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I think that my advice to the OP is to do things that make the players second guess themselves. As a logical thinker, the most terrifying things to me are the unexplained.
Therefore, I think you should be focusing less on in-game abilities (targeting the characters) and focus instead on targeting the players.
Examples:
-Drop a duck into a dungeon
This one is a classic, but it seriously disarms the players. Why is the duck here? There isn't any water around for miles. Why is it staring at me? What does it have to do with the greater plot? Don't tell them anything about the duck - have it remain an unsolved mystery, and I assure you they'll be talking about it to the very end, trying to discern its meaning in the otherwise serious campaign.
As an aside, it doesn't have to be a duck - you can use it as a metaphor. Other examples could be a horse quietly standing alone in a clearing in the woods, a house with flies swarming the windows despite everything in the house appearing immaculate, etc.
-The old "repeating line" trope
This one was useful for setting the tone of the Doctor Who episode "the Doctor Dances". The little kid in the gas mask kept repeating "are you my mummy?", and it kept appearing in different places - once even going so far as to call on the phone!
-Why are they standing like that?!
Have the children appear outside the inn standing in perfect order, in the shape of a symbol of your choosing. The players will gnarl themselves over what significance this symbol has, when it doesn't have to have any significance at all!
-Prophetic Non Sequiturs of Doom
Whenever the PCs interact with the children, have them always answer in non sequiturs, but not in some silly voice - keep their child voices.
PC: "What's your name?"
Child: "True radiance is known only through the eyes of the sinner."
PC: "Um, ok. Where are your parents?"
Child: "All shall soon know misery, as anger born upon the broken backs of the man who does not seek the pits of sand and valleys of sulfer, and salt is the caress of the master who weeps milk from the mother's dreams."
Then the barbarian starts to weep tears of black pitch, while the sounds around the wizard begin to rebel against reality.
For that video, I took it to be more akin to the "child" being more like an extra dimensional being with the shadow figure being her true form manifesting as she attacked her prey rather than a summons.
Great, now I gotta watch that video again ...
I'd watch it with the sound off. Creepier and less annoying that way.
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"All shall soon know misery, as anger born upon the broken backs of the man who does not seek the pits of sand and valleys of sulfer, and salt is the caress of the master who weeps milk from the mother's dreams."
Okay, now I'm thinking of those Seanbaby "Man Comic" edits. Specifically the Popsicle Pete series, Bozo the Schizophrenic Clown, and that "All Clowns Are The Minotaur" picture. :O
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As to Slender himself, I just don't see him as a big boss. Firstly, some Internet myths out there have multiple slenders, so it would seem he is a form of creature, similar in purpose to some kind of kidnapping/murdering MIB. Secondly, coming from a strong weird fiction background, with a Masters degree in Silent Hill, guys like Slenderman tend to be servants to the final boss, collectors, or guides to make sure wicked plans are followed through-upon. See Valtiel, from the Silent Hill mythos. He's a caretaker, not an Evil Genius.
Heck, there are a bunch of spins that actually paint him as actually holding something worse back. It's not painted as entirely benign, but the idea that whatever it's doing is necessary is creepy in and of itself.
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Oooh, what if the BEK's could turn anyone into more of their kind, not just children?
That is, a BEK can do something that causes a person to de-age one age category, until they take on the Young template. And at that point they're in real danger of being assimilated.
"Come hide with us! It's not safe here! Come hide before he sees you!"
OR
"Come play with us! It's no fun here! Come see the games he has taught us!"
"All shall soon know misery, as anger born upon the broken backs of the man who does not seek the pits of sand and valleys of sulfer, and salt is the caress of the master who weeps milk from the mother's dreams."Okay, now I'm thinking of those Seanbaby "Man Comic" edits. Specifically the Popsicle Pete series, Bozo the Schizophrenic Clown, and that "All Clowns Are The Minotaur" picture. :O
Seanbaby's Man Comics are the best. I wish he posted more articles D:
^^^^
"I'll die before you take me!"
"Yes. And during. And after. In his grasp you will have always been dead."
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I mean, yeah they're funny. But hot damn they can hit some genuinely creepy notes sometimes. :D
I know. Its inspiring.
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** spoiler omitted **
1000 was indeed quite creepy. Read it yesterday and flashed back to a nightmare I had when I was somewhere between 6-12 years old(I remember the nightmare and where I woke up, but I don't recall when it was exactly).
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Reminds me of Ink, for some reason...
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There is so much inspiration in this thread. You guys (sniff) are the best!
There is so much inspiration in this thread. You guys (sniff) are the best!
No problem, dude! The Idea Train is my favorite part of writing :)
If you want to post more ideas here to bounce them off of us, go for it!
Oh, I'm sure I will, Tirisfal!
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While this might not inspire much....this is what plot I would run using the Black Eyed Children.
I would set it in a city where the PCs have strong root. What the Black Eyed Children are the results of Derro experiements. The PCs would start hearing rumors of the BEC...pretty much like most of the accounts you hear now. Than after a adventure or two...the PCs will either find a street urchin they had previously befriended...or maybe the innkeepers' child has gone missing.
As they look into it they will hear more and more creepy stories of the BEC and what they are doing. Get the tension really building on this. Than one night they hear a knock on their door. The PCs answear the door and see the child who has gone missing with great black eyes looking at them. Than I would have the BEC scream a inhuman sound and flee faster than humanly possible. If the PCs have a servant to answear the door...even better. Than all they will hear is the servant scream. When they get there they will find a sign of struggle and the servant gone.
As the PCs look more into it they will start hearing about rumors of derro living under the city. As they investigate that they will find the derro lair...which they will find a grisly scene of all the derro dead...with lurid desciption of the expereirments done to them.
After finding the lead derro's notebook...and somebody adding to it. They will discover that the derro had a breakthough...unfortunaly they could not control the subjects...at this point it looks like it different person started to take notes...there is horrible details of experiements done to create more BEC...among little doodles of rainbows and bunny rabbits and kittens.
Eventualy the PCs would find the BEC lair and well have to deal with them.
I don't how helpful this would be to the OP as I took it into a whole different direction...but figure I would share my take on it.
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John, it's a great way to expand on the original game, turning it into a really good story arc. This game is for a bunch of relative 3.5 and Pathfinder newbies (friends of my son). All are in their late teens and early 20s and from what I've heard of the games they've played in already they're Monty Haul type players who wade through every encounter without blinking an eye. They're about to have those eyes opened.
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The derro experiment gone wrong...er is a very nice spin. Especially with those doodles. Kind of like finding a coloring book in Silent Hill. :O
Another twist: BEC's are claimed by a supernatural predator of sorts, which converts them into both bait and claws to lure and pull in larger prey.
And it could be something that generates spontaneously. It could show up anywhere where conditions are right.
PCs might find a ghost town filled only with those bizarre children lurking in the shadows, a pile of bones just off to the side somewhere, and some thing hungry and waiting down below in some basement or mine.
And then when returning to a familiar village, they hear rumors of black eyed children showing up...
Imagine seeing a BEC leading some stranger down the street into a darkened alley to disappear entirely. Or a pack of those children ambushing or chasing down a deer, dragging it down with their little arms and teeth.
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The derro experiment gone wrong...er is a very nice spin. Especially with those doodles. Kind of like finding a coloring book in Silent Hill. :O
Yeah add when discovering their lair they would be kids playing, singing twisted version of nursery rhymes.
And their twisted goal...why to make Mommies and Daddies of course.
Another twist: BEC's are claimed by a supernatural predator of sorts, which converts them into both bait and claws to lure and pull in larger prey.
And it could be something that generates spontaneously. It could show up anywhere where conditions are right.
PCs might find a ghost town filled only with those bizarre children lurking in the shadows, a pile of bones just off to the side somewhere, and some thing hungry and waiting down below in some basement or mine.
And then when returning to a familiar village, they hear rumors of black eyed children showing up...
Imagine seeing a BEC leading some stranger down the street into a darkened alley to disappear entirely. Or a pack of those children ambushing or chasing down a deer, dragging it down with their little arms and teeth.
Yeah that is prtty good...of course using the BEC as 'failed' derro experiements...if I steal that I would have to describe the bait children in another creepy twisted way.
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Look here. This whole SCP thing is getting out of hand. I may never sleep again. I'm also becoming leery of being awake.
:)
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Look here. This whole SCP thing is getting out of hand. I may never sleep again. I'm also becoming leery of being awake.
:)
It's spreading faster and farther than you think.
Since first being exposed to SCP yesterday I've already told two of my friends about it, and plan to tell more.If I can't sleep, why should they? ;D
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Look here. This whole SCP thing is getting out of hand. I may never sleep again. I'm also becoming leery of being awake.
:)
Hey, I just found something that clicks even better with the idea of BEC's as serving a larger hunting entity. No scary pictures in this one.
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No scary pictures in this one.[/url]
Check your pants. I think they're on fire.
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No scary pictures in this one.[/url]Check your pants. I think they're on fire.
I'm not sure I WANT to see what Mikaze considers a "scary picture" to be, then...... :(
I stumbled over the vulnudaemon in Bestiary 3 and it makes a pretty good proxy. Change a few things cosmetically and boo!
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I stumbled over the vulnudaemon in Bestiary 3 and it makes a pretty good proxy. Change a few things cosmetically and boo!
Awesome! Attic Whisperers might work, too, with a little re-skinning.
I stumbled over the vulnudaemon in Bestiary 3 and it makes a pretty good proxy. Change a few things cosmetically and boo!Awesome! Attic Whisperers might work, too, with a little re-skinning.
OMG..I forgot about those. Creeeeepy.
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In my fantasy RPG game world, I have gotten decidedly Eastern European in my myths, legends, and spooky crap that makes people lay awake in fear at night. Shadows curdling milk are just the tips of these icebergs.
One of the nightmare monsters is "The Hungry Man."
He then devours their soft child bellies, the price for their bad, bad ways. Their parents come in to check on them in the morning, and they are greeted by the grisly sight of their child's open eyes, starting down at their own hollowed out abdomens. Unfortunately, as evil and wickedness are small-spirit things (in that this is a morality play type of monster it means that goodness and generosity are big-spirit things), his own belly very quickly grows hollow and empty, and he must again seek out rotten children.
So be good. Or he'll come to you and eat your belly!
In-game, upon hearing this tale, one of the PC's (a foreigner who'd never encountered the myth or the monster before) asked "What happens to spirits of the children after that?"
NOW WE KNOW.
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Eastern european mythology is full of such things. There is an old woman named Chuma who creeps into houses and tries to steal bad children and also scratches the dishes with her diseased nails to make everyone in the household sick.
Then there is a Nav, a creature created from the soul of an unbaptised child who dies at a specific date (a two-three week window, which is considered unconsecrated days), and goes around stealing milk from young mothers who breastfeed. It is driven of by a prayer.
Drekavac is another one, but it was poorly made, as it actually looks like a humanoid newt and lives near bridges.
im dotting this, I didnt know about SCP before. I'm glad i do know but C****t is it creepy. Why oh why did I have to go check what the tapeworm child was?
brb, going to the SCP Foundation for some links
It like tv tropes.com, I CANT STOP READING IT! Why did you make me aware of this mikaze? my free time is vanishing. Now to get my buddies hooked too, thanks mikaze
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brb, going to the SCP Foundation for some linksIt like tv tropes.com, I CANT STOP READING IT! Why did you make me aware of this mikaze? my free time is vanishing. Now to get my buddies hooked too, thanks mikaze
And now you realize what the true SCP is on that website...
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brb, going to the SCP Foundation for some linksIt like tv tropes.com, I CANT STOP READING IT!
InkOMG, if you haven't seen it already, watch this movie.
It's one of the rare gems I've stumbled upon on netflix.
I watched it the first time, then again immediately.It was so good.
I don't wanna know what 110-MONTAUK is, do I?
Pretty sure it's just your standard run of the mill scheduled rape.
No big.
Yep, I know.
I linked it up top.
And I'm not sure exactly but from what I read I'm pretty sure it impregnates her with some evil Satanic chest burster or whatever too.
googling montauk reveals some disturbing possibilities.
The comments section for that SCP discusses some of the possibilities, and weighs the ethics of enacting 110-Montauk.
I'm with the author: I think that allowing the mystery to gnaw at you makes it scarier.
Pretty sure it's just your standard run of the mill scheduled rape.
No big.
But Clef said it isn't that; he said that those thoughts are in your head.
So that means what they're doing is worse than that.
Just to play Devil's Advocate (pun intended) in regards to 110-Montauk, it should be pointed out that whatever it is they're doing is to prevent the demonic hell-baby from being born. All this talk of horrible things being enacted on the poor victim is where our minds go, because it's what we imagine when we consider the prerequisites listed for those authorized to perform the procedure.
But we have to consider that the people responsible for this demonic hell-baby in the first place are of a type that is generally known for awful, nasty, downright gruesome procedures of the type that immediately spring to mind when we think about 110-Montauk as it is. So I think it needs to be asked: Why would doing the same things to the victim that generated the hellspawn in the first place keep the baby from being born?
What if it's not what we think it is at all? What if, instead of something horrible and wretched and evil, it's something completely different. Still deranged and mind-bending, to be sure, but consider the question.
What bright, shining, full of light kinds of things could be lurking under the auspice of 110-Montauk that would keep little Damien from being born?
The best thing about SCP-231 to me is the very fine print in the O5 document toward the end. The implication that they're doing all of this and know they don't need to says a lot about the Foundation...or about 231's or Montauk's ability to engender sympathy in people selected for their amoral to downright evil proclivities.
O5's insistence that 110-Montauk is not a loyalty test is also a bit suspicious. So many ways to read it, all horrific.
I think just seeing "110-Montauk" makes me giggle now...
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This went from an interesting Eldritch Horror to Grimderp Rape story...
...come on guys, this was much more fun when discussing SCP-899 and the OP's urban legend.
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Icy's right.
What about something like this:
WARNING - I'M NOT A JERK, SO YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT THIS IS A JUMP VIDEO
Just to play Devil's Advocate (pun intended) in regards to 110-Montauk, it should be pointed out that whatever it is they're doing is to prevent the demonic hell-baby from being born. All this talk of horrible things being enacted on the poor victim is where our minds go, because it's what we imagine when we consider the prerequisites listed for those authorized to perform the procedure.
But we have to consider that the people responsible for this demonic hell-baby in the first place are of a type that is generally known for awful, nasty, downright gruesome procedures of the type that immediately spring to mind when we think about 110-Montauk as it is. So I think it needs to be asked: Why would doing the same things to the victim that generated the hellspawn in the first place keep the baby from being born?
What if it's not what we think it is at all? What if, instead of something horrible and wretched and evil, it's something completely different. Still deranged and mind-bending, to be sure, but consider the question.
What bright, shining, full of light kinds of things could be lurking under the auspice of 110-Montauk that would keep little Damien from being born?
Well when I googled Montauk, I found that it's an island where the Philadelphia Experiment was supposed to have taken place. This is the least horrifying option, that they use time-dialation techniques to keep her un-pregnant. Perhaps the class A amnesiatics are used to avoid paradoxes?
This went from an interesting Eldritch Horror to Grimderp Rape story...
...come on guys, this was much more fun when discussing SCP-899 and the OP's urban legend.
Thank you for jumping in with that!