TheChrisDavis
Villager
Hi all! New here and fairly new to d&d. I wanted to try my hand at creating an adventure and have a rough outline drawn up. Still lots to do, but I wanted to know if it's worth pursuing, if there's interest in it at all. Take a look and let me know.
I'm designing a horror style adventure for d&d 5e. This is for 3 to 5 players and includes ghosts, werewolves, were dogs, and even a Frankenstein’s monster type of creature. It is meant for mature players as it contains scary scenes and the DM may use descriptions of gore.
Background: About fifty years ago, there lived a family called the Wainwrights. They lived in a manor about ten miles from the local town of Zlavia.
The Wainwright family was well known in the Zlavian community, and Martin Wainwright was a doctor for the townsfolk. He had an office to see patients in his basement. He would visit one or two times a week and make house calls when necessary too.
His wife, Alia was a half elf who loved grooming flowers, especially her prized orchids. Her greenhouse is attached to the eastern side of the manor, and she spent most of her time there.
They had two children, Windy, a 19 year old daughter, and Desmond, their 22 year old son.
Whereas her mother was content in her gardens, Windy wanted more. She wanted to see the world, to see all the plants and people and places. She was excitable and naïve.
Likewise, Desmond differed from his father in that instead of healing people, he had conscripted to the local king’s military. He’d be sent to war soon enough. He had a stoic, perhaps a little pretentious attitude.
Martin’s mother, Agnes, stayed in the upstairs attic, which was meticulously spotless. She was a nagging old woman, often chastising the help or the children that they brought disorder!
The last two at Wainwright Manor was Celeste and Doradin. Celeste was a jovial, plump Tiefling who cleaned and cooked for the household. She loved to gossip. Doradin was an older, gruff dwarf who was the resident handyman and landscaper. He designed the topiaries himself.
It’s hard to point blame at what happened to any one person. In the end, though, it was all an unfortunate accident with many moving pieces.
But few would disagree that it all began when Windy met Anthony the day as he visited her father for the onset of a flu. He was a boy her age, and he felt worldly to her.
They met many times over the coming weeks as he courted her. They fell in love. They were the last happy moments they would get together.
Anthony went out hunting as he had a million times before. This time was cursed though. The ley lines around the Wainwright Manor and surrounding forest are dark and full of death.
As he hunted a buck, he wandered into a darker part of the wood. He was ambushed by a Werewolf who bit and scratched him. Luckily, a supernatural hunter, Archibald Mistenworth, had been tracking the beast and shot it in the shoulder. The beast ran off and so did the hunter for his prey.
It was too late for Anthony though, he was infected with lycanthropy. Every full moon or if he post control of his emotions, he would change.
Several days later, his wounds were completely healed due to his regenerative abilities. He met with Windy and told her they had to break up and confessed to being a werewolf.
She was distraught. She said he couldn't leave her, he had to stay. During the three nights of the full moon, they would lock him in a shed behind the mansion. He agreed as long as it was secure.
She kept him secret from the rest of the family, and for the next three months, every full moon, he was locked away.
She would go out to the shed just to sit outside the door and be with him, hearing his clawing and howling. Luckily, the shed was far enough back that the family assumed it was distant wolves.
The father got suspicious, however, at his daughter sneaking out regularly and followed her one night. He overheard his daughter speaking to Anthony and learned of his curse. He was furious that his daughter was in danger.
He confronted them, and an argument unfolded. A scuffle ensued, and the dad was knocked down. Angrily, he went to grab a rifle out of the shed. But it was too late... Anthony was transforming. His daughter, panic stricken, locked her dad in the shed to protect him. It had been altered, so the door didn't open from the inside
Tragedy struck as the werewolf killed the daughter, then proceeded to kill everyone else in the home, the entire family.
By the time the father beat the door to the shed down, it was all over, and Anthony had fled.
With nothing else to do, the father burned the bodies and for the next few years, he hid in his lab in the basement doing experiments and spells repeatedly, trying to find anything that would reverse dead and grant life to his family again.
He found ways to animate dead bodies, to manipulate lycanthropy onto other animals, and to elongate his own life.
He finally found what he was looking for by devoting himself to a dark goddess and combining it with the darkest alchemy and medicine.
One dark night one winter, he did the foul spell, made the necessary potions, prayed to the dark goddess, and life did return to them...of a sort. They came back ephemeral, as ghosts.
They begged to be released, to be sent back to death’s , but he refused to reverse the spell.
There is a totem in his basement, a carved stone skull. If this is destroyed, the spell will cease. But it is well guarded!
The gameplay – Outside the Manor
The plot starts as the player party is in the middle of an intense storm and stumbles upon the manor’s front lawn.
Coming up to the manor, the players may notice lots of twisted and mutated bushes and trees. Some trees are even devoid of leaves looking dead and evil. Crows are the only birds, and they caw menacingly as you walk through the front yard.
Further investigation on a successful check will show something has warped regular plants into monstrosities. They’re almost but not quite like the real plants they know of.
A stream of chemicals coming from a pipe can be seen. If anyone can detect magic, there is dark residue of magic in the plantlife and also in the stream of chemicals flowing from the house into the front yard.
There are four topiaries that are so lifelike they give the players the chills. They seem to watch them as they walk toward the house. They have magic residue too, moreso than the rest. Their shapes are a lion, tiger, bear, and hawk.
Later, if the players decide to go into the forest to investigate, the topiaries will come to life and battle.
Each will battle depending on its form, using animal like attacks, and they will growl, howl, or screech depending on which animal they are.
They are not that hard to beat but they move fast and have glowing red eyes.
Gameplay continued - inside the home and the ghosts
If the party goes to the door, they'll find the father answering, now looking about 55 years old, but closer to 80, as the years have gone by. He'll be crotchety and not want guests, but the players can try to convince him somehow to let them stay the night in the mansion. Otherwise stealth may be required.
There will be no sighting of ghosts directly at first, but there will be strange noises. Things moving inexplicably and other odd occurrences like cold spots. Strange smells like roast duck, Celeste’s favorite meal to cook, occur in the kitchen. Martin will be heard arguing with a female voice in the kitchen, but if they enter, there's no one there but the old man. He insists he was talking to himself.
If the players realize there is a ghost, either by guessing or gathering evidence, they can call out to the ghosts to try to convince them to appear. The mother will appear in the garden or kitchen. The daughter near the shed where she forever awaits her love to return. The son upstairs in the armory. The maid will be in various bedrooms cleaning. And the butler will be in a sitting room, trying to use tools but unable to.
The mothers appearance smells like flowers, her orchids. She is pale and gaunt. She will only talk about her garden and how beautiful it is, though in reality, it's an overgrown mess now.
After speaking to her a while, the ghost becomes more lucid and can become upset if she's in the garden and realizes its state. She will give you more information if you clean her garden and tend to her orchids.
The ghost of the daughter haunts near the shed, and with successful checks, she'll tell you of her love for Anthony and what happened that night. She keeps repeating about her love, returning to her, and how she wishes she could go into the forest to see him, but she is bound to the house.
The players may choose to search for Anthony after hearing this.
She also becomes more lucid the more you talk to her and will give you a quest to deliver a verbal message to Anthony to return to her. When you give him the message, Anthony is in mental anguish. He can't face his love after what he did.
The housekeepers ghost is happily pretending to do cleaning, though she is not accomplishing anything in her spectral form. She is a bit aloof from the world saying things like, "I must get this clean how the grandmother likes it or she'll be cross with me."
If successful checks get her attention, she'll be more lucid and share what happened that night from her point of view. She doesn't know the details. She cries when remembering her death getting very upset. She'll assign the quest to the players to clean a certain room in the house. Cleaning it shows a hidden room with the tieflings old journal of gossip.
The butler's ghost, on the other hand, knows he is a ghost and will appear standing staring at the party with piercing eyes. He'll also try to use ghostly tools, but they'll simply pass through things to his frustration. He’ll give vague warnings about how his topiary babies have been perverted
He also only knows how he died a little bit, a strange monster appearing out of nowhere and killing him instantly. He'll give a quest to recover his real tools from the basement so they can be in the same room with him. He'll tell where there's treasure in the mansion.
Agnes, the grandmother will often appear randomly and berate the party for being unkempt or getting things in the house in "disarray".
The grandmother's ghost may appear yelling at the father, blaming him for their deaths. She's very aware of what happened, having learned it from the father. She's shrill and will yell at the party things like to have decorum and to fix things in a particular way.
She gives a quest to rearrange the books on the bookshelf in the parlor. There's 25 books, and there is a journal the grandmother keeps to show how she likes them arranged. The players, if observant, will find a book here detailing certain alchemical concoctions the father may use.
Gameplay continued - Anthony in the woods and the final boss
Anthony is still a werewolf, though he hasn't aged much due to his condition. He stays in the woods away from humans to ensure he doesn't kill anyone ever again. He is gaunt now, though, and has a haunted look about him.
If the party finds him on a non full moon, he is skittish about there being humans nearby that could be in danger from himself, and he tries to leave. If the party insists on speaking to him, they will have to do successful checks. Even then, he'll only state it's all his fault but won't talk about that night or his transformation.
He changes to his werewolf form if upset. The wolves of the forest listen to him and accept him as the leader of the pack.
The fathers lab has many journals and notes that will reveal details about that night. They are rambling, most of them, signs of his madness. There’s notes of failed experiments and frustration.
The goal is to uncover the secret history of what happened years ago and to listen to the ghosts plea and release them. The father won't like anyone messing with his spell as he's still grief stricken by the loss of everyone he loved and blamed himself for their death.
The endgame
You find the location of the totem that must be destroyed to send the ghosts back is deep under the manor.
When you head into the lab to get to the tunnel, there is a reanimated corpse the father has built and infused with magic. It is hideous being built from the bodies of those who wandered into his land over the years. He doesn't like visitors. The monster smells of death and lumbers around slowly. It has high attack power though and severed parts of the monster will still function regardless.
The totem itself is in a secret chamber at the end of the secret tunnel underneath the mansion beginning in the basement lab. The father and four dogs are waiting at the end.
If the players did discover the secret of the forest - it's Anthony - he hasn't aged much because of his curse and lives in the woods - he will aid in the battle. Before the battle, the father will tempt him with a potion that cures lycanthropy if he'll just leave. After much internal struggle, Anthony declines.
When you fight the father, he has many healing potions and four dogs he'll give transformation potions to, which changes them into weredogs. They are german shepherds and will be very protective of the father.
After you defeat his dogs, you will fight him directly. He uses a potion and magic to bulk himself up by transforming into a towering demonic monster with horns and a tail. He will use dark magic during the battle. After the weredogs and fight with his demonic form, there is a third stage.
The ghost of the father lingers and fights you. The players will attempt to attack undoubtedly, but nothing works. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ghosts of the mansion manifest and hold the father back long enough to destroy the totem.
There is a time limit to destroy the skull totem using information found around the manor.
Secret easter egg story ending: Another hidden plot point will occur if you bring Anthony and the ghost of the daughter together. They will find peace. It's possible to leave the daughter there when sending the other ghosts back so the two of them can be happy together. It involves creating a mini totem and performing the ritual, invoking only her name so she is attached to the new totem. The totem can be carried by Anthony, and they can travel.
The Manor Layout
There are a basement, two floors, plus an attic as a third. The garden can be gotten to from the first floor sitting room. The armory is on the second floor. There is a library on both the first and second floor, the second floor library is larger. Agnes wants the books on the first floor rearranged. They both have clues in them.
The first floor also holds the kitchen, sitting room, dining room, secret rooms, and three bedrooms including the staffs bedrooms. There is a room for games like billiards as well.
The second floor also holds bedrooms for the two youngest members of the family, the master bedroom, and guest quarters.
The attic is where Agnes stayed and its arranged in perfect order as a proper bedroom, albeit a large one, full of furnishings and comfort.
The basement is where the lab is set up.
I'm designing a horror style adventure for d&d 5e. This is for 3 to 5 players and includes ghosts, werewolves, were dogs, and even a Frankenstein’s monster type of creature. It is meant for mature players as it contains scary scenes and the DM may use descriptions of gore.
Background: About fifty years ago, there lived a family called the Wainwrights. They lived in a manor about ten miles from the local town of Zlavia.
The Wainwright family was well known in the Zlavian community, and Martin Wainwright was a doctor for the townsfolk. He had an office to see patients in his basement. He would visit one or two times a week and make house calls when necessary too.
His wife, Alia was a half elf who loved grooming flowers, especially her prized orchids. Her greenhouse is attached to the eastern side of the manor, and she spent most of her time there.
They had two children, Windy, a 19 year old daughter, and Desmond, their 22 year old son.
Whereas her mother was content in her gardens, Windy wanted more. She wanted to see the world, to see all the plants and people and places. She was excitable and naïve.
Likewise, Desmond differed from his father in that instead of healing people, he had conscripted to the local king’s military. He’d be sent to war soon enough. He had a stoic, perhaps a little pretentious attitude.
Martin’s mother, Agnes, stayed in the upstairs attic, which was meticulously spotless. She was a nagging old woman, often chastising the help or the children that they brought disorder!
The last two at Wainwright Manor was Celeste and Doradin. Celeste was a jovial, plump Tiefling who cleaned and cooked for the household. She loved to gossip. Doradin was an older, gruff dwarf who was the resident handyman and landscaper. He designed the topiaries himself.
It’s hard to point blame at what happened to any one person. In the end, though, it was all an unfortunate accident with many moving pieces.
But few would disagree that it all began when Windy met Anthony the day as he visited her father for the onset of a flu. He was a boy her age, and he felt worldly to her.
They met many times over the coming weeks as he courted her. They fell in love. They were the last happy moments they would get together.
Anthony went out hunting as he had a million times before. This time was cursed though. The ley lines around the Wainwright Manor and surrounding forest are dark and full of death.
As he hunted a buck, he wandered into a darker part of the wood. He was ambushed by a Werewolf who bit and scratched him. Luckily, a supernatural hunter, Archibald Mistenworth, had been tracking the beast and shot it in the shoulder. The beast ran off and so did the hunter for his prey.
It was too late for Anthony though, he was infected with lycanthropy. Every full moon or if he post control of his emotions, he would change.
Several days later, his wounds were completely healed due to his regenerative abilities. He met with Windy and told her they had to break up and confessed to being a werewolf.
She was distraught. She said he couldn't leave her, he had to stay. During the three nights of the full moon, they would lock him in a shed behind the mansion. He agreed as long as it was secure.
She kept him secret from the rest of the family, and for the next three months, every full moon, he was locked away.
She would go out to the shed just to sit outside the door and be with him, hearing his clawing and howling. Luckily, the shed was far enough back that the family assumed it was distant wolves.
The father got suspicious, however, at his daughter sneaking out regularly and followed her one night. He overheard his daughter speaking to Anthony and learned of his curse. He was furious that his daughter was in danger.
He confronted them, and an argument unfolded. A scuffle ensued, and the dad was knocked down. Angrily, he went to grab a rifle out of the shed. But it was too late... Anthony was transforming. His daughter, panic stricken, locked her dad in the shed to protect him. It had been altered, so the door didn't open from the inside
Tragedy struck as the werewolf killed the daughter, then proceeded to kill everyone else in the home, the entire family.
By the time the father beat the door to the shed down, it was all over, and Anthony had fled.
With nothing else to do, the father burned the bodies and for the next few years, he hid in his lab in the basement doing experiments and spells repeatedly, trying to find anything that would reverse dead and grant life to his family again.
He found ways to animate dead bodies, to manipulate lycanthropy onto other animals, and to elongate his own life.
He finally found what he was looking for by devoting himself to a dark goddess and combining it with the darkest alchemy and medicine.
One dark night one winter, he did the foul spell, made the necessary potions, prayed to the dark goddess, and life did return to them...of a sort. They came back ephemeral, as ghosts.
They begged to be released, to be sent back to death’s , but he refused to reverse the spell.
There is a totem in his basement, a carved stone skull. If this is destroyed, the spell will cease. But it is well guarded!
The gameplay – Outside the Manor
The plot starts as the player party is in the middle of an intense storm and stumbles upon the manor’s front lawn.
Coming up to the manor, the players may notice lots of twisted and mutated bushes and trees. Some trees are even devoid of leaves looking dead and evil. Crows are the only birds, and they caw menacingly as you walk through the front yard.
Further investigation on a successful check will show something has warped regular plants into monstrosities. They’re almost but not quite like the real plants they know of.
A stream of chemicals coming from a pipe can be seen. If anyone can detect magic, there is dark residue of magic in the plantlife and also in the stream of chemicals flowing from the house into the front yard.
There are four topiaries that are so lifelike they give the players the chills. They seem to watch them as they walk toward the house. They have magic residue too, moreso than the rest. Their shapes are a lion, tiger, bear, and hawk.
Later, if the players decide to go into the forest to investigate, the topiaries will come to life and battle.
Each will battle depending on its form, using animal like attacks, and they will growl, howl, or screech depending on which animal they are.
They are not that hard to beat but they move fast and have glowing red eyes.
Gameplay continued - inside the home and the ghosts
If the party goes to the door, they'll find the father answering, now looking about 55 years old, but closer to 80, as the years have gone by. He'll be crotchety and not want guests, but the players can try to convince him somehow to let them stay the night in the mansion. Otherwise stealth may be required.
There will be no sighting of ghosts directly at first, but there will be strange noises. Things moving inexplicably and other odd occurrences like cold spots. Strange smells like roast duck, Celeste’s favorite meal to cook, occur in the kitchen. Martin will be heard arguing with a female voice in the kitchen, but if they enter, there's no one there but the old man. He insists he was talking to himself.
If the players realize there is a ghost, either by guessing or gathering evidence, they can call out to the ghosts to try to convince them to appear. The mother will appear in the garden or kitchen. The daughter near the shed where she forever awaits her love to return. The son upstairs in the armory. The maid will be in various bedrooms cleaning. And the butler will be in a sitting room, trying to use tools but unable to.
The mothers appearance smells like flowers, her orchids. She is pale and gaunt. She will only talk about her garden and how beautiful it is, though in reality, it's an overgrown mess now.
After speaking to her a while, the ghost becomes more lucid and can become upset if she's in the garden and realizes its state. She will give you more information if you clean her garden and tend to her orchids.
The ghost of the daughter haunts near the shed, and with successful checks, she'll tell you of her love for Anthony and what happened that night. She keeps repeating about her love, returning to her, and how she wishes she could go into the forest to see him, but she is bound to the house.
The players may choose to search for Anthony after hearing this.
She also becomes more lucid the more you talk to her and will give you a quest to deliver a verbal message to Anthony to return to her. When you give him the message, Anthony is in mental anguish. He can't face his love after what he did.
The housekeepers ghost is happily pretending to do cleaning, though she is not accomplishing anything in her spectral form. She is a bit aloof from the world saying things like, "I must get this clean how the grandmother likes it or she'll be cross with me."
If successful checks get her attention, she'll be more lucid and share what happened that night from her point of view. She doesn't know the details. She cries when remembering her death getting very upset. She'll assign the quest to the players to clean a certain room in the house. Cleaning it shows a hidden room with the tieflings old journal of gossip.
The butler's ghost, on the other hand, knows he is a ghost and will appear standing staring at the party with piercing eyes. He'll also try to use ghostly tools, but they'll simply pass through things to his frustration. He’ll give vague warnings about how his topiary babies have been perverted
He also only knows how he died a little bit, a strange monster appearing out of nowhere and killing him instantly. He'll give a quest to recover his real tools from the basement so they can be in the same room with him. He'll tell where there's treasure in the mansion.
Agnes, the grandmother will often appear randomly and berate the party for being unkempt or getting things in the house in "disarray".
The grandmother's ghost may appear yelling at the father, blaming him for their deaths. She's very aware of what happened, having learned it from the father. She's shrill and will yell at the party things like to have decorum and to fix things in a particular way.
She gives a quest to rearrange the books on the bookshelf in the parlor. There's 25 books, and there is a journal the grandmother keeps to show how she likes them arranged. The players, if observant, will find a book here detailing certain alchemical concoctions the father may use.
Gameplay continued - Anthony in the woods and the final boss
Anthony is still a werewolf, though he hasn't aged much due to his condition. He stays in the woods away from humans to ensure he doesn't kill anyone ever again. He is gaunt now, though, and has a haunted look about him.
If the party finds him on a non full moon, he is skittish about there being humans nearby that could be in danger from himself, and he tries to leave. If the party insists on speaking to him, they will have to do successful checks. Even then, he'll only state it's all his fault but won't talk about that night or his transformation.
He changes to his werewolf form if upset. The wolves of the forest listen to him and accept him as the leader of the pack.
The fathers lab has many journals and notes that will reveal details about that night. They are rambling, most of them, signs of his madness. There’s notes of failed experiments and frustration.
The goal is to uncover the secret history of what happened years ago and to listen to the ghosts plea and release them. The father won't like anyone messing with his spell as he's still grief stricken by the loss of everyone he loved and blamed himself for their death.
The endgame
You find the location of the totem that must be destroyed to send the ghosts back is deep under the manor.
When you head into the lab to get to the tunnel, there is a reanimated corpse the father has built and infused with magic. It is hideous being built from the bodies of those who wandered into his land over the years. He doesn't like visitors. The monster smells of death and lumbers around slowly. It has high attack power though and severed parts of the monster will still function regardless.
The totem itself is in a secret chamber at the end of the secret tunnel underneath the mansion beginning in the basement lab. The father and four dogs are waiting at the end.
If the players did discover the secret of the forest - it's Anthony - he hasn't aged much because of his curse and lives in the woods - he will aid in the battle. Before the battle, the father will tempt him with a potion that cures lycanthropy if he'll just leave. After much internal struggle, Anthony declines.
When you fight the father, he has many healing potions and four dogs he'll give transformation potions to, which changes them into weredogs. They are german shepherds and will be very protective of the father.
After you defeat his dogs, you will fight him directly. He uses a potion and magic to bulk himself up by transforming into a towering demonic monster with horns and a tail. He will use dark magic during the battle. After the weredogs and fight with his demonic form, there is a third stage.
The ghost of the father lingers and fights you. The players will attempt to attack undoubtedly, but nothing works. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ghosts of the mansion manifest and hold the father back long enough to destroy the totem.
There is a time limit to destroy the skull totem using information found around the manor.
Secret easter egg story ending: Another hidden plot point will occur if you bring Anthony and the ghost of the daughter together. They will find peace. It's possible to leave the daughter there when sending the other ghosts back so the two of them can be happy together. It involves creating a mini totem and performing the ritual, invoking only her name so she is attached to the new totem. The totem can be carried by Anthony, and they can travel.
The Manor Layout
There are a basement, two floors, plus an attic as a third. The garden can be gotten to from the first floor sitting room. The armory is on the second floor. There is a library on both the first and second floor, the second floor library is larger. Agnes wants the books on the first floor rearranged. They both have clues in them.
The first floor also holds the kitchen, sitting room, dining room, secret rooms, and three bedrooms including the staffs bedrooms. There is a room for games like billiards as well.
The second floor also holds bedrooms for the two youngest members of the family, the master bedroom, and guest quarters.
The attic is where Agnes stayed and its arranged in perfect order as a proper bedroom, albeit a large one, full of furnishings and comfort.
The basement is where the lab is set up.
