Haunted House that's not really haunted

[Bolongo]

Looking for any tips or thoughts on the classic Scooby-Doo scenario in a fantasy setting.

I.e. someone wants to keep people away from a certain location - let's say a house - and thus spreads the rumour that it's haunted. They also want to set up some kind of physical evidence for said haunting.

So what sort of traps, misdirections or other effects do you think could be feasible and effective using late-medieval technology? Or with relatively low-grade magic?

 

[Gilladian]

Use street urchins and beggars to spread you rumors. Nobody will admit that's where they heard a story.

Pretidigitation and audible glamor, unseen servant, dancing lights and ghost sound are all good things to look at. In 2e I remember Aurora's Catalog had simple flash powder, tiny firecrackers and similar things that would be useful. Smoke puffs and such.

Then it is just a matter of rigging them up to trigger at the right times.

 

[amerigoV]

U1 - Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

There’s a small sidequest in the Witcher III that involves investigating a haunted house. The plaster cracks, there are weird noises heard in the basement, and things shake from time to time. Upon investigation, it turned out that there was a bound earth elemental in a hidden cavern below, and its attempts at breaking its bindings were causing all the aforementioned symptoms.

Probably a bit more effort than your average wizard would want to spend on making a place seem haunted, but I thought it pretty clever.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

It's full of monsters. Mimic, trapper, lurker above, living hood, stun jelly, living wall, gelatinous cube, crystal ooze (in the fountain), animated objects, gargoyles, caryatid columns, golems, topiary guardians. The living monsters in particular would be good for a low-magic campaign - they're just hungry and the screams are from hapless people seeking to shelter there (or who went in on a dare), or animals who wandered into the house. The magically animate creatures would be good for a long-abandoned home of some wizard, where the creatures are acting on some old orders.

 

[Imaculata]

Someone is actually living in the house, in a secret room. This person is spying on any visitors to the house from hidden passages between the walls, and scaring visitors on purpose.

 

[The_Gneech]

Well obviously, you need some meddling kids.

On top of that, you could do worse than actually watching some Scooby Doo for ideas! But do it with a critical eye and a lens toward translating it, instead of just seeing Saturday Morning Cartoon fare.

Just in the opening sequence you get a creepy atmospheric house (control weather for constant thunderstorms, conjure animals for clouds of bats) sliding panels and secret passages, traps that dump you from one level to another (or into pits), frightening visage, skulls glowing from the inside (demi-liches? flameskulls? minor illusions?), implacable and soulless automatons, animated armor, shocking knowledge in old tomes, and comic moments to provide contrast and make the dark parts that much darker.

And that's in a 60-second opening sequence!

-The Gneech

 

[The_Gneech]

Someone is actually living in the house, in a secret room. This person is spying on any visitors to the house from hidden passages between the walls, and scaring visitors on purpose.

Check out "The Haunting" from Call of Cthulhu for a great take on this. Just watch out for that bedroom on the second floor.

-TG