In the great hall of what was once a temple where a mystery cult purified their worshippers to prepare for exalted status in death, now the sigils of foul spells cover the walls. As the War drew to a close, a necromancer from the surface came down here to research ways to turn the ghosts barred from passage through the sealed Gate into weapons, conscript them as soldiers, in service to his liege. This is the final, most expansive, and longest-occupied of his three laboratories, and the one where his experiments drew closest to success.
Unrest among his subordinates as his research continued well past the end of the war led to the ghosts bound to his service being unbound. Though at first glance this place seems abandoned, it is ruled over by a Wraith Knight, an agglomeration of spirits forced to take form as a knight and his arms and armor. The Wraith Knight is naturally invisible, although contact with live bodies (even fresh-shed blood) can remind it of what it once was and force it to take on an appearance, at least where it was touched. Thus as a battle goes on and blood has been shed and spouted over it it will be visible as a blood-drenched silhouette, showing far more blood than was actually shed.
The Knight is compelled toward combat, though it will not attack entirely surprisingly. Interlopers who enter the Hall will hear a challenge shouted that seems to issue from everywhere and nowhere at once, to the effect of “Trespassers! As you have entered my hall, you must do battle with me! Choose a champion and step forward!” For dramatic effect, other bound ghosts may manifest as torchflames around the walls of the room, to illuminate the arena
If a champion does step forward, the Knight will circle them briefly, invisibly, a clanking as if of metal armor close enough that it must be invisible, but no sooner are they sure it must be coming from one side than it clearly comes from the other. Then the Knight attacks, lunging with a sword from behind. The Knight is a capable fighter, as befits a knight, though preternatural strength, speed, and prescient insight a split-second ahead than through skill at swordplay as a proper knight would. It does, however, have a potent enough sense of anatomy to allow it to backstab as a thief, but with the arming sword that it wields
If bested, the Knight is not destroyed, or even disbursed, though some of its constituents may cease to manifest. Only one will be dominant and capable of speaking, which may or may not be the one that was dominant during the fight; the dominant spirit may even be amenable to negotiation, the curse urging it on to battle satisfied with its defeat.
The Knight has no means to enforce any terms encouraging a one-on-one duel, nor ability to punish groups who try to team up against it. It can pursue those who attempt to flee, but it won’t go far as it fears some of the other entities in the Tomb.
After the Knight is bested, the lead ghost might ask something of the people who defeated it.
- To carry a message back to a living loved one. The ghost knows where they were (6 months ago, a year ago, five years ago, twenty years ago), but they may have moved or since died (and may be found elsewhere in the Tomb).
- To bring a token (a flower or similar) from the ghost’s home to its grave or vice versa
- To exact revenge (for a slight the ghost incurred in life that died unreturned, for a lifelong vendetta, for the ghost’s murder (or killing in war), for conscription, dispossession, or similar exercise of power), against someone (unrepentant, moving on, repentant, who acted under duress, who was wrongly identified)
- To ensure proper care is given to something (that a plant, animal, or garden is not overgrown and has a proper caretaker, that a person is raised without undue struggle for the ghost’s absence, that an inheritance is divided or maintained correctly), which may or may not still need that care or even still exist/live
- That a thing the ghost had in life be recovered and brought (to the ghost’s grave, to the Hall, to someone yet alive)
- That something be made known (how the ghost died, an episode from its life, a work (a poem, perhaps) the ghost left unfinished)
Returning with word of a completed task protects you and your companions from the Knight’s wrath. While the ghost remains a part of the Knight, you may be safe from it forever, so long as you have completed your duties (returning with an incomplete task angers the Knight and makes you its first target); however, it is possible that completing these tasks instead allows the ghost so served to break free of the Knight. This angers the others, but later manifestations of the Knight will have an incomplete set of gear. Free enough, and the bindings will loosen enough that the Knight can disperse; with the Gate closed, this does not mean that they can pass on.
A statue in a hidden niche allows viewing through the eyes of the Star-Mad Duke, though the Knight cannot be seen waiting in ambush
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Ten Leagues Beneath the Earth 