Happy Halloween Scribes! We hope you have a safe and fun Halloween this year!
We wrote something spooky up for you just in time for a one-shot. This could also be used as a sidequest. Are you ready to come into the mad scientists haunted mansion?
The party comes to a town (DM decides the town and why the party is there) that has a rumor spreading around. There’s a rumor of a mad scientist who’s family died. He has spent his life trying to undo what has been done. Because of that, there have been spottings of undead walking deep in the forest. The rumors continue that the mad scientist has hoarded many treasures worth tons of money. Tempt the players with magical items and hundreds of gold. A local man volunteers to come with the party, claiming to know the house pretty well. He used to work for the scientist as an assistant before his family died in an unknown accident. His name is Deacon.
The massive mansion that this scientist lives in is deep in the woods with only one pathway up there. The mansion looks like that in its prime, it was a beautiful home with large windows and golden accents to the outside. But now, the windows are broken with deep green vines trailing up the walls. The outside is covered in mud and grime with the landscape completely overgrown. Deacon creeps up to the front door and it creaks open. Have the party enter. Once they enter, the door slams shut on its own. The inside of the mansion is in the same state as the outside. It’s covered in dust and grime, papers and various things scattered on the floor. There’s broken glass with broken furniture. It is clear that no one lives here currently, or so they think.
A booming voice comes from seemingly nowhere and calls to the party. “Welcome travelers. I see you have come into my home unannounced. I hope you’re ready for what is in store for you.” He laughs as he trails off. The main entryway is then lit up with orange and purple flames coming from some lanterns on the walls. With them having Deacon with them, he is able to lead them through the house. The goal is to get to the laboratory room that is deep in the basement through a maze of rooms.
Deacon leads them to the first room, the one on the right. The door slams shut and disappears. The only exit in the room now is across the large room. It is locked. It looks like it used to be a dining room with a table and some chairs. The table is set up with what looks like severed heads, eyeballs, and other body parts. If the players pass a Perception check of 15, they see it is actually just an illusion cast on the table. The real objects are fake foods and random objects. In the room, there is an outline of corpses, one for each person in the party including Deacon. Each corpse is different in their appearance, but they are all clearly dead. Each of them has a massive sword in their chest that is cold to the touch. The swords are almost impossible to remove from their chest and if they somehow manage to do it, it turns to dust in their hands and another zombie reappears. If the players touch the zombies themselves or even disturb them in any way, they come to life. They use the swords in their chest as a weapon (1d4 damage). Scale it to your party’s level. Use the Zombie stat block found here https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/zombie
After they kill the zombies, one has a single key on them. It’s used to unlock the door. Once they use it, it turns into a bunch of spiders in their hands. The next room is just empty but has three chests in it. The door behind them disappears as well with only one exit. Three chests sit in front of the three walls of the room with a lantern above the chests. On the left wall, the lantern is a deep red, the center wall is green, and the right one is a deep blue. The red one is the correct chest and the other two are mimics. The chest holds some random items like potions of healing, some gold, and a single key. This unlocks the door in the room. This one turns into slime as soon as it is unlocked.
The next room is what looks like a library of sorts. The door doesn’t disappear behind them and is the only exit. There’s a single pedestal in the middle of the room that is only glowing in the pale moonlight from the break in the ceiling above. There’s a book that is laying open. As soon as any player reads the book, they are sucked into the book and it closes. But only have one player be sucked into it. As soon as it slams shut, three skeletons appear. They can either fight them or run away. As soon as they take the book and run, the door leads back into the entryway and disappears behind them. The only way to get the player out of the book is to read the entire page where the player is. It gives a description of them and has a drawing of them. If they read any monster or item pages, the monster or item appears. Once the player is saved, the book flaps it’s pages like wings and flies away.
Deacon is confused that the layout has changed and tries the door on the left. Again, the door disappears. Each player is on their own but within the same room. They don’t know that though. The only thing is the mirror. The reflection does everything the player does (if the player heals, the reflection does, etc.) As soon as they break the mirror, an evil copy of themselves appears. Each player has to defeat their copy. As soon as they do, they all appear in the room together with one door at the end.
This door leads down into a dark basement. It is a massive maze that is disorienting. But Deacon leads them through it like it’s no big deal. They finally reach the final door. When they enter, there is no scientist. There are so many shelves of books, papers, potions and more. There is equipment used for experiments. The booming voice speaks again.
“You’ve finally made it to my laboratory. Unluckily for you, the only way to leave this place is to kill your new friend. If you don’t, you will die here.” He laughs again. The players are forced to kill their new friend Deacon. Once they do, the scientist appears out of thin air. He seems to be a ghost! He laughs at their deed. “Yes, you all are as evil as I thought you were! Too bad you have to die!” The spirit possesses the newly dead Deacon and turns into almost a spirit. The battle begins. Use this stat block https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Wraith#content (scale to your party).
After the battle is over, give the players their reward. You as the DM can use anything you see fit. If you give them weapons found in the room, when the players deal damage for the first time, it takes a bit of HP from the creature they are fighting and add it to their own HP. They are cursed weapons. As soon as they take the weapons, the house starts to crumble and break apart. They escape the house just in the nick of time. The entire house collapses on itself with one final booming evil laugh. The fire from the lanterns starts a fire that is purple and red in color. It destroys everything and fizzles out. And that is the end of the scientist... Or is it?
The original idea was created, revised, and edited by us, Bards of Lore!
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