Bakwas, Ghost Chief of the Forest
Bakwas is a green-faced spirit lord offering ghost food to the lost. Accept his meal, and you become one of the forest dead, bound to his invisible village.
Story beats
- 1) Bakwas roams cedar forests and shorelines, extending a dish of food only spirits should eat.
- 2) The hungry or lost may take it, finding themselves faded and trapped with him.
- 3) Masks in winter dances portray his jutting mouth and hollow eyes, warning children not to wander.
- 4) Heroes who refuse the offer can escape—and sometimes rescue others—by breaking the spirit meal.
Context & symbolism
Bakwas embodies the peril of isolation and hunger in wild places. The offered food represents the allure of giving up, of slipping into the spirit world. Masks teach boundaries and respect for the dead.
Cedar forests hold memory; Bakwas keeps those who forget the living.
Motifs
- Spirit feasts that bind
- Forest lures for travelers
- Mask dances as warnings
- Rescuing souls from ghost villages
Use it in play
- Refuse or destroy Bakwas’s dish to free trapped companions.
- Follow spectral footprints to his invisible village; steal back a soul.
- Carry cedar smoke as ward; masks gain power against him.
- Entreat Bakwas for safe passage by honoring the dead he keeps.
Comparative threads
- Spirit lures: Faerie banquets, Persephone’s pomegranate.
- Forest dead: Draugr in barrows, will-o’-wisps.
Hooks and campaign seeds
- A missing hunter took the meal; find him before dawn.
- Bakwas’s bowl is stolen; restless dead roam until it’s returned.
- A winter dance mask whispers; stopping Bakwas will silence it.