Ghosts (better known to country folk as “haints”) are very real in Barrow County. They dwell in abandoned houses, on lonely back roads, and in the forests where they died. Most ghosts are bound to a single place that was important to them in life, or else caught in a loop of the behavior they were performing in the last moments leading up to their deaths.
While most ghosts are scary but harmless most of the time, some become dangerous around specific times of year, like the Ghost Bride of Rester Falls, who kills anyone foolish enough to visit the falls on the anniversary of her death. Others are inimical to human life all the time, like the Gravel Crusher, whose presence killed almost a dozen men and women before the gravel plant was shut down and abandoned.
There are literally dozens of ghosts in Barrow County—enough that people simply accept them as a fact of life and do their best to avoid them whenever possible. Still, there are always people foolish or skeptical enough to not believe the stories, leading to at least a few deaths by ghost attack every year. Such deaths are generally reported as accidents or suicides by the sheriff’s department, but everyone knows the truth.
Statistics: Ghosts use the statistics presented in the Savage Worlds Horror Companion (page 131-132). All ghosts in Barrow County have the Salt Variant Weakness, and most have the Bane and Resolution weaknesses as well.
A ghost can be put to rest by burying its remains in consecrated ground and covering them in salt, but this only lasts until the salt washes away completely (which generally takes five to ten years). Some ghosts can be destroyed by dousing their remains in salt and then burning them, but powerful ghosts can survive this primitive form of exorcism. A ghost destroyed in combat (no mean feat already) will reform in 1d4 weeks unless its remains are destroyed afterwards or its Resolution condition is met in the meantime.
Dennis Strup, the Gravel Crusher (Wild Card)
Durst Quarry and its attached gravel plant were once a major employer in Barrow County. The Durst family’s fortunes began to decline when an accident claimed the life of one of the plant’s workers, a man named Dennis Strup, who fell into the crusher and came out the other side as a thick paste. Rumor said that he was pushed in during an altercation, but there was never any evidence to prove it. After a day of mourning and a thorough rinse for the crusher, the plant reopened and business went back to normal.
A month after Dennis died, another man was killed when the gravel crusher’s scoop fell on him. The month after that, three people died when a full load of gravel fell out of the hopper as they were passing by, smothering them before they could be dug out. This continued for months, until the mounting death toll finally convinced the Durst family to close down the gravel plant. The whole family moved away not long after, abandoning their remaining businesses to avoid lawsuits. (In fact, the Dursts never left Barrow County—see “Grim Inheritance” in the Hearts in Barrow Plot Point Adventure for more details.)
While the nearby flooded quarry is a popular hangout for Barrow’s teens, the gravel plant itself is shunned. Anyone who enters the gravel plant pit is likely to draw the attention of the ghost of Dennis Strup, who is spiritually anchored to the gravel crushing machine that took his life. The ghost can’t leave the pit, but he craves to inflict the death he suffered on anyone who enters.
Tactics: Dennis prefers to let his gravel crusher do the talking. When he senses the living in his home, he brings the machinery to life and does his best to distract intruders while focusing his attacks on one of them at a time. His favorite tactic is to use telekinesis to push someone onto a conveyor belt that will dump them into the gravel crusher’s maw and hold them there until they fall in. Typically, it takes 1d4+1 rounds for someone on a conveyor belt to reach the crusher, but knowing what’s in store for them provokes a Fear Check. A victim of this attack gets a Spirit roll opposed by Dennis’ telekinetic Strength (d10) at the start of each of their turns to break free, but if they’re still on the belt when the timer runs out, they’re toast.
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d10, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d12, Notice d10, Stealth d10, Taunt d10
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Edges: Arcane Resistance (Imp)
Gear: Thrown rocks (Str+d6)
Special Abilities:
• Bane: An active union membership card acts as a ward (HC 48) to Dennis.
• Ethereal: May pass through objects; cannot be harmed by nonmagical attacks; may become invisible (–6 penalty to hit) as a limited free action.
• Fear (–2): Ghosts cause Fear checks at –2 when they let themselves be seen.
• Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
• Machine Control: Dennis can bring the machinery of the gravel plant to life at will, turning the gravel pit into Difficult Ground as conveyor belts move, gravel rains from above, and various other dangerous devices grind away. Dennis can make an Athletics Test as a limited free action against any character in the gravel plant while the machines are active.
• Resolution: Dennis was pushed into the gravel crushing machine due to his union sympathies. He can be laid to rest by bringing his killer to justice, or by a true-blue union member intentionally sticking his hand into the gravel crusher in solidarity (which naturally costs the poor soul their hand). Destroying the gravel crushing machine only dispels the ghost’s influence until Dennis can repair it, taking 1d6 months.
• Salt: Like all ghosts native to Barrow County, the Gravel Crusher can be hurt or driven off by salt. He can’t be killed by it, but it drives him off for 10 minutes per Wound he would have suffered, and he cannot cross a line of salt. The Gravel Crusher has no corpse to destroy, so he is not vulnerable to being defeated by this method.
• Telekinesis: Dennis can move objects and push people around with the force of his spirit. He can use the telekinesis power as a limited action as though it had a Strength of d10.
Author's Note: A fun fact about me is that I literally grew up two miles down the road from a gravel plant. The place scared the shit out of me as a kid. For anyone who doesn't know what a gravel factory looks like, it's basically like this:
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