What to do with a haunted house? (d20 modern)

[GilaMonster]

I have a haunted house mystery planned for the next adventure of my d20 modern campaign, but I'm a bit short on ideas what to do with the place.

I've decided that the previous owner (many years ago) was into occultic magic and human sacrifice. The place isn't actually haunted, it's more a case that the house itself is partially aware and hates life.

I can use some animated objects, some illusions but I'm not sure what else to use without becoming boring.

The house is a 1900 era British manor house. The focus point of the malevolence is a hidden room in the basement where all the sacrifices were made.

Any ideas would be welcome.

[Martin Ralya]

Is your campaign occult-themed? Are most/all of your adventures investigative, or is this one a departure from the usual? Both would be helpful to know in order to provide specific suggestions.

I love the idea of a bait-and-switch with the house appearing to be haunted, but actually being a living, malevolent thing. You could have a lot of fun playing to the PCs' expectations before they figure that out.

[twwombat]

One of the best adventures I ever ran was all about rats.  Not even giant rats: just normal, run-of-the-trashcan rats.  The adventurers snuck in to some sort of rat-human holy place and swiped the big gem in there.  The rats were Not Pleased.  Hordes of them started coming out of the woodwork - too many to control and too small to fight effectively.  The adventurers flat-out ran all the way out of there, chased by an endless supply of fearless rats fueled by divine retribution.

Just little flavor bits, like a rat dropping into a character's hair or starting to clamber up a character's leg, can really make the players twitch.  And don't forget that they're disease carriers as well - you could take a page from classic low-level AD&D adventures: "Take a point, make a save".

For some reason, unstoppable mundane animals fueled by something the players don't understand are much scarier than a slavering, spiky demon.

Rot grubs from D&D are another nasty - if the characters aren't careful, they're dead...

If you can get the party to split up you can do other nasty things - such as an illusion (or enchantment) that forces the halves of the party into shooting each other, both believing that the other is a group of well-armed cultists.  You'll need to provide clues that human sacrifice may still be happening to pull this one off more effectively.

Incorporeal undead (poltergeists, shadows, spectres) may be able to lend the house a hand in hating/disposing of life.  Actually, any undead at all could freak the characters out.  "Oh, it's a dead body."  "A dead body with glowing red eyes who reaches into your chest.  Surprise!  Make a will save for sanity.  OK, take a negative level and three points of charisma, then roll some initiative."

I've used temporary stat damage for sanity loss as well.  There's nothing like a negative skill modifier or "Sorry, you can't cast 3rd level spells any more" to strike fear into a player's heart.  Poison and disease work here as well.  If the house has been abandoned for a hundred years, that's more than enough time for some interesting spores to develop.  Some could be hallucinogens which drain wisdom and make the character paranoid.  Some could cause the shakes and drop dexterity through the floor.  And if a stat hits zero, the character drops.  Something to keep in mind for the min-maxed fighter-type with 6 charisma...

Just some ideas.  Hope they help.

[GilaMonster]

Is your campaign occult-themed? Are most/all of your adventures investigative, or is this one a departure from the usual? Both would be helpful to know in order to provide specific suggestions.

The campaign's not occultic, though there have been hints of demon worship before (unrelated to the house). The campaign base is the shadow chasers model from the d20 modern book. Buffy, just darker. I've been hinting at horror for a while and I want to take it up a notch. Want to see if I can scare them...   

One of the main points is that magic is very uncommon and dangerous. I can't really throw negative levels and ability damage around, as they will have no way of healing that damage.

I love the idea of a bait-and-switch with the house appearing to be haunted, but actually being a living, malevolent thing. You could have a lot of fun playing to the PCs' expectations before they figure that out.

Should indeed. They've already told me OOC that they are going to be doing a lot of research on hauntings and ghosts.

One of the best adventures I ever ran was all about rats.  Not even giant rats: just normal, run-of-the-trashcan rats. 

Thanks. I've done several rat-related adventures recently (rats in a museum, were-rats stealing shinies) and I think they're getting tired of rats.

[VV_GM]

I would use cold spots. It can be sort of like an early warning device in the game - once the temperature starts to drop in the room then the player's know that trouble is about to strike. Make it cold enough that the characters start to see their own breath and maybe even suffer a penalty to their actions. That and the lights dimming and/or snuffing out completely are classic haunted house scenarios.

Also have the furniture re-arrange itself everytime the players leave a room. It doesn't have to be a big change, but it should be noticeable. It makes searching for clues a bit difficult too if things keep changing.

[GilaMonster]

I would use cold spots. It can be sort of like an early warning device in the game - once the temperature starts to drop in the room then the player's know that trouble is about to strike. Make it cold enough that the characters start to see their own breath and maybe even suffer a penalty to their actions. That and the lights dimming and/or snuffing out completely are classic haunted house scenarios.

Also have the furniture re-arrange itself everytime the players leave a room. It doesn't have to be a big change, but it should be noticeable. It makes searching for clues a bit difficult too if things keep changing.

I like! The furniture one should freak a couple out. Especially the compulsive map makers...

Thanks

[Kestral]

I'd go a bit further and rearrange the physical layout of the house each time players open/close a door... with the house making repeated attempts to "nudge" the party in the direction of the outside doors by only leaving the doors with the fastest route from that point to the outside unlocked. If the party notices that doors are shutting behind them and locking, they'll just think it's ghosts.. not the house...

[Rick_TWA]

Don't forget the power of ambient sounds, movement, etc...

For example, the players find the bathroom and search it.  nothing out of the ordinary.  a few rooms later they hear a strange high-pitched screetching coming from a few rooms away.  They follow the noise back to the bathroom they were just in where the metal grate in the window has come loose and is slooooowly swinging back and forth, scraping in it's frame and causing the noise they heard.  As they declare and action weather "we ignor it and keep exploring the house" or "I reach out and close it tightly"  it stops suddenly!

Do the same thing with "movement at the corner of your vision" and "the rocking chair suddenly starts a slow rythmic steady rocking".  Don't overuse it but a few times as they explore the house should put them at unease.


also, don't forget to make some of their possesions  "I take a picture with my camera phone."  or things that they've already seen and are going back for a second look or to use  "didn't we see a screwdriver on the counter in the kitchen?  I'll go and grab it to fix this rusty window grate."  simply disappear.  later in a main room there's a drawer that's stuck in a dresser or cabinet.  They force it and the front comes flying off in their hands as the ancient furniture groans in protest.  Garbage spills out onto the floor....  In the mess a glint catches your eye.  It's your phone!  and over there... isn't that the screwdriver you were looking for earlier?

[twwombat]

One of the main points is that magic is very uncommon and dangerous. I can't really throw negative levels and ability damage around, as they will have no way of healing that damage.

They'll heal a point a day, just like recovering from disease/poison in the real world.

I think it's all the more reason to use ability damage, especially if the house is sentient and powerful.  If it can do things like rearrange its internal layout (which I really like, by the bye), then scaring a point of charisma out of someone shouldn't be too taxing.  Nor should a 1d4 ability damage shot of mundane poison/spores/disease.  If they're in it to investigate hauntings and Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, let 'em know that the Other Side ain't a cakewalk.

[GilaMonster]

They'll heal a point a day, just like recovering from disease/poison in the real world.

I think it's all the more reason to use ability damage, especially if the house is sentient and powerful.  If it can do things like rearrange its internal layout (which I really like, by the bye), then scaring a point of charisma out of someone shouldn't be too taxing.  Nor should a 1d4 ability damage shot of mundane poison/spores/disease.  If they're in it to investigate hauntings and Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, let 'em know that the Other Side ain't a cakewalk.

True. A point or two of chr/wis damage should go down well (for me, that is) and shouldn't cripple them too much

They're 2nd and 3rd level characters, so I don't want to go too hard.

[drow]

as you approach the door, you can feel a strong draft blowing out, between the door and its frame and through the keyhole.  the breeze is warm and moist, but only lasts for a few seconds before it slows, and then stops.  several seconds later, air is drawn past you, back into the room.  as before, for only a few seconds before it stops, and then the room exhales again...

a hole has been worn through the wainscotting of the wall, revealing a series of iron pipes.  they've rusted and begun to leak at the joins, dripping a steady stream of blood-red drops into the darkness of the wall cavity.

the faint scuffling sound seems to be coming from beneath the floor carpet.  as you lift the corner of the carpet, you see a hole in the floor itself.  and, through the hole, a steady stream of centipedes, crawling in a straight line underneath the floorboards, one after another.

the candles flicker and gutter in some breeze you can't feel.

you walk past the portrait on the wall a second time, and are certain that it has changed somehow since the last time you saw it, though you can't put your finger on what's different.  (Search DC 15)  you discover that one of the hunters in the painting's pastoral background is now missing his rifle.

the library is filled with crumbling tomes and dusty cobwebs.  at the center of it all is a bizarrely-carved, eight-legged table of ebony and darkwood.  An open portfolio rests atop it, next to an empty candelabra and an hourglass filled with red sand.  (the table is an animated object with a poisonous bite, select stats as appropriate.  if the party is outmatched by the construct, toppling bookcases to trap it would be a good tactic.)

[Telas]

I strongly suggest reading the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tale The Jewels in the Forest by (who else) Fritz Leiber.  It's in the book, "Swords Against Death".  The story is about a treasure of gems hidden in a castle, but well-guarded.  The guardian was the castle, with a malevolent intellect driven by the gems.  As the story progresses, the suspense builds, until a most excellent reveal and finale. 

[Rick_TWA]

One of the main points is that magic is very uncommon and dangerous. I can't really throw negative levels and ability damage around, as they will have no way of healing that damage.

As long as you make the DC of a disease their save bonus +10 or a few points less, they've got an O.K. chance to catch it (~50% - 5% for each point less) but a really good chance of recovering.

[twwombat]

As long as you make the DC of a disease their save bonus +10 or a few points less, they've got an O.K. chance to catch it (~50% - 5% for each point less) but a really good chance of recovering.

Most of the DCs for "entry level" disease/poison saves are in the 12-15 range, so to me that feels like a fair challenge for low-level characters.  And most ability damage for those is 1d2, 1d4 tops.

Or, if you really want to be nasty, you can use the continuing poison damage variant from Sean K Reynolds.  Basically, poison keeps doing damage until you make 2 saves in a row, which is more realistic but far more deadly, especially for low-level types.

[Puppy Master]

One thing that I always make sure to do when delving into the horror genre is hamstring the characters in some way.  A lot of horror comes from the protagonists being vulnerable to whatever it is that haunts them.  That's why the International Society of Ninja never had any getaways at Camp Crystal Lake and Haddenfield wasn't the home of a group of cybernetic bounty hunters.
 
I've always faced the problem of character rarely being just normal people.  They're hunters, mages or even werewolves.  Hard to be scared of a ghost when you can shapeshift into a 9' tall tornado of teeth and claws and you'd be surprised at how much confidence even a shotgun gives you when dealing with most horror situations. 
 
So I started working out ways to keep at bay those special qualities that made the characters special.  Weapons jammed or vanished altogether, powers fizzled and stopped being affective etc. etc.  The characters suddenly found themselves incapable of shooting or fighting their way out and were seemingly at the mercy of whatever macabre forces surrounded them.  Of course here's where you make it so they have to, you know, actually think to solve the puzzle and get out alive.

Of course, none of this could have any bearing on your specific game, but figured it never hurt anything to throw out another idea or two. 

Good luck

[VV_GM]

I just want to endorse Puppy Master's approach to horror. Players don't usually want to play a character who is scared in my experience. They tend to go with the "My PC is hardened, and has a sense of duty. My PC doesn't have time to be afraid. My PC is a survivor!" type not realizing that in the real world fear is a great survival mechanism. Being scared can get your ass moving in what seems to be a hopeless situation. Rabbits chew their feet off when caught in a trap. I'm betting that instinct is driven by fear and not a hardened sense of purpose.

So how to bring fear to the game? Don't describe things that the PC should be afraid of, instead scare the player directly. I remember reading about a group where the GM was running an Indiana Jones type campaign and no matter what he did the players were always like "So what? We'll kill it and win." This GM decided to plan an event to show how the mundane could be terrifying.

He described a scene where there were tons of spiders in a cave and the players were like "Ho-hum. Big deal." and acted like the spiders did not matter. The GM then took out a shoe box, took the lid off and dumped his brother's small living pet tarantula onto the middle of the table. Every single player jumped and ran behind their chairs because it was totally unexpected. The GM then said something to the effect of "Okay, so a thousand of these things, only bigger, are crawling along the walls of the cave. And you guys said you were just brushing them away with your hands right? If you want you can pick up Spot who is there on the table to get a sense of what that actually feels like."

After reading that (I have no idea if it is an urban legend or an exaggeration, but given the gamers I've met over the years I believe it is a true story) I realized that fear in the game sometimes has to be promoted through fear at the table. Another tactic I read about that I liked was a GM running a Star Wars game where the PCs were never really concerned when the Empire showed up. He couldn't get it across that being smugglers the PCs should at least be concerned when the Empire pulls into town. In game he had them deal with the consequences, but still the players just took the approach of "Well that's just Star Wars for you!"

So this GM planned a scene where the Empire shows up, but instead of saying so he just waited until the PCs entered an area and played the Imperial March from the soundtrack of the trilogy quite loudly. The players heard that "Dum-dum-dum-da-da-dum-da-da-dum!" and the GM finally got the "Oh crap!" reaction from them, and after that is when he decided to desribe the scene.

Both of these examples just strike me as great ways to take your game up a notch, and for things like horror I think the extra effort is really worth it. I have been known to recruit outside help during a game in order to scare the pants off of my players. They know it could happen, I warn them in advance that I will try to frighten them, and in the end I think it leads to much better gaming.

[longcoat000]

I'd go a bit further and rearrange the physical layout of the house each time players open/close a door... with the house making repeated attempts to "nudge" the party in the direction of the outside doors by only leaving the doors with the fastest route from that point to the outside unlocked. If the party notices that doors are shutting behind them and locking, they'll just think it's ghosts.. not the house...

As soon as I saw the first post for this thread, this is exactly what I was going to type.  Once again, drow beats me to the punch!

But I can go one better.  There's an old AD&D 1E module (you can pick it up off of Amazon, Ebay, or download a PDF for $4.95 from drivethrurpg.com) called the Lost Island of Castanamir, which I think would be absolutely perfect for this.  You could probably chuck the room contents, but the main selling point of the adventure are that the dungeon layout is constantly changing.  You go through one door (actually, black "portals" that you can't see through), and it takes you to the next room.  Go back through the same door, and you're in a completely different room than the first one you came in from.  I think that it's worth the $5.00 for the map flowchart.

Instead of portals, you could have the doors swing shut behind the characters and when the characters open them again, see that a new room has appeared where the old one was.  Or you could use open doorways and illusions.  Once the party goes through a doorway, you could ask for a spot check to see if anyone notices that the layout of the room they just left changed (unless, of course, they decide to backtrack and then definitely figure out that something's wrong).  Or you could make it into something like the Winchester House, with lots of secret rooms, doors that lead nowhere, and windows in the ceilings.  You could even mess around with gravity and make the place into a Escher nightmare with doors in the walls leading into the ceilings (or floors) of the next room, or just sticking a door in the middle of a wall and flipping the next room upside-down.

Are they going in during the day or night?  This adventure would probably be much more effective if they were forced to go in at night, because then you could play around with shadows, flashlights (obviously there would be no electricity on in the house, or the house would only want to turn it on when it would be advantageous.  Lights are on in a room, characters start exploring, lights flicker out, characters start fumbling for flashlights, and right before the anyone gets one lit the lights come back on and there's a zombie (or other surprising bit of nastiness) not three feet away from the guy with the flashlight.  Roll for initiative, monkeyboy!), spooky sounds, etc

What are the house's motives?  Maybe it wants the characters to leave.  Or maybe it needs to get them good and scared, and herd them into the basement when they're weak and unable to resist, so it can finish what the cultists started all those years ago...  If that's the case, then you could probably spook out the characters with sudden attacks that stop just as suddenly when the characters seem to be getting the upper hand or start winning.  Rats disappear back into the walls.  A horde of cockroaches swarms back down the drainpipe.  That thing that ate Mike's face impossibly pulls itself through some cracks in the wooden floor, leaving behind a nasty green residue and faceless NPC.

What resources does the house have at it's disposal?  You mentioned a few illusions, but what about creatures, cultists, or other things that go bump in the night?  If you don't want any of that, you can always stat out the house like a magic-user and give it "spells", which can take the form of the house twisting it's wiring, piping, and frame to give equivalent effects.  A nice fireball can be had by blowing the door off of the stove in the kitchen.  Flame Jet could be improvised with natural-gas pipes prying themselves off the walls like metal snakes and igniting.  Lightning bolts can be had from arcing electricity from lamps or chandeliers.  You could emulate pretty much any spell-like effect with having something happen within the house.

I also wholeheartedly endorse having the house use psychological warfare on the characters.  Things that were there now aren't.  New things appear.  Insist on reading the canned description for each room, but have five or six things that may change depending on which door they entered the room from (one per door) and see if anyone picks up on it.  Suddenly, that painting on the wall they SWEAR had three people in it now only has two (Even better would be if you could find an old Victorian family portrait with three people and photoshop one person out.  Print up both copies and show the one described to players if they ask to see it to "proove" that there really were three...or have the missing person from the portrait show up and attack the characters).  The sculpture of Michael stepping on Satan's throat now has Michael gutting Satan with his spear, and Michael has a rather unnatural look of fear on his face.  The children sculpted on the wooden headboard that were playing now seem to be tormenting one of their own.

Even if nothing happens, start having the PCs make random Spot checks, then telling them that nothing appears to have changed, which is especially good once they've started to get paranoid.  The secret to making players jumpy is to take little things and change them slightly, just enough so that the players may notice it, but not so much that they'll call you on it later.  What you're trying to do is sew doubt in their minds as to what you originally said.  Once they start doubting what you said, they begin to doubt themselves, and when they start doing that, it's SO much easier to scare and surprise them.

Another way to rachet up the spookiness is to change the gaming environment (as VV_GM mentioned in the last post).  If they're exploring the house at night, then play at night.  Ban food from the session.  Play in the quietest room of the house.  Close up the blinds, turn on a generic ambient halloween-ish rainstorm CD or something by Midnight Syndicate (Or even better, cue up the musical score from Halloween.  That DUN-DUN...DUN-DUN throbbing bass beat and CHA-CHA-Cha-cha always gives me the willies), turn out the lights, and give the players each a flashlight (or better still, just give one to the players with it on their character sheet) and tell them that it's the only illumination they'll get for the session.  Better still, pack a few with nearly run-down batteries and when they're out of juice, that character's flashlight has just died (after all, how often do YOU check the battery in your flashlights at home?).  Keep a flashlight (with fresh batteries) and a small clip-on booklight for yourself that you can turn upside-down so that you're lit from below when you're not rolling or looking up a rule.  Untwist a wire hangar, tie a furry something-or-other (glove, scarf, hat, scrap of cloth, etc), and occasionally brush it against someone's leg under the table.  There's quite a bit you can do to spook people with little effort.

I would recommend reading (if you have time) reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, or watching The Haunting (the 1963 film adaption).  The 1999 version (with Liam Neeson & Catherine Zeta-Jones) is probably more accessable, and does have some pretty cool CGI effects of how the house itself actually deals with the inhabitants, but it was a re-imagining of the 1963 film, not the 1959 novel.  You might also want to watch The Amityville Horror (1979 version is scary, haven't seen the 2005 remake), The Shining (with Jack Nicholson), Rose Red (4-hour movie based on the Stephen King book), The House on Haunted Hill (I've heard that the 1959 version with Vincent Price is better than the 1999 version, but the '99 version is the only one I've seen, and that was pretty darn cool), and Monster House (animated, 2006).

[VV_GM]

Last year at GenCon I met someone who had played a game of CoC where the GM provided several green glowsticks and had them setup around the room as the only source of illumination. I am planning to do the same thing for my next "Haloween Game for Non-Gamers!" party. Nothing but that eerie green glow has got to have a certain psychological effect for the game.

[GilaMonster]

Wow. Lots of very cool ideas. I have a cd with creepy sound effects. Some of them are even good. Will pull that onto the laptop so I can play the effects as needed. Any other suggestions for music (downloadable would be ideal)?

I don't know if the chars will investigate the house during the day or night. Most probably will be day. Regardless, it will be overcast and raining.

I'm most definitly going to alter the rooms. Probably subtally. Nothing like messing with their heads a little. Random spot and listen checks. Check.
I'm going to have to sit down and write descriptions. If I try and wing it, I'll mess up,

I'm not going to go too overboard on magical effects, mainly cause the campaign is low magic. The exploding furnace and such is too cool not to use. The house doesn't really have any resources other than itself. There's a bad guy who will appear later on, but he's related to the overall campaign story, not the house itself.

As for the house's motives, it likes pain and fear. The former owner, the one who engaged in the sacrifices died in the house. That was pretty much the event that changed it. I'm not sure it has a real motive, it's not fully sentient, just partially aware and that awareness is tied to the sacrificial knife in the hidden basement room.

One thing that I always make sure to do when delving into the horror genre is hamstring the characters in some way. 

Of course, none of this could have any bearing on your specific game, but figured it never hurt anything to throw out another idea or two. 

Good luck

That's some great advice for horror in general, and something I'll keep in mind.

[Rick_TWA]

Along with the lines of items appearing and disappearing, make sure the characters know that whatever it is that's messing with them can get close enough to them to really mess with them and they never even know it.  How?  Well, we talked about the "missing cell phone"  what about if the character reaches for their cell phone and cuts themselves on a piece of jagged glass that's in their pocket?  What about if they get bitten by a live rat?  Pull their hand out with a leech on it?

I really like the reading every room's description idea too.  "Differences" can be as subtle as ther being no differences.  Ie:  the character come through a room thick with dust and cobwebs, and search it carefully.  In the process you describe the dust being kicked up in the air, the cobwebs in their hair, one of the characters accidentally knocking a vase off the table, shattering it.  Next time they come in the room, just read the original description.

Remember that "object in the house attacking the characters"  doesn't have to be attacks per se.  A character trying to move only to find that an electrical cord from a nearby small appliance is wrapped around his ankle while he was standing there is likely to be freaked out.  Similarly, a character can feel something pulling at their clothes from behind, whirling to look for danger only to find that they've caught their jacket on a loose nail.

As neat as the re-arranging floorplan idea is (and it is) I wouldn't overuse it or it'll become "campy".  Imagine the character standing in the door slamming and oppening it over and over, a different room behind it each time.  Also, if they figure it out, the characters are probably going to take advantage of it.  "I walk in and out of this door until it takes me to that damn room that I can't find and need to get to!"  An excellent use of it however, would be to make sure that your house has at least one two-story room with a walkway and a ballustrade on the second floor.  (think giant entry hall with the two curved stair cases framing the room and leading to the second floor)  At some point the characters are going to be running through the house (perhaps to catch the shadowy figure they thought they saw or to run from the same)  that's when BAM! the door they thought led to the study actually leads out onto the walkway and they run through it at full speed....  Also, a great time (cinematically speaking) to use this is when a character wanders off alone, perhaps lurred away from the group by someone calling his name or seeing something odd through an open door.  Of course, this leads to splitting the party so be prepared for that if you use this technique.

Another thing you can do is make the characters afraid to use those things they need for survival while in the house.  Running the water in the sink looks fine but they notice something and inch or so long, black and glistening, fall out of the faucet and down the drain before they can grab or identify it.  Obviously they're not going to eat anything they find in the house, but if you spring hunger on them then when they get out their sack lunch, tell them it's covered in mold despite only being a few hours old, or seething with bugs, etc...  they've got no choice but to go hungry (or make disease saves).  all you need is one rat crawling up out of a toilet and no one's going to use the bathrooms, and in some places you can describe the air as "thick with miasma" or "dusty and bitter tasting" and you've pretty much set them in a situation where long-term survival is untenable.

You might think about what the long gone maniac did with the bodies of his victims too.  finding a skeleton interred within a wall or floor, or body parts stashed here and there can be incredibly creepy.  (true story:  My wife worked in a pet store for a while and a woman came in to buy an aquarium one day "I used to have an aquarium" the woman told her, "But I used it to bury my infant daughter in".  When my wife looked confused, the woman explained that when her infant daughter died, she filled her aquarium with dirt and burried the girl in the dirt in the aquarium....  Which now sits on her coffee table.)  Imagine if you're exploring a house and you accidentally knock a glass planter off of a table, only to have an infant skeleton revealed in the rubble....

You can also try putting the characters (or players) off of certain things that would otherwise be standard fair for them for a period of time.  For example, in a story I read once, the main character's friend comes to him complaining that he can't find certain papers in his deceased uncles estate.  they agree to meet over dinner to discuss it, but the friend insists that they not go to their usual Italian resteraunt because "I just can't stand the thought of spaghetti"  Later in the story the main character is helping his ffiend look for the papers and discovers why:  they find pieces or clumps of palid sauce-splotched spaghetti in odd places all over the house, often appearing in places they weren't just a few momwnts ago.  In the end the main character discovers that his friend actually poisoned? and left to die his uncle to get the papers he couldn't find, and his uncle lived long enough to use a mythos ritual to turn himself into a festering pile of long thin bloody worms which has been haunting the house, eventually killing his friend.  At the end of the story the character remarks "I'll never eat spaghetti again..."  If you can associate a normal everyday object with something horribly repulsive or frightening, you might instill permanent quirks in your characters.