#Local Ghost Stories

Contents

#Scent — Local Ghost Stories

Fiction-Only — Local ghost stories are not evidence. They are how a place teaches fear to people too young to read evidence.

Every village has one story that adults call foolish and still obey. No one believes the bend in the road is haunted, but no one lets a child take that bend after dusk. No one believes the well has a voice, but everyone coughs before drawing water from it.

#Table — Stories

#	Ghost Story	Loose Edge
1	At the bend of Seven Pines, a bride asks travelers to carry her sleeve home. Those who agree arrive at a house with no women.	Where did the women go, and why only the sleeve?
2	Children are told not to count the lanterns during the summer festival because the dead count back.	What happens when the two counts match?
3	The old well repeats the last sentence spoken by anyone who drowned elsewhere.	Why does a local well hear distant drowning?
4	A headless horse waits outside the closed stable on nights when no horse is missing.	Whose head is missing instead?
5	The ghost in the mulberry field has no face until someone lies about a harvest.	Does it punish lies, or borrow faces from liars?
6	On rainy nights, a blind masseur walks the ridge and thanks people for fires they never lit.	Who lit the fires he remembers?
7	The abandoned dye house stains white cloth red only when folded by widows.	What death is the dye trying to report?
8	A drowned monk recites sutras under the ferry pier, but stops whenever a murderer crosses.	Is he afraid, respectful, or counting them?
9	If a child leaves a tooth under the hearth, a woman with ash hair returns a coin and one adult tooth.	Where does the adult tooth come from?
10	At the old execution ground, shadows kneel before bodies do.	Does the shadow confess first?
11	The snow woman on the pass asks only one question: "Which spring did you promise?"	What promise binds winter to spring?
12	A flute can be heard from the sealed storehouse, but only when all living musicians in town are asleep.	Who plays when the musicians cannot?
13	The ghost of a tax collector apologizes to poor houses and curses rich wells.	What did he collect that still moves through water?
14	A girl in a festival mask leads drunk men to the river, then returns the mask to its stall before dawn.	Is the girl wearing the mask, or is the mask wearing girls?
15	The temple cat bows toward an empty cushion every morning after a funeral.	Who sits there before moving on?
16	A warrior with arrows in his back asks directions to a battle that ended before his clan existed.	Is the battle ancient, future, or repeating under another name?
17	Nobody sleeps in the room with the painted crane because the crane changes legs at midnight.	What is it stepping over?
18	The scarecrow by the north field wears the clothes of whoever will be missing by autumn.	Who dresses it, and can the clothing be changed?
19	A voice under the bridge offers to finish any song, but always adds a verse about burial.	Whose burial does the verse describe?
20	The ghost in the bathhouse steals only steam, leaving the water cold and the mirrors sweating.	What does it build from stolen steam?
21	On the thirteenth night, the old shrine's ema boards turn around to face the wall.	What do the wishes refuse to look at?
22	A procession with no feet crosses the reed marsh when the village has forgotten a name.	Which forgotten name calls the procession?
23	The mountain path is safe if you greet every stone as "elder brother." Miss one and it follows you home.	Why brother, and what is the youngest stone?
24	A woman without a reflection buys salt before every plague. The salt seller gives her credit.	What does she prevent, and why does the seller trust her?

#Table — What the Story Might Be Doing

Function	Use
Warning	The story keeps children away from a real danger whose cause has changed.
Cover	The story hides a crime by making witnesses sound childish.
Treaty	The story preserves the terms of a bargain with a local spirit.
Memory	The story remembers an event whose official record was destroyed.
Invitation	The story trains the right person to perform the right mistake.

#Note — Using Stories

Ghost stories should change as they travel. Let each witness keep one image and alter one cause. The party may learn that a story is "false" and still need it, because the false form carries the local rule.

If a ghost story becomes a scenario, decide whether the haunting wants attention, repetition, correction, apology, witness, or replacement.