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SPOILER WARNING: This is a description of some of the unique and interesting experiences my players and I had with this module. As a result, there are spoilers regarding the content and ending.
For Halloween, my players wanted to do a spooky one shot. I had purchased some others, but they required more prep time than I had available, since I've been working some overtime. This module declared that it needed only a few minutes of prep work, so I got it and informed my players that I had no idea what was going to happen.
The module is aimed for a party that is between levels 3-5. My players enjoy a more casual approach to combat, so I had both of them roll up a lvl 6 character. Joining the party was a local villager, who decided he wanted to take up adventuring. He was a lvl 0, meaning he was just some peasent with 5 hit points and a pitchfork. I figured he would end up dying and add some dramatic tension.
In the third room of the haunted mansion, the adventurers come across a decrepit old woman, cold and lonely. She asks to be brought over to the fire. If you help her to her feet, the old woman (named Chamomile) will see how much her body has decayed, and will die of fright, collapsing into a pile of rotting meat and bone. One of my players, however, is a Circle of Spores druid, and was able to reanimate Chamomile with Fungal Infestation. I could have claimed she was reduced to a zombie level of intelegence, but instead I kept roleplaying her as they decided to bring her along. Since I didn't actually know what was in the module, I just played her as though she had a flimsy memory from age. As the party uncovered more secrets of the house, Chamomile would start to "remember" little details about what was going on. It also became a reoccuring gag that Chamomile had an increasingly dirty mind. "Oh, I didn't mind the cult in the early days, before they started getting into the rough stuff. Back then, it was just brunches and orgies. I really miss the orgies."
In the library, the players found a book by a man named Sebasitian, about a local hero who would travel the land doing good. We decided to incorporate that into the villager that was following them around. Since he'd written so much about adventures, he finally decided he should actually try having some. Especially since people were starting to get annoyed with him bragging so much without anything to show for it.
We cointinued through the dungeon, the layout of the module making it very easy to run the game while still being surprised by the events that unfolded. During the final battle with the BBEG, the final blow was struck by... Sebastian the peasent, after rolling a nat 20. Everyone cheered as Sebastian began whailing on the BBEG's corpse, ranting about increasinly personal topics. "This is for the people you've hurt! And this is for the families who lost their loved ones! And this is for my book sales drying up! And this is for my wife leaving me! And this is for my dick not working right!" Everyone agreed that Sebastian had earned a level up from this experience, and we are officially making him a lvl 1 fighter.
As for Chamomile, she got upgradded to being Animate Dead. Now instead of collapsing after an hour, she would be maintained with a simple reapplication of the spell every 24 hours. The ending to the module specifies that you witness the ghost of Chamomile freed from the evil of the house, and she goes off into the afterlife. The algamation of death that was our Chamomile said, "I guess that means I don't have a soul any more." She offered a toothy grin. "That means I can sin as much as I want now! Time to make some money at the cat house!"
Over all, fine little one shot that fully delivers on its promise of being able to run a game with minimal preperation. I fully intend to purchase the other modules offered by Zan's Adventures.
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