[PF2e Ritual] Rite of Mourning
Sharing the grief to lay a soul to rest
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In the dusty cabin sits the broken captain, his hand still holding an empty bottle. Old daguerreotypes and drawings sit on abandoned shelves, nostalgic but painful reminders. A broken mirror still hangs on the wall, covered by a torn uniform.
“Goodbye, my Sergei. I loved you.. It’s better this way, without all the nightmares. Hope you can rest well now, wherever you’re going.. and no mirrors there, I hope.”
Recently, my players helped to ease the pain of a grieving ship captain, as well as lay the soul of his departed lover to rest. This is presented into 3 stat blocks : a Hazard (haunt), a Ritual and an Affliction (curse).
Captain Rucht is a veteran of the Last Mendevian Crusade against the demons, a horrific conflict that took the lives of all of his company, all his comrades and friends, including his lover Sergei. While the crusade was successful, veterans like Rucht still bear the terrible burden of war, and in many ways his mind is still in the Sarkoris Scar, traumatized by the horrors he witnessed. Sergei, brutally killed by demons, could never leave the mortal world, and his soul still unknowingly torments Rucht with horrific visions.
The players attempted a Rite of Mourning, a particular ritual that can heal grief and help a soul move on. Part conversation and part performance, this ritual is less an exorcism and more like a funeral : the pain is shared and it will take time, but those who mourn will slowly break through the grief.
The goal is to help the loved ones mourn in peace, but it also means taking on some of the pain to ease their burden. This is not without risk, and if a restless soul comes back because of unfinished business, it will now haunt the Conduit of the ritual instead of the original Anchor.
The players are encouraged to deal with the soul’s unfinished business (if they have any), even if the soul has been laid to rest. Except in the case of a critical success, there is still a chance the soul might come back to haunt them. My goal was to provide an early-level, easily accessible way of dealing with trauma and grief (which are things I like exploring with spirits and haunts), while still giving them a “hook” they can grab on if they want.
The name of the departed cannot be spoken or seen for some time after this rite, so as to avoid disturbing their rest and reopening the wounds of grief.
In my campaign, the local custom is to instead use the name “Inena” (from the French Inénarrable : ineffable/unspeakable) as a “bereavement name”.
This was in part inspired by the tradition of “sorry business” and use of substitute names by some Australian aboriginal peoples, which of course varies greatly from place to place1. It isn’t meant to make light of these traditions or reappropriate them, but learning about such practices has helped me with my own approach to grief, as well as recontextualized the rituals and traditions of mourning from my own culture.
(1) Korff, Jens. “Mourning an Aboriginal Death”
