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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fba827" data-source="post: 5578066" data-attributes="member: 807">if you take some of the basic cheesy ideas and make them more than just ambiance, it might put some fear into the players which might then bleed in to fear for the characters. - an eerie haunting melody starts playing and echoing through the hallway/chamber. it's from some small music box. make a roll vs. will. but here's the thing, the will attack will fail (just don't tell the players that), but the rolling of the dice behind your DM screen when you then ask "what's your will defense currently?" will make them worried about the music and want to destroy the source of it.  else, make it an actual (real) wil attack and then when the PCs are next in combat the 'hit' PCs are dominated by the haunted music box. - just every so often describe how it feels like you are being watched. yet they don't see anything. in truth it's really the house itself / vampire that is watching them. but the feeling might add some paranoia - shadows of people yet no one is there - a whole lot of ghosts in an area, these are the ghosts of the people that the house has claimed over the years. but don't make them individual stats, just (using the idea from "Ghost Legion" in MM2) make them all share a single hit point total so they get bloodied together and die together.  they do attack but it is their way of trying to scare/push the PCs out towards the door rather than further in as a way to save their lives from being bound to the house.  if the pcs have some way to speak with dead this could turn from a combat to noncombat situation if they realize the motives of the attackers - elite ghosts who each represent a different personality and/or stage of life from the vampire trapped below.  so you can have the creepy little kid who is holding a teddy bear but has the smile of the devil, or the calm and cool and collected young adult who seems to have everything under control, and the older man who shows contempt and regret for getting trapped here and takes it out as pure fury.  all the while they may say things that reveal bits about the vampire's personality but won't make any sense until they actually meet the vampire and understand his fate. - the walls don't drip blood, but rather, they bleed and the blood forms into letters... spelling the name of one of the PCs.  Pick one PC whose name would have been spoken earlier in the house (so that the house could have heard it) and so the house is just trying to scare that one PC.  Don't try and cycle through all the PC names, that will kill the effect. just go with one PC and use it about 2-3 times depending on how big the house is.hmm. i had some more ideas but i've forgotten them over the course of typing. If i remember them later i'll add more.</blockquote>

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