Name: Phantom (Magical Creature) Stats: No. Appearing : 1 Climate/Terrain: Any/Land Frequency : Very rare Organization : Solitary Activity Cycle : Any Diet : Nil Description: Phantoms are images left behind by particularly strong death traumas. A phantom is like a three-dimensional movie image filmed at the time of death, in place where it died. The standard phantom may appear as almost anything. If often appears as the character who experienced the trauma - a transparent image re-en- acting the death scene. Alternatively, it could represent whatever was foremost in the victim's mind at the time of death; an attacker, or some goal left unachieved. Phantoms are experienced in faded colours, by all senses. Combat: It is difficult to fight phantoms, since they are merely images and have no power to directly cause harm. They cannot themselves be harmed. Swinging weapons or casting spells into the area of the image does not interfere with the projection, and they cannot be reasoned with. A phantom is not intelligent and does not exist for any real reason; tracking down its killer or completing its quest will not get rid of a phantom. Phantoms are often mistaken for ghosts, haunts, or groaning spirits, but they can not be turned as undead. Only a priest spell remove curse, cast at 12th level, can dispel a phantom. Although a phantom cannot directly do any actual harm, it is the very essence of magic and calls up a superstitous awe in anyone who sees one. The enchantment is such that the phantom affects both the mind and the sense of the observer. Creatures without minds (such as undead) are immune to the effects of phantoms, as are those rare beings who are somehow unable to experience them (since the phantom is present to all senses, blindness is not normally protecting against one). Habitat/Society: Of course, a phantom may provide characters with important information, either forewarning careful characters of an upcoming danger, or finding a lost and treasured object. There is a slight chance that a character's death may engender a phan- tom. This chance should be minuscle to nonexistent for 0-level or very low level character, or for those who were expecting to die - those dy- ing of natural causes or in war. However, characters of 4th level or above, dying suddenly or by surprise might have a 1-2% chance of beco- ming phantoms. If those characters were on an important mission or quest, this chance mught rise to 5-6 percont. The percentage chance for generating a phantom should never be higher than the level of the cha- racter at the time of death. (Characters killed by energy-draining un- dead rarely produce phantoms). A character who is murdered and gene- rates a phantom may also return as a revenant. There are nonstandard types of phantoms that affect only one of the senses. often these are purely visual images, but they can also mani- fest themselves as sounds (explosions, moaning, or quiet whispering) or smells. A gloomy whispering of danger might produce despair effects. A foul stench might induce the retching effects of a ghast. Of greater concern, however, is that there are some phantoms that are actually evil. These phantoms can seriously misinform or endanger any character it meets. They can be detected with a detect evil spell; dis- pel evil can neutralize the phantom for a number of turns equal to the caster's level.