Mysterious balls of light hover temptingly in the air near a forest pathway lit by golden afternoon light that makes everything look pretty and innocent. This is an alteration of an artwork by Darkmoon_Art.
Appearance: Will-o’-wisps appear as floating balls of light, like distant lanterns, that bob tantalizingly between trees, rocks, bushes, or other plants.
How They Form: Will-o’-wisps are a type of ghost formed by deaths that are marked with particularly intense longing and anger, especially those that also involve injustice or betrayal. It is the combination of longing and anger that creates a will-o’-wisp, rather than a different type of ghost. If nothing is done to resolve those emotions, or the injustice or betrayal that caused them, all of that unresolved emotion overwhelms everything else, anchoring the dead person’s spirit to the living world in the form of a vengeful will-o’-wisp that kills anyone it can lure into its trap.
Main Traits: Once they are fully formed, will-o’-wisps know nothing besides the intense longing and anger that they feel. They don’t have any memories, nor do they have any desires outside of acting out their emotions by harming the living.
Like most ghosts, will-o’-wisps are incorporeal and can’t directly harm living people. Instead, the intense longing a will-o’-wisp feels is transmuted by Emotion Magic into a magical lure that compels their victims to follow them. The will-o’-wisp then leads their victim into danger in an attempt to harm or kill them. This danger can be a hazard of the terrain, such as a bog or cliff, or it can be a deadly predator. Will-o’-wisps are particularly known for partnering with Vampire Vine.
Habitat: As ghosts, will-o’-wisps can exist in any habitat. Initially, will-o’-wisps gravitate to the place of their death and locations important to their story of injustice, betrayal, longing, and anger. Over time, as the details of their individual stories fade, will-o’-wisps increasingly gravitate to nearby roads, especially those where isolated victims can be found, and to increasingly dangerous locations, especially those that make killing victims easier. If enough time passes, will-o’-wisps can move great distances from their origins.
Senses: Will-o’-wisps are beings of Emotion and Necromantic Magic. They use Necromantic Magic to detect both living and nonliving beings and they use Emotion Magic to perceive the emotions of those beings. Because of this combination, they are only vaguely aware of any organisms, like non-magical plants, that don’t feel emotions.
Diet: Will-o’-wisps feed on the death of beings that feel emotion, including the death of animals and people. The more death a will-o’-wisp causes, the more powerful it becomes, allowing it to range farther in search of victims and enabling it to lure those victims over a greater distances. Fortunately, animals are usually good at avoiding will-o’-wisps, sensing their necromantic aura far enough away to avoid them. This keeps will-o’-wisps from growing overwhelmingly powerful and reduces their impact on natural areas.
Predators: As incorporeal ghosts, few things can hurt Will-o’-wisps. However, there are a few specialized predators that eat incorporeal undead, like the rare Ghost Eater Vampire Vine.
Reproduction: As undead, will-o’-wisps form, rather than being born. Any death marked by intense longing and anger can form a will-o’-wisp, but deaths caused by will-o’-wisps are more likely to form will-o’-wisps. This often leads to multiple will-o’-wisps collecting in the same area.
Will-o’-Wisp Mechanics
Magical Lure: A will-o’-wisp’s magical lure works primarily by sight, so as soon as a character sees one, they have to defend themselves from its lure by rolling their mental defense. Characters trained in Necromantic Magic are considered prepared on this roll. Characters that can’t see or that don’t feel emotions are immune to this effect.
- 0 successes: A failure means the character feels an irresistible longing that compels them to follow the will-o’-wisp. They are fully entranced and have difficulty focusing on anything besides what they are feeling and the need to follow.
- A fully entranced character isn’t thinking clearly and is unable to do a knowledge roll to determine what the will-o’-wisp is.
- While entranced the character is considered prepared on all rolls to continue following the will-o’-wisp, including rolls to overcome obstacles that would prevent them from following.
- Unless the entranced character is harmed, or the magic on them is dispelled by Emotion, Healing, or Analytic Magic, it lasts for the rest of the scene.
- 1 success: A partial success means that the character is compelled to follow the will-o’-wisp, but they know that something is wrong. While following, they can think clearly and take any other action they want, including actions designed to keep themselves safe. For example, they could use a walking stick to check the ground for hazards or use Force Magic to trap the will-o’-wisp.
- 2 successes: A full success means that the character completely resists the lure and has no desire to follow the will-o’-wisp.
- 3 successes: An outstanding success means that the character resists the lure so well that they get some useful information from it. For example, they might know how far away the danger is or what type of danger it is.
Knowledge Rolls: After a character resists a will-o’-wisp’s lure, or at least partially resists it, they can roll Arcana or Culture to find out whether they can identify it. Characters trained in Necromantic Magic are considered prepared on this roll.
- 0 successes: A failure means that the character fails to identify this as a will-o’-wisp.
- Trained Characters: Any character trained in the skill they are rolling knows that this is some kind of ghost, which is a spirit that is magically anchored to the living world. The nature of the anchor shapes the ghost’s behavior and abilities. It is unclear what type of ghost this is. More information is needed.
- Untrained Characters: A character that isn’t trained in the skill they are rolling completely misidentifies the will-o’-wisp. For example, they could think it is a giant firefly, an illusion created by a prankster, a harmless but annoying flower that magically lures in pollinators, or a magical phenomenon that happens when magic goes awry in a nearby warped magic zone.
- 1 success: A partial success means that the character correctly identifies this as a will-o’-wisp, which is a ghost that lures people into danger.
- 2 successes: A full success means that the character knows this is a will-o’-wisp, which is a dangerous type of ghost that uses Emotion Magic to lure people into dangerous areas in an attempt to kill them. Will-o’-wisps are consumed by intense longing and anger. They don’t have any memories and all they want is to hurt and kill living people, which makes them extremely difficult to reason with.
- 3 successes: An outstanding success means that the character knows additional information that gives them some kind of benefit. Here are some options.
- If a Member of the Group Is Fully Entranced: The character knows that harming a fully entranced person will break the enchantment. If they are careful, they can harm the person just enough to pull them out of the enchantment without causing injury, but they might have to choose between doing harm and not being effective.
- If Reasoning with the Will-o’-wisp Is Plausible: If the will-o’-wisp has formed recently enough that it still has some memories, there is a chance of reasoning with it. In this case, the character knows the full details of how a will-o’-wisp forms (as described above) and that gives them the opportunity to try to resolve the strong emotions, injustice, or betrayal that led to its creation.
- If a Ghost Predator Is Nearby: The character has spotted signs that one of the rare predators that can eat ghosts is near enough to be useful.
- Other: The character uses the will-o’-wisp’s behavior to get some information about the type of danger it is leading them toward.
The Danger: All characters that reach the danger will need to roll their physical or mental defense, whichever is appropriate, to protect themselves. Typically, moderate dangers are more common than severe ones, meaning that moderate dangers are usually closer. In most cases, moderate dangers are one or two rounds away, meaning that the characters get one or two rounds to act before they have to defend themselves. In contrast, severe dangers are usually three or four rounds away.
Will-o’-wisps are part of the Crossroads Setting for the tabletop role-playing game, Magic Goes Awry. Click here to go to a list of the other strange and wonderful magical creatures from the Land of Crossroads.
