Roman Villa

[MrZJunior]

What sort of monsters and other challenges should be inhabiting the ruins of a large, imperial Roman Villa?

The obvious answers are living statues and collapsing hypocausts. Maybe falling pillars and things like that. Mosaics that come to life would also be cool.

[Vinyadan]

Enkauston (a wallpainting technique) contained wax, and it's possible that it burned pretty well. It's also close to eternal, so any magic scribble on it would be permanent.

Historically, areas of abandoned Roman villae after the fall of the Empire were used as depots or even as burial grounds. I think that, as a whole, they were simply too hard to maintain for the communities around them. However, squatters are always possible, hiding in there. Maybe with a bounty on their heads. Squatters means campfires.

[weckar]

It really depends on the history of the place, but in general anything in need of space to live could move in. I don't think anything would specifically prefer it, though.

[Kaptin Keen]

Yuan-ti. Some would say that Yuan-ti are oriental. I'd just say that they seem to enjoy luxurious ruins.

[hymer]

The ghost of a particularly mistreated slave.

[Samzat]

there could be a group of vampires or an evil cult restoring it to use as a base, or there could be a larger creatire hinted at by a busted open cage. A summoning circle activates when the pary enters a room, summoning a demon or devil. An insane lich unaware of the mansion's decrepit state. Or a friendly ghost who gives the PCs a task of finding somebody worthy of restoring the villa's beauty and condition, allowing them to use it as a base but sick of it being a ruin.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

The usual vermin and animals - snakes, spiders, scorpions, etc.

Mephits or similar minor malevolent outsiders - conjured by the residual magic of all those curse tablets the Greco-Romans commonly inscribed against their foes.

[Eldan]

The household gods and ancestor spirits of the family who once lived there, angry that they are no longer being honoured?

[MrZJunior]

Thank you all for the suggestions, you've given me a lot of food for thought.

Mephits or similar minor malevolent outsiders - conjured by the residual magic of all those curse tablets the Greco-Romans commonly inscribed against their foes.

Thank you especially for turning me on to the curse tablets. I've heard of them before but hadn't thought to incorporate them into a game.

I'm thinking that the villa will be partially flooded, making it swamp like. The water would make collapsing hypocausts more effective and hide other problems. This will complicate connecting it to the dungeons bellow, but that's a surmountable challenge.

[Vinyadan]

There also were Roman Voodoo dolls: https://www.deliriumsrealm.com/voodoo-dolls/

Another interesting thing are the oscilla, small disks that were hung on tree branches to represent those who lived in the house, while those on the doors were used for the cult of the lares compitalici. They also were used during the funerals of suicides, and, when hung between columns in a home, they honoured Dispater.

[Jay R]

Gauls, Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths.