Thanks for playing the game!
Yeah there is a lot of info missing in the game, I had a feeling that would happen, but I did not test enough of the late game to know, so I did not know how much it needed to be toned down (or in this case probably boosting the tavern somehow, maybe making the barrel give multiple drinks)
To answer your important question: they... hmmm... they... are.... hm.... Ghosts! Yeah we definitvely intended for then to be Ghosts from the start, not that we got lazy and thougth it would be too much work and that I would rather be going to the pool in my vacation, it sure was ghosts from the start.
Glad it worked as a background game, that was what I was hopping for!