My old GM ran this as a prologue to a non-Barovia horror D&D campaign.
The PCs were orphans at the orphanage. We all were the Losers like in It. There were a brother and sister NPC - the only siblings.
Bullies challenged us to enter the Wycker House. It was horrible and haunted and no one ever stayed the whole night. We took it on ourselves to prove them wrong. We played a game where we made a little voodoo doll to play Hide and Seek with us in the house. We'd heard about this ritual and it seemed harmless fun. So we sewed him up and gave him a little sewing needle to hunt us with and took off into the haunted house.
We split off, each having horrifying encounters and finding out more about the house - supposedly every time it was burnt down by the locals, supposedly it reappeared! Poppycock!
... until it was too real. The sister was hiding in the dumbwaiter when it collapsed and paralyzed her. Other PCs had horrifying events. We discvoered the secret - through the basement, there was a way to enter the mirror side and the only way to permanently close the Wycker House down was destroy it from the other side.
We barely made it til sunrise and were taken back to the school, bullies silenced and us properly punished, especially the young sister.
Fast forward to our early twenties. The brother, Peter, had died and summoned us for his funeral. His sister, who my character always had a crush on, lived in a house that accomodated her injuries. She revealed he had discovered how to detroy it and if he never came home, the House had won. So... the campaign started....
Just wanted to share. TLDR
