[Bard had thought that ghosts, at the very least, would be something known and accepted among all the different people here, but it seems he was wrong about even that. There's just no beating first-hand experience with the bizarre.

Still, any distraction from Smaug's head in the fireplace is a welcome one, so he tries to explain himself.]

There is, uh, someone [no need to mention that someone being a dragon until he knows just what sort of fellow he's dealing with, right?] I was forced to kill in defense of my home. It seems he's decided to start tormenting me instead of moving on to wherever his sort go when they die.