Details to flesh out Haunted House adventure - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Details to flesh out Haunted House adventure

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
iskinner
Oct 30, 2010 1:30:17 Make up of Player Character Party:
Human Shielding Swordmage
Changeling Rogue
Duergar Wrathful Invoker
Human Wizard
Kalashtar Devoted, Peaceful Healer Cleric

I am thinking of doing something with a haunted house for our next game session, a week from Sunday (Nov 7th). I also have a hankering to give it an old fashioned Infocom (i.e Zork) feel to it. So I need lots of little details and interactive ideas. So I'm throwing myself at the feet of the pillars of this forum's luminaries hoping for some suggestions and ideas.

Here are the broad strokes I have at the moment:

1) Setting: A Haunted Mansion. Previously owned by some eccentric arcane type who disappeared||died. This person was involved in experiments that he probably should not have been doing. Not with an evil intent, but rather out of curiosity and naivety. This led to the opening of a portal in the house and now the house is haunted with a whole cavalcade of spirit, undead and other creatures of the night.

2) On a regular schedule TBD, but most likely shortish, an encounter will happen, new creatures coming through the portal. The encounters will be a mix of some combat, some just scary, some humorous, some interactive socially, and some informative. Some a mixture of two or more of these basic elements. I'm thinking of using an encounter deck and|or random table for this.

3) Combat encounters will be easy and quick individually. Just hard enough to land a couple of blows on the party in a round or two. But there is no way to take an extended break while in the house and no way to leave the house until the lead creature is dealt with. Until then, the party will be slowly drained of powers and healing options by ones and twos.

3) There is a lead, main creature haunting the domicile. It will frequently show in various encounters, but it can not be directly eliminated by the party. If engaged in combat it will fight just long enough to get a few blows in, but it will turn incorporeal no later then being bloodied and phase out of the encounter area. It can also be interacted with in other ways, but no direct confrontation will be able to make it leave the mansion.

4) The only way to eliminate it is to trap it in some strange, non-linear trap. The more Scooby Dooish and Rube Goldbergish the trap the better.

5) There will be four levels to the Mansion. A lower level of servant quarters will be straight forward but contain some undead former servants. The main level and upper level will be the household rooms. So far I am thinking of including: parlor, smoking room, library, dinning room, kitchen, living room, bathroom(s), foyer, nursery, children's room and master bedroom. The attic will be one large room equal to the entire house dimensions. This was the laboratory of the eccentric and is where the portal exists thus it is ground zero for the arriving creatures.

6) Once all the pieces of the trap have been gathered from the rest of the house, they must be assembled in this room. The assembly will be frequently intrupted by new arrivals through the portal, but never the lead creature, it avoids the attic. Once assembled, the head creature must be lured into the trap. Any suggestions on how to incorperate some type of "Scooby Snack" earns a gold star.

7) The household rooms of the main and second floors are spatially warped by the portal in the attic. They 'move' around in relation to each other, ala Cube, 1997 . So if you leave by the east door of the dinning room into the living room, retracing back through the west door of the living room will lead to someplace else. There will be a pattern to this, hopefully one not too easy but capable of being figured out.

How about it, playable? Fun? If so, any suggestions any of you might care to give.

I'm particularly looking for several hook ideas to get the characters into the house. Bonus points if they somehow involve wills and staying in the house for a period of time, either by the players themselves or somebody who enlists the players to help with the task.

They are new to the big (at least as compared to where they grew up) city. They are currently wanted for questioning concerning the death of the count of their hometown. But have so far avoided offical notice. They have taken up lodgin at the Blue Moon Inn. And they have done a collection job against a wererat for Blinkins the Hand, a very wide hobbet who is the top underboss of the city.

Also ideas and suggestions for puzzles on how to get the pieces of the trap they have to build.

And finally any interesting haunting creatures to populate the house with.

TIA
Ian

#2
Leafar
Nov 07, 2010 18:27:10 If you have a moment, please go to my "Your Votes Will Create This World" thread and please place a vote. It is Round VI, the last round, and this world can finally be born. Thanks! : )
#3
mathius78
Nov 08, 2010 9:37:27 Here are some ideas for the trap.
1. Only items that BBEG has a strong connection to can be used to make the trap.
2. Hide at least 2 in every room on the second floor.
3. For one of the trap item a clue will be in the room that it is to be found in.
4. The other item will not be hidden, but the clue that the item is useful will be in a different room
5. The clues to the items should each have 2 ways to find
6. The hidden items should be findable with a perception check and at least on other way.
7. The fact that these items can be used to make a trap in the attic should be made very clear.
8. The chances of the trap working should be governed by how many pieces they party uses.
9. A bonus should be givin for creativity in trap making.

Mathius
#4
catskilleagle
Nov 10, 2010 0:19:15 I'd caution you to beware setting your hopes on one solution or ending to the problem. If you spend a lot of energy on 17 items the PCs must get to create the trap, they'll blow through the adventure in five minutes with an idea you hadn't thought of....
#5
iskinner
Nov 24, 2010 18:37:27 I would like to post a thank you here. Using many of the suggestions provided, we had a fun little haunted house campaign. It ended up taking two of our biweekly sessions. I was a little concerned after the end of the first session that they had done just what catskilleagle warned. They had blown right past my set pieces and went straight for the end. Luckily I was able to improvise my way around and just juggled everything into a different order.

The custom demon I used for the big bad worked well. I added a power where, as an immediate reaction to becoming bloody, he would teleport away in a swirl (close burst 1, 1d6 fire damage) of flames. After the third and forth encounters with him leaving just as the party was getting the smack down on him, they where frothing for a way to contain him.

Some nice role playing time later they had a four 'primary base' metals ring designed to contain the demon. This led to a great climatic battle where they had the demon contained, but he could still throw the damage around. The swordmage defender with a bloody value of 21 got taken down to -20hp. Healed by the cleric to full power with two of his last three healing surges. Stood up and hit hard all four (including the demon) bad guys that where surrounding him.

A couple of rounds later the heroes where victorious and successfully closed the portal. But they where drained and sore. Few had more then a couple healing surges as well as all dailies had been exhausted along the way.

I discovered a new favorite minion, Ancient Tomb Motes. I am going to have to scatter these around in other encounters. They where a lot of fun. Crawling Gauntlets re-skinned as claws and other body parts from a room full of taxidermy animals made a really fun scene as well.

Again thanks for the help.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 iskinner Oct 30, 2010 1:30:17	Make up of Player Character Party: Human Shielding Swordmage Changeling Rogue Duergar Wrathful Invoker Human Wizard Kalashtar Devoted, Peaceful Healer Cleric I am thinking of doing something with a haunted house for our next game session, a week from Sunday (Nov 7th). I also have a hankering to give it an old fashioned Infocom (i.e Zork) feel to it. So I need lots of little details and interactive ideas. So I'm throwing myself at the feet of the pillars of this forum's luminaries hoping for some suggestions and ideas. Here are the broad strokes I have at the moment: 1) Setting: A Haunted Mansion. Previously owned by some eccentric arcane type who disappeared\|\|died. This person was involved in experiments that he probably should not have been doing. Not with an evil intent, but rather out of curiosity and naivety. This led to the opening of a portal in the house and now the house is haunted with a whole cavalcade of spirit, undead and other creatures of the night. 2) On a regular schedule TBD, but most likely shortish, an encounter will happen, new creatures coming through the portal. The encounters will be a mix of some combat, some just scary, some humorous, some interactive socially, and some informative. Some a mixture of two or more of these basic elements. I'm thinking of using an encounter deck and\|or random table for this. 3) Combat encounters will be easy and quick individually. Just hard enough to land a couple of blows on the party in a round or two. But there is no way to take an extended break while in the house and no way to leave the house until the lead creature is dealt with. Until then, the party will be slowly drained of powers and healing options by ones and twos. 3) There is a lead, main creature haunting the domicile. It will frequently show in various encounters, but it can not be directly eliminated by the party. If engaged in combat it will fight just long enough to get a few blows in, but it will turn incorporeal no later then being bloodied and phase out of the encounter area. It can also be interacted with in other ways, but no direct confrontation will be able to make it leave the mansion. 4) The only way to eliminate it is to trap it in some strange, non-linear trap. The more Scooby Dooish and Rube Goldbergish the trap the better. 5) There will be four levels to the Mansion. A lower level of servant quarters will be straight forward but contain some undead former servants. The main level and upper level will be the household rooms. So far I am thinking of including: parlor, smoking room, library, dinning room, kitchen, living room, bathroom(s), foyer, nursery, children's room and master bedroom. The attic will be one large room equal to the entire house dimensions. This was the laboratory of the eccentric and is where the portal exists thus it is ground zero for the arriving creatures. 6) Once all the pieces of the trap have been gathered from the rest of the house, they must be assembled in this room. The assembly will be frequently intrupted by new arrivals through the portal, but never the lead creature, it avoids the attic. Once assembled, the head creature must be lured into the trap. Any suggestions on how to incorperate some type of "Scooby Snack" earns a gold star. 7) The household rooms of the main and second floors are spatially warped by the portal in the attic. They 'move' around in relation to each other, ala Cube, 1997 . So if you leave by the east door of the dinning room into the living room, retracing back through the west door of the living room will lead to someplace else. There will be a pattern to this, hopefully one not too easy but capable of being figured out. How about it, playable? Fun? If so, any suggestions any of you might care to give. I'm particularly looking for several hook ideas to get the characters into the house. Bonus points if they somehow involve wills and staying in the house for a period of time, either by the players themselves or somebody who enlists the players to help with the task. They are new to the big (at least as compared to where they grew up) city. They are currently wanted for questioning concerning the death of the count of their hometown. But have so far avoided offical notice. They have taken up lodgin at the Blue Moon Inn. And they have done a collection job against a wererat for Blinkins the Hand, a very wide hobbet who is the top underboss of the city. Also ideas and suggestions for puzzles on how to get the pieces of the trap they have to build. And finally any interesting haunting creatures to populate the house with. TIA Ian
#2 Leafar Nov 07, 2010 18:27:10	If you have a moment, please go to my "Your Votes Will Create This World" thread and please place a vote. It is Round VI, the last round, and this world can finally be born. Thanks! : )
#3 mathius78 Nov 08, 2010 9:37:27	Here are some ideas for the trap. 1. Only items that BBEG has a strong connection to can be used to make the trap. 2. Hide at least 2 in every room on the second floor. 3. For one of the trap item a clue will be in the room that it is to be found in. 4. The other item will not be hidden, but the clue that the item is useful will be in a different room 5. The clues to the items should each have 2 ways to find 6. The hidden items should be findable with a perception check and at least on other way. 7. The fact that these items can be used to make a trap in the attic should be made very clear. 8. The chances of the trap working should be governed by how many pieces they party uses. 9. A bonus should be givin for creativity in trap making. Mathius
#4 catskilleagle Nov 10, 2010 0:19:15	I'd caution you to beware setting your hopes on one solution or ending to the problem. If you spend a lot of energy on 17 items the PCs must get to create the trap, they'll blow through the adventure in five minutes with an idea you hadn't thought of....
#5 iskinner Nov 24, 2010 18:37:27	I would like to post a thank you here. Using many of the suggestions provided, we had a fun little haunted house campaign. It ended up taking two of our biweekly sessions. I was a little concerned after the end of the first session that they had done just what catskilleagle warned. They had blown right past my set pieces and went straight for the end. Luckily I was able to improvise my way around and just juggled everything into a different order. The custom demon I used for the big bad worked well. I added a power where, as an immediate reaction to becoming bloody, he would teleport away in a swirl (close burst 1, 1d6 fire damage) of flames. After the third and forth encounters with him leaving just as the party was getting the smack down on him, they where frothing for a way to contain him. Some nice role playing time later they had a four 'primary base' metals ring designed to contain the demon. This led to a great climatic battle where they had the demon contained, but he could still throw the damage around. The swordmage defender with a bloody value of 21 got taken down to -20hp. Healed by the cleric to full power with two of his last three healing surges. Stood up and hit hard all four (including the demon) bad guys that where surrounding him. A couple of rounds later the heroes where victorious and successfully closed the portal. But they where drained and sore. Few had more then a couple healing surges as well as all dailies had been exhausted along the way. I discovered a new favorite minion, Ancient Tomb Motes. I am going to have to scatter these around in other encounters. They where a lot of fun. Crawling Gauntlets re-skinned as claws and other body parts from a room full of taxidermy animals made a really fun scene as well. Again thanks for the help.