Haunted House

Mandilissimar is a powerful mage, slowly getting driven mad by the voices speaking to him in his dreams. The voices are the urgings of a lich, defeated and trapped within a magic box, unable to activate its phylactery and return to life. The voices have been manipulating Mandilissimar into activating undead and searching for the lost phylactery.

When the party arrives at the manor, they arrive with little more than rumors and suspicions overheard in town (history DC15, with the DM sprinkling whatever kind of flavor fits their campaign best). For me, that would mean there is a crazy wizard who lives in the mountains, in some tower or old mansion. The whole valley is haunted, and no one dares travel there alone anymore, especially at night. The mansion was once the home of a powerful magic user who collected rare and powerful artifacts, as well as information from every source they encountered in the mountains. It is even rumored that he spoke with dragons, before the terror came.

The terror was crippling, as horrors awoke somewhere in the hills and descended on the towns and farms, killing wantonly, and driving the lucky ones away in terror. A hardy band of warriors was sent into the hills to curb the nightmare, and after many months returned, the horrors in check. They came into town, pale and haggard, collected their reward, and disappeared on the morning wind, never speaking of what they had seen and overcome.

Now, the mad wizard has come, and the unrest is growing. There are undead out at night again, making their way down the mountainsides, driving farmers into the town for safety. Some blame Mandilissimar for the undead, most blame him for rousing them from a long slumber with his mad experiments.

Mandilissimar is convinced the location of the treasure he seeks can only be revealed under the light of the full moon. He has been crafting potions meant to simulate the light of the full moon, and to heighten his awareness to search more widely when the full moon rises. In reality, the potions he is concocting are actually attracting the undead, with different colors drawing in different varieties of undead. He is brewing the potions on the dream visitations of the lich, and doesn't realize their true effect in the blindness of his search.

When the party arrives, he will invite them in after a certain rushed anxiety over their interruption of his planned search that evening. His invitation is genuine, even while his tone is brusque. He feels that he can take advantage of the extra eyes and bodies to search the entire mansion during the evening. He will offer them dinner, and even if they refuse, will provide drinks for them - red, green, and blue liquors decanted on the table in the kitchen. These are his special formulas. Their taste is pleasant, if slightly bland, and they don't appear to have any adverse effect when taken.

Once the moon rises, their magic is awakened, and each color will act as a pheromone to a specific kind of undead monster, which will waken with the moon and be drawn toward anyone who drank their color of elixir.

Tomorrow, we'll work out some logistics for an encounter, and pull this together.