Need some Help with an Undead Dungeon Delve Creation - LONG

[Xrposiedon]

A little background. I am running a campaign with the overall world based on Everquest 1.
The party is currently going to a place called "Unrest" which is essentially multi level mansion, with a hidden dungeon type basement, and a hedge maze before you get to that. The mansion is home to a Vampire (with Strahds) stat block. I need help creating interesting encounters / traps / puzzles going further in.


I made some HUGE mistakes early on, and so the party is pretty highly powered, with one person happening to pull the experience card out of a deck of many things, out-leveling the party by 3 levels.

So right now, we have a party of:

Eldritch Knight 7 / Cleric 1
War Mage Wizard 11
Ancestral Guardian Barbarian 8
Oath of Conquest Paladin 7 / Fighter 1
Swords Bard 6 / Warlock TGOO 2
Forge Cleric 8


GOOD NEWS: The party is okay with death. We have talked about this on multiple occasions, because I told them I would power them up, but they very well may encounter things in this world that are just not able to be taken on.

The wizard is the main issue, because shes just so high leveled (yes I know I should have never done deck of many things ....just ever) but they really had fun with it.

The paladin has 24 AC

The eldritch knight just keeps casting shield to be really hard to hit.



ENTRANCE FIGHT:
I have set up a fight at the entrance, the door closes once they enter (The vampire is doing his scrying thing, watching them enter)

2 Hell Hounds
2 Helmed Horrors (Immune to Firewall, Lightning Bolt, Fireball) and the other to (Heat Metal, Fireball, Cone of Cold)
2 Banshees


Open Area Before Hedge Maze

Need some advice as to hooks, clues, or things to really put some terror in their minds here


Hedge Maze Itself

I want to make this area a skill challenge / area to separate the party for a short while (again to really inspire the fear factor here) -- Think like....harry potter hedge maze where the vines pull someone underneath, or the hedge closes on top of someone and now their no where to be seen. (Need some help on how to do this).

I want them to use some spells / abilities to get past this area, but I don't want to exhaust all of their resources. This is more of an anticipation builder of how dangerous this place can be.

The Mansion Estate Grounds / Entrance to the Mansion

The party knows that the undead in this area dont hear too well. They see just fine, just not very good hearing. Should I make this area more of a skill-check and stealth mission, or more fight oriented?



Thanks in advance. Just looking to brainstorm some ideas here and get some advice as to what you all as players would enjoy if you were in this type of situation

[ImproperJustice]

Do you have a good story to tell as they progress through the dungeon?

Something that “ties everything together”.

Like how the mistress of the house was murdered by her jealous husband (now vampire Lord), but not before she had affairs with the Cool, Gardner, Steward, and Kennel Master. Each of these beings were in turn killed in terrible and ironic ways, and now there all these bound beings who have domain over different parts of the house.

Maybe collecting momentoes from each lover enables the PCs a chance to speak to the Lady of the House who’s image grows more substantial with each token recovered, and so does her husbands shade which grows in ferocity and intensity.

Collecting the mementoes involves overcoming death traps initially created by the Lord of the house to kill the originals.
Example: The Kennel Master involves getting covered or swimming around in a pit of raw meat and then having to flee the hounds through the maze or some such.
The Cook was trapped in some giant oven contrivance that looks like something out of the Resident Evil Laser Hallway. Etc...

Next to that, try using disorientation, sliding rooms, entering a room and coming out the same door takes you to a different part of the house. Maybe roll a die, and based on the result the house moves through different periods of time. The sun sets and rises at the wrong times, players hear screams from their own party when everyone is right next to each other, their rations all decay too fast, doors and windows are locked when they were open before, etc.....
Whew......Sorry for the rambling.

[Xrposiedon]

Next to that, try using disorientation, sliding rooms, entering a room and coming out the same door takes you to a different part of the house. Maybe roll a die, and based on the result the house moves through different periods of time. The sun sets and rises at the wrong times, players hear screams from their own party when everyone is right next to each other, their rations all decay too fast, doors and windows are locked when they were open before, etc.....
Whew......Sorry for the rambling.

Not rambling, thank you for the reply!

I really like the idea of screams from their own party members, but they are all next to each other. Disorientation as well I really like. Walking in through the front door of the house, only to find yourself walking into the back garden.

I do have a story element for the area as well. Garanel Ruckstaff , was the lord of the manor. He was a slave owner who was cursed by one of his own slaves with a blood curse. In an attempt to prolong his life, he made a deal with a vampire to become immortal. However, by doing so, his obsession with owning people for eternity also grew. He then began researching the arcane arts, and necromancy so that he may control his slaves in death as he did in life. His mastery of the undead is legend in this area of the world, and most people don't go within miles of the tunnel entrance to his manor in the mountain.

His coffin has been said to be in the basement, however no one has ever seen it, as it seems to be hidden by magic.

Over time, while the stories of Unrest have grown. Less adventurers have traveled there, because only a far few ever come back. When someone does return...the carry a look of horror on them for their lives and are always stripped of their happiness. Slowly, over the areas, the foliage around the entrance to the mountain manor has withered and died, and a fog has seemed to always be permanently at the edges of the manor. Light even have trouble penetrating his estate.