Maple Shade Ghost Lore Research

Ghost Lore (Main Topic)

Skill: Occult
Lore concerning very basic information about ghosts and similar entities.

Ghost Lore, Basic

Obscurity: Occult 0 (General Knowledge Test applies)
Progress: 9 successes • 2 rolls

• 1 success: Simple awareness of the concept - generally lingering spirits of the dead.
• 2 successes: Pop culture knowledge of ghosts, from folkloric examples and mass media depictions of an afterlife and those that dwell there.
  • Local Hauntings, by Location (0)
• 4 successes: Reference-level information, including some cultural variations on lingering spirits of the dead.
  • Apotropaic Lore (0)
  • Anchors (•)
  • Spirit Lore: Bans & Banes (•)
  • Spirit Lore: Twilight (•)
• 8 successes: Anthropological studies of death cults, ancestor worship, and spirit remnant folklore.
  • Ghosts who are in the presence of those grieving or otherwise remembering them with potent emotions can gather a type of spiritual power called "essence," with which they can perform supernatural feats. This harvest is called "memoriam."
  • Spirit Lore: Influence (••)

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Portland Hauntings

Obscurity: Occult 0
Information regarding ghost sightings and hauntings in the Portland area, with an emphasis on those that are recurring and consistent.
Progress: 6 successes • 1 roll

• 2 successes: Extremely widely-known sites, which play a part in the identity of those sites, or in the city's history.
  • Old Town Pizza (Old Town/Chinatown): Haunted by a woman named "Nina." She is said to have been a prostitute in the 1800s, murdered in the elevator shaft of the Merchant Hotel, the building the pizzeria occupies.
  • The Shanghai Tunnels (Old Town/Chinatown): Used to kidnap immigrants, laborers, and prostitutes during the early years of the city, and also used during Prohibition, when it is said that gangsters would kill one another or those who endangered their business. Said to be the "most haunted" locale in Portland.
  • Pittock Mansion (West Hills): Haunted by its original owners, Henry and Georgiana Pittock, who built the mansion, and died there.
  • Reed College (Eastmoreland): Various ghosts, including one on the third floor of the Prexy residence hall.
  • The White Eagle (Eliot): A saloon and hotel haunted by a woman who was murdered there when it was a brothel and opium den. Saloon was nicknamed the "bucket of blood" for the violence there. One patron says they were locked in the bathroom for fifteen minutes, only to discover the door had no lock on it.
• 5 successes: Less popular sites, although still a strong part of the local folklore and identity.
  • The Edgefield Ghosts (Troutdale OR): Out in Troutdale, at the Edgefield Manor nursing home, there are occasionally heard the crying of children, or a lady's voice reciting nursery rhymes. There is also a lady in white that can be sometimes seen on the grounds.
  • Bagdad Theater (Brooklyn): Theater maintenance man hanged himself behind the stage, and the women's bathroom is haunted by a spirit.
  • Benson Hotel (Downtown): Haunted by Simon Benson, who built it in 1912. Ghostly man descending the staircase of the hotel.
  • Heathman Hotel (Downtown): Hotel built in 1927 and reported to have several haunted rooms.
  • Hollywood Theater (Hollywood): Apparition of a ghostly male in the upstairs lobby, and apparition of a woman who sits in the back rows of the one of the upstairs screening rooms.
  • North Portland Library (Humboldt): Upstairs meeting room with creepy old man seated at it, viewed on security camera, but no one is there when people investigate. Also hear footsteps.

Obscurity •

Anchors

Obscurity: Occult •
Lore concerning the attachments that prevents the spirits of the dead from moving onto their eternal rest or reward.
Progress: 15 successes • 5 rolls • Completed

• 2 successes: An anchor is a thing of emotional significance to which a ghost is connected, acting like a fetter preventing the ghost from shaking off the mortal coil.
• 4 successes: Anchors are most often locations and objects, although in rare cases they can also be people of tremendous significance.
  • (This now enables the researcher to perform research actions to identify the Anchors of individual ghosts, with some Investigation.)
• 7 successes: Anchors can be influenced to some degree by ghosts. Those who remain near a ghost's anchors can be likewise conditioned to be "open," making them more susceptible to the ghost's supernatural influences.
  • (Need to research Spirit Lore: Manifestations)
• 10 successes: Ghosts remain near their anchors in order to hold together their spiritual integrity. When somehow prevented from being near their anchors, ghosts are eventually eroded into non-existence or slumber. Destroying all of a ghost's anchors almost always destroys the ghost.
• 12 successes: Ghosts whose spiritual integrity is torn apart but not destroyed often come to rest and recover their power within one of their anchors.
• 15 successes: Anchors can be used to summon ghosts. Particularly powerful and ancient ghosts are also capable of creating entirely new anchors by investing part of their spiritual power into locations, objects, and people. The destruction of all a ghosts anchors doesn't always destroy it; in some cases, potent ghosts are instead torn shrieking into a realm known as the Underworld or the Great Below.
  • Apotropaic Lore: Summoning (•)
  • Underworld (•••)