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Alcino
2007-12-19, 12:49 PM
I really liked the massive feedback for my atheists and naturalists, so here's something else I want to create the best way possible. I should pay you guys or something.


PLOT EXPOSITION ALERT

In the same city as mentioned earlier (in the same world too), there are three ghosts of people who have been defeated in a duel against the current evil council ruler, brother of the old one.

One of them, in particular, had his family die when his house mysteriously burnt down during the short-lived invasion of the city a few years ago. It was supposedly accidental. I had my players live through the failed invasion as the bad guys so that I could create a few plot hooks and show them the strategic importance of that city -- to the enemies' eyes, anyway.

A less hostile, duel-based subsequent takeover followed. In that almost-coup d'etat, the long-gone brother of the council ruler came back to the city, found an excuse to provoke him into a duel to the death and then used a legal loophole to join the council in his stead. It wasn't long before the usurper angered the widow, which led to another duel.

In the mean time, the widow's mansion was being rebuilt, but after his death, "accidents" started to happen, and the workers pretty much thought the place was cursed and refused to continue. Two years later, with the help of ghost-hunting adventurers, the pinnacle of the city's buildings was finally completed.

Problem is, the ghost is still there, haunting the new mansion. One of the ghost-hunting adventurers was offered to stay in the city to keep it and the other ghosts in check, but the mansion never sold, and it's been over six months since completion. The builders' guild's reputation is suffering because of that costly but ultimately worthless project, and the price has been slashed and ghost insurance offered for free. They really want the house to sell, and its owner to host receptions and all. They've poured their expertise into it and want to show it to the world.

Enter the PCs, who are going to spend a few days at least in the city with a couple followers. The sorcerer PC, not relying too much on equipment, is starting to be reputed for his reckless spending -- on fine wine, hotel suites, expensive clothing and all. Arriving at the city after nightfall, the group settled for an average motel near the gates, but the sorcerer took his apprentice and went to the rich district, asking for a suite in the best hotel in the city.

The sorcerer's player is a spotlight hog but a great DM asset. He keeps buying into the plot hooks and generally reacts predictably. The other players, particularly the NG "official" figurehead of the group, have learned how to keep him in check although his motivations are not always in the same direction.

Anyway, I <b>fully</b> expect the sorcerer to buy a house. And if the player learns the burnt-down mansion has been rebuilt and is affordable and will allow him to get recognition and organize receptions, I'm sure he'll buy it in a heartbeat. The fire is even indirectly tied to his character's backstory, and he knows it. So as is the case whenever a player gets interested in something, I make sure that thing's interesting.

END MASSIVE PLOT EXPOSITION


...

Darn, I can really get long-winded.

Getting to the point: one of my players will be buying a mansion that he really wants as it ties into the backstory of NPCs he cares about.

But the mansion is haunted by the ghost of its former owner, whose family was killed in its fire.

It's relatively small (for a mansion, anyway) but features most of the rooms you'd expect.

So here I have a ghost that wants to be left alone. Generic ghost hunters have been unable to determine what makes him tick, but the sorcerer just might, with his backstory ties and all.

Before dying, that ghost was a telekinesist, and his ghost abilities reflect that. However, when he first started intervening, he manifested himself subtly, leading the builder guild to think it was a curse. Right now, only the ghost hunter that stayed in the city is willing to talk openly about the ghost, and that hunter will make herself known once she learns someone has bought the mansion.

First, though, I want the sorcerer to enter the mansion and perceive it as safe. Gradually, strange things will start happening, and as soon as all players decide to get involved, I want madness to ensue. Still, I don't want the encounter to be too threatening -- more distressing.

And at some point, if called for, the ghost hunter might come silence the ghost by killing it -- but that's only a temporary solution. The players will eventually put the ghost to rest with a story-based solution. And what if the sorcerer throws a reception beforehand?

So I'm pitching the idea here: in those circumstances, what makes a memorable haunted mansion?

Keep in mind the telekinetic ghost must be responsible for everything that happens. And I can play a little loose with the official ghost rules.

AKA_Bait
2007-12-19, 01:02 PM
I'd suggest looking at the Haunts in MMV. A slight variation on those would probably fit the bill you are looking for well in terms of Ghost mechanics.

Alcino
2007-12-20, 02:13 AM
Ah... I don't have that book. Might try borrowing it or something, as "Haunts" sound exactly like what I want.

Anyway, after last time, I expected more replies! Luckily, I had a few ideas myself.

It can start with unexplained noises, then doors closing unexpectedly, wind flows, objects that fall down or change place for no reason... and then it gets more violent, with direct object attacks and eventually animated furniture and all that. I hope I can execute it well.

Blue Paladin
2007-12-20, 01:06 PM
Am I the only one who saw the title and thought Disneyland? Anyone? Anyone?

Anyway, you can totally draw from that Mansion. A room that stretches subtly. Rooms with no exit (but wait... then how did I get in?). Portraits that alter slowly and change back suddenly. Busts that seem to turn, their eyes following you. A staircase that leads up forever. A candelabra floating in an endless hallway. Animated suits of armor. Voices from a sealed coffin. Knockers that move themselves. Growling noises beyond doors that bulge in ways solid doors should not bulge. Glowing red eyed ravens that show up for no reason.

Then you get to the backwards waltz and the axe murderer bride and the party in the graveyard. Hitchhiking ghosts. Tiny ghost. The end.

Oeryn
2007-12-20, 01:49 PM
My suggestion would be to make the house itself memorable. In any good "haunted house" scenario, the house is a character in and of itself.

Find a good map of a mansion (I usually plunder old modules for stuff like this), and be sure to describe the house in detail. The mood you set doing that will go a long way towards making the rest of the adventure creepy.

Maybe each of the family members left a kind of "echo" in the place they died. Bloodstains or scorch marks that appear and reappear, a ghostly scream when a PC touches something that belonged to one of the children. Stuff like that can be a lot of fun. You're not tied to the rules, and you can just let your imagination go nuts.

I've found that no matter how difficult, or creepy, or scary I make the "final ghost" in this kind of game, it always boils down to numbers, in the end. "Can I hit it?" or "Does my spell affect it?" Make the atmosphere scary, and you'll creep your players out.

Collin152
2007-12-20, 02:30 PM
Oh, and nothing, no nothing beats a pipe organ playing itself in the dead of night.

Prometheus
2007-12-20, 02:57 PM
Whatever you do, don't give it to the PCs and then decide then, of all times, the ghost hunter eradicates the ghost for them. If they get the aid of the ghost hunter, they have to earn it and do their fair share in the ghost hunting.

In addition to freaky TK effects, haunting of dreams, possession, doors that open to terrible portals, the attraction of insects, rats, undead are other types of side effects.

Perhaps the ghost hunter has been unable to solve the problem because he has a specific weakness against the ghost. He's an expert, but particularly vulnerable to possession, or exceptionally afraid of an image that the ghost manifests to haunt him.

Ultimately the ghost wants the PCs to leave not have them stay and be miserable. The hauntings of the ghost should make it's priorities clear - write notes telling them to leave, lock interior doors and swing open outer doors, physically push blow or assault them outwards, whenever a PCs sugggests retreating or anything of the sort have the hauntings back down or a positive message be sent.

Finally, ghosts like to tell their stories. If the PCs aren't familiar with it, have them discover old things that provide clues or illusions with dramatic scenes.

Alcino
2007-12-20, 06:26 PM
Thanks for the feedback.

Many of the effects mentioned are really creepy, and the right kind of creepy, too, but for this particular ghost, I want to stay in the realm of telekinesis-based haunting. So unfortunately, unless I can link... hey! the guy's wife, although unnamed, had to be somebody too, and the city's magic guild is quite reputed for its illusions. She could have studied there for a while and haunt the house too.

So portraits and busts, architecture that makes no sense, doors that bulge (now THAT's real freaky)... those can all be in!

I intend to have a map of the mansion ready... but with those ideas, I'll only reveal it room by room, gradually. The mansion is pretty well-defined and is the product of a nice blend of modern architecture and technology. There are self-heating floors, "refrigerators" with a different flavor, magic-based sculptures (a floating, distorting ring of floating water... now THAT could be freakily telekinetically altered). And I agree... nothing beats the pipe organ. Classic. I can even have an mp3 playing on speakers at that time... yeah, the Toccata and Fugue or something similar. A more... unknown song, so that it's not even familiar.

I'll have more traditional undeads and terrible portals at other points of my campaign, so I'll keep those ideas for later.

As for the house having a personality... the family died in a fire that leveled it entirely. Since the city was kind of reeling from the invasion and proceeding to the transfer of powers, its equivalent of a fire department could not intervene, so the current mansion is brand-new and the pride of the architecture guild. Its "personality" while haunted depends entirely on the ghost(s). Afterwards, I fully intend my player's sorcerer to keep the mansion and have fun with it.

The ghost hunter was pretty much necessary. The city has a few "paranormal" things that are not all ghost-caused, so I need an expert for a quick fix. Also, the city is mostly human with a bias against halflings, but when I asked my players what they wanted in it, they had differing answers:

- Sorcerer: Meet new enemy sorcerers/sorceresses, learn more about those I already know, discover more about my past and try to meet my old master, who killed my a while ago and tried to get rid of my corpse, leading me to wake up in the service of the other army with a failing memory and a Mark of Justice on my head.
- Favored Soul of Heironeious: Check how a a Temple of Heironeious can survive in a city occupied by a Hextor-based nation, learn why the secretive enemy general has given orders to let us in peacefully and leave us free, discover what the best spy of the missing count is looking for, exactly, and find out how the city was captured from the inside months after the failed invasion.
- Monk: Go see my old friends at the monastery, see if I can find those who escaped the moutain monastery's destruction by the forces of Hextor.
- Halfling outrider: Uh... I wanna meet halflings?

So the ghost hunter is a female halfling. She's a ghost-killing ranger with a ghost-killing crossbow and uses custom divination magic and phase arrows to kill ghosts from outside the house if needed. The city had her slay the ghost every few days during the construction and watch for its inevitable reappearance, but since the mansion's pretty much abandoned now, keeping the ghost dead would cost a pretty penny.

I like the idea of a ghost hunter that's secretly afraid. As long as she has her crossbow, she can stay far away and see the ghosts coming, but maybe this means she's afraid of going in and really meeting a ghost face-to-face. I expect that at some point, the sorcerer might go and pay her for a quick ghost kill.

However, while I really want to play with a haunted mansion, there's a story-based reason for the ghost... remember what I said about having my players play through the invasion from the enemy point of view?


(beware, plot exposition coming)

The old mansion was burned down by the sorcerer's player roleplaying the revenge of a sorceress who would become one of her rivals in the present time, a few years later. She acted out of disproportional revenge against the telekinesist, who killed her lover during the invasion. In a strange twist, that dead lover, whose body burst into flames and could not be resurrected, is alive at the present time and is the main rival of the party's sorcerer.

Oh, and not all of the telekinesist's family died in the fire, but he doesn't know that. My players know (out of character) that his oldest girl was rescued in extremis, conveniently losing her memory in the process. She was then drafted as a sorceress (both of her parents are) and put under the care of... the sorceress who killed most of her family. The general of the division at that time was strong on master-apprentice training and wanted to confront the pyromaniac. Oh, and after failing the city's occupation and losing his own apprentice, he took the party sorcerer as his new one. Y'know, before killing him some time later. Discovering about the telekinesist's girl is the key to making the ghost rest in peace.

(end plot exposition)


Anyway, that means the ghost does have a story to tell, and I've got players that are begging to listen to it. By the time they're done with the ghost, the sorcerer will have had plenty of interaction and will probably, if I play my cards right, have been framed for the pyromaniac sorceress's murder, the favored soul will have more information about how to play the new council members against each other with the help of the only surviving one, and the halfling will have met another halfling that's for once, not an army-enlisted halfling outrider.

Too bad the ghost doesn't want to talk to them initially. The way I see it, the sorcerer and his apprentice will check out the mansion and get slightly spooked out but will still return there with the party and their retinue to spend the night. And that's when things will get less spooky and more dangerous. They'll probably pay for a fix -- and by fix, I mean kill, and the sorcerer will throw his reception as wanted, with few side effects at that point. And then the murder case will pop up, there'll be "holy backstory, Batman!" moments and... it'll be, like, two sessions later, so I'll see from there.

seedjar
2007-12-20, 06:43 PM
Uh, not much to say here story-wise. However, if your PC throws a party before cleaning out the ghosts, you should have a Carrie-style massacre. Waterpipes bursting, guests spontaneously combusting, punch turning into frothy blood (not from Carrie but still seems like a winner...) Good times.
~Joe

Collin152
2007-12-20, 09:46 PM
Illsions and Telekinesis... hmmm...
Well, during a part, seeing as the ghosts want the guests to leave...
First, the lights go out. Windows force open, wind blows in, eerie sounds from within the house. The front doors slam open and closed until they start the exodus, and if any seem to refuse to leave after most are gone, slam shut while they persuade them otherwise.
Also, illusion sleep-walking out a window. They break free just as they have their leg in the open air. Aaah.

Yami
2007-12-21, 12:51 AM
I think a good way to start off getting your Pc's wierded out is by letting them go through the house and when they return to a room they've already been to make note of something having been moved. If the party leaves doors open so they can retreat if need be, mention they are closed when they get back into the room. Or better yet, have them roll listen checks to hear your ghost trying to quietly close the door after the party.

You want to give them the sense they aren't alone, without letting them know there's a ghost about. I've found that works pretty well with my players at least.

Alcino
2007-12-21, 03:48 AM
So far, there have been no deaths caused by the ghost. If the sorcerer organizes a reception the way I think he will, it will be a big melting pot of plot-critical NPCs. So... no deaths for now.

And having the players think it's anything other than a ghost is quite appropriate, seeing as the party has occasionally being stalked by a discretion specialist. Why, oh why, would a ghost be more plausible?

Oh, and while we're at it, I'll tell you who the two other ghosts are.

One of them is the current council ruler's brother, killed in a duel against him a few years ago. He's been haunting their family's mansion ever since, but the council ruler paid a hefty price to have some kind of barrier created, confining his brother's ghost to the master's chambers. That made him pretty passive, and he hasn't been a disturbance since. Still, he's the ghost that's most likely to possess someone. I only wonder how the players will manage to get to that room, considering this manor is the most military-ish of the city. All-out fight? Diversion? Stealth? Diplomacy? Waiting for a reception there? Clever bet or trick?

The other ghost is the last council member to die, still a few years ago. Since he became a burgess as a result of adventuring as a variant barbarian, he has no ties to nobility and is happy to haunt his cool statue in the cemetery. I don't want him to represent a menace, but he's the most well-known ghost in town. The kind they scare the children about, mention in taverns and could be mistaken for a plot hook. Too bad he doesn't manifest often. Over the years, many adventurer parties have managed to interact with him, some less peacefully than others, but he's still waiting for people who can really help him (the PCs, of course!). He doesn't attack unless explicitly disturbed. The challenge here is that he'll probably want to "test" the players before cooperating depending on how they approach diplomacy and how high they roll. Maybe he'll manifest and fight them for good measure.

I'm pretty much satisfied with the haunted mansion, but ideas on those two other ghosts are welcome. In particular, how would a relatively peaceful ghost gain such a reputation? I don't want anyone to just waltz into the cemetery and meet the ghost reliably. And the ghost wouldn't disturb funeral services unless they were tied to him.

Oh, and if you need to know, the cemetery worker considers the ghost a friend even though they never talk.