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Well, you've heard the story of how I told my Mom what we had done and the warnings she gave us.  I'm glad we didn't end up like Testakleez.  We both agreed to be more careful.

After Ariel went home, my Mom suggested that I needed a safer place to keep my private things, so that the baby didn't get into them.  I kind of wanted something that Mom and Dad wouldn't get in either, but didn't know how to say it.  Mom just wanted my wraith guarded purse to not harm anyone.  It had made a fine practical joke on Dad, but ...

Mom suggested that what I really needed was a dwarf forged box.  

She could see I was stumbling over something I wasn't ready to say.  "Spit it out" she said.

It will keep the baby out, but what about you and Dad?  I want my diary private.

She laughed. "Most dwarf boxes I can break open if I really want to, though I'd have to take it outside and the whole neighborhood would see me as a Rukh" "of course, you would notice ..."

"What about Dad?" I asked.

"Your father *can* get into anything -- nothing can bar him, but he isn't likely to open your box, even if you don't lock it."

I guess my look was puzzled.

"Your father feels strongly about personal rights."  "In fact, back when we spent a time on Shattered Norns and got caught up in the battles with Grhthswyndr 'who fought against the five kings' there was the funniest thing -- at least I thought it was funny."

They had arrived at the largest city of the plain, still in the time of the dark, but as precursors to Wakanda, who had broken the last chains and was about to enter the world.  The five kings had overrun Grhthswyndr, forcing him into the plain from the city before he could gather his personal belongings, including a dwarven lock box that was a smith's master work.  None of the kings, their sorcerers or wizards, could open the box.  My Dad could, but wouldn't.  It was a war, and they hadn't shown any right to despoil his private property.

Surely he had questionable allies, but so did they all.  He was debating them (and my Mom indicated that Dad could debate something like that for years without bending).  Mom interrupted briefly to ask if she could borrow his sword.  He said yes, distracted by the debate.  She then walked over to the box and lopped off each end -- that sword is sharper than light.  While cutting the ends off didn't get attention, the demons that boiled out of the box got turned into giblets that spattered all over the crowd.  Dad caught a talon just before it hit him.

Mom says he gave her a look, but the type of demon that she had splattered requires a hideous price and he was bound to fight it.  They crushed Grhthswyndr in a fearsome battle, which ended when Grhthswyndr was slain and the day broke. With the dawn, the route was complete.  

But that didn't change my Dad's attitude towards private property, and he was more likely to listen more to my Mom when she asked for something.

He can read her like a familiar.  In fact, she is his familiar.  Seems unfair, kind of, but when they met, she was like many of the Rukh, overwhelmed by the power of fire into a mindless state.  There are Rukhs that are thousands of years old who have as much memory and knowledge as a baby because they've never been able to think past the roaring power that they contain.  Dad saved her much like he saved my people.  Except they came to love each other, so they've stayed together.

Anyway ...

Mom said I needed a box.

She even said she knew where one was that belonged to her.  When they came out of the sky gate, Testakleez was just leaving, having fulfilled his quest -- more or less -- and he asked of them a favor.  She gave him the box, filled with magic (coal like stones that burned brightly and that repelled the undead) and told him that she would return a messenger someday to reclaim the box.  He gave her a favor ring, to be redeemed some day.

I could take Ariel and we could go get the box.  She had kept the key (which she gave me for my necklace) and had the favor ring.  She thought it would do us good -- and warned us again against strange shrines -- the wrong ones were worshipping false or tainted gods, which would have been a thing my Dad would have been very upset about -- and all of them are contracts and exchanges one should be well prepared for.  We were lucky, she said.

She suggested that I talk with Ariel, maybe we could go on the trip this weekend if school went well.  That would give us some time to make sure our homework was caught up and to bake some waybread.

So I prepared to visit the castle folk and get my box.

What a journey, and I didn't know the half of it.

There are a number of different things called wraiths.  The most common are magical creatures spawned when someone dies with a great deal of magical and emotional energy.  There are shadow creatures that breed that way, interacting with the emotions left by the dying.

Such wraiths are usually bound to an object (if it is destroyed, they disperse) and an emotion.  They have a little INT, usually 1 or 2 fixed points, POW (4d6+6 is the usual range), and a POW v. POW attack, with the different results, depending on the wraith.

Common results include:  fear (most wraiths cause magical fear, though many cause their primary emotion instead), 1d6 points of damage (e.g. a fire wraith might do fire damage of 1d6 a melee round to whatever it is attacking), drain 1d6 fatigue or STR (temporary loss), 1d6 direct to con.

A wraith can be woven into a container, to protect the container against anyone or anything that opens it.

You can escape emotion wraiths by fleeing them -- they can't chase very far, often having a zone of effect limited to 3 meters or so from the object they are bound to -- usually an item that belonged to the deceased.

Amber's purse is warded by a fire wraith, POW 23, INT 1, APP 4, does fire damage of 1d6 (100%), imposes fear on any who fail a POW v. POW attack.  Zone of effect is the three meter diameter area round the purse when it is opened.  Is woven into the inside of the purse.

Dwarf lock box:  15 points armor, 45 hit points, lock has 12 points difficulty, 12 points of STR.  Holds one meter by 1/2 meter by 1/3 meter of storage.