Press Ghosts Into Service with Binding Chains

Spooky month is coming soon to our shores. Talk of ghosts and other creatures of the night are a few short weeks away, but things being spooky is an all year round appreciation for me.

When we read ghosts in the Monster Manual we always see them as loose spirits, roaming and wandering, bringing misfortune to the living. This often calls in Clerics and other Adventurers to perform some kind of exorcism to clear the space of spirits.

Some particularly thrifty mages in the past decided that binding these ghosts into service is a handy practice. The lost soul cannot resist as it works in the service of those who place it in Binding Chains.

By attaching lanterns, the ghost guards and lights the way - Archive Haunt by Cristi Balanescu

The ghost is one of my favourites. The tortured soul stuck in the liminal space between living and dying can provide all manner of characters. The poltergeist throwing things about the room is terrifying. Then again the sweet old lady who haunts her home, while all her cats who look up, not really noticing the difference as they can see her new spectral form.

There's another kind of ghost I like to include in games I Game Master.

Bound Geists

When we read ghosts in the Monster Manual we always see them as loose spirits, roaming and wandering, bringing misfortune to the living. This often calls in Clerics and other Adventurers to perform some kind of exorcism to clear the space of spirits.

Some particularly thrifty mages in the past decided that binding these ghosts into service is a handy practice. The lost soul cannot resist as it works in the service of those who place it in Binding Chains.

These bonds are notoriously hard to make. Binding Chains are made of blessed iron, and covered in several runes to keep the ghost contained and placid. The complexity of what a bound ghost can do is already very limited. They remain reflections of their former self, and do not have the full faculties they had in life. As such, work like guarding and enforcement is the normal use for spirits.

Binding Chains can be used on an ethereal undead creature, Challenge Rating 5 or lower. It must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity Saving Throw, or the chains will magically collapse around them. They remain in the service of the creature who bound them in the chains, until the chains are removed.

Now we want to hear from you. Where would you see these chains being made and used? Would your characters enjoy a pet ghost to terrify their enemies? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, they write about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out themselves. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree.