Randomly Generating Evil Spirits

Let's start by defining some terms. An Evil Spirit is some sort of ghost, or demon or nebulous force of evil. They cannot be permanently defeated or destroyed, but can be Bound, which sharply limits their ability to cause harm. Binding an evil spirit requires identifying their current Vessel and subduing it. For each kind of vessel, there is a particular Binding that will trap the evil within. This process is complicated by the fact that the evil spirit will use its various supernatural powers to fight off anyone trying to re-bind it. To deal with these Manifestations, one needs to figure out the specific Counters to its powers. Even if you are successful in binding an evil spirit, there is always some way for it to escape its current binding into a new vessel.

To generate an Evil Spirit, roll on the table below: once for its current Vessel (and the associated Binding method) and between one and three times for Manifestations of its power (and associated Counters). If defeated, roll once to see what new Vessel it can potentially escape into, but don't tell the players which it is. Its powers remain unchanged by the transformation.

1d6	Vessel	Binding	Manifestations	Counters
1	Miasma	Incense	Disease	Treatment
2	Corpse	Funeral	Whispers	Conviction
3	Possession	Rebellion	Emotion	Serenity
4	Location	Occupation	Poltergeist	Courage
5	Object	Abandon/Destroy	Apparition	Alertness
6	Summoned	Slaying	Corruption	Sunlight

For example, let's suppose we rolled 6, 4, 5. That's Summoned, Poltergeist and Apparition. So the evil spirit is physically manifested as some sort of demon or other monster and in order to bind it we need to physically vanquish it while it uses its telekinesis and illusions to fend off any attackers. To overcome these, we must show courage and remain vigilant, but otherwise just stabbing the monster with a sword works. Afterward, the GM rolls a 3, indicating that performing the ritual to summon the evil spirit incorrectly will result in the ritualist being Possessed. Perfect.

Miasma
The spirit takes the form of a foul scent, fog or stormy weather. It is diffuse, with no specific location and can manifest its powers anywhere the bad airs exist. The answer to this is incense: the presence of good, clean smoke at the location of the evil spirit's escape from its prior binding will force it to assume a temporary ghostly form that can be re-bound. From here, all the exorcists need to do is force the evil spirit into an air-tight container. In 5-6 cases, the miasma will still be a miasma when released, rather than assuming a new form.

Corpse
The spirit is occupying a dead body. This gives it a physical vessel to work with, one which is already dead (and thus cannot be killed) and fully controlled by the spirit (instead of having partial control, like with a possession). The answer to this is to perform a funeral. Burial or cremation are both fine, the key is that the body be laid to rest in a grave or urn or tomb. As long as the remains don't get disturbed, the evil spirit will be contained within. Trying to attack the body won't accomplish anything, as the evil spirit can repair any wounds enough to keep using the corpse.

Possession
The spirit has taken over the body of a living creature. This gives it a physical vessel to work with, one which is alive and can pass as one of the living. If the body is killed, they can keep controlling it as a Corpse (see above). The answer here is to get the person being possessed to fight back. If successful, they can contain the evil spirit within themselves, binding it. If they go on to have kids post-binding, one of their offspring will inherit the binding on death, keeping the evil spirit bound. The spirit escapes if the current holder dies without an heir OR if the current holder releases it into a new type of vessel.

Location
The spirit is occupying some specific physical location, existing as a nebulous force within and only able to act upon those who enter that location. Initially, it can act whenever it wants, with manifestations reaching out from shadows or other relatively unlit spaces within.   Spending the night from sunset to sunrise within and not being driven out will suppress these manifestations, making the location (mostly) safe to occupy. Disturbances such as bloodshed, dark magic and the like can free the trapped evil to enter a new vessel outside the location. Destroying the location just releases the evil as a Miasma, so most try to avoid doing that.

Object
The spirit is bound to a particular item and can only easily act on the item's owner or those the owner gives permission to act upon. Stealing the item transfers 'ownership'; evil spirits don't care about property rights. Initially, if the item is cast aside it will find its way back to its current 'owner' on its own, teleporting or coming back to them by chance. There is a 4 in 6 chance that the item can be abandoned completely by suppressing its power and leaving it somewhere and never coming back. This effectively 'binds' the item as an item again, leaving it to wait for a new owner. In the remaining 2 in 6 cases, destroying the item is the only thing that works, and doing so immediately releases the evil spirit into a new, unbound form that has to be bound independently from there.

Summoned
The spirit has manifested a physical form using pure magic. It might look like a man with horns, like some sort of giant animal, or like a blob of evil goo. Stats as a monster of the GM's choice. The important thing is that it is tangible and can be physically defeated via the application of violence. Doing so banishes it back to some sort of shadow realm, from which it can be summoned up by foolish ritualists who want to invite evil into the world to serve their own ends. If they do the ritual correctly (not a guarantee), the ritualist picks what form the summoned evil will take instead of rolling.

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Disease
This evil spirit causes some sort of disease-like symptom. There's no special counter here, just a deadline for any attempts to deal with the evil spirit: wait too long preparing and the disease will claim more victims. The major distinction between an 'ordinary' disease and a miasmatic disease spirit is that sickness caused by an evil spirit can't be cured by rest or medicine alone. You have to go do some ghost-busting or the patients won't ever recover.

Whispers
This evil spirit talks to people, typically by whispering in their minds. This may not sound like much of a threat until you remember that spirits are immortal and indestructible and have been around since the dawn of time. It's a rare evil whispering spirit that doesn't know any foul rituals, ruinous blackmail or compelling cult recruitment tactics. The counter to these is Conviction - having something else to believe in and thus reason to shut out the evil voices.

Emotion
This evil spirit has influence over those experiencing a particular strong emotion, always the same one for the same spirit. It picks a course of action and anyone nearby feeling its emotion in the moment will find that action to be unusually compelling. It might make angry people all want to pick a fight with one guy in particular, or make lustful people want to have affairs, or make despair-filled people seek revenge. The answer here is getting away from the emotion the spirit uses. This can look like trying to calm a bunch of people down, or it can look like luring the spirit's current vessel away from places where that emotion is being experienced.

Poltergeist
The evil spirit can physically hurl things around, using telekinesis. This needs to ramp up over time, starting with weird noises and moving into items getting jostled before the turns to bookshelves getting knocked over and possession victims floating through the air. Not showing fear prevents this ramp up from happening, as the poltergeist activity draws heavily on the reaction of those observing it to bridge the gap between the spiritual and the physical. No visible reaction means no visible effects from the poltergeist.

Apparition
The evil spirit can repeat things that it has observed in the form of single-sense illusions. This is most commonly used to mislead humans, luring them into traps or natural hazards. It is distinct from Whispers in that it does not provide the Evil Spirit with the ability to understand and communicate in human languages, which can result in it blindly repeating a conversation that proves incriminating toward it. The best counter here is to keep one's wits and have a teammate on hand to double check what you're seeing.

Corruption
The evil spirit can mark things with its corruptions. The walls start bleeding, the milk goes sour, the water in the well starts smelling like sulphur. Evil spirits will ordinarily use this to target similarly evil humans, tormenting them for their crimes as often as blackmailing them over them. Here, sunlight remains the best disinfectant - literally in the sense that it stops the direct symptoms of this manifestation and metaphorically, in that if the evil spirit has latched on to an evil person, not learning the truth will let the spirit to keep resisting.