This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

I was very tempted to take laminal as entry for L, but a Lychgate already is a fantasy element available in the real world, so I went with that instead.

A Lychgate is basically just a covered gateway to a graveyard. It was used to store the recently deceased between death and burial, plus a place for relatives that guard the corpse from bodysnatchers. But oh my, was that place loaded with superstition! I do not even need to come up with own ideas, the existing ones are already more than sufficient for any campaign.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• The ghost of the last corpse has to guard the gateway until the next corpse arrives. This resulted in fisticuffs among their living relatives who gets to be buried first.
• As a portal between consecrated and unconsecrated space, „the veil between worlds was thin there“ and allowed easy conjurations.
• They were used for social gathering and peddling, as they offered shelter from both weather (the roof) and evil spirits (just take one step to get to consecrated ground).