Ghost in the Attic is a non-system specific adventure written using the advice outline at Bard of Valiant in this post.
The characters are hired by a dealer in rare spices named Kasimir to protect him as he travels from one city to the next. His current inventory includes saffron, a rare variety of garlic, anetto seeds and paprika. He fears the bandits that would loot these from his corpse and feels he needs protection.
As the characters travel, they come across an empty farmhouse in the evening as its time to camp. It seems in bad repair but a storm is threatening and they will need shelter.The house has 3 rooms. A main room on the ground with a table and fireplace, a bedroom off this main room and an attic room reached by a ladder.
As the night wears on, eerie and creepy noises disturb their rest and make Kasimir edgy. He will want to brave the storm. Any wilderness savvy character will not want to do this. The storm will make travel nearly impossible and not worth the effort for the distance gained.
Near morning, the storm is still raging but weather wise PCs expect it to finally let up near noon. At this time, all characters should make a check as some of the noises aren’t caused by the storm any longer but by the undead haunting the cabin.
The family that lived here was slaughtered one dawn by raiders as they readied themselves to work the nearby fields. Each morning, they manifest and attempt to protect the house. The characters will be seen by the undead as a threat and will be attacked. They are zombies so their sudden appearance at dawn will further surprise the players who had not found any undead in the house up to that point.
The family consisted of the farmer, his wife, their teenage son and 3 smaller children. These are very low level undead and this fight could drag on for some time. The undead never seem to die during the fight, any that are severely wounded in one blow will fall only to rise again a round or two later.
It’s up to the characters to realize they need to banish the family from the house instead of merely killing them. A ritual known by one of the characters with some kind of faith will do the trick. There are only 2 problems. 1) The ritual requires the use of a rare spice and the characters will need to convince the merchant to part with it. 2) The ritual is a long one and the party will need to keep the person conducting it undisturbed for the length of it.
The party can leave the house and leave the undead to haunt the place or they can conduct the ritual. The attic is the best place for the ritual as it’s easily defended. I’d give the party extra experience for dispelling the undead family from the house.
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