Ghosts: materalization question

[Brandon Blackwing]

Hi!

Back with another question, one concerning ghosts this time. Okay, here goes: I read in the lore that if a ghost materializes to touch something aka interact with the world, they in turn can be touched. So here's the problem I can't seem to solve by myself. Does that mean that anything can touch them? Say, a ghost tries to strangle you and due to reflexes your arms flail. Could you then hit the ghost? Or stab them with a knife? If yes, what's the difference with, say, an arm or knife infused with a spiritist's soulmist? Also, since ghosts cause harm to the living they touch, if one were to hit a materialized ghost on the head with a fist or so, there would be a frostbite -like mark on that fist, correct?

Credit goes to Ollic

[Fubuki Kouri]

Hi, Batman! Interesting questions you have there. I will answer to the best of my abilities. First and foremost, Materialization is one of the three ghost racial skills where a ghost used this mainly for: 1. Appearing more life-like/living, of course, the degree depends on the particular ghost's skill level. I think the lore is clear enough on this. I will elaborate along with my own experiences from RP-ing as a ghost. Novice: Solid, but flickering, worn edges, and other obvious flaws. Competent: No more flickers and their voice lose the ghostly echo property, but they still looked like a moving oil painting. Expert: Almost flawless indoors and under poor lighting, but in broad daylight, tell-tale signs may be visible. Master: Utterly indistinguishable from a real person to the naked eye, but magical means such as Auristics or Spiritism can detect them, also touching them with enough physical force. 2. To harm another creature through their touch. This can only be done once the ghost reaches Expert or above as Novice/Competent level does not actually harm, merely causing uncomfortable sensations to the target. At Master level, your touch can debilitate or kill, you can also regenerate soulmist through this method. =============== As for your other questions, yes anything that can touch a normal person can touch a materialized ghost. Due note that ghosts do not gain physical force through Materialization, they must do so through Soulmist Projection. A ghost can combine these two skills to, let's say, strangle a person by constricting the target's neck along with its freezing touch. So yes, you can stab the ghost if it materializes itself, if the ghost only used Soulmist Projection though then you can't stab it unless the dagger has special properties, e.g: coated in soulmist. The difference between an ordinary knife and a knife infused with a spiritist's soulmist depends on the aforementioned spiritist's Spiritism level. At competent or above, the soulmist-coated weapon will cause more damage or outright incapacitates a ghost. For your final questions, I think so, yes, starting at expert, a ghost can actually harm, the target would feel the particular contact point froze. Whether a frostbite-like mark appears or not depends on the ghost's level and how long did the contact last. I hope I answered your questions, Batman! Of course, I'm far from infallible, if anyone else has better answers, by all means, post them!

[Brandon Blackwing]

Heh, you have my thanks. I totally forgot to check the materialization lore page... But, great explanation, thanks for clearing it all up for me. Brandon