I just uploaded the new version of The House of Lisport. The accompanying PDF now has a table of contents as well as some links between content. And of course is in the new 9x7 format. Maps are integrated into the text; they continue to be in Inkscape for wide editability.

The House of Lisport is the second “new” adventure, after Lost Castle of the Astronomers, and the first that I wrote specifically for this group. It’s an idea, however, that I had bouncing around since seeing The Ghost of Mistmoor in Dungeon #35 back in 1992. Mistmoor purported to be a haunted house, something I’ve always had a soft spot for, in the gothic tradition; the actual implementation was a bit on the silly side, however, including a pair of thieves using a portable hole as a toilet trap. Even in Monty Haul campaigns, a portable hole was a big deal. The amount of treasure the hole could potentially bring in by risking losing it was dwarfed by how much the hole itself was worth.

I was even willing to put up with that, however, and saved this adventure for years in the hopes of someday running it. When it came time to actually run the thing, however, on reading through it I realized it was somewhat of a railroad: players needed to do and know exactly the right thing in order to complete the adventure, and there wasn’t any adventure if they didn’t complete it.

So I went back to basics and built The House from the ground up, so to speak. First, I wanted to use a real English mansion, so I went online to find the maps for one, ending up with Montacute House, simplified it, and went on to fill it up with all the clichés of years of Poe, Scooby Doo, and other haunted houses. Even the title is a steal from The House of Usher.

I also tied it heavily into the history of the area; more than any other adventure, it uses the past of Highland to explain why things happened the way they did. I even modified it a bit: the whole idea that there are abandoned towns up and down Fawn River comes from this adventure.

And the fact that it’s near Fork meant fleshing out that city, as well, turning it into Highland’s own stripped down Las Vegas—something which led directly into Helter Skelter, the next adventure in the series.