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Haunted hotel · Large · Medium

Mugwort House

The brass bell on the check-in desk rings once, and every empty room answers with a door latch clicking open.
Rooms
20
Foes
29, CR 1/4 to 4
Traps
5
Treasure
749 gp
1234567891011121314151617181920Entrance
Select a room on the plan to open it.

The party is in

1. Front Desk

Seen

Something wanders by

At a glance

The threat

Grandma Ione, an elderly innkeeper with a soft voice and iron will, oversees the hotel and its restless dead.

Wandering monsters (1d3)

  1. 1

    The Wandering SheetCR 1/2

    When: It appears when a party spends ten minutes searching or makes loud noise in the guest wing.A floating black sheet trails a faint smell of cold ashes and whispers room numbers.
  2. 2

    The Empty PorterCR 1

    When: It patrols after the service bell is rung twice or a locked door is forced.A headless bellhop carries a lantern and wheels an empty luggage cart that rattles over smooth floors.
  3. 3

    3× Lantern MiceCR 1/4

    When: They emerge when food is opened or a flame is dropped near the corn stalks.Three pumpkin-headed mice with tiny, sharp teeth spill out from beneath furniture and swarm toward spilled food.

Rooms

20
1

Front Desk

1 foetreasuresecret

What they see

Read aloud

The lobby is warm and welcoming at first glance, with a check-in desk, a roaring hearth, and a wall of tarnished room keys. Grandma Ione sits behind the desk; the locked west, east, and south doors bear old brass signs, while the normal north and south doors lead toward the guest wing and kitchen passage.

Features

  • A huge hotel ledger lies open to tonight's date.
  • A bell on the desk can summon nearby wandering monsters if rung twice.
  • The hearth contains ash that never cools.

What the GM knows

Monsters

Grandma IoneCR 2

Grandma Ione appears as a stooped, hospitable woman in a lace cap; her shadow is unnaturally tall and jointed.Tactics. She offers tea and asks the party to surrender weapons for safekeeping. If threatened, she rings the bell, retreats through a staff door, and uses spells or a concealed knife to delay pursuers.

Treasure

Guest Deposits85 gp

A velvet purse of mixed coins, collected from guests who never checked out.
Room secrets · GM only

Notes

The three locked doors open with keys found in rooms 2, 9, and 12 respectively. Grandma knows the layout and can use shortcuts. She does not reveal the basement key willingly.

2 doors: W (locked), E (archway)

The place

What it is

Mugwort House began as a roadside hotel and grew into a maze of guest rooms, service passages, and buried chambers.

Atmosphere

The upper halls smell of cinnamon, wet wool, and old perfume; below, the air turns cold and metallic.

The threat

Grandma Ione, an elderly innkeeper with a soft voice and iron will, oversees the hotel and its restless dead.

History

Mugwort House was built by a family of emigrant innkeepers whose homeland had no cornfields, but the local mugwort soon swallowed their kitchen garden and gave the place its name.

Rumors

1d5
Roll a rumor

  1. 1The old hotel gives every guest a room key, even if the rooms have been bricked up for years.
  2. 2A friendly grandmother still serves supper at Mugwort House, though nobody in town remembers seeing her age.
  3. 3A corn maze appears inside the hotel after midnight, and people who follow its painted arrows come out missing a shoe or a name.
  4. 4The basement bell rings during thunderstorms, followed by the sound of furniture being dragged upstairs.
  5. 5A child's ghost asks travelers to bring back a tin soldier from the hotel's locked rooms.

Plot hooks

3
RescueThe Guest Who Checked OutA traveling cousin has vanished after booking a room at Mugwort House. The hotel ledger lists them as checked out, but their voice is heard behind the walls.From: Tamsin Pell, a worried courier who delivered the cousin's last letter.Reward: A generous purse and the missing traveler's family signet.
RetrievalA Jar from BelowA village healer hires the party to retrieve a jar of preserved heart tissue from the basement, unaware that the lair's key is held by Grandma.From: Dr. Kelm, a blunt village physician.Reward: A healing potion for each character and a rare medical manual.
InvestigationThe Midnight RegisterThe dead are appearing in nearby homes, repeating fragments of hotel check-in speeches. Their numbers grow whenever the basement bell rings.From: Nessa, a local gravedigger who has collected the same muddy footprints at several graves.Reward: The town's gratitude, a safehouse, and a silvered weapon.

Corridors

4

  • Between rooms 0 and 1

    A brass service bell rings once when anyone passes; nearby doors briefly show lit rooms that are not there.

  • The corridor connecting rooms 0, 4, and 13

    Cornstalks push through cracks in the carpet, their dry leaves whispering directions that lead back to the same junction.

  • Near room 3, beside the secret passage to room 11

    A dumbwaiter shaft contains a hand-cranked lift linking the kitchen stores to the basement. Its pulley is stained with old blood and can carry one Medium creature at a time.

  • Between rooms 7 and 14

    A portrait-lined passage has small viewing slits behind the frames, allowing someone in the walls to watch travelers.

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