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Chicken-nugget
2016-10-24, 08:29 PM
I'm DMing for the first time this Saturday, a one time Halloween-themed DnD 5e campaign for my friends. It's nothing too fancy, just something simple with the intent to have fun. I have most of the story figured out, but I'm having trouble deciding certain things.

The PCs are hailed as local heroes for some work they've done around the town before, which results in the mayor sending each of them an invitation to the local All Hallow's Eve Festival. I'm not sure if they should already know each other and travelled together, or if they would be meeting for the first time at this festival.

Later in the story, they (should) encounter a mansion surrounded by a corn maze. After completing the maze and finishing off the scarecrows inside it, they enter the home of a vampire. At this time undead butlers appear before them, with a letter that welcomes them and includes a cryptic clue nailed to the hand of one of the "butlers". The PCs must go around the mansion following each of these clues and solving puzzles in rooms to unlock the next one until they finally have all of the clues. A secret door that was hidden on one of the floors will reveal itself (it will also reveal itself with a high enough investigation check) once they have all the clues, and entering in the password from the clues will unlock it and lead the PCs to the vampire's lair. What types of puzzles, riddles, and possible fights should I throw around the house?

Any tips are much appreciated!

Zaydos
2016-10-24, 10:13 PM
You may get more replies in the 5e Subforum of Role-Playing Games instead of the Homebrew subforum (unless you're asking for help statting out brand new monsters and the like).

For fights, what level range are we talking about?

For puzzles and riddles... One I've always liked which doesn't work well outside of a written medium (you'll want to use a hand out) is "Devil's and Rogues Know Nothing Else Save Silence. What am I?" The answer being Darkness. Going for Halloween themed, I'd also consider some references to classic ghost stories, like a statue of a horseman with his head replaced with a pumpkin, could either have a clue inside the jack-o-lantern, or make it so that when his proper head is placed on its mouth opens and has a clue inside (or the statue even speaks). Though that might be sort of cheesy.

What sort of feel are you aiming for? Light hearted? Real horror?

Chicken-nugget
2016-10-25, 01:14 AM
Oh, thank you! That totally slipped my mind.

There will be around 4-5 level 1 PCs for this campaign, so I'm stuck with the more "hoards of zombies/skeletons" feel. I was going to scale down the vampire if I had time, but I'm open to using another creature for the final encounter.

As for the feel, I was going to aim for a more light hearted feel with a little bit of horror mixed in. Thank you for the puzzle ideas, they sound really interesting!

Zaydos
2016-10-25, 01:49 AM
Well just starting to learn 5e now (haven't DMed it, but started reading up on it), so not too sure about number and design of encounters, but looking at CR 4 and less monsters in the MM...

Scarecrows are a usable low level monster for horror, green or sea hag could stand in for a witch (no 5e Annis hag), Imp or Spined Devil can stand in for your normal halloween imp or 'goblin', could have an imp follow them around invisible and trigger traps, or otherwise just work to hinder them until they really start looking for an invisible ghost following them around. Could replace the imp with a specter (poltergeist variant).

Then there's Crawling Claws. Have one skitter across view every once in a while, note the mouse holes in the walls. Eventually have the a large mass of them swarm out towards the PCs from all sides. I mean with 2 hp a single decent AoE will take out the whole encounter, so make sure it's not clustered together from one direction, unless your players lack AoEs. I may just have a thing for Crawling Claws. Bonus points note that all the zombies and skeletons are missing their left hands. Eventually the players will want to know why. Could even make one be missing their right hand and make it something important to notice somehow.

Blights are creepy vampire-tainted plant creatures. Certainly could make an encounter out of them if you didn't want to just do zombie/skeletons.

Banshee is CR 4.

Gargoyles are a classic vampire castle enemy (CR 2), but I'd instead make them part of a puzzle and not animate statues, mess with heads a bit.

Will'o'wisp is a possibility, but I might turn it around a bit and pull on some old folklore about Will o' the Swamp/Will o' the Wisp/Jack o' the Lantern (I've heard the story with each), guy rejected from heaven and hell and doomed to wander the swamps forever carrying a lantern with a burning coal in it, the original Will o' the Wisp. My idea was some form of super zombie, tougher corporeal undead (maybe a wight) which carries a lantern and either inside of it is a friendly will'o'wisp (or fairy) which can help the PCs, or they need to use its fire to burn away the cobwebs of the past.

As noted I don't know 5e encounter design too well so I don't know how many encounters would be too much, or too dangerous.