Feast of the Forgetful Dead {Drag and Drop Dungeon Room]

Anywhere a tragedy has occurred, leaving death in its wake, there are shades who linger there. Their trauma is still too terrible to face so they accept blissful forgetfulness, reenacting a time of joy from their lives.

Light, music, and laughter emerge from a room ahead: strange indeed here in this otherwise dead place. Within whatever denizens of this dungeon before whatever disaster left it bare carouse and feast around a great banquet table. Musicians play in a corner. A rousing song might be taken up by the partiers. People dance on the table and all is bright with merriment. The banquet table is full of wonderful food, the room is brightly lit and well decorated and cleaned.

• So long as the PCs maintain some kind of facade, the feasters are very welcoming and polite and will offer them food and to stay a while and celebrate with them.
• The room is under an illusion, created by the ghosts. Its true state is that of a decayed and dilapidated hall with a table covered in ancient rotted meats. The feasters are revealed to be gruesome skeletal shades.
• 3d10 Shades: +2 Chill Touch (1d6 Con dmg), 1HD, AC: As Leather, Special: Incorporeal, Cannot be harmed except with magical weapons.
• Eating the food immediately reveals that it is rotten and ancient. It is a Save vs Poison to maintain composure, otherwise your disgust is evident and you have to roll under Con to not wretch.

A dagger is embedded into a large turkey in the center of the table. Something is immediately strange about it, as though it doesn't properly reflect the light.

• This is a +1 Dagger of Revealing: its reflective blade only shows the truth, seeing past illusions.
• Worth 200gp.
• If the PCs look into the blade, they will see the room and the shades as they truly are.

The ghosts do not wish to be reminded of what has happened or that their present state of bliss is illusory. They will immediately see the PCs as people who belong there if they keep up any kind of facade. They will not immediately turn on the PCs but they will get increasingly agitated as per the following levels:

0: Blissful: Everything is bright and happy. The illusion is sound.

1: Suspicious: The light begins to dim. A pall begins to hang over the party.

2: Agitated: Cobwebs begin to creep up table legs. Faces of the shades become gaunt and their voices raspy. Decorations decay.

3: Hostile: The illusion shatters. All is revealed in its true form. The shades attack.

Here are the things that will increase their agitation levels:

• The PCs do not try to blend in.
• A PC shows disgust with the food.
• Refusing to stay or eat without a good reason.
• Asking a question about the dungeon without an "in-character" reason.
• Doing or saying anything to make them think they might be dead.
• Reminding them of the tragedy which befell them.

What do the shades know?

• What disaster befell this place.
• Where the treasure is likely kept.
• What traps the builders left.
• The general layout.
• What this place was originally for.

When last I ran this room was for a dwarf dungeon in my Weird Marches campaign. My players immediately tried to act the part and made eloquent excuses for why they could not stay for long. They made some good excuses bt pretty much immediately went to ask about what happened in this place, and saw what happened as the room decayed before their eyes. They didn't press further, made their excuses, and left.