Well it's been a while. I've been working away on my Hordlings book, in between trips to the hospital (one for pancreatitis and one for kidney stones, hot tip kids, getting old sucks if you haven't taken care of yourself). Anyhoo, I now have all of the write-ups done and am working on the layout. Then it'll be writing the introductions, some stuff for the back and getting all the OGL bumf taken care of.

In the meantime, I got together with my "physical" group of gamers ( as opposed to my online friends) and ran a session in my city of Firstport. They took care of some business arising from last fall's sessions, re equipped themselves and then were approached by an alderman of the Shipyards ward, and a cousin of the elf character Draedan to investigate a "Haunted House" I used an excellent little adventure called Death Mask, written by Jesse Walker, that I found here:
 http://members.iinet.net.au/~jwalker1/encounter/encounter01.pdf

It was easy to adapt to my setting, and it suited the party level very well. I added a complication to getting into the house itself, a magic Repulsor Stone. It is a large polished crystal, the size and shape of a curling stone (minus the handle) with a glyph of Repulsion carved into it. It is placed in the center of a property and activated by tracing the glyph with the index finger of the right hand. Once activated, any uninvited being attempting to enter or intrude on the property must save vs magic. If they fail, what happens to them depends on how they tried to enter the property. If they attempted to use a legitimate entrance such as a gate or walkway, they are teleported away to a location specified by the owner ( in this case to Whoretown) where they will be confused for 1d6 turns, but otherwise unharmed.  If they attempt to sneak into the grounds then they are catapulted 20 feet into the air and dropped unceremoniously just outside the property boundaries for 2d8 falling damage. The stone is deactivated by tracing the glyph again or by removing it from the property it was guarding, and it does not necessarily have to be the owner that turns the stone off. If someone manages to turn the stone off it can be reactivated in  another spot by tracing the glyph. It will then guard that spot for the person it perceives to be the owner. I.E. if placed in a rented room and activated, it will perceive the renter as the owner of that space and work against any of the new owner's uninvited trespassers. The stone repulses intelligent beings and animals, so it makes a good vermin eliminator. It does not work against undead, but does work against everything else,e.g. it will keep out demons and angels if they fail their saving throw.

One of the party was able to make his saving throw and broke the protection by chucking the stone outside the property boundaries. Most of the rest got teleported to Whoretown, and one got catapulted into the air.

The dungeon itself is a nice mix of opponents, traps, maguffins and geegaws. The party consisted of 5 1st level characters, most just bordering on 2nd level (5th Edition) and the challenge level for them was nicely matched. Everything went fairly smooothly until they encountered the main baddy. He cast Darkness in the room he was in , but they went in any way. He was able to take them down (paralysis) one by one until his darkness spell wore off, then the remaining fighter cut him down pretty quick. However, the last fighter made a deadly mistake and put on the evil mask. The mask took him over and then cut the throats of the rest of the incapacitated party for a TPK BABY! Mwah-ha-ha-ha! Now the mask has a stronger host and a new batch of undead warriors for the next unlucky party that attempts to enter the Manor. Oh and Cuthach retrieved and reset the Repulsor Stone too!

It was a fun game, even the players enjoyed it, once they got over the shock! This group is mostly comprised of people new to playing D&D. Usually my son plays with this group too but he was away. My friend Paul was also going to play in this session but wasn't able to at the last minute. I suspect that if either or both of them had been there the outcome would have been very different. Both of them know not to go into a room that has Darkness cast in it, and both are too experienced to put on an Evil Mask!

The main baddy was very well-balanced for the recommended level of the party. He was tricky enough that he could have overcome the party, but not so powerful that they couldn't overcome him. The Manor has a largish amount of treasure, but it is sufficiently guarded with tricks, traps and monsters to justify it. Like I said earlier, I found the module easy to adapt to my setting, but it also has a decent stand-alone set up as well. I've read some more of Jesse Walker's work and like it as well.

And here are some pictures for shits and giggles: