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Message: <blockquote data-quote="der_kluge" data-source="post: 9364752" data-attributes="member: 945">The Ghost of Mistmoor (Dungeon #35) <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="⭐" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2b50.png" title="Star    :star:" data-shortname=":star:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />  <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="⭐" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2b50.png" title="Star    :star:" data-shortname=":star:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />  <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="⭐" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2b50.png" title="Star    :star:" data-shortname=":star:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />  <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="⭐" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2b50.png" title="Star    :star:" data-shortname=":star:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" /> This is another haunted house type adventure. Though, not specifically a Ravenloft module, the module came out around the time the boxed set itself was released, and thus was written just prior to its arrival. The author even laments that it would have been perfect for the setting, and he’s not wrong. The module is designed for levels 3-6.The setup is straightforward – the owner of a haunted mansion hires the PCs to hopefully recover his family’s lost fortune from the estate’s vault. Seems he owes a ton of debt to the local duke, and the only hope he has of paying it off is with the money in this vault. But the house is terribly haunted, and he’s no hope of doing it on his own. He also has no money with which to pay them up front, so if the PCs want their payday, they’ll have to succeed.The background of the mansion is a little contrived. Basically, an evil priest of a god who opposed the Mistmoor family (who owned the mansion) disguised himself as a raven (with a magic cloak) and managed to gift himself to one of the daughters who lived in the mansion. The mansion had 3 identical triplets – Rebecca, Reveri and Regine. He became Regine’s pet bird, and managed to convince the young girl that he was a magic bird that could change form into that of a man. From this vantage point, he fed the girl hallucinogens which ultimately led to her killing her whole family. The priest, Erebus, then tried to break into the vault, but a magical mishap there killed him, and now he’s an Ether Shadow (read: greater shadow) that haunts the vault proper. On top of this, there are a pair of good-natured rogues who live in the house and attempt to scare people so they can try to claim the treasure for themselves but have thus far failed to find it. The girl rogue, named Psyche, disguises herself as the daughters (from portraits she’s seen) which adds to the PC’s confusion.Ok, obvious pedophile-vibes from the creepy priest dude being the pet of a 15-year-old girl, it does seem like an overly complicated plot to rid the world of a family of do-gooders that have apparently been a thorn in your evil church’s side (or so the story goes).What follows is a dungeon-crawl through the house, with a set of specific hauntings that occur – a dozen, in fact. There’s also the potential of a nightmare induced by Erebus, should the PCs decide to rest in the house, which is nicely done. There is all the typical fare you’d expect from a exploration quest such as this. Each room has a description and a lot of detail. Ultimately, the goal is to find the treasure vault, which is hard to do, and requires a couple of provided magical tools to speak with the dead and ask the appropriate questions. Presumably in 2nd edition, the spell didn’t work on dead things older than a certain amount of time, since the scroll in this module is more powerful than a normal one to account for that fact. The 5e spell has no such limitation. There’s also a chance the PCs could get trapped in the vault, which will require some deus ex machina to free them. The writer does a good job covering all the possible different outcomes, though.This is a solid module. The premise is a shaky – for example, why didn’t the evil priest just kill everyone himself? It seems a little Scooby Doo to me. Like, the villain tried to get his hands on some real estate, and so created an advanced army of cybernetic, artificially sentient zombies to scare people away. And you’re left scratching your head thinking that if the villain had the resources to build said army, he could just legit buy the real estate? That’s kind of how this premise feels. But, if we overlook that convoluted backstory, the second big problem you’re going to have is the magic items and treasure here. The two rogues have a portable hole and use it as a trap against the PCs. These rogues aren’t evil, and so most PCs won’t have a real reason to kill them outright, but if they do, they’re going to get their hands on a game-breaking item. The vault also has a veritable fortune in treasure. The writer offers up a huge section on how to deal with greedy PCs – most of which involve the DM just absolutely screwing them over or killing them outright. The nobleman is supposed to accompany them through the house. It could be possible that he just dies at some point legitimately, and the two rogues could also die – probably less likely, but you never know. And now you’ve just handed your party an obscene amount of treasure and loot. If you decide to run this – and there’s enough good here that it’s worthy of consideration, you’re going to want tread lightly on how to resolve this one. I’d recommend at the very least, vastly reducing the amount that’s found here, and possibly changing some of the coins into real estate holdings, or something more mundane like that.</blockquote>

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