"The Haunting" conversion for Demon City

 

THE HAUNTING

Adapted from the classic Call of Cthulhu Adventure  

For a copy of Demon City - go HERE

Build up – A person wants the house investigated – several families have left, and the last one was terrible – the father was put into a mental hospital.
It seems to be something wrong with the house – the landlord suspects some sort of chemical or infrastructure problem, like lead pipes.

You are a smart cookie: Have the person or company asking the players contact one of them, then the rest can follow as friends, people who want to take a vacation out in the more rural area the house is located at, or fellow investigators - private and public.
Make sure that gas stations, hotels, weird local tourist-y things, and the general air of a dead or dying town are present.
Take a little while to describe the road trip - and have opportunity for roleplay - "let's play eye spy!" "anyone want gum?" "I need to go to a toilet" "the world's largest ball of twine? let's stop and see it!"

Good places for gossip: Old-ass barber shop - really old grocery store - fishing hole or fishing shop - podunk police station - old woman who needs chores done - ETC
Read Demon Country (pg 196) for some other ideas.

Problem characters are maybe a bit too much for this adventure, but um, whatever - you do you.

Contacts can be found/gained here - police, named locals, family who lives here - ETC

You should adjust downtime if they stay here for a while post-adventure. 

Places to research or inquire:

local library - barely functioning, old and dusty - librarian loves to talk, hours are really limited

hall of records - beyond rickety - the keeper is old and confused, mixed medication fogs all thought  and the records are sparse

courts, police station - police are few in number, and have limited technology - court is in another town

local neighborhood - mostly run-down houses, a few have old residents who will NOT be friendly without some clever persuasion or appeal 

the mental hospital - a couple town's away - several days travel 

old weird church nearby - make it have weird cult stuff if you want further adventures here

Details surrounding the house may be gleaned from research at these places – use the original module or make stuff up - here are some pertinent skills (pg 28 onwards) :

Research for researching at the locations above.

Appeal and Persuasion for talking to people.

Detection for noticing them lying or not telling you all the facts.

Burglary for breaking into the house – if things are locked or sealed off.

Detection for noticing subtle creepy things.

Local Knowledge will have the character knowing some about the local area – so they may know old stories or people who can help.

Paranormal Occult for the weird old church, the diaries, and other such paranormal oddities in the house.

Researching helps give the house an air of - abandoned, cursed, haunted, strange, ETC

This adventure centers around a Haunt see page 332-333 for details.


Remember that the haunt can do the following:

◆ Open or close any door 

◆ Lock or unlock any door 

◆ See and hear everything in the building 

◆ Know the innermost fears of anyone in the building 

◆ Add a duplicate of a room behind a closed set of doors 

◆ Create disturbing audible and visual illusions (usually resulting in a Calm Check on the victim’s part)

◆ Double or halve any dimensions of a room 

◆ Telekinetically move any object that is “native” to the house (striking with an Intensity of 4) 

◆ Animate any dead in the house as a drone (see Revenants & Drones on page 366) 

◆ Turn patterned surfaces into 100-ft deep pools

Also, it is important to note: the ghost cannot prevent keys from opening locked doors — though it may close and lock them in the next round.

I have used italics under each room for potential uses of these abilities – but use them all, and make them as creepy as possible

Keep track of doors – where the characters are – and try to get them to split up if at all possible.

B1 Storage, locked – the electricity has been turned off to this room – the electrical box is in the mudroom – behind a shelf - in this room is a lot of stored things, such as tools, some old unused pipes, a trash can lid, old dusty lumber, screws – anything you can imagine sitting unused in a basement and a knife sits, seemingly forgotten, on the dirty floor – the stairs down are narrow and rickety.

Stairs may be converted into a slide

Objects may fly and strike characters

Lights may be turned off – even if they went and restored power in G3

B2 Empty storage bin, it is nailed shut – it used to be for storing coal.

If opened, and someone reaches inside, the haunt will close it back up, potentially mangling their hand if they don’t react in time

B3 Wallspace, contains rats and detritus – there is a key among the dust that locks and unlocks U1.

B4 The haunt's hiding place, there is a table – with a motionless, dead, dusty body laying up on it -
she is the focal point of the haunting – her body clutches a knife, which, if destroyed – will exorcise the house.

The ghost may animate the dead body holding the knife as a revenant

G1 Storage room, nailed shut, a cupboard inside the room contains the diaries of Gillian Corrine (the Haunt) and a key that locks and unlocks G2. The diaries will be about some weird occult stuff, but it is dispersed among totally normal stuff - like PTA minute records, grocery lists, tax notes, doctor's visit notes, ETC.

If opened, and someone goes inside, the haunt will close it back up

G2 Storage, contains broken wood furniture - have it gnawed, bloody, or strangely warped - if the PCs look closely.

Wood may fly and strike characters

G3 Mudroom, boots, galoshes, some chunks of wood in burlap bags – electrical breaker box - has upper floor, attic, ground floor, basement - and most of the appliances - all the electricity is turned off at the start. This breaker box is behind a shelf containing boots, there are scrape marks showing it was pushed to cover the box, if players are observant or ask. – the floor has a striped rug in the middle.

Striped rug can become 100 ft. deep pool

Wood and boots may fly and strike characters

G4 Living room, lots of christian decoration, old tube tv, couch, some chairs – a fireplace, empty. You should have some stuff in the couch - like coins, knicknacks, maybe a key or something.

Christian decorations, like crosses, will flip upside down

Illusions of some creature or a dead body falling out of the fireplace

This room may expand, and expand, and expand, and expand

G5 Dining room, dining table and seven chairs.

The table may slide and try to pin a character to the wall

G6 Kitchen, fridge, stove and oven, some leftover food perhaps, in a pantry.

The fridge may fall over on a character

The stovedoor, fridge door, and pantry door may open and close – with accompanying laughter

U1 bedroom, has double bed, more christian decoration – the bedspread is zigzags.

Bed can be moved by the haunt and smash people through the window

Zigzag spread can become 100 ft. deep pool

Christian decorations, like crosses, will flip upside down

U2 children’s bedroom, have some scary drawings under a bed – in the ceiling is the hatch that leads to the attic, it is marked with an X

Illusions of the drawings may appear, once seen

here is a scary drawing to use

Visions of dead kids may appear in this room

U3 spare bedroom, empty bedspring – this was the haunt's former bedroom room, so this is a sure place for her to haunt - this is often the first place something should happen, the best kind of thing to do is to make a distinctive noise here to lure the PCs towards it.

The bedspring can flip over and land on a character

U4 Bathroom, sink, toilet, bathtub – overhead tank on the toilet – the faucet drips – there is a medicine cabinet, it may have non-expired pharmaceuticals – has a small polka-dot rug in front of the toilet.

Polka-dot rug can become a 100 Ft. deep pool

Door to the bathroom can be locked

Pharmaceuticals may fly out of bottles and into mouths

A1: Attic space, which is extremely dusty – and contains several pieces of furniture covered in sheets.

The furniture may slide and try to pin a character to the wall, or out of the window

The attic hatch may slam shut

The sheets may rise and appear to be a ghost 

Horror Deck Suggestion:
ace of pentacles: evil intelligence
2 of pentacles: corruption, weakness
3 of pentacles: more weakness – this time in the context of the structure
4 of swords: A tomb, hermit's repose, exile
5 of pentacles: chaos (caused by continued haunting of families)
6 of wands: apprehension, fear
7 of swords: design, attempts (keeping people away from the house)
8 of cups: a person of dejected aspect
9 of swords: deception, imprisonment
10 of pentacles: the abode of a family (now abandoned)

the tower

the hermit



Anytime the tower is thrown – immediately do a haunting effect


The player deck is 3 of each number from 1-10 suit cards minor arcana, and the fool

here is the map - adapted from the original CoC adventure  

research and revenant art by @SamuelThomasCu2