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Mystery_Man
Senior Scribe
USA
455 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Feb 2006 : 14:44:11
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What are some of the spookier encounters you've run? I'm looking for some ideas to redo some rooms in the Lost Level of UM leading up to Dhussara (vampire)
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 02 Feb 2006 : 15:11:46
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| I have run an encounter with a swarm of crawling claws. It worked geniously. The players were disgusted when entering a room covered floor to ceiling with hands, severed from their bodies. And they were shocked and surprised when the hands attacked. Worked like a charm. |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Mystery_Man
Senior Scribe
USA
455 Posts |
Posted - 02 Feb 2006 : 16:07:18
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Oh yea, crawling claws are in. Most definitely. If you (or anyone) are familiar with Lost Level...
Johanna is gone. Bandearl has lost control over most of his area to Halaster and drow vampires, and can't leave his temple without putting himself in extreme danger. The only safe haven will be Bandearl's temple actually. |
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Fletcher
Learned Scribe
USA
299 Posts |
Posted - 02 Feb 2006 : 17:40:30
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incorporeal undead. Lots of them. Your cleric only has so many turn attempts and then he is out. And having shadows pop out of the walls and floors and the like draining strength is horrific. Particularly if the party knows that there are Duerger wandering around invisible as well.
If you want to keep to a theme, have a shadow dragon or a deep dragon waiting for the party to be suitably reduced in strength before making an appearance...
Worse let the players know that the dragon exists somewhere in the area. The way they came in is blocked and all they can do is head into the breeze and hope for an exit. |
Run faster! The Kobolds are catching up! |
Edited by - Fletcher on 02 Feb 2006 17:41:37 |
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 03 Feb 2006 : 11:58:20
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| Precisely. To add to the horror, have them cross through a room engulfed in complete darkness and have a Shadow haunt the darknes and everyone who cross through it. Worked on my group. Make the darknes magical and undispellable. |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Vvornth
Acolyte
Sweden
48 Posts |
Posted - 03 Feb 2006 : 16:45:42
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| The child Emordung in the Ravenloft supplement Book of Crupts probably takes the cake. |
It's good to be king |
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Asgetrion
Master of Realmslore
Finland
1564 Posts |
Posted - 04 Feb 2006 : 13:58:41
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Hm, I haven't ever run Undermountain, but I have had many terrifying encounters there as a player 
Probably the most memorable ones are related to Maddgoth's castle. Our DM replaced Maddgoth with Maaril the Dragonmage, though.
I remember that it was a hot and humid summer in Waterdeep, and that there were strange monsters prowling the streets at night. Shortly put, pur characters investigated this, and we encountered and pursued a Greater Feyr into Maaril's tower.
His tower and its dungeons were filled with disgusting and horrifying undead, tortured Asperii hanging from "meat-hooks", Broken Ones with draconic parts, Greater Feyrs, prisoners insane with fear, etcetera. It seemed that Maaril had experimented with physically and magically induced torture and fear, somehow converting his victims' strong emotions into magical energy...
Finally we found an entrance to one of the "Lost Levels", where Maaril had built a castle. It was in these caverns that we found an ancient battlefield, filled with bones and remains of a thousand combatants or so.
There a ghost knight of Tyr manifested, introducing himself as "Trigol the Hearty - the Right Hand of Tyr". Our DM succeeded in creating a chilling atmosphere, and he played Trigol as a righteous though somewhat insane and with a hint of evil (probably corrupted by his transformation to undeath). We promised to gather his mortal remains, and deliver them to Tyr's temple in Waterdeep.
Our DM had modified this adventure a bit, so that all the encounters were both disgusting and horrying   |
"What am I doing today? Ask me tomorrow - I can be sure of giving you the right answer then."
-- Askarran of Selgaunt, Master Sage, speaking to a curious merchant, Year of the Helm |
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Volo
Seeker
Canada
58 Posts |
Posted - 05 Feb 2006 : 02:48:45
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You might want to take a look at January's Dragon Magazine. Specifically, the Dusanu. Granted, they're not /technically/ undead, but therein lies the fun. Imagine the look on the face of the party religious types when the shambling horde of 'zombies' rushing towards them doesn't even flinch at their turn attempts.
Plus, that same issue updates the maggot golem, which for my money is the scariest creature yet created.
Oh, and there's nothing quite like a little girl, say six or seven years of age, cheerfully torturing a grown adult on various implements of pain and suffering. (Best if she, and the victims, are incorporeal undead. And if you /really/ want to get scary, make the 'adults' in the scene respond by asking why she's doing this to parents....) |
Volo's misunderstood. He's not an idiot. He's a FLAMING idiot! |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36805 Posts |
Posted - 05 Feb 2006 : 05:37:46
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quote:
Originally posted by Volo
Oh, and there's nothing quite like a little girl, say six or seven years of age, cheerfully torturing a grown adult on various implements of pain and suffering. (Best if she, and the victims, are incorporeal undead. And if you /really/ want to get scary, make the 'adults' in the scene respond by asking why she's doing this to parents....)
To expand on this a bit... Giving people something that looks normal and innocent, even comforting, and then twisting it to darkness is an effective technique. |
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Sadonayerah Odrydin
Learned Scribe
USA
210 Posts |
Posted - 05 Feb 2006 : 06:43:28
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I dunno if this really is considered spooky or not, but in my campaign, I had my players run into a dead end room full of umberhulks... They were freaked out because they had never seen such things before. And without the monks they would have lost that battle. *nods*  |
"What's that," asked Mogget.
"Sardines," said Sam. "I knew they were standard rations, so I got a few tins for you."
"What are sardines?" Moggest asked suspiciously. "And why is there a key? Is this some sort of Abhorsen joke?"
Abhorsen by Garth Nix
"What you made a vampire...Pomeranian?!" --Hannibal King from Blade Trinity
~Sadie |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 05 Feb 2006 : 06:50:19
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Way back in my high school days, I was running a campaign set in Damara, and the PCs were wandering around an abandoned mine. I rolled a random encounter with a giant spider, but having just read the Silmarillion and being smitten with Ungoliant, I had this desire to make this encounter a bit more special.
So when I described the giant spider, I really pulled out all of the stops. I described the clicking of the legs on the cold stone floor, the dried husks of the dead dwarves in the web cocoons, the multiple glittering red eyes and the gore dripping mandibles of the spider's face. Then, when the PCs were about to attack her (all the really good evil spiders are female), the spider spoke to them, whispering, "you will not survive this. I am hungry, and you are so full of juice."
One of my players freaked out and told me to stop for a few minutes, and told me he was really getting creeped out by this encounter. Everyone got very serious, planned for the worst, and dove into the fight after we took a time out to get some soda and snacks and "recharge" from my description.
The funny thing is, stat wise, it was just a normal giant spider that they woudn't have had a very hard time with one way or the other. It was one of my favorite moments as a DM. |
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Mystery_Man
Senior Scribe
USA
455 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2006 : 13:51:10
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| Great suggestions all, thanks much! |
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Chilling, scary, or otherwise horrific encounters
