I was considering
the thought of powers from "Dave's" subconscious mind manifesting themselves,
until I read:
So since I know you're wanting
someone to ask, and I want to hear the next story...
Truth to tell, I thought
the same thing myself some years back, and came to the same place you did.
Unless the various manifestations were totally unrelated to the initial
one. there isn't any likelihood that friend David was responsible for the
first.
Quote:
[B[Would you care to tell
us all of this next manifestation?
[/B]
The next one really terrorized
me.
I have reconted it elsewhere,
but I';ll do so again here.
It was in the late fall when
I was age 10.
A bleak November day, and
after school I returned home to an empty house. My mother had to drive
into a suburb of Chicago, and she wouldn't return home until around 6:30
PM.
So there I was alone.
No playing outside because
it was too nasty and no snow yet, my buddy next door and I were on the
outs--typical kids' stuff--so I decided to read.
I opened one of the bookcases
in the living room, looked at spine titles, decided on something scary
and so pulled out Edgar Allen Poe's "Tales of Terror" from the complete
set of his works my grandfather had purchased before I was born.
Taking it to grandfather's
armchair, I switched on the floor lamp sat down, fliupped through the table
of contents, and opted for "The Fall of the House of Usher."
I started reading.
My white tom cat, Queball
by name, hopped up into my lap, settled down comfortably.
All was well to that point
and for some half-hour after.
Just as I was reading the
passage where the sounds from the crypt below the House of Usher were frightening
the protagonist, the cat dug its foreclaws into my leg.
Ouch! I looked frombook
to cat.
The cat was staring fixedly
at the door to my left, some 15 feet distant.
It was a bit ajar, lead
into what had been the maid's room, in my time a day or sewing room.
What on earth could that
blasted cat be staring at?
Horror of horrors!
As I stared at the door
trying to figure out just what might cause the cat to react thus, I saw
out of the corner of my eye that Queball was now rising, ears laid flat,
back arched, and tail up, fur horripilated in full "Halloween cat" fashion.
Worse, my eyes saw the door
move inwards into the totally dark room beyond.
Had my short hair not bneen
alteady been brushed upwards, it too would have risen as had the cat's.
I was paralyzed with fear,
and it got worse.
The oak floorboards creaked
as if someone was walking from the now-open door straight into the room
and up to beside my chair, only there was nothing to be seen.
I don't think my teeth chattered,
but I'll bet my eyes were popping.
All I could do was sit there
in shock as the cat stood its ground hissed and growled in his most menacing
fashion.
After what seemed long minutes,
but more likely was a few seconds, Queball ceased his defensive persofmance,
settled back down on my lap, and started purring.
Whew!
With that I got up, unceremoniously
dumping my benefactor in my haste.
Immediately after turning
on all the lamps in the living room, I illuminated the dining room chandalier,
the kitchen lights, then the front hall.
Making a dash to my bedroom
upstairs, I turned on tthe lights there, got my bow and arrows, machette
too, and ran back downstairs to sit in a chair at the front end of the
living room, awwor ready, eyes fixed on the offending doorway at the far
end of the room, maybe 30 feet distant.
there my mother found me
when she returned.
She said little other than
to reassure me that nothing like that in the house would harm me.
Despite that I was more
than a tad nervous when alone in the dark there.
Of course when some years
later my brother's fiancee had some concersn, and the experience of friends
staying over, I took comfort in what mother had said.
Nothing ever touched *me*...
Cheerio,
Gary
Right Breakdaddy!
Being in a place that has such manifestations is not usually pleasane. There's a major mansion here on the lake, divided up into condos now, one of which I lived in for a couple of years.Despite its marvelous location, substantial building, lake view, somehow the place manages to remain deserted of habitation most of the time...
I would not care to move
back if they gave me a free unit 
Gary
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoffrey
Gary, how much of a skeptic
are you regarding paranormal stuff (ghosts, psychic powers, astrology,
the occult, etc)?
I for one am a complete skeptic. Reality is one thing, and FRPGs are another. The only ghosts, spells, telepathy, etc. I've ever encountered have been in fantasy games. If such things were real, why doesn't someone cast even the equivalent of a mere first-level spell (not to speak of ninth-level spells)? A ring of invisibility would come in handy as well. <laughing>
(Of course, I'm not asking
about religious beliefs here.)
Well...
I am not skeptical about
poltergeist phenomina and ghosts, because
I have experienced both.
Also I have had a psychic
experience, cognition of something hapening at a distance from me, sight
from a distance of about six feet above my head,
and two possible astral
projection experiences.
The potential of the 90%
of the brain we con't use is unjknown, /eh?
I don't believe in astrology, magic, or any of the rest of the "occult," though. I am skeptical and it is in my view pure hokum.
Cheers,
