Single Monster Dungeons

[GreyBlack]

So I have a crazy idea right now about running a haunted house/possessed house sort of deal and have a concept of having a demon bound to the place. It generally doesn't want to actually kill any of the Pcs and is more trying to freak them out/use illusions/carpets capture the PCs.

However, I want to make sure that it's a fun encounter and was wondering if anyone had ever run something like this before? I could foresee that the monster might be too difficult and the PCs might have trouble. Opinions?

[Unoriginal]

It's not much different from a dungeon filled with trap with only one boss at the end. It can be fun.

The questions are:

-What kind of demon are you talking about? What's its CR?

-What's the PCs' level?

-What are the demon's goals, if it just want to spook the PCs and not harm them?

-What is the PCs' motivation for going in the haunted house?

[Herobizkit]

Animated Objects (Flying Sword etc), Crawling Claws, evil Pixie/Sprites and your usual beasties (rats, spiders) can make for a great low-level haunted house.

... then drop the hammer with a CR 4 Flameskull. :P

[GreyBlack]

It's not much different from a dungeon filled with trap with only one boss at the end. It can be fun.

The questions are:

-What kind of demon are you talking about? What's its CR?

-What's the PCs' level?

-What are the demon's goals, if it just want to spook the PCs and not harm them?

-What is the PCs' motivation for going in the haunted house?

PC level is going to be from Level 1 I'm thinking. Big reason the demon isn't just killing them is because the demon was improperly bound to the site and has to drain mortal essences on a regular basis. Keeping them alive to consume later may allow it to find a way to break its bonds or undo the binding.

As for PC motivation... I was almost thinking just straight greed and/or altruism. An NPC says that his daughter wandered too close to the house and now doesn't know what happened to her. PCs are sent in to rescue her.

Of course, I'd love to use this as an introductory campaign whereby the improper binding process actually winds up tearing the veil and shunting the PCs into another dimension. Ideally, have the questgiver even be an illusion conjured up by the demon, or someone in some way manipulated by the demon to lure people to it. Ideally, the campaign would be more eldritch/cosmic horror focused and focus on forcing players to try to discern lies and illusion from reality.

That's a long term goal though, and I just want to create a fun, immersive experience by using just one monster attacking the party through a haunted house type thing.

[PhoenixPhyre]

PC level is going to be from Level 1 I'm thinking. Big reason the demon isn't just killing them is because the demon was improperly bound to the site and has to drain mortal essences on a regular basis. Keeping them alive to consume later may allow it to find a way to break its bonds or undo the binding.

As for PC motivation... I was almost thinking just straight greed and/or altruism. An NPC says that his daughter wandered too close to the house and now doesn't know what happened to her. PCs are sent in to rescue her.

Of course, I'd love to use this as an introductory campaign whereby the improper binding process actually winds up tearing the veil and shunting the PCs into another dimension. Ideally, have the questgiver even be an illusion conjured up by the demon, or someone in some way manipulated by the demon to lure people to it. Ideally, the campaign would be more eldritch/cosmic horror focused and focus on forcing players to try to discern lies and illusion from reality.

That's a long term goal though, and I just want to create a fun, immersive experience by using just one monster attacking the party through a haunted house type thing.

In-universe, it's one monster. It just happens to puppet-master a whole bunch of weaker things. It, in and of itself, is a pushover--the challenge comes from the bits of animated things it possesses and jumps between. Mechanically, it's a bunch of different monsters and can be run as normal.

[GreyBlack]

In-universe, it's one monster. It just happens to puppet-master a whole bunch of weaker things. It, in and of itself, is a pushover--the challenge comes from the bits of animated things it possesses and jumps between. Mechanically, it's a bunch of different monsters and can be run as normal.

Mechanically, that would work, but it does kind of violate the self-imposed challenge. Especially because I'm concerned that it would break a certain atmosphere I'm going for; players can identify on some visceral level the difference between a multi-creature dungeon and having a creature stalk them through an area. I want the players to feel hunted in some fundamental sense, not that they're fighting minions of a big bad.

A better option would be to turn the house into a Lair and use those mechanics.