1001 Mournland Horrors

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by Territan:

Not to sound like I'm brown-nosing, but this one struck me the most out of all of them so far.

That's because it's simpler, and yet more personal: strange otherworldly horrors in the Mournland are, as we've already seen, a dime a dozen. Now, familiar horrors of war, that's classic.

So in that vein, here are a few things I'm sticking in my own campaign...

89) An old manor house, which contains two or three perfectly preserved but well-looted and -abused corpses of household staff lie approximately where they fell on the Day of Mourning. A large clock in one corner s stuck at 11:58 and ticks incessantly, its gears jammed by something but still trying to move. The portraits in the house radiate protective magic, and prevent further damage to the house or its contents. (It's the former home of a PC. Effects of unjamming that clock are left to the creative DM.)

90) A lightning rail station. The skeleton of a ticket vendor sits behind the barred booth, offering a ticket. The ticket can't be pulled loose, but tugging on it will unlock the gate, allowing entry. Inside, there is no dust, no trash, no corpses, no decay. The vendors' booths and stalls are perfectly clean and could be used tomorrow. But by the same token, no train would dare stop there...

91) A fine ink pen. It's intact, looks fancy, and writes smoothly but if the writer doesn't pay attention, he'll start auto-writing pleas for help, messages from beyond the grave, random usable spells... The pen inflicts no ill effects other than the auto-writing, but the spells are obscure and hard to identify so blithely casting them would be dangerous.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by concretecow:

92) The party encounter a group of crazed Warforged followers of the Lord of Blades. Each could not handle their new found awareness and so have tried to emulate the other races by wearing their skin. Each warforged has a full tanned skin from a humanoid race affixed about them with leather thongs and ties. Most look hideous in their fleshy clothes, whilst others could appear ridiculous, such as a 7ft warforged wearing the stretched skin of a 3ft halfling!! They all intone "We will embrace the flesh" and set out to update their wardrobes by taking the skins of the party.

93) The party encounter an undead regimental band of skeletons and/or zombies. Each still wears it's tattered uniform and armour from the war and plays it's drum, flute or horn with gusto, all marching in eerie unison. The spooky marching tune has a Animate dead spell woven in it's sound, and all dead within 90ft of the band immediately rise and either join the band, or attack the nearest non undead. A great encounter for parties moving through old battlefields!

94) The party come across a pit at the edge of a battlefield that smells badly, due to it seeming to be a dumping ground and toilet for local monsters. At the edge of the stinking pit is a pile of old weapons, armor and equipment, amongst which something desirable glistens (Maybe a jewel, magic blade or staff). Upon approaching the pit, a large golem type creature bursts from the filth. It is made up almost completely of excrement and smells very bad indeed (Will saves to stop being nauseous). The golem pursues the group and all damage it does can cause disease (Fort saves) due to the makeup of it's hideous form.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

95) The adventurers find themselves wandering near an old settlement on 9 Rhaan, the day of Boldrei's feast. Anyone with half a brain would know to AVOID the lights and music that pierce the dead-grey mist. Then again, they are adventurers... if they wander too far they find a lively, yet benign Cyran town of grotesque mutants in the midst of festival, honoring Boldrei for holding the community together in such hardship as the mourning. One problem, though. It is Boldrei's FEAST, and lacking any vegetation or animal life, the party members have become the guests of honor, if you catch my drift...

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by Hellcow:

Ditto for Cyran characters passing through their hometowns.

Just to expand on this for a moment, the point here is to remember that if any of the characters passing through the Mournland are Cyran, the land is also their home. When they find the village where everything seems slightly melted and all that's left of the people are their clothes... perhaps that village was their home town. Or where their first love lived. Or where their brother settled after he lost his arm in the war. In fact, that pile of clothes there looks like the cloak you gave him. Does that mean he's dead? Or might he (and the rest of the villagers) still be out there somewhere? Might he in fact be the one-armed skullcrusher ogre waiting across the hill, and if so is there any way to reach him?

A key to doing this sort of thing is to establish a few facts with the PC before hand. Nothing major, just enough so you can actually have things match. Did they grow up in the country or city? And relatives? What did their parents do for a living? No need to write it all doubt or put together a book, just to make sure you're on the same page.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

Might he in fact be the one-armed skullcrusher ogre waiting across the hill, and if so is there any way to reach him?

Cool! really cool. It's no surprise that you won the contest, Keith. Thanks for continuing to amaze.

*97) East of Eston, beneath lake Cyre, there lies a watertight bronze dome. One of the greatest wonders of Cyre, this dome supported a hamlet that was to be the last refuge of the royal family and the many treasure Cyran people. If the PCs manage to reach it, they find it inhabited and unaffected by the mourning, but the inhabitants are currently battling a tribe of Kuo-Toa that has seized a vault. The vault contains the key to the Cyrans escape from the dome, but once the PCs retrieve it, is all well, or has a mad Cyran, gifted with illusory powers by the Mourning, been deluding them into doing their dirty work?

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

16) A vast creature that appears to be part of the landscape.

18 - Living dungeons: building that has a taste for death...

I've seen the living dungeon thing done before (The old Jackson/Livingstone Fighting Fantasy books, specifically The Riddling Reaver) but I'll chip in my addition:

18.5) A dungeon which is made of dead flesh. Maybe it was alive recently, but it's hard to tell. Somewhere inside something vital looking has been hacked apart. Various dead bodies of a former adventuring party can be found within, along with various animals that the dungeon successfully snared.

My own, though I'm not too good at horror:

96) The adventurers espy a figure sitting at the top of a hill, his back against a rock. As they ascend the hill, the howl of the wind and the hopeless vista fades away, replaced by distant birdsong, an impossibly blue sky, healthy grass, bright flowers and what appear to be cows in the distance. All of this is an illusion, though it's incredibly well done. (High disbelief save.)
The figure is a very old gnome, leaning on the rock with his sleeping bag cushioning his back. Though he is long dead, his corpse is unrotted and he seems to have died smiling.
Attempts to raise him from the dead fail (the gnome looks old enough that his time may have fully run out) and if his corpse is brought out of the Mournland it disappears on the night of the new moon, reappearing on the hill.
The location is a relatively pleasant place to rest, though other Mournland unpleasantness still happen (IE: Rains of blood, wandering horrors)

97) A house Sivis message station, filled with ghosts whispering messages to still-living relatives in other parts of Khorvaire (Some of them are even in Cyre, and could be as close as the next town). A house Sivis heir might hear messages from outside Cyre if he uses the stones, perhaps prayers for the souls of relatives lost in the Mournland.
Consider giving XP rewards if the players make an effort to collect the messages of the ghosts and deliver them.

98)An ancient Dhakaani ruin, which has had it's missing parts restored by ghostly outlines of former glories. Inside, faint snatches of millennia-old conversations flit through the air, with several whispers all at once in the main dining hall.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by MarkB:

and if his corpse is brought out of the Mournland it disappears on the night of the new moon, reappearing on the hill.

Any particular new moon?

Very nice suggestions. Here's one more:

99) In the depths of an abandoned House Cannith facility, a Creation Forge is still operating, the dead hand of a perfectly-preserved Cannith Artificer at the controls, and a trio of powerful golems tasked with providing it with raw materials. But the forge ran out of raw materials long ago. Each day, it produces a fully-functioning warforged, who emerges into the sealed complex sentient and aware - and each day, the three golems, implacably following their instructions, find the only available source of suitable raw materials for the creation forge: The warforged himself. After a desperate chase through the complex, he is hunted down, dismembered, and fed into the hoppers of the creation forge - which forges him anew the next day, with all his memories intact.

The warforged is smart and determined, and each day he learns more about the complex and explores new possible avenues of escape. But even mystical forging processes have wastage, and each time he is slain and reforged, he emerges a little weaker. Can he discover a solution to his cycle of torment before he grows too weak to take advantage of it?

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by chimpman:

Like the Sivis message station. Here are some of my own twists:

100) No matter where the PCs travel, there is always a Sivis message stone (in the shape of a gnome) just at the edge of their vision. Traveling toward the stone won't bring it any closer.

101) As 99, but traveling toward the stone will bring it closer. Upon closer inspection the PCs not that the stone has the face of someone they once knew. The face is made of flesh, and touching it will cause the PC in question to relive some past moment that was shared with the person whose face is on the stone. After the moment is relieved the stone disappears forever.

102) As 100, but instead of forcing the character to relive some past moment, touching the stone places them into a Quori generated nightmare. There they must help the person they knew escape from some peril. The person may actually be trapped in Dal-Quor, or the whole experience might be a figment of the PC's imagination.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

103) Horrible aberrant children play along, gathering pieces of the dead and putting it in a cauldron. Seeing the characters, they pursue them until they agree to buy some soap...

104) They see a city which looks normal, but is populated by shadows. Not the monster, but humanoid darkened areas cast as if it were mid-afternoon. The shadows move, play, and act normally. The shadows grow longer and longer till they begin to fade. Once faded, they become real shadows and attack.

105) They come to a farmhouse, which looks to be in good repair and smoke rises from the chimney. If they observe for a while, a pile of stray nearby suddenly lifts up and pierces the house, causing it to bleed and pained shrieking can be heard from within. The house then burns down.

106) Near the Glowing Chasm horrid aberrations hunt for living creatures. If caught, they will throw the captures creature into the chasm, mutating it into another aberration.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

107) A Kender......nuff said.

108) As the PCs walk through one of the empty towns they see a small human child wandering about. The child is not a zombie or a ghost, illusion, or some other supernatural creature, just a normal child. But where did he/she come from and how are they here?

109) As the party is walking through the Field of Ruins there appears to be a person messing with one of the corpses. As they get closer they see its a hairless dwarf in bloody rags. He has a crazed look in his eyes and appears to be carving the flesh of one of the bodies skin off with a bloody dagger. They see there are a couple of them with their skin missing. The dwarf seems them and with blood around his lips "Hey who you? If you be lookin' food this ones mine!! MINE!!!...(formless gibberish).....though you help me with this one..." If party starts leaving he waves and yells goodbye hope to see you sometime or invites them to next dinner....

110) As the party walks on through the land they walk by what appears to be a hole in the ground of about 2 foot radius and too dark to see the bottom. A horrible shriek followed by some giggling.

A voice, an obviously mad voice asks them to come down and help with a bug problem. If they refuse it then says it has magical (something the party is interested in). If they still refuse, it says it has candy.... etc.. over and over different things until the party leaves and then it whimpers and cries for them to come back and says its lonely and doesn't get any visitors.

If they go down....that's up for you to decide what happens.