After the last few sessions with my brother and sister, I decided I wanted to take a break from the regular campaign, and write a small adventure that I can either plug into it soon-ish, or just do as a one shot. So...
I'm thinking of taking advantage of D&D's multiple planes aspect to have a house that overlaps with another plane, and essentially serves as a one-way door to some dark, twisted version of the normal plane (I was thinking of the shadowfel, but I don't know it well enough, so a pocket dimension instead?). The house would be set in both planes at once, albeit very altered in the "dark" world. I've got some spooks in the "light" world version - some hallucinations, some actual ghosts, even a few small bits of treasure to scavenge. However, I'm currently drawing blanks on how to handle the "dark" version of the house. I know I want it to be where the actual meat of the dungeon is, and where some of the quest hooks can be resolved. So, here's what I've got, in no particular order:
Rumors fill the area of children disappearing in the vicinity of this house during certain times of the year (close to harvest or before a particular festival).
The local militia sends a search party to find the missing children. 4 go in, but only 3 return - empty-handed, and unaware the fourth went missing.
I was thinking on having the first character to enter each room experience a hallucination. None of the other characters would experience this hallucination. After 3 or so hallucinations, they would need to make a saving throw, or the next doorway they pass leads them into the shadow version of the house.
Here, I'm not sure if I want them to enter the equivalent room, or simply have that door lead into the dark world house at the main entrance.
I was thinking on having a mini-quest inside the house for a possessed doll that was missing its eye. The eye would be in the other version of the house, of course.
The dark world house is significantly taller and wider than the other house internally, with long dark twisting passages linking the various rooms together. There would be a few rooms not present in the light world house. Externally, the dark house would take about the same space, albeit significantly taller.
I was thinking of the victims becoming small dolls, but I'm not entirely sure of the "why".
So.. Here's more notes if needed. These notes are slightly different from what I've got on paper, just in case anyone wants to try this at a different CR:
Notes:
The first character to enter each room experiences a hallucination. After a character has experienced 3 hallucinations, they must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw whenever they pass a doorway without another friendly character in their line of sight.
(A) Hallucination: The staircase stretches upward and onward infinitely into darkness.
(It's a normal staircase to the upper landing. Maybe 20 or so steps.)
(B) Hallucination: A well kept kitchen, with a brass stove of gnomish design. A gorgeous feast has been prepared and set on the kitchen table.
(There is no feast. The table is bare. The stove is a normal wrought iron furnace.)
Single Treasure (coins)
(C) Hallucination: A common area with a leather couch/sofa, a reclining chair, a coffee table, and a lit fireplace.
(The room is bare, save for the coffee table. There is no fire place.)
(D) This room is locked, and no key exists for it. (Lock DC 13, Requires Thief's Tools)
Single Treasure (coins), 5 Rotten Rations
(E) Locked Chest (Lock DC 13, Requires Thief's Tools)
1 x DMG, Item Table A, a Shadow attacks!
(F) Hallucination: Blood drips from the ceiling and fills the tub. You see a woman's face emerge from the pool.
(There is no blood, and the tub is empty.)
(G) Hallucination: Mimic Ambush! The crates and barrels are alive! There are so many!
(There are no mimics, only specters.)
Treasure Hoard
(H) Quest: There is a possessed doll here, missing one of its eyes. A character who returns the eye is rewarded a magic item from DMG, Item Table B.
There is a skeleton in the closet? That might be a hallucination (probably).
(I) This room is a mirror of room (J). When a character enters this room, a specter appears in the same position (mirrored) in the other room. The specters mimic their corresponding character's actions (and thus, move on their turn), but does not gain the appearance of the player. Defeating all of the specters that appear in both of these rooms drops the wards on the closets in both I and J, allowing access to the rooms' treasure.
1 x DMG, Item Table B
(J) This room is a mirror of room (I). (See room (I))
1 x DMG, Item Table B
(K) Hallucination: You find yourself in your old bedroom. Your sibling approaches you and would like to play a game.
(The sibling is actually a specter moving in to attack.)
(L) Hallucination: The floor opens up into a bottomless pit. The player must make a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) saving throw or fall prone on the wooden floor.
(M) Hallucination: Six swarms of bats swarm the character.
(Surprise! Only one of the swarms is real. The rest are hallucinations.)
Treasure Hoard
All that being said. Does anyone have any ideas on how to handle the second half of this? I've pretty much gotten the trap figured out, but not how to escape it, or what to do to... "resolve" the goings on.
Sorry for the mess. I tend to double back on things while I think about them. In this case, while I type about it. I also tend to pre-roll things before I run them, so the treasure is determined ahead of time. So my notes on paper have the treasures already determined, and I've written what I've referenced for you guys.
Consider looking at the Death House Adventure that Wizards put out for free a while back. It's basically a haunted house adventure that will hit a lot of the things you are looking for and can be plopped down just about anywhere.
I'm reminded of a video game I played, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, where you could use one of your supernatural powers to shift into a different plane of existence. It would alter the structure of the world creating new paths, different monsters, and would change the visuals of the game into something a more sinister. Now in the game this was a mechanical necessity for progression rather than an inconvenience set upon you by some magical force. This concept might work for your idea, I'm not sure, it depends on how much influence you want your players to have when shifting between planes.
Goal: Seal the gateway between the two realms, closing the fissure off and returning this location to "normal". -Sub plot: The gateway is located in the middle of the den of creatures that feed off of hapless people who end up crossing over.
Tool: The eyes of the doll would allow the players the ability to shift between planes by choice, however, there are only 2 eyes...
You could have 2 maps available, however the players only have the map of the house in the prime material. This would be a great way to cause confusion as you explain the movements of the players in the dark plane. Your players would be moving down a 15 foot hallway in the prime material, however the ones in the dark plane would have a 25 foot hallway.
---
Just spitballing atm, I'm kind of fond of this idea
im seeing a large emphasis on the "dark" version of the house, I would either make a reason for there to be shifting planes around the house, maybe certain areas of the dark version are so run down/twisted/horrifying they cant be passed in that version and have to go to the "material plane" version where the path may be easier. or get rid of the plane shifting thing and just make it a supper effed up crazy scary horror show. but if you want the plane shifting thing to be a theme for the encounter make it something the players have to interact with otherwise its just fluff. kind of like prince of Persia or ocaraina of time, jumping back and forth between times to get around puzzles.
I'm impressed with your preparation, Solray - whatever you decide to do, let us know how it goes!
I really like the idea of the hallucinations, I think if you set the right ambience and atmosphere, you could make this an extremely creepy adventure.
Have you considered having the 'shadow' version of the house set in a different time? Perhaps this house is an old, abandoned, derelict ruin, left to rot and decay. But the hallucinations hark back to a time when the house was the estate of a local noble, renowned for his great feasts, lavish parties... and sinister experiments in a secret laboratory. Perhaps he delved too far into the mysteries of the arcane, ripping an alternate version of the house into a different plane, frozen in time.
But that reality is seeping through into this dimension, as the mad noble attempts to open a rift to the material plane - with catastrophic consequences! For the second part of this in the 'alternate version' of the house, the heroes would have to enter this dimension, defeat the mad noble, and find away to return.
@Metamongoose: I think I've played that adventure in DDO. Might be part of what influenced this. I'll go ahead and give it a read.
@DMThac0: Never played that one, though I have played other games that play with a parallel worlds mechanic. I'm liking the idea of using the doll's eyes like that. Maybe if the doll is friendly towards the players (assuming they didn't attack it), it allows them to return to the prime plane, and finding the eye allows the reverse as well? (Though that's me playing too many single player games. I've gotta find a way to balance this around a party.) I might also allow the players in the shadow plane to see a faint projection of characters in the prime plane in the corresponding rooms, but not vice versa.
@Phear_Me: I had the idea that this house was larger and more labyrinthine in the dark version, containing the more dangerous encounters. The map as I've drawn it now is, perhaps, a bit too open. I can probably close off another room or two.
@Chequers: Ambience and atmosphere are going to be a bit difficult for me. I tend to be terrible at describing things, and my brother likes to rush things a little. I was thinking on having the entire house, both light and dark, have elements that are out of place and time, both forward and backward. It could have references to events, people, and times that didn't happen in the world. The coins players find could even be mints from other worlds.
I'm still not sure what to throw in as the cause of the rift, or what could be pulling people into the house to trap them. (Or even what's turning people into dolls. That's the other thing, I've gotta put a doll room somewhere.)
Do a variant of a Hag, Babayaga, or simply a crazed artisan lost between realms. The Rift is simply that, a point where the veil between realms is weakest, and this artisan's presence is keeping it perpetually open and tied to the house.
This trapped creature is using the dolls as a sort of phylactryl, it holds the souls of the people transformed into dolls, and he sells them to devils, demons, or other creatures that feed off of souls or essences like that.
That'll work. I saw 'crazed artisan' and immediately thought of Alice Margatroid from the Touhou Project. Except this one probably wouldn't be nearly as young, sane, or powerful. Do like the idea of it using dolls as familiars and methods of attack.
... Having had a moment to think on this while typing this out. I think a hag who attacks in this manner might work. She might finish her prey with ye olde Trap the Soul spell, feast on their corpse, then shove the soul gem into a doll. To add insult to injury, she might even try to sell these dolls at whatever festival is coming up (assuming a TPK).
I'm thinking the doll with the missing eye might be someone who had enough will power to move the doll of their own accord, but removing the eye (kind of) split the soul, rendering it immobile. Repairing the doll might allow players to find a hidden chamber where the hag is hiding.
I gotta start writing this down, I'll report back when I've got more.
Progress? Decided to move from Open Office to Google Docs since I plan on sharing this (for feedback among other things). I've since simplified the house a bit, briefly remembering the old K.I.S.S. acronym that has nothing to do with the other K.I.S.S. acronym. I've decided to go with a "pocket dimension" trap, and will likely keep the "Hag who collects intruders as dolls". I'm thinking on having the dolls in the house be the main mooks, animated puppets containing the souls of previous intruders. I'm also thinking on allowing the Hag to use any of the dolls in her collection as a phylactery, as mentioned. Allowing for a sort of "Mary-san" fail state.
I may have focused on fail states, not sure about win states. As for setting, I'm thinking on writing this so it can be plugged into any setting, but with a slight bent for a modern setting. Perhaps even writing it as a one-shot with a prepared cast of Token characters, like those old horror movies.
Still got the basement(s) and the attic to figure out, as well as determining what exactly happens when a character tries to escape through any of the windows. Because right now the wards only cover the main entrance and exit.
Anyway, here's the link. I'll probably draw a more polished map some time later.
Post thought: Other enemies in the mansion will likely be specters, spiders, a swarm of bats, and the good old skeleton in the closet joke. Mostly writing this for a small (1-4 person) party of low level adventurers. Possibly levels 3-5? So I can't make the hag too powerful, but I still need to make her dangerous. She also has free reign of her house, so it's not like she's cooped up in her workshop the whole time.
Although, typing that, "workshop" doesn't sound very "hag". Maybe I should just settle for a disguised lich instead? It would make sense mechanically with all the dolls being a potential phylactery, but would players be able to handle that? Both are dangerous, but... I don't know, I better research this before I decide for good.
Clarification: I know about "Mary-san" through a game roughly translated to "Urban Legend in Limbo", wherein one of the characters has adapted this urban legend into her attacks, and is struggling to scare the residents of what is essentially a fantasy land due to them not knowing what a phone is.
The "hag" I'm using is, as I've previously mentioned, loosely inspired by a different character from the same game series who fashions dolls as a hobby, and uses them as puppets in combat. While I do like the idea of using characters I know of, I feel that sometimes a "corrupted" variation might be interesting as well.
Thoughts? Suggestions? I should probably stop typing and post this already?
EDIT: Wow this post is larger than I thought it'd be. Just editing this post to type that. Okay, moving on.
After the last few sessions with my brother and sister, I decided I wanted to take a break from the regular campaign, and write a small adventure that I can either plug into it soon-ish, or just do as a one shot. So...
I'm thinking of taking advantage of D&D's multiple planes aspect to have a house that overlaps with another plane, and essentially serves as a one-way door to some dark, twisted version of the normal plane (I was thinking of the shadowfel, but I don't know it well enough, so a pocket dimension instead?). The house would be set in both planes at once, albeit very altered in the "dark" world. I've got some spooks in the "light" world version - some hallucinations, some actual ghosts, even a few small bits of treasure to scavenge. However, I'm currently drawing blanks on how to handle the "dark" version of the house. I know I want it to be where the actual meat of the dungeon is, and where some of the quest hooks can be resolved. So, here's what I've got, in no particular order:
So.. Here's more notes if needed. These notes are slightly different from what I've got on paper, just in case anyone wants to try this at a different CR:
Notes:
The first character to enter each room experiences a hallucination. After a character has experienced 3 hallucinations, they must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw whenever they pass a doorway without another friendly character in their line of sight.
(A) Hallucination: The staircase stretches upward and onward infinitely into darkness.
(It's a normal staircase to the upper landing. Maybe 20 or so steps.)
(B) Hallucination: A well kept kitchen, with a brass stove of gnomish design. A gorgeous feast has been prepared and set on the kitchen table.
(There is no feast. The table is bare. The stove is a normal wrought iron furnace.)
Single Treasure (coins)
(C) Hallucination: A common area with a leather couch/sofa, a reclining chair, a coffee table, and a lit fireplace.
(The room is bare, save for the coffee table. There is no fire place.)
(D) This room is locked, and no key exists for it. (Lock DC 13, Requires Thief's Tools)
Single Treasure (coins), 5 Rotten Rations
(E) Locked Chest (Lock DC 13, Requires Thief's Tools)
1 x DMG, Item Table A, a Shadow attacks!
(F) Hallucination: Blood drips from the ceiling and fills the tub. You see a woman's face emerge from the pool.
(There is no blood, and the tub is empty.)
(G) Hallucination: Mimic Ambush! The crates and barrels are alive! There are so many!
(There are no mimics, only specters.)
Treasure Hoard
(H) Quest: There is a possessed doll here, missing one of its eyes. A character who returns the eye is rewarded a magic item from DMG, Item Table B.
There is a skeleton in the closet? That might be a hallucination (probably).
(I) This room is a mirror of room (J). When a character enters this room, a specter appears in the same position (mirrored) in the other room. The specters mimic their corresponding character's actions (and thus, move on their turn), but does not gain the appearance of the player. Defeating all of the specters that appear in both of these rooms drops the wards on the closets in both I and J, allowing access to the rooms' treasure.
1 x DMG, Item Table B
(J) This room is a mirror of room (I). (See room (I))
1 x DMG, Item Table B
(K) Hallucination: You find yourself in your old bedroom. Your sibling approaches you and would like to play a game.
(The sibling is actually a specter moving in to attack.)
(L) Hallucination: The floor opens up into a bottomless pit. The player must make a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) saving throw or fall prone on the wooden floor.
(M) Hallucination: Six swarms of bats swarm the character.
(Surprise! Only one of the swarms is real. The rest are hallucinations.)
Treasure Hoard
All that being said. Does anyone have any ideas on how to handle the second half of this? I've pretty much gotten the trap figured out, but not how to escape it, or what to do to... "resolve" the goings on.
Sorry for the mess. I tend to double back on things while I think about them. In this case, while I type about it. I also tend to pre-roll things before I run them, so the treasure is determined ahead of time. So my notes on paper have the treasures already determined, and I've written what I've referenced for you guys.
Check out my art and miniatures!
Patreon | DeviantArt
Consider looking at the Death House Adventure that Wizards put out for free a while back. It's basically a haunted house adventure that will hit a lot of the things you are looking for and can be plopped down just about anywhere.
I'm reminded of a video game I played, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, where you could use one of your supernatural powers to shift into a different plane of existence. It would alter the structure of the world creating new paths, different monsters, and would change the visuals of the game into something a more sinister. Now in the game this was a mechanical necessity for progression rather than an inconvenience set upon you by some magical force. This concept might work for your idea, I'm not sure, it depends on how much influence you want your players to have when shifting between planes.
Goal: Seal the gateway between the two realms, closing the fissure off and returning this location to "normal".
-Sub plot: The gateway is located in the middle of the den of creatures that feed off of hapless people who end up crossing over.
Tool: The eyes of the doll would allow the players the ability to shift between planes by choice, however, there are only 2 eyes...
You could have 2 maps available, however the players only have the map of the house in the prime material. This would be a great way to cause confusion as you explain the movements of the players in the dark plane. Your players would be moving down a 15 foot hallway in the prime material, however the ones in the dark plane would have a 25 foot hallway.
---
Just spitballing atm, I'm kind of fond of this idea
im seeing a large emphasis on the "dark" version of the house, I would either make a reason for there to be shifting planes around the house, maybe certain areas of the dark version are so run down/twisted/horrifying they cant be passed in that version and have to go to the "material plane" version where the path may be easier. or get rid of the plane shifting thing and just make it a supper effed up crazy scary horror show. but if you want the plane shifting thing to be a theme for the encounter make it something the players have to interact with otherwise its just fluff. kind of like prince of Persia or ocaraina of time, jumping back and forth between times to get around puzzles.
I'm impressed with your preparation, Solray - whatever you decide to do, let us know how it goes!
I really like the idea of the hallucinations, I think if you set the right ambience and atmosphere, you could make this an extremely creepy adventure.
Have you considered having the 'shadow' version of the house set in a different time? Perhaps this house is an old, abandoned, derelict ruin, left to rot and decay. But the hallucinations hark back to a time when the house was the estate of a local noble, renowned for his great feasts, lavish parties... and sinister experiments in a secret laboratory. Perhaps he delved too far into the mysteries of the arcane, ripping an alternate version of the house into a different plane, frozen in time.
But that reality is seeping through into this dimension, as the mad noble attempts to open a rift to the material plane - with catastrophic consequences! For the second part of this in the 'alternate version' of the house, the heroes would have to enter this dimension, defeat the mad noble, and find away to return.
@Metamongoose: I think I've played that adventure in DDO. Might be part of what influenced this. I'll go ahead and give it a read.
@DMThac0: Never played that one, though I have played other games that play with a parallel worlds mechanic. I'm liking the idea of using the doll's eyes like that. Maybe if the doll is friendly towards the players (assuming they didn't attack it), it allows them to return to the prime plane, and finding the eye allows the reverse as well? (Though that's me playing too many single player games. I've gotta find a way to balance this around a party.) I might also allow the players in the shadow plane to see a faint projection of characters in the prime plane in the corresponding rooms, but not vice versa.
@Phear_Me: I had the idea that this house was larger and more labyrinthine in the dark version, containing the more dangerous encounters. The map as I've drawn it now is, perhaps, a bit too open. I can probably close off another room or two.
@Chequers: Ambience and atmosphere are going to be a bit difficult for me. I tend to be terrible at describing things, and my brother likes to rush things a little. I was thinking on having the entire house, both light and dark, have elements that are out of place and time, both forward and backward. It could have references to events, people, and times that didn't happen in the world. The coins players find could even be mints from other worlds.
I'm still not sure what to throw in as the cause of the rift, or what could be pulling people into the house to trap them. (Or even what's turning people into dolls. That's the other thing, I've gotta put a doll room somewhere.)
Check out my art and miniatures!
Patreon | DeviantArt
Do a variant of a Hag, Babayaga, or simply a crazed artisan lost between realms. The Rift is simply that, a point where the veil between realms is weakest, and this artisan's presence is keeping it perpetually open and tied to the house.
This trapped creature is using the dolls as a sort of phylactryl, it holds the souls of the people transformed into dolls, and he sells them to devils, demons, or other creatures that feed off of souls or essences like that.
That'll work. I saw 'crazed artisan' and immediately thought of Alice Margatroid from the Touhou Project. Except this one probably wouldn't be nearly as young, sane, or powerful. Do like the idea of it using dolls as familiars and methods of attack.
... Having had a moment to think on this while typing this out. I think a hag who attacks in this manner might work. She might finish her prey with ye olde Trap the Soul spell, feast on their corpse, then shove the soul gem into a doll. To add insult to injury, she might even try to sell these dolls at whatever festival is coming up (assuming a TPK).
I'm thinking the doll with the missing eye might be someone who had enough will power to move the doll of their own accord, but removing the eye (kind of) split the soul, rendering it immobile. Repairing the doll might allow players to find a hidden chamber where the hag is hiding.
I gotta start writing this down, I'll report back when I've got more.
Check out my art and miniatures!
Patreon | DeviantArt
Progress? Decided to move from Open Office to Google Docs since I plan on sharing this (for feedback among other things). I've since simplified the house a bit, briefly remembering the old K.I.S.S. acronym that has nothing to do with the other K.I.S.S. acronym. I've decided to go with a "pocket dimension" trap, and will likely keep the "Hag who collects intruders as dolls". I'm thinking on having the dolls in the house be the main mooks, animated puppets containing the souls of previous intruders. I'm also thinking on allowing the Hag to use any of the dolls in her collection as a phylactery, as mentioned. Allowing for a sort of "Mary-san" fail state.
I may have focused on fail states, not sure about win states. As for setting, I'm thinking on writing this so it can be plugged into any setting, but with a slight bent for a modern setting. Perhaps even writing it as a one-shot with a prepared cast of Token characters, like those old horror movies.
Still got the basement(s) and the attic to figure out, as well as determining what exactly happens when a character tries to escape through any of the windows. Because right now the wards only cover the main entrance and exit.
Anyway, here's the link. I'll probably draw a more polished map some time later.
Post thought: Other enemies in the mansion will likely be specters, spiders, a swarm of bats, and the good old skeleton in the closet joke. Mostly writing this for a small (1-4 person) party of low level adventurers. Possibly levels 3-5? So I can't make the hag too powerful, but I still need to make her dangerous. She also has free reign of her house, so it's not like she's cooped up in her workshop the whole time.
Although, typing that, "workshop" doesn't sound very "hag". Maybe I should just settle for a disguised lich instead? It would make sense mechanically with all the dolls being a potential phylactery, but would players be able to handle that? Both are dangerous, but... I don't know, I better research this before I decide for good.
Clarification: I know about "Mary-san" through a game roughly translated to "Urban Legend in Limbo", wherein one of the characters has adapted this urban legend into her attacks, and is struggling to scare the residents of what is essentially a fantasy land due to them not knowing what a phone is.
The "hag" I'm using is, as I've previously mentioned, loosely inspired by a different character from the same game series who fashions dolls as a hobby, and uses them as puppets in combat. While I do like the idea of using characters I know of, I feel that sometimes a "corrupted" variation might be interesting as well.
Thoughts? Suggestions? I should probably stop typing and post this already?
EDIT: Wow this post is larger than I thought it'd be. Just editing this post to type that. Okay, moving on.
Check out my art and miniatures!
Patreon | DeviantArt