You enter a dining room where a long table gleams beneath candles that give off no heat. Six translucent guests sit motionless, their dinner plates holding only gray ash. Silver cutlery trembles whenever one ghost speaks, and a black-glass platter at the table's center bears six shallow grooves. A card lies beside it, covered in hurried handwriting; as you approach, the ghosts turn toward you and the room fills with the smell of cold roast meat and wet earth.
You step into a candlelit dining room where six translucent guests sit around a table set for a feast. The plates hold gray ash, and the cutlery shivers as the ghosts argue in whispers. A handwritten card and six silver tokens rest beside a black-glass platter with six empty grooves. Every ghost turns to you at once.
The ghosts all insist they were murdered, then contradict one another about who struck first. The name cards match the six tokens. Each ghost can repeat the statement associated with their name, but they are too agitated to explain the token clues unless asked calmly.
Let the party discuss the statements and move tokens freely. After a few minutes of circular debate, have one ghost repeat a key phrase or let a token roll toward its matching place card. Escalate only after several minutes of stuck play: the candles gutter and the ghosts begin accusing one another aloud.
You enter a dining room where a long table gleams beneath candles that give off no heat. Six translucent guests sit motionless, their dinner plates holding only gray ash. Silver cutlery trembles whenever one ghost speaks, and a black-glass platter at the table's center bears six shallow grooves. A card lies beside it, covered in hurried handwriting; as you approach, the ghosts turn toward you and the room fills with the smell of cold roast meat and wet earth.
The ghosts want the party to resolve the accusations that have kept them repeating their final supper. The place cards, testimony, tokens, and central platter make the intended interaction apparent without requiring a check.
Read the statement beside each ghost's name. Each speaker remembers the token they saw in the hand of the person who killed them.
Ada Vale: silver bell
Bram Holt: thorn
Cora Wren: crescent moon
Dain Marr: key
Edda Sorn: silver rose
Fenn Pike: black feather
Place each killer's token in the groove beside the name of the person they killed.
The players read the testimony card, match each ghost's name to their place card, and use the token named in that ghost's statement to identify the killer. They may ask the ghosts to repeat their testimony, move the six tokens, and place one token in the platter's groove beside each victim's name; no action roll is needed to try a pairing. When all six pairings are correct, the platter shows a complete ring and the ghosts fall silent. An incorrect pairing makes the relevant token ring sharply and the named ghosts recoil, signaling that the match is wrong without exposing the answer. Checks can clarify observations or encourage testimony, but the artifact contains everything needed.
The encounter begins when the party enters the dining room; placing any token on the platter causes the ghosts to stop arguing and watch the party.
| DC | Check | What it gives |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Society or Perception | Notice that the six carved place settings are arranged in the same order as the names on the testimony card, and that each silver token has a matching mark. |
| 19 | Occultism or Religion | Recall Knowledge about the haunting and infer that the ghosts are bound to the truthful parts of their final testimony, though fear and blame make them evasive. |
| 16 | Diplomacy | Request a ghost's testimony without provoking an argument; success gets one ghost to repeat their statement clearly. |
| 19 | Society | Recognize that each statement's token description identifies the killer's place setting, while the speaker's place setting identifies the victim. |
No hint given yet.
The six tokens settle into their grooves and the ghosts' overlapping accusations resolve into a single clear account. One by one, they acknowledge the person who killed them, then thank the party for ending the loop. The black-glass platter opens to reveal the chamber's hidden reward.
The supper resets in a gust of cold wind. Each character takes 1d6 mental damage, with a basic DC 19 Will save, and the ghosts remain available for another attempt. The ghosts also reveal one correct killer-victim pair as the scene resets. This is a haunt-like consequence, not a session-ending obstacle.
Lord Vey built this spectral dinner chamber after his household died in a single night, hoping to force their ghosts to repeat their final meal until the truth surfaced. The six dead guests could recall fragments but not the whole sequence, so Vey's architect designed a table that would arrange testimony as a logic puzzle. Vey died before the ghosts reached agreement, and the chamber has been repeating the supper ever since.
For a lower-pressure version, remove the three-incorrect-accusation limit and let the ghosts provide a correct pair after each wrong attempt. For a more challenging version, conceal the name-to-token place-card list around the room as six separate clues, but ensure the clues remain accessible without successful checks.
Do not make a failed check block the solution. Checks offer clarification, not required clues. The ghosts' claims of innocence are emotional rather than reliable evidence; the written statements and token matching are the fair, stable source. Reward careful note-taking and reasonable interpretations.
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