There has been many things about the Age of Worms Campaign which have been called Deadly, or Difficult. But very little has been said on what terrifies the players.
First of all, it must be said. The worms.
What I did for the worms was to have them in a lizardfolk, as suggested in the adventure. I had the bulge visible near the neck of the lizard. When the barbarian noticed the cyst, he assumed it was a weak spot. Swinging a Kukri, he rolled a crit, killing the lizard. This was fortunate for me, because I wanted to create an atmosphere. I believe the description I gave went like this.
"The cyst bursts"
"Hah. It's like Spiders start coming out." (At that I tried not to giggle malevolently.)
"White smoke starts pouring out of the wound."
Rogue: "Hah, that's not Normal. It's like "
"Green worms start pouring out of the wound."
"What?"
"All the lizards look, and run away."
The Barbarian decides to step on the worms.
"You feel a sharp pain in your foot, as the worm burrows into your foot."
The players did a typical sci fi thing, succeding on a Knowledge check and realizing that if it reached his brain he'd become a Zombie. Cutting holes in him and trying to blast it with silver, the players almost killed the barbarian. But they got the worm.
Shortly after, I ran the blackwall keep mini adventure
http://paizo.com/dungeon/messageboards/ageOfWorms/archives/howIChangedTheBl ackwallKeepAdventureSPOILERS
I plan to make the players terrified of the white smoke.
Nice touch, Delfedd! That's a great way to leave an impression on the players this early in the campaign, it is the Age of WORMS after all. Imagine the looks on their faces when they see the ulgurstasta for the first time.
My players are at TFOE but I'll definately borrow your idea when they get there.
Cheers.
With the Big Ugly Worm I plan on making the entire sphere filled with the "screaming mist." Oh, right. The players catch glimpses of faces in the mist. Faces they knew.
Oh, when the rogue picked up the "dragon egg" the bottom cracked. Mist started seeping out, and the players ignored it. Thats when the fun began. The rogue was terrified. He swore when I described the worms suddenly crawling over him.
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For my players, one set of moments that had a huge impact was during HoHR. The encounters with the dopplegangers really messed with them (especially in the mirror maze)
The encounter with their duplicates had my players pointing fingers at each other. The doppelgangers had duplicated everyone but the kobold ninja/sorcerer. Being a bit paranoid already, and looking like anyone in the group could be an enemy, he was prepared to fireball the entire room to make sure he was safe.
It was great. The party when around for nearly an hour trying to discover who was fake and who wasn't.
Filge creeped the hell out of my players. I really played up the dinner scene, actually having the elf zombie start stripping as she approached the Paladin with a zombie come- hither look, so they knew they were dealing someone unbalanced. Filge spent the entire battle giggling and jabbering and had a couple of timely crits ealy on.
When the PCs finally won, the rogue's player exclained, "Oh my God, I thought we were SO dead!"
Now they get to fight the Faceless One. :-)
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Freakiest encounter was definitely the final fight in the Champion's Belt. Aurric is worm food. Dark clouds gathering with supernatural speed. Most of the crowd converted instantly to undead. All characters get instant negative levels. Big worm gets bigger and stronger than ever. Dead spirits rising from the ground. Dogs and Cats living together...
My players got this panicked look in their eyes and ran in four different directions. Each of them had a Fly potion as well as an active greater invisibility spell thanks to the sorceress, which made it really difficult to DM their flight from the scene. Still, the freak-out factor was worth it.
For a while, it was without a doubt the worms. When the PCs faced the Spawn for the first time, the priest only had one remove disease and 3 out of 4 PCs were infested (one ran from the fear aura). Just like on the lore, my PCs had killed the spawn only to be stricken by the worms. They got really lucky on their Heal checks. Scared them so much they refused to explore the temple underneath the arena.
Recently, I'd have to say the Apostle Caves. As I ran it, the walls themselves came alive and began writhing with insects of every variety. Coupled with the imagery of Balakarde and the Mindkilling Auras and you have one freaky encounter.
In TFoE, the hands in the colunns in the Vecna chamber reached out and grabbed one of the players -- and didn't let go. Then the player failed his opposed strength check -- and started to get pulled into the column. That's when he freaked!
Ahh, good times from the DM's perspective.
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The players in my campaign made several forays into the Dourstone Mine, and now the only group left are the Faceless One's crew.
They've taken a couple of days now to "prepare" for this last mission, so as DM, I've decided to think like a villain.
The Faceless One had a dozen or so children kidnapped from Diamond Lake and "changed" for his purposes. They were then released back into the general population.
The children have been watching the party. Think of the ghost twins in The Shining. They watch them with expressionless faces. It's amazing how freaked out this has made the party.
Don't get me wrong, the children are doing other things in town as well, all of which aid the Faceless One's cause, but the party haven't discovered that yet. If they don't move to stop the last of the Triad soon, things are going to get VERY MESSY for them.