Help fill my haunted house with cool encounters.

[Ion]

Hi everyone.

I've been thinking it might be cool for my players to own a piece of property in the city they are in now. I'm leaning towards using the map to "the shadow house" from wizard's map-a-week thing. I think it would make a pretty awesome base of operations!

They are a second level party consisting of a ranger, a druid, a bard and a necromancer.

So far I'm thinking that the house used to belong to a mage or cleric, and when he died (or something less cliche?) some of his experiments or belongings etc. started to run amok. Nobody has been able to approach the house since. The house is now up for grabs to the first group of people who can tame it.

I'm seeing a sort of animated furniture or fire elemental stove sort of theme. With maybe some sort of way to tame the house short of smashing all the cool bits to kindling.

Working from there, can you help me fill the house with cool encounters [that a second level party might be able to deal with ] or fill out it's back story?

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[Hussar]

There's an absolutely awesome article on hauntings in last October's Dragon. It's perfect for what you want.

 

[frankthedm]

I try and think of things but they are deadly enough to belong in Castle Shadowgate, not in Shadow house...

2. An invisible incorporeal "Animator spirit" is bound to the Fountain. Stats this as you need to or treat it as a very creature-like ‘hazard’. If the stones are disturbed the spirit animates the water [large water elemental], if that is destroyed, It animates the fountain stones [large earth elemental] on the next round, a few rounds later the creature animates one of the huge dead trees nearby[huge animated object hardness 3 rather than 5 due to woodrot.], followed by the next tree if the first is destroyed. The spirit, after the second tree is destroyed flees down the well and bursts forth as a huge water elemental.

 

[fnork de sporg]

3. This stone well is filled with black brackish water. A spot check DC 20 reveals that below the surface a number of dark brown centipedes squirm through the rotting leaves and debris. If disturbed they emerge from the water as a Centipede Swarm and aggressively defend the well.

The bottom of the well contains the Centipede Queen resting amidst a nest of human and animal bones and decaying plant matter muck. Her swollen pale white lower abdomen is an impressive four feet in length, with her head and organs a barely discernable black nub on one end. She is sessile and defenseless. Next to her is a Sustaining Spoon placed in a stone bowl, which has presumably been feeding the centipede colony.

A Knowledge Nature check DC 20 reveals the centipedes to be a rare tropical breed often kept in domesticated hives and prized as a delicacy having a sweet honey-like flavor. The queen cannot survive out of water for more than a day but is transported back to large city she will net 7,000 gold pieces.

A search check DC 15 will reveal 27 gold pieces and the rotting leather bindings of a book whose cover is still studded with 5 Onyx gems. A Knowledge Nature check DC 20 reveals the centipedes to be a rare tropical breed often kept in domesticated hives and prized as a delicacy having a sweet honey-like flavor. The queen cannot survive out of water for more than a day but if transported back to large city she will net 7,000 gold pieces.

 

[Stormrunner]

Cf elemental stoves and animated castles, check out the movie Howl's Moving Castle - some nice yoinkable stuff there.

 

[Beowolf]

ill second hussar's suggestion
dragon #336 has an awsome artical on hauntings of various kinds, and gives you tones of ideas and insperations. it made me want to make a haunted adventure, and i got a few thoughts on adding hauntings to my old castle ravenloft adventure ( converted of course)

 

[Cabled]

Opposing "teams"

Consider that the animated objects and experiements have gravitated into factions all vying for control of the house. Something like 3 teams along the lines of Animated objects/ elementals/ haunts and spooks...whatever would fit your plans. In that way, the party has a choice/chance to ally with one of them for some roleplay opportunity, and they can go about smashing SOME of the cool stuff in the house while you, the DM, have a good reason for some of the cool stuff to survive.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Okay, let me try a few...

4. "Beware Hitchiking Ghosts"

Room Type: Child's play room.

Distinguishing feature: A large child's doll / toy soldier / teddy bear still rests in a child-sized rocking chair, despite missing half of it's head.

A phantasm becomes enamored with one of the party members. Resembling a child of the target's opposite gender, the spectre will follow that party member throughout the house, manifesting a visible (but not tangeable) form at moments when the party member is vulnerable or alone (If that player is leading the party, when he rounds a corner first, the ghost will be immediately be visible, then vanish as the next player would be able to se it... During spot checks he briefly sees her in a window, but if he calls anyone else's attention to her, she vanishes... When he sits up watch she visits him, etc. No other player character ever sees the child ghost.). The ghost is a traditional maniestation of longing, . but it is a very weak spirit, so it has no capabilities to actually impact the surrounding world. If the PC attempts to communicate with the child-spirit, he may discover that the child's spirit needs some kind of acknowledgement or fulfillment to move on to the next world, possibly all it needs is a hug. Putting the child's soul to rest nets a "roleplaying EXP" gain.

5. "He Put His Soul Into His Work":

Room Type: Gallery.

Distinguishing feature: Large, dust-free works of art, masterpieces by any standard. This is in sharp contrast to the poor maintanence of everything else.

The Artwork itself is hostile here. Acting as a kind of repository for the souls of the artists. If any players appraise the artwork, and they will, it's near perfect examples of their artform. Of particular note is the huge (19 feet tall) sculpture of a legendary hero and his battle with the dread Questing Beast (If asked what a questing beast is... reiterate that it is a beast which a man can spend his entire lifetime questing after). That is rendered in magnificent detail, you could almost swear they were frozen in time... Of course, attempting to take any of the works of art, especially the smaller, more manageable ones, results in the near immediate retaliation of the works involved, unless you make reparations. The first to react will be the figures in the paintings (treat as small animated objects made of cloth) Who will attack with whatever armaments they might posess reaching out through their canvas at the players. If the party attempts to run, the huge statue itself might react (two huge animated objects, Iron for purposes of damage reduction, The legendary hero fights with whatever weapon it carried (scaled up to "huge" size) and the questing beast posesses 2d6 natural attacks (claws, bites, tail slashes, wings, whatever you need it to have. The questing beast is a lot like a Grue. The less you know about it, the scarrier it is.) If the players escape the room, the artwork will make an honest effort to persue, but only as far as the hallway outside the gallery.

 

[Agent Oracle]

In review, the gallery is a bit too tough, scale the hero / questing beast down to a pair of Large animated objects. Drop it from 2 CR 5 to 2 CR 3. By that time it'll be a tough encounter, but they should be able to handle it by the time they are fairly deep in the house.

6. "Step Into My Parlor"

The parlor is actually a two-stage encounter. As the players explore the house they come to the parlor's large, ornate double-door fairly early on, only to find them stuck shut by a force which they cannot overcome (though they could bash the door down, they probably will just leave the stuck door until later if you hint at an open door just down the hallway).

When the players pass by the parlor's doors again they will find them ajar, as if someone had forgotten to close it as they ran through. The parlor inside is dark, apparently it has no outside windows. If they press on into the darkness of the parlor, they may find themselves at a disadvantage fighting against an Arana on his home turf.

The Arana in question is contributing to the haunting of the house on two counts: first, her "alternate form" is that of a halfling girl, which means she is small enough to impersonate a human child, which has helped her lure some travellers to their doom either by faking distress, or by leading them inside. Furthermore, she has been practicing her necromancy in the very spiritually active estate, which has only served to further aggrivate the allready restless undead.

The room is chock-full of Arana webbing, which is stretched across nearly every flat surface. Further complicating matters, the Arana is fully aware of the condition of the adventurers, and is prepared to play off of their fears with various illusions and necromancy spells, and she's laid a few clever spider-like traps in the space between the door and the corner of the parlor she considers her home.

Now, if the players start to defeat her (if she drops below half hit points) She will plea for her life. Arana are not evil by nature, as a matter of fact, her alignment should probably be chaotic neutral or even true neutral. If the players spare her, she could reveal that it is in fact the house which is holding her captive, and that a greater evil threatens from beneath (providing hints about the BBEG). She might even join the party (albeit as an ally under duress)

 

[maransreth]

Years ago in a 2e campaign, I had the players come across a ruined mansion.
In one of the rooms there was a candle post in each corner, unlit. When someone came close to one (within 5 ft) it ignited and lit up that corner. The catch? Smoke wafted from it that was poisoned to make the character sleep.

In another room, the elves in the party flashbacked to an experience that occurred in that room. It was a ballroom. So the elves (as the ruined mansion was elven and then half-elven owned) saw dancing, and merriment. This was not ghosts, but an intense experience from the past that could be experience by certain classes/races.

What all this ramblings mean: is that you do not have to have every room/encounter be one where the players need to fight. The place is haunted, jazz it up with interactions that the players cant fight.