John Baptiste-Local Utah Legend

[Blake_Alexander]

While doing some research recently for my "Utah Campaign" I came upon an interesting story involving a grave digger by the name of John Baptiste who might make an interesting distraction form the main villian in the campaign. His story can be found at the link below:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/baptiste.html

While I not very interested in using him as in the same manner that this article implies, I am interested in possibly having his interest in the clothing of the dead be tied into the creation of a "Rag Golem" or something similar. If anyone has any thoughts on possible motivations for Baptiste, I would be interested him hearing them.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

How about his clothes becoming a Tadderdamelion from either the Monster Manuel 2 or the Fiend Folio (I forget which.)

[Blake_Alexander]

How about his clothes becoming a Tadderdamelion from either the Monster Manuel 2 or the Fiend Folio (I forget which.)

I was actually considering either that or a variation on the Scarecrow Constuct. I'm just looking for the best way to give the Raggamoffyn a gothic twist if I chose to use it, since it is obviously such a fantasy, high magic oriented being. I really appreciate the suggestion!!

[DeepShadow of FoS]

FWIW, I'd use a sheet ghoul/sheet phantom rather than a ragamoffyn, but that's me, I suppose.

Even from what little we know about him, it sounds like there is grounds for saying the gravedigger was an adept of some kind. His name screams Haitian, and clothing of the dead is used in voodoo rituals. Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that Jean-Baptiste was using voodoo magic to ward off evil spirits! ROTFL!!

I don't suppose we can correlate his exile to a dramatic upsurge in supernatural phenomena in SLC?

Even without that, what if Jean-Baptiste was haunted by a terrible spirit, and the only way to avoid a terrible fate was to surround himself with talismans of corpses. Then he gets exiled and mysteriously disappears...because the creature he was hiding from had finally caught him, with the help of the authorities! Thus, the thing that people see out on the shores of the Great Salt Lake isn't the ghost of the old gravedigger, but the creature that slew him, now much more powerful because it had finally caught up to him.

[Blake_Alexander]

I just found a new net article that shed some more light on Baptiste...

http://utahgothic.com/history/oct_nov/baptiste.html

From this article it seems that there is a lot of actual evidence that things may have not been as clear cut as they first seemed...

In MotRD I'm sure that the lack of records about this tail and conviction can have more sinsiter implications.