OK, back in the saddle for a few more days, here! Today is brought to you by the Letter H.
Hauntings.
Ghosts can be either a single room nuisance, or be a complete faction. Here we are talking about a particular kind of ghost, though, not the undead as a whole. Let’s look at ghosts that you cannot physically interact with: simple hauntings.
Since we are talking about an actual faction, we are considering a group of ghosts. They will hold a key bit of information that the party wants, like a ritual to get past a particular door. Or they may have information the PCs do not know they need, but they realize it in interacting with the ghosts.
If the megadungeon was at one time an underground city, there might be a congress of ghosts. It is possible they are not even aware of this. They are caught in an endless Groundhog Day type of loop, forever reenacting their last meeting. The PCs stumble into this, and realize they are hearing information discussed that they are looking for, or they realize they have missed a whole section of the complex based on the comments they hear.
The congress of ghosts may be oblivious to the presence of the PCs; or they might simply an image of what has gone before, and have no actual existence at all. It would be more interesting to have the congress be aware of them, and aware of their existence as ghosts. They seek to end their eternal vigil. They may even want to strike at another faction, perhaps out of vengeance. Either or both of these will be accomplished by the PCs.
So the haunting might be a simple quest-giving scenario; or they might use the PCs to accomplish something else. Perhaps they want to return to life, and guide the PCs accordingly, while withholding this bit of intel. Or they know they are damned for eternity, but still wish to accomplish a vile goal that they could not in life, and they seek to manipulate the PCs into accomplishing the goal.
The congress of haunts is just an example, of course. It could be an order of knights, a coven of witches, another adventuring party, and so on. The interesting thing about this style of haunting is that is purely a role playing encounter, an avenue to advance further into the megadungeon, and not a combat encounter at all – though it may lead to combat.
The group, once the PCs have aided them, might fade away, or become a powerful faction in the politics of the megadungeon, perhaps even major villains. But until the PC’s stumble across them, they are just memories.
Did I hear you say Random Table? OK, here are some possible adjuncts for the Hauntings. Not part of the actual group, but rather their servants.
Roll d6:
1. A ghost who serves as butler. He escorts the PCs out of their meetings with the group, either grimly silent or asking about the weather.
2. A living goblin who acts as a secretary, recording the meetings of the group. He might be competent, or instead have written volumes of illegible and half-understood sentences.
3. A sarcastic ghost that complains while getting various insubstantial foodstuffs for the group; they do not seem to notice him at all.
4. A simple quill that records all that is said in a tome in which the pages turn by themselves. There is a stack of volumes.
5. A ghostly valet that responds to all of the group’s requests, but he does not see or hear the party at all, even when the group tells him to aid them.
6. A zombie that stumbles around performing tasks automatically; it has no reason. It was a wizard who found this group of hauntings, who was driven insane and died and now performs menial tasks in a rote fashion.