Red Herring:
                                 The Cabin

                                     by

                      Williams (waylyn@mindspring.com)

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This is a truly versatile place that is infamous in my campaign setting
because no matter how powerful or intelligent you may be you are just as
helpless. It is a cabin, usually in the woods, that changes location
constantly and can never be found by looking for it. It continuously
changes, but always has a few thing that never change. Its purpose: to
completely drive players insane. I have one player who continuously looks
for this whenever he's in that forest, I have one who has heard nightmarish
stories about it from the previous character (she is a paladin and sort of
looks at him funny whenever told), and one who chuckled when he found it
(he had good sense of humor considering he thought he had found the secrets
of making artifacts).

Here's how it goes. It is almost completely safe except for two ghosts that
haunt the place at night, they have low hit points and damage, but always
hit and can only be hit with magic:). Unfortunately, no experience is ever
awarded, and the ghosts reappear the next night. Here is a list of all the
things that never change from visit to visit (if a player finds it more
than once):

  1. There's no fireplace, but when the characters leave smoke issues from
     chimney.
  2. The cabin and its contents are indestructible with the exception of a
     single mirror which repairs itself whenever no one is looking at it
  3. There is a library, and all the books have titles that the reader
     wants (secrets of making artifacts, how to kill that really powerful
     monster, etc.), but the pages are blank.
  4. Nothing can ever be taken out of the house.
  5. The cabin is always two stories (at least from the outside).

Other than this the cabin is usually different from visit to visit. I
currently have three maps which I choose from based on my mood. The first
has a secret door that leads back to the entrance so the characters end up
where they started and a bit bewildered. The second cabin has a large room
with two doors leading to it and some kind of treasure in the room. When
you walk through one door and you find yourself coming out of the other. It
also has a staircase that you can walk up forever, but if you turn around
you find that you haven't moved. When you enter the front door of the third
cabin you find yourself on the second floor with no door behind you.

The list could go on and on. GM's are encouraged to be devious, flexible,
and have no explanation as to how any of it is happening. I sure don't.

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