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Message: <blockquote data-quote="evilbob" data-source="post: 6851632" data-attributes="member: 9789">I like this one, too.  It also requires even less changing.  Although the after-effects are more severe:  what do you do with two children from two centuries ago who just woke up?  Especially since this is likely the first place you'll visit in town.  Honestly, reading through the rest of the book, what do you do with the children kidnapped by werewolves or hags if you're playing the campaign with no changes, especially since the hag-children specifically should not return to their homes?  (Start an orphanage?)  Heck, what do you do with the multitude of NPCs that you find ALL OVER THE PLACE that want to stick with you for a while?  Off-stage NPCs don't tend to have a good track record, and keeping them around is just more fodder for traps.  Not to mention that's a lot for a DM to keep up with.  Then again, maybe the children help solve the problem:  you find good NPCs and then also keep them off stage by making them watch the children?  Tricky.  This may need a new thread.Walter would still need to be edited in this version as well, although now I'm liking the cat idea.  Maybe the nanny was a witch and the cat was her familiar - still somehow alive and locked in the room with the kids, watching over them?  It's how she keeps watch on them (seeing through her familiar), as she can't otherwise leave the room she's in.  And the kids at the start can still mention "Walter" being in a nursery, but just giggle and say "he's silly" instead of talking about him being a baby (or they could say, "he's her baby" talking about the nursemaid and be ambiguous about it).  The nanny still made a pretty stupid mistake in sleeping with the Mr., and maybe the Mrs. still killed her and stuffed her in the attic, but maybe she's actually not really a bad person and did, in fact, care for the kids (maybe the only one).  Maybe she's a ghost instead of a specter, and she gives you more of the plot and possesses you if you try to leave and don't help the children.  Once you get the children out of the house, she can finally rest.  (Sidebar:  I don't think the nursemaid is even given a name in the module - ouch.  Also, you could redo the main painting downstairs to show the cat in the frame, rubbing on the Mr.'s leg, and the Mrs. cutting her eyes at the cat - the symbol of her jealousy.  Still not as punchy as a portrait of a DEAD FREAKING BABY but I am ok with that.  Oh, and once you defeat the house and rescue the kids maybe the children and the cat are gone from the portrait and the Mr. and Mrs. look angry and like they're trying to escape through the frame?)However, once you find the children the motivation to visit the basement is gone.  Hmmmm.  Maybe the key to the children's room is actually on the dad's body (now a ghast)?  Nah, thieves' tools would bypass that easily.  Maybe the house just straight-up won't LET the party into the children's room (the master wouldn't have wanted it!).  There isn't even a door to find, for example (although a careful examination of the map of the house would reveal a space there).  But once you defeat the house, its magic is weakened and that allows you to find the door?  Except that the final escape from the house is supposed to be a crazy dash - you are escaping a monster that a 2nd level party should not be able to stop (although technically it won't leave the basement).  Then again, an extended rescue might be interesting.  And assuming they couldn't get into the children's room, it would make sense that they would have to find the ghost in order to find the secret door to the basement.  Maybe the ghost is only in the room with her body, and not her bedroom - that would delay you finding her.  And it would make the path more like the linear one we started with.  So you find the ghost, then the way to the basement, then you defeat the house (one way or another) and then you find the children.  When you open the door the cat is in there and hisses, but then treats you nicely and leaves with you when it realizes who you are.  (The kids keep the cat.)  Also maybe the ghost only refers to the cat as "Walter" or "my baby" ("my baby Walter is watching over them") and you never know he's a cat until you get there.  (She could even possess a character to show them the children through Walter's eyes; the vision is still from a person's height - because the cat is on a bookshelf or something - but curiously it's easy to see even though there's no light source...)  And as suggested, the children you initially meet outside are dream manifestations - something the nursemaid makes happen from time to time so the children can play together while they sleep.I'd also envision an ending where the party gets out with the children from the house that's been trying to kill them and the last thing that happens is the cat rubs against and then knocks over a lantern or something, to burn it down (assuming the party didn't think of it).  Just for added flare.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Thinking on it more, I think I even like this version better than the original:  the nursemaid story seems to follow more than just "they had an affair and then the cult killed her for some reason".</blockquote>

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