|
I am writing a mini-Campaign and wanted to start it in a haunted house. I am looking for a good place in which to place this haunted house and have narrowed it down. I was looking on feedback on which location might be best.
1. Southern Druma
2. Eastern Isger (maybe southern, but mainly eastern)
I would appreciate any input.
Ustalav seems like a natural fit.
I'd agree with Ustalav as a good place to base a gothic horror campaign.
If you're looking for source material, Pathfinder #2 had an amazing haunted house in the middle of the adventure. It was heavy on haunts.
Good luck!
How about a haunted house in the middle of a swamp accessible by carriage,then steady rains cause it to floor,leaving you to float across on luggage from an abandoned carriage or risk whatever ghastly things lurking in the flood waters.
Like haunted manor queen of death and lady in black
|
Also see Pathfinder #43: The Haunting of Harrowstone for a haunted house adventure set in Ustalav. Lots of haunts, and it's a good example of how to run a haunted house for low level characters, if that is what you need.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Honestly a haunted house can be anywhere. It simply depends on the needs of your story.
To have the truly classic haunted house feel, however, you need to have the house be a place that people can't just leave the moment it becomes unpleasant. It should be remote from civilization without any convenient neighbors to run to. People should also be forced to seek shelter there, either from inclement weather, such as a rainstorm, freezing cold, or burning heat, or are trapped there at times due to things like a rising tide in a salt marsh that cuts off the house from the mainland at times.
There also of course has to be the reason the house was built before it was haunted.
The other way around this is to have the house be so grand and valuable people can't just stop living there because of a pesky haunting. Castles and mansions are like this, but so are popular inns.
Another important thing about haunted sites is monster diversity. Of course the undead will likely play a strong role, but if that's all you have you're missing out on some cool opportunities.
Aberrations, vermin, outsiders, magical beasts, monstrous humanoids, oozes, and constructs can fit the haunted house theme, but its possible to make a lot of monsters fit the theme (especially with templates).
For example, in a basement alchemy lab a Sound Burst trap could also shatter some test tubes holding Grey Ooze. The "ivy covered" walls could actually be an Assassin Vine that waits for its victim to climb halfway up before attacking. A statue garden could contain regular statues, animated Caryatids, and innocent victims trapped inside the stone. A derranged kyton could have taken up an abandoned slaughterhouse as its lair. A coven of hags could be enacting a vile ritual in the gallery of the manor.
Another thing to keep in mind is variety in the undead you do include. At low levels this can be a little tricky, but at higher levels you have access to totenmaskes, allips, festrogs, huecuvas, crypt things, giant crawling hands, and banshees. Don't be afraid to mix things up! Skeletons, zombies, vampires, and ghosts are great but there's so much more out there.
Of the two haunting examples, the one from pathfinder #2 was very good. I think the more enjoyable because most of it was non combat. There is also a haunted mining camp in one of the last books of the ap.
Haunting of harrowstone looked good and i liked it conceptually but i played it with a new group and it turned out to be a bad fit forthe playstyle.
One of the best haunting style adventures i have read is the hangmans noose. It would be a great sourse for ideas for a different sort of adventure.
Of the two haunting examples, the one from pathfinder #2 was very good. I think the more enjoyable because most of it was non combat. There is also a haunted mining camp in one of the last books of the ap.
Haunting of harrowstone looked good and i liked it conceptually but i played it with a new group and it turned out to be a bad fit forthe playstyle.
One of the best haunting style adventures i have read is the hangmans noose. It would be a great sourse for ideas for a different sort of adventure.
Be careful of using too many haunts. We just finished playing Haunting of Harrowstone and...
I did a short adventure in an urban haunted house in Mivon in the River Kingdoms that was the home to a "band" of will-o-wisps. The house itself was pretty dilapidated (steps that creaked and groaned, boards that broke under foot, etc.) so there were environmental factors the PCs had to consider as well as how many wisps were in there. The upper story had a single haunt and a monster encounter. It worked out well as a 1 night adventure. Good luck!
Rite Publishing's The Gift: Curse of the Golden Spear - Part 1 features 2 very scary haunt locations, each featuring several related haunts, one often triggering another, as well as associated ghouls, a ghost and horrifying dream sequences - both involving an overnight stay. Both are some of the creepiest haunts you'll likely encounter in a published adventure.
Also consider any Rite Publishing's #30 Haunt supplements, each a collection of 30 haunts of a related theme: haunts for houses, ships and shores, objects, or haunts for Kaidan. Especially the last one, has several related haunts plus it shows you how to combine haunts with hazards, undead with lots of background story to make your players experience much more immersive and creepy.
|
I know you're after Druma and Isger, but the Haunting of Hinojai is an amazing Haunted House scenario and well worth purchasing for lots of creepy and creative haunts and inspiration.