Self-Made Dungeon for Halloween: The Puppet Theater

This dungeon was made for Halloween with another group, three people who have never played Mörk Borg before. I knew they would not like horror as much as my usual players, so I made it softer and didn’t tie it into the lore. Since then, I have run it twice; both times it seemed well received.

Room 1:
Players spawn here with no knowledge of where they are, who each other is, or how they got here. In the middle of the room is a sigil. Three of the four walls are made of stone; one is wooden. Within the wooden wall is a door. On the door is a sign saying, "Each week a new show!" It has a keyhole and can not be opened by force. The wooden wall, however, is sturdy (30 HP), but breakable. Two hallways lead out of the starting room, the northern one to room 3, the eastern one to room 2. There are statues in the room; they are just that.

Room 2:
The shop. The shopkeeper is a fat man who sells two scrolls, Foul Psychopomp and Grace for a Sinner, for 55 silver each; a shield for 25 silver; and black poison for 25 silver. He is a lost soul who got here a long time ago. He convinced himself that he could buy himself out. His wares are plundered from corpses. He knows that every week, new people land in the theater. He will never buy from the players.
Under his desk is a fortune of 400 silver and two random weapons. If he is attacked, he transforms into a golem consisting of hair that entangles puppets. A hallway to the north leads to room 3.

Golem: 15 HP, 1d6 damage with his fist; if he hits, the target has to make a DR 12 agility check or get entangled in the hair and the puppet's hands. No armor, no moral. Never retreats.

Room 3:
A big theater stands here. The director is a wraith (refer to page 61), he is unhappy with his newest creation and wants the players' input on how to make it better. His play consists of four human corpse marionettes stabbing each other for 20 minutes straight.
He reacts strongly to criticism and has to be handled with care. If the players don’t help him, he and the puppets attack. Once the director dies, the puppets stop moving. A hallway to the north leads to room 5.

Puppets: 5 hp, 1d4 damage.

Room 4:
In the center stands a dinner table. On it, there are three humans standing in a T-pose on their chair, and parallel to each of them stands a voodoo doll in the same pose. In the dolls is the hair of the person parallel to it. The people will not awaken.
If they remove the hair from the doll, the people will slump into themselves.
If a player's hair is in the doll, they don’t take damage to the body; instead, the doll has to be attacked for them to get hurt. It has two HP, and if it gets destroyed, the attached player dies. However, the doll is much easier to defend. A hallway leads to room 5.

Room 5:
The hallways leading to room 5 get quite tight. In the room itself is Konrad, an aggressive madman who stands 2 meters tall and uses giant, rusty scissors as a weapon.
He has the key to the room at the beginning. He could escape the theater if he laid down his weapon and squeezed through the hallway, but he will never lay down his weapon, no matter what. Closer inspection shows him as thumbless.

Konrad, 20 HP, no armor.
1d8 damage with his scissors, DR 12 toughness check, or the target gets infected by the rusty blades.

Behind the door:
If your players managed to get here too fast, use the golem enemy from room 2 here.
In the room is a puppet house. Whatever the players do to it, it happens in the dungeon. Removing the roof floods the dungeon with light. The players can destroy it or take themselves out of the house. All of this will end the dungeon.

My experience running it:

Room 1:
One group started attacking the door, but none of them ever attacked the wall. Both groups went to room 2 from here.

Room 2:
Both groups killed the shopkeeper. After the first time, I started using the golem stat block for him, just to make it a bit challenging. The first time it happened, I used a random monster's stat block from the book. Note on the golem: Adjust the level of grossness to your group. The first group did not encounter him, but if they had, it would have just been this thing of hair and puppets. For the second group, two of my usual players, I made it wet and described it with the consistency of its remains with hair one has fish out of the drain after showering. Make it icky if you have the right group for it.

Room 3:
Both groups gave the director criticism. I have had no fights here thus far. Both groups told the director to become more creative with the weapons than just knives.
My second group gave me positive feedback on this room because they liked having an encounter where they didn't have to fight. The director is very fun to roleplay in my experience.

Room 4:
The voodoo dolls have never been used on players, but one group took one of the people as a meat shield with them. Another doll became a dog toy. I decided that the person attached to it got shaken too. Don’t stress the logistics too much; go with what seems the most fun with the dolls.

Room 5:
One group got here and started to go back the moment they saw Konrad. His 1d8 damage die can be deadly.

The dollhouse:
Both groups got here and decided to see how meta this gets. Just be prepared for this. The first group destroyed the house; the other one took themselves out of it.

I liked this dungeon a lot and would strongly recommend it for a first-time group. Just make sure to ask them if anyone has a phobia against puppets.