D&D 5E (2014) Beefing up "Death House" (CoS)

[jayoungr]

It looks like I'll be running "Death House" as a one-shot next weekend for some friends. I know some people have reported TPKs in this adventure, but I'd like to be prepared in case it goes the other way and they completely roflstomp it. Does anyone have suggestions for making it harder? Ideally things that could be held in reserve, that I could do or not do depending on how the adventure's going?

 

[abirdcall]

It looks like I'll be running "Death House" as a one-shot next weekend for some friends. I know some people have reported TPKs in this adventure, but I'd like to be prepared in case it goes the other way and they completely roflstomp it. Does anyone have suggestions for making it harder? Ideally things that could be held in reserve, that I could do or not do depending on how the adventure's going?

The only way they are going to get through it fairly easily is if they go through with the sacrifice. Even then, there is enough in there for a good challenge.

If they don't then a CR 5 creature challenges them (which they must run from at level 2). Then the house itself tries to kill them. They must go through the trap door to have a reasonable chance of getting through it. Even then, they will be taking a ton of damage as they run through the house.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Harder? They have to do everything just right in order to survive it. We had a guy walk past the refuge pile and aggro the CR5, which promptly wiped half of our party. Seeing as how it's entirely probable for someone in the party to want to explore an area (that's what PCs do), it's entirely probable that you aggro the mound.

 

[jayoungr]

Harder? They have to do everything just right in order to survive it.

So you say, but I know my group, and I put nothing past them!

On reflection, though, they'll mostly be in it for the atmosphere anyway, so I guess that's more important.

Out of curiosity, how did you handle resting when running the adventure?

 

[abirdcall]

So you say, but I know my group, and I put nothing past them!

On reflection, though, they'll mostly be in it for the atmosphere anyway, so I guess that's more important.

Out of curiosity, how did you handle resting when running the adventure?

The only safe time to rest is just before going into the basement.

 

[Rils]

There's several other threads around here somewhere about ways to run DH, which have a lot of great ideas in them. Might be worth doing a quick search, you'll get a lot of inspiration from them (I know I did!).

Re: resting, per the module they can take a long rest right before going down to the basement. Truthfully, there's no reason to take one before that, and really no reason they can't retreat to the house for another one at any time once they hit the basement. It's largely up to you, as the DM, whether you want to allow it. Repeated rests will completely destroy the climax of the adventure. My suggestion is that once they descend to the basement, maybe the stairs going back up seal themselves off, or maybe the house itself creaks and groans or makes visual/audible manifestations that don't allow them to get a full long rest, something like that. However you manage it, I'd say only allow them the one long rest, with short rests as time allows.

My players actually skipped 75% of the basement. For some reason they managed to find their way straight to the basement by the most direct path (dining room). I ran the fight with the ghouls like an ambush - As written, one player can tank the crossroads while everyone else hammers them from range. I flipped it around, and waited till the players were all at the 4-way, then had the ghouls creep up behind them from all directions. It turned into a hit and run battle, with characters running down corridors alone, falling in the pit trap, etc. The ghoul guerilla tactics were great fun and kept the players on the edge of their seats. BUT, other than that, they hit the climax at probably 80% resources. And two of them still died, with the other two running for the lives on single hit points. Good times.

 

[Unwise]

I had a spectral nanny that kept appearing again and again, no matter how many times they killed her, she would keep popping out of the room and attacking. She could only be placated by doing last rites on the baby or otherwise saving/helping the kids. That made it pretty hard.

I had her use grapple attacks, then ragdoll people around like a poltergeist. She would lean down through the ceiling, grab them around the neck, then they would be dangling and choking from the ceiling, with only her spectral hands visible. The party had to run upstairs quickly (agroing creatures or setting off traps) to find the room she was in (smash the door) so they could get to the ghost before their friend choked out. Using choking attacks made it so it could be deadly and tense, but they would rapidly get their HP back, so I did not drain them too much from attrition.