I'm adding a horro side trek to the exploration phase of a low level campaign. Here's the idea: A witch came on to a woodsman but he resisted and rebuked her advances. She attempted to attack him but he fought her off and fled. Unfortunately for him she lived and found his home... only to discover he had a little girl. The ranger, thinking the crone defeated carelessly allowed his daughter to go into the woods to play, whereupon she of course met the witch. Rather than kidnap the kid and go at the woodsman from that angle she instead ensorceled the daughter to 1) deliver some poisoned apples to the family pet (a wolf that keeled over and is now a zombie), then to take a knife and kill the ranger who the little girl believed to be an evil creature. Realizing what she'd done the daughter lost her mind and stabbed the witch too, then ran into the woods and fell into a dry creekbed.
So...I've gotten the haunt for the apples (the party sees a basket of real apples half rotten and worm infested but then the playful girl compells someone to eat one for poison effects or Sickened condition), the fight with the zombie wolf just outside the cabin, and then... I'm at a loss for the actual murder scene haunt inside the woodsman's cote.
Once they deal with this second haunt I want the trail (either by clues suggested by the haunts or actual physical clues) to lead to a rosebush given monstrous life by the witch's vengeful spirit which guards the girl's corpse. The poor little girl is very sorry and is tortured by her own confused sin but should father and daughter be read their last rights and given a proper burial their spirits can be cleansed of the witch's influence, the daughter can find forgiveness and they can cross over ending this horror.
So; any thoughts for the whole middle part INSIDE the cabin? I suppose based on my story and expected resolution the father's corpse should be in there somewhere.
MAybe since the girl did betray the wolf and other things and sort of cumpulsions maybe murderous command haunt to get them to attack the felow party memebers. The warning with this is it might get party members to hate each other.
There's a manifestation of a legend that might be of use if you don't mind adapting it a bit - a torrent of rose petals whose touch leaves wounds like an owl's claws.
Bloodied rose petals, maybe?
What about: the party finds the woodsman's corpse, knife still stuck in the body, and then he stands, seeming to tower over them, asking why his little girl is being so naughty; any PC failing a save suffers a reduce person as he attacks them.
Here's where I'm going with this side trek encounter: I want the haunts and encounters to play off one another, building toward an inevitable showdown with the evil hedge. To that point I'm thinking not of killing them outright with the haunts, but rather using the haunts to weaken them with conditions or negatives.
The first haunt is rotten apples; I think I'm going to just have them impose the Sickened condition if eaten, rather than outright poison a PC. Then the next haunt has the potential of reducing them, imposing the size reduction penalties of that spell.
Clues: the basket of apples is resting on a bed of rose petals. When they find the dad the knife has a rose on the handle. As his corpse collapses after the fight scene the scent of roses wafts in through the open back door.
A perception (DC 15) in the woods behind the cabin spots a dry creekbed, 2 bodies (the girl and the crone) and an unnaturally red, thorny rosebush towering over the scene.
The final scene will be a persistent haunt involving the bush...hero your idea would be pretty cool.