| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
read this, use it as inspiration for some failed will saves and perception checks for your 4 party members
(warning: creepypasta, coarse language and potentially NSFW)
Brain rats are always great fun. Especially in a large house where they can move between rooms using rat holes and crawl spaces.
Brain Ooze is a bit high level for your party (though you can fiddle with that easily enough) and is rather disturbing.
Rust Monster will scare anyone using metal weapons and armor!
Mindslaver Mold is along the lines of taking over people and being creepy in concept. Fungus Zombies!
Skin Stealer can provide endless amounts of screwing with the Players and what they thing is happening.
This is, of course, in addition to all the normal undead and Frankenstein's monster stuff you could roll with, of course.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
don't name your monsters, just describe them
"A chitenous horror as long as your forearm rises from the pile of bones, thick venomous bile dripping from it's mandibles"
Had a player kill his own character right on the spot with that one. Was convinced I'd unleashed some unstoppable terror on him and that he had no chance, so suicide was his best option.
It was a CR 1/2 Centipide
Attic Whisperer inspired my horror sessions more than once. Awesome creature!
At your APL you'd need to advance it, use more than 1, or combine with other creatures. Definitely have them meet someone whose voice got stolen. Or child.
Dude. Bogeyman. Make sure you know what the characters would be scared of first, or it'll flop. Unless you just Phantasmal Kill and leave it at that. But nicer to see if they notice losing a lock of hair, for instance, and then play the long game once they think they're safe...
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Whatever you do, wherever they go, make sure to put this in there:
"A huge relief, in the shape of a giant green devil's face, juts from the wall, mouth agape and leading down a pitch black tunnel, seemingly just large enough for a medium creature to enter in and crawl through."
Either your part members will all die when they crawl into the inverted Sphere Of Annihilation in the mouth, or someone will have played Tomb of Horrors and be so pants-sh*ttingly terrified that they will all run the other way.
|
Whatever you do, wherever they go, make sure to put this in there:
"A huge relief, in the shape of a giant green devil's face, juts from the wall, mouth agape and leading down a pitch black tunnel, seemingly just large enough for a medium creature to enter in and crawl through."
Either your part members will all die when they crawl into the inverted Sphere Of Annihilation in the mouth, or someone will have played Tomb of Horrors and be so pants-sh*ttingly terrified that they will all run the other way.
Oh just wrong, wrong, wrong.. That module should put the fear of Death to anyone who has had the unfortunate experience to go through it. If I remember correctly the poor soul who wrote that module still gets death threats...
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I fully support random rolls "everyone make a spot check. Hmmm interesting. No none of you see anything." Another thing I like to do is reskin creatures A pack of wolves bo problem, a pack of wolves all who have a different coloured streak of fur down the middle of their face odd. A pack of wolves who's heads split in part down the middle revealing more teeth gets players nervous. You don't even need to change the wolves stats. Atmospherics are also gold make a perception check, you and you hear a piano playing and someone singing if they follow they find a room covered in dust and abandoned, if they split up to follow they run into the intelligent monster after them.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Having Perception checks to randomly discover things like ordinary squirrels, or deer, will have them on edge.
Your players will keep wondering why. They will investigate the hell out of that squirrel.
Then, you throw something different at them.
Many of the above suggestions work.
Also, have enemies that dissipate, or disappear, in some way.
Make it seem like perished in that way, but leave it open, that they might not have perished.
Did it die?
These are things that can add to the suspense.
In the end, it's not what you present, but how you present it.
The build up, surroundings, and context, can have a huge effect.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I agree. You can make anything horrifying. For example. I have, and can, scared people with small rocks. I f'k you not. Rocks.
As the players go about, they'll undoubtedly be rolling perception to find all the little goodies you find laying about. Among them, simply mention ".. and a rock." Just one. They'll make note of it.
Whenever they do their easter egg hunt again, add, ".. and a rock." It can be a small. round, palm sized rock of no particular significance, just laying on the floor.
Eventually, this rock will receive scrutiny. If they ask if it's the same rock, respond "you can't tell" or "Maybe". Investigation reveals no alignment, magic, life, undeath. It's just "A rock."
Things will get freaky for them real fast if they decide to 'mark' the rock. The next rock they find will also have this mark. This may be an entirely different part of the world. This rock will continue to appear off and on when they make a 'room exploration' perception check. You have them hooked now and can cut back on the frequency of when this rock appears. From time to time, when they do their easter-egg hunt check, cue the return of "...and a rock."
If they destroy this rock, they find two rocks, both with the same marking. If they keep destroying these rocks, take this to Blair Witch territory where they start seeing these rocks everywhere, in small piles, on benches, hanging by moss from the ceiling. Perhaps a natural stone section of wall has a large 'mark' on it. it becomes something they immediately notice upon entering rooms, or perhaps appears in places where it wasn't a moment earlier.
Don't overplay it too fast. This should proceed over the course of several sessions. If they start getting freaked out, have these marked rocks pop up in even more unlikely places, like on shelves, on their pillows in Inns, on bars, in holy water fonts in temples. Wherever. If they look for it specifically, it's probably not there unless they already found one.
If there are NPC's around, nobody finds this strange, or there's some perfectly plausible explanation. Maybe there's one sitting on the throne when the King isn't sitting in it. Just let this rock screw with players and have fun with it. :)