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What creepy things have you either thrown at your players or had thrown at you?
One of my favorites was Annika. Annika was a young girl, about twelve years old, who had been kidnapped amid a rash of deadly nightmares through her town. The PCs determined that she had been kidnapped by a night hag, and went out to the forest where, according to lore, the hag laired. The hag told them that Annika was her daughter, and she was just transforming her in the method traditional of the night hags. The Freelance Police drove away, but didn't kill, the hag, rescued Annika, and used Remove Curse to dispel the unfortunate purple tone her skin had taken.
But, although Annika was still mostly human, she thought a big, well, haggishly. After the intial shock of being rescued, she was very calm, very collected and very intelligent. And one of the players just wanted to kill her, because he was sure that she was going to go for all of their throats. But she never did, which just made her all the creepier in his eyes...
I liked her. I think I'm going to have to bring her back.
My is alot more sudued. The PCs IMC were walking through a large patch of forest between adventures and were just simply looking for a place to rest. They came across an abandoned pet cemetary off the road which was mostly overgrown with brush and foliage. The group went through the cemetary just looking at few wooden headstones that weren't totally rotted away. The Cleric felt the need for to cast Hallow on the spot. Finally the group moved away and bedded down for the night.
On the next day the group travelled for some 10 miles (still in the forest) when they came a across a dilapidated abandoned home off the road. They decided to investigate it. They found nothing but rotting furniture, a floor that sagged down into the root cellar beneath and the rafters filled with nesting birds.
The group did happen to find a secret door leading down out of the root cellar which led them to a small room filled with odd utensils (like a surgeons) and an old rotted out table. there were also the remains of many animals. The players became somewhat spook (not sure why but they did) and left. Once outside the house they were confronted by an old crone of a woman who has a raven sitting on her shoulder. She was pleasent to the group and asked why they were at her home. The group was surprised that anyone lived there, and told her they thought it was abandoned. She invited then in for tea but they refused and headed off on their merry. When they looked back, they watched her enter the house.
Once out of the woods, they came across a merchant riding in the opposite direction (heading for the forest). He asked then if the road ahead was clear. The group said yes except for the strange old lady who lived in the ruined house. The merchant sort of froze and said, "you mean old Sadie? Couldn't be, she's been dead for 20 years now. used to be an old taxidermist for the local folk. Buried many of the townsfolk pets in the cemetary up the raod a bit.." He then bid them farewell and rode off.
Now why the players were creeped out by that, I don't know but one of the players said she fely a chill literally run down her spine when the merchant told them about 'old Sadie'. Just one of those things I suppose.
__________________ The surest sign that there is intelligent life in the Universe is that none have visited Earth.
Tellura Ibn Shartalan, one of the Baernaloths in my storyhour. Otherwise known as the Dire Shepherd, she takes the form of a young aasimar or tiefling girl dressed as a shepherd and lame in one leg. Evil wrapped in innocence, with only her shadow reflecting her true nature as it lurks behind her, moving independant of her physical manifestation.
One of the PCs in that game wandered into her in the Outlands, or rather she made him wander across her. He wasn't aware of anything amiss till he started to notice himself unconsciously doing things without thinking about it, ie talking to her and not noticing having walked to within close range etc. Her expression as a perversion of the watchful shepherd / Christ figure motif got to the players, combined with a disturbing level of motherly care for 'her children' the yugoloths who despite being her flock, were still in the end just useful tools.
__________________ "I can just see the 4e adventure anthology "Tale from the Limited Staircase"." - Ken Marable
One of my groups is trapped on the plane of shadow, although at the time they believed they were still on the material plane. They were traveling through a forest, and heading toward a spring that was said to be the rendezvous point for elven noncombatants fleeing an invasion. As they neared, they glimpsed spirits of elven children at play in the forest--picking flowers, playing a flute, skipping down a path. The sightings seemed to become more frequent as they neared the spring. No matter what the party did, the ghosts never reacted to their presence. They simply faded from view as party members approached.
At the site of the spring itself, a giant, twisted tree rose from a mound just beyond the pool (a Night Twist from MM3). In its branches were over a dozen elven spirits, seemingly awaiting the party's approach. The paladin went right up to try to bless/lay their spirits to rest. That's when the children took material form and sprung from the trees to attack, eyes blood red, skin pale white, with long, sharp, black teeth and claws.
The kids were evolved undead haunting-presence 8-HD ghasts. Libris Mortis is my friend.
As the party will discover in the near future, the adults were killed by giants, but most of the children were able to hide in the woods. Then they went all lord-of-the-flies and became ghasts, due to the whole shadow plane entrapment and the weak border with the negative energy plane nearby.
Isida Kep'Tukari tossed her Dying Daughter Prestige class at us in one campaign. Basically a little girl who is left alone or neglected by her family makes a pact with a demon to kill them... she gains spell-like powers, phantasmal killer, can simultaneously blind, deafen, and mute people, and all sorts of other nasties.
Our party was in a large town, poking about trying to solve a series of murders in a rich family. We knew that their 10 year old daughter dabbled in spellcasting; she prestidigated a horse in front of us. But we were very surprised, disturbed, and caught off guard when she tried to kill us too!
__________________ "History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Recently my PCs came up against zombies. Nothing special, just zombies. The party was spelunking a rivermouth near which something was tainting the water of the river.
Anyway, I don't remember vividly describing them or anything, I just introduced them as dead bodies laying about at first then after a minute or so told the party "the bodies begin to get up."
One of the players, my niece, became quite scared and so I let the party quickly finish them off with aminimum of description and didin't put any more undead anywhere.
If it was an all adult game, I might have been less forgiving, but she's only twelve.
__________________ Felix: I am entitled to the opinion that I should be King of Virginia and drive around in a car made from spinach.
Well my plane of shadow is where souls go who are trapped between states - The recently retired, the empty nesters, the just marrieds, the adolecets, and most disturbing to the players those who died while being born- floating undead taken from a picture in the ELH they suck life energy by attaching thier umblical cord to you.
Really creeped out my players. This happened well before two women in my group became pregnent. I dont think I would use it now.
__________________ Game Quote:
"Shut up! a giant blue smurf eats your character...zzzz"
(sometimes its important to stop gaming and sleep)
"You all are the worst emissaries, ever!" the silver dragon declares, shaking with rage.
"Its a game, a game, I'm only playing. " E. Wiggen My PbP games , Roll Dice
As a DM
My players faced off against a hive of Insectile Ogres that had attacked a town and carried off most of the bodies. In the process of fighting these creatures they kept finding these globes filled with a honey like substance that registered as conjuration magic under scrutiny with a detect magic spell. The globes were similar to the abdomens of honey ants but about the size of a softball. They had observed the insectile ogres drinking from them after being wounded - and being fairly smart - deduced that they were some sort of healing potion. As they continued their fight with the bugs they used a number of these to heal their own wounds. Imagine their surprise when they breach the hive and find a series of chambers with larva that are consuming the remains of the towns people and excreting the honey like substance used to fill these globes. The globes were referred to as soylent gold after that.
As a Player
We were sent to a defunct prison called the "Pit of the Damned" to recover the maguffin item we needed. This prison had been used to house very evil spellcasters until such time as their judgement could be carried out - Evil not just in alignment, but in they had used their magical abilities to augment the commision of fairly horrible deeds - so it had been the home to rapists, murderers, cannibals, pedophiles, etc etc. Something horrible had happened and the place was closed and warded. We get inside and have to fight the undead remains of a number of these creatures. In general it was just creepy and then we fight the undead pedophile sadist - who's special attack turns your character into a 7 year old if you fail your saving throw. That made my skin crawl.
__________________ Avocado's number: The number of avocados needed to make 1 mol of guacamole -- Amedeo Avocado
"We are the group the bad guys level up on." -- Dagger75, Epic Commoner
"It's like chess or physics, but stupider." -- R. Newman
Recently, the PCs in my group were investigating an area in the undercity (Sharn, from Eberron) where they had fought some aberrations. They found a couple of hastily-abandoned rooms which included little besides a mirror on the wall and a crawlspace. Inside the latter, they found a strange-looking bag with splotches on it, which then turned out to be the skin of human-being who'd had all the stuffing sucked out of him (still had dessicated bones & organs inside). One caught a glimpse in the mirror of a grayish humanoid form leaning over those looking at the skin-bag, even though nobody could see it, and caressing the back of one's neck with a tentacle. It disappeared from the mirror as soon as he raised the alarm.
The next few minutes were spent trying to detect whatever might be in there with them, with little success and growing trepidation on the part of the explorers. The artificer tried to examine the mirror, at which point it went dead gray and for an instant showed a small eye in its center, which rapidly expanded to fill the entire mirror, which then exploded. Once the bleeding and dazed artificer was healed, he managed to infuse a see invisibility spell, which revealed the two rooms to be full from roof to ceiling of invisible, intangible webs, which were moving very gently in a non-existent breeze. The party got the hell out of there
__________________ shilsen is broken - Crothian (and this is why)
My Eberron Story Hour. Updated November 12. Almost at the climax!
Cannibalistic children, really took a toll on my players. The game was a take off of the Pied Piper, bard that was seking vengence on his home city, had a flute that would turn kids into animals with a taste for human flesh.
__________________ Signature:
All I need is minions and I would rule the world.
Recently, the PCs in my group were investigating an area in the undercity (Sharn, from Eberron) where they had fought some aberrations. They found a couple of hastily-abandoned rooms which included little besides a mirror on the wall and a crawlspace. Inside the latter, they found a strange-looking bag with splotches on it, which then turned out to be the skin of human-being who'd had all the stuffing sucked out of him (still had dessicated bones & organs inside). One caught a glimpse in the mirror of a grayish humanoid form leaning over those looking at the skin-bag, even though nobody could see it, and caressing the back of one's neck with a tentacle. It disappeared from the mirror as soon as he raised the alarm.
The next few minutes were spent trying to detect whatever might be in there with them, with little success and growing trepidation on the part of the explorers. The artificer tried to examine the mirror, at which point it went dead gray and for an instant showed a small eye in its center, which rapidly expanded to fill the entire mirror, which then exploded. Once the bleeding and dazed artificer was healed, he managed to infuse a see invisibility spell, which revealed the two rooms to be full from roof to ceiling of invisible, intangible webs, which were moving very gently in a non-existent breeze. The party got the hell out of there
I ran a CoC adventure where the PC's went through an old asylum looking for clues for a mysterious cult known only as Ktulu. They were sort of 1920's paranormal investigators funded by the government (i.e. start of Delta Green). The best part was that the actual pictures I used were from a real asylum: Danvers.
The pics alone were enough to set them on edge. The rotted zombies in the basement were just icing on the cake.
The creepiest thing I've ever done as a GM was a Necromancer that ran a necrophile brothel.
He had zombie "prostitutes" tied to beds for his customers.
He had two "special" models as well. These two poor individuals (one male, one female) had been turned into zombies while still alive. They were zombies but still had souls and were quite aware of what was going on. Each client got to use a Control Amulet that let them make these "special" models do anything they wished. Knowing that inside that rotting corpse was a human soul screaming to get out. Once freed the male asked to be killed. The female took the Amulet, placed it around her own neck and it melted into her flesh. She was now free willed undead. She took some money from her former "master", a few weapons, his client list and ripped off his genitals as a parting gesture (he was alive at that point...). Over the next month or so reports started coming in about a string of murders with specific forms of mutilation...
That creeped out my players...
I planned on bringing her back as an NPC at some point but the campaign ended.
I ran a CoC adventure where the PC's went through an old asylum looking for clues for a mysterious cult known only as Ktulu. They were sort of 1920's paranormal investigators funded by the government (i.e. start of Delta Green). The best part was that the actual pictures I used were from a real asylum: Danvers.
The pics alone were enough to set them on edge. The rotted zombies in the basement were just icing on the cake.
Nebulous (great nick btw) - have you seen the movie Session 9? It's set in the Danvers Asylum. It's not a bad film.
There are some moments of creep here that I don't think I could ever approach.
My last creepy moment was in the Mhair Jungles, and was done as an homage to Fulci's Zombi. As they entered the forest, they saw one of the natives watching them from the shadows. He just stood there, ignoring their salutations. As they got closer, they noticed that he kept reaching down to about stomach level, raising his hand back to his mouth, and chewing listlessly. Once they got even closer, they saw that he was in fact reaching into his stomach cavity and removing maggots to eat. The zombie moaned and lurched forward, maggots spilling from his mouth.
Session 9 is a interesting film. Didn't realize it was shot in Danvers.
My new favorite thread! Let me finish reading it later today, and I'll contribute. I'm a big fan of creepiness. I've been accused of turning fantasy games into Cthulhu games before.
d20 Future: I threw an undead USAF crewman at the players. He was unique in that he was found in the medical bay crucified by IV tubing. Later, then he attacked. He had a ranged attack where he used the tubing almost like chains that did piercing damaged and could wither drain blood or pump preservative fluids into the victim.
It freaked everyone out.
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The creepiest thing I think I ever threw at my characters was a prison that was a 20-story deep pit where political enemies of the Emperor were sent to die. While exploring it, they found a torture toom, and in the room was a glass vat with a man floating in a reddish-yellow liquid. They realized, upon inspection, that the man was bound in his current position, and had a ring of water breathing on one hand, and a ring of regeneration (acid only) on the other.
After mercifully freeing the man from his torture, they set out to explore the rest of the torture room, and came across a stack of wooden crates (about 3'x3'). One of the characters sat down on one, and heard a moan come from inside. Opening it up revealed a gaunt, nearly dead prisoner. They then looked at the stack of crates and realized that there were at least a hundred of them.
I think that was the creepiest session we've ever had.
Libris Mortis is my friend.
- Crothian (and 
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