Haunt arrangement help?

[MonkeySage]

I've designed a scenario where the adventurers stumble upon a village where the inhabitants are all imposters; a clan of rakshasa who slaughtered and ate the real villagers. Now they make their home here, waiting for travelers to stop in to sleep in their luxurious inn... While the villagers set up to make a meal out of them.

The village is extremely haunted; the real villagers are trapped here, bound to the village for as long as the rakshasa continue to go unpunished. They lack the power to hurt the rakshasa, but can make the stay extra dangerous for travelers. The Haunts can be dangerous, but their intention is to get the visitors to leave as quickly as possible, or to seek justice. Most visitors don't live long enough to make good on this desire.

Haunts are sort of like undead magical traps. Each of them recreates a spell effect, with something of an eerie twist. They have a range of 5ft*challenge rating, and there can be several of them scattered about. Haunts can only be deactivated by getting to the source and resolving the issue(in this case, bring justice to the rakshasa).

[Psyren]

Sounds neat. Was there a question? :smalltongue:

[MonkeySage]

Well, I was hoping for some haunt ideas. These haunts are aggressively trying to alert travelers of the danger, and are primarily interested in seeking justice for what happened to them.

Thing is the spell lists that I've looked at, I'm having trouble coming up with anything.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Perhaps the Nightmare spell? As the victim goes to bed in the inn (that's a rakshasa trap), they are assaulted by awful nightmares of being eaten by tigers/demons/monsters etc. The victim might suffer the negative effects of the Nightmare spell, but it also might wake them up or tip them off that something is wrong with the inn.

[Segev]

A haunted mirror that shows everybody with their palms on the wrong side of their hands.

It would just show the Rakshasas that way, but it's limited in power and scope and, besides, wants the travelers looking at it to see the effect.


Their meals scream in pain and fear when cut into.


Doors to inn rooms slam shut while they're trying to reach through, crushing fingers and temporarily locking as with hold portal.


If the party has any cold iron weapons, they find them taken out of their belongings and placed directly in front of them at odd moments when they turn around, look up, or other wise weren't looking but now are.


There are no crossbows in town, but the sound of them firing from just out of sight could make anybody jumpy. It's mostly the cleric who hears it, too.

[Nibbens]

Well, I was hoping for some haunt ideas. These haunts are aggressively trying to alert travelers of the danger, and are primarily interested in seeking justice for what happened to them.

Thing is the spell lists that I've looked at, I'm having trouble coming up with anything.

Haunts should always be related to prominent moments in the persons life - regardless of whether or not they were killed there. However, the haunt can (and should) always point your pcs to something that would help them solve the haunt itself.

Example 1:
Base: Fear spell
Fluff: When entering the town the PCs are assaulted by the haunt of a woman who was fleeing the town with her daughter. The PC should see some dark force coming toward them from the town while they hear screams of fear coming from the towns interior. Make a will save - failure = feared.

In this example, the pcs are hit by a fear spell (whoop-de-doo), but it should alert them to the fact that something horrible (the screams) happened in this town while adding an air of mystery.

Example 2:
Base - flaming hands
Fluff: When entering a room/home/tavern, pcs notice movement in the fireplace. When they go to investigate, they assaulted by an image of a man with a burned face screaming for help. (He was killed by a rakasha who held his head in the fireplace while he screamed and died). A gout of flame (burning hands) erupts from the fireplace spraying everyone. Once damage is assigned, the pcs notice that the flames haven't caught anything on fire and the fireplace looks normal.

Example 3:
Base: Suggestion/Murderous command.
Fluff: When entering a room PCs are assaulted by a feeling of dread - but not for their own life, but the lives of their children and their wives from the invaders which have come into their town. After crying and pulling his own hair out in frustration, he decides to kill his children and wife and them himself so the things can't kill them in worse ways. PC failing picks up the axe (which mysteriously appears there) and turns to attack and kill "children" swiftly. The entire time the PC sees his fellow PCs as his own children and wife. Make this last longer than a single round for a more devastating effect.

Haunts have a story to tell - and the story is often more important than the spell effect.