1001 Mournland Horrors

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

Revision to one of my prior ideas- suitable for a game in which so many horrors have been witnessed by the PCs that its time for a little sign of hope and happiness:
66b) A band of ghostly children march through a battle field (with the usual preserved corpses) searching for the bodies of their relatives. When a relative is found, one (or maybe a few) ghostly child (children) break from the parade with a soul wrenching wail and sinks into the earth next to the corpse. Were the child disappears, a pure white rose appears, and an expression of peace and contentment appears upon the lifeless features of the dead parent next to whom the rose blossoms.

146) A large cave looms up before the PCs. A deep bluish glow issues from its mouth, accompanied by a gust of stagnant wind, which rustles the PC's hair and pulls at their clothing. After a few second of standing before the cave, it suddenly dawns on anyone with long hair or wearing a loose garment that the wind is actually being sucked into the cave from the outside, and that it feels as though it is trying to pull them in as well.
(At this point, each PC makes a will save, of a DC appropriately difficult for characters of the parties average level. To those who beat the save, the wind seems to recede, as does the blue glow. To those who fail, read the following.)
*The wind seems to pull in an almost urgent manner upon your clothing and hair. Then, the voices begin. At first, they are indistinguishable and hard to make out, but after a moment, the voices become dreadfully clear, and you recognize them, each and every one, to be a facsimile of your own. Some scream for help, some weep for forgiveness, some demand that you right a terrible wrong which you have not yet suffered. An irresistible urge to enter the cave overcomes you, and with the voices whispering seductively in your ears, you march towards the cavern entrance.*

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

147) Flying Aboleths... (hey, that'd be enough to ruin my day)
148) A city survived the mourning, and all it's citizens are safe. The only problem? It sank into a lake. And now all of the inhabitants, having grown gills as a result of the mourning, can't leave or they'll "drown" on dry ground.
149) a whirlwind of body parts is actually an elder air elemental gone insane, who now only lives only as a whirlwind, racing across the gray plains, carrying corpses that occasionally expel from his form, raining bodies for miles
150) An invisible stalker with a noose preys on travelers, roping their necks and hanging them from the nearest tree

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

So Depressing

151) The Characters have persistent nightmares about being trapped in a small, dark space. They believe they are unable to move and constantly cry out in their sleep. They never can get any good, wholesome sleep and act as if they got 4 hours ( or 2 for the elves) of sleep. Then, on the 13th night, the dreams stop. They wake up to find themselves in the dream, only they are really there. On the 13th day of this, they go back to the real world, their bodies having not eaten, slept, or drunk in 13 days. This continues and they become progressively more uptight and afraid. They eventually become claustrophobic and afraid of the dark. Eventually, they will die, as their bodies won't be able to sustain that level of fasting. No magic can ward this of.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

152) when the Characters camp for the evening. While most of the players are still up a Woman’s voice calls out to them, “Have you seen my Little Girl?” She was wearing a brown dress with some little blue beads sewn into the shapes of lilies around the edge.
She went outside to see what the commotion was, I can’t find her!! Please travelers, have you seen her? If the players shine a light in the direction of the voice they barley make out the figure of a woman’s Ghost dressed in peasant cloths.
It is up to the players if they help her or if they ignore her at no time does she approach the camp and stays away from any light source.

153) the characters come across a small section of a larger battle field there is a shaft of sun light centered on a pair of figures holding each other. If the players approach this strange occurrence they see three figures in this manifestation the two hold each other in their last moments in this plane. Is an odd couple to be sure a warforged is cradling a female tiefling who is frozen in her last moments caressing the warforged face. Both have signs of heavy combat that took their lives. “Excuse me, would you go away!”
The voice is coming from behind the characters. The voice is coming from a male specter dress in combination of chain mail and leather. “All right shove off! Go away! You heard me GO! The specter is the traitor who betrayed his side because he was jealousy of Grey the Warforged. If the players don’t move or begin to attack the specter he retreats as fast as he can. Cursing That Machine as he flees. If he is held or destroyed he escapes or reforms were his body lays were forever to be reminded that she loved another.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

154) The party encounters...another party, all of whom are wild eyed, disheveled, their hair turned prematurely white (or fallen out), and psychotically paranoid from the multitude of undead cannibalistic children that they've had to face time and time again during their foray into the Mournland. If the PC party so much as sneezes, the insane party wigs out and either goes catatonic or attacks the party in a blind rage.
Keep in mind, the party is still human. They can be reasoned with. A diplomacy check, calm emotion spell, or A restoration spell to cure their damaged Wisdom scores should do the trick and restore their sanity. If such a thing occurs, I would recommend rewarding the PCs with a juicy plot hook or have the newly-sane party inform the PCs of a danger down the road, allowing them to either circumvent the danger or help them overcome it.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by Save-vs-DM:

155. At a crossroads sits a rough stone and piled around it various gems, gold plates and other such items. A small hymn to the Silver Flame for protection is carved into the stone. At night the items glow with an eerie silver flame. If any items are taken, they weigh 100 pounds and cannot be dropped with remove curse.

156. A small halfling caravan is parked near a stream, all of the halflings looking malnourished and underfed. If the PC's offer to help guide them out, they are grateful and the eldest woman offers to tell their fortunes for free as thanks for the kind deeds. She asks each PC to draw five cards. Once all PCs who wish to have their fortunes told have drawn cards, tell them that they have just drawn five cards from a Deck of Many Things.

Cheers,
Save vs DM

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

157. As the PCs explore a dungeon, they open a seemingly normal door. On the other side is a counterpart to the PCs, who have been locked in the room.
Belkar the halfling ranger meets Yikyik the kobold ranger, and so on. The other party, however, is better in every way. If Belkar has a +2 shortsword, Yikyik has a +3 shortsword. If Grog has 17 STR, Mrog has 18 STR. the opposing party attacks the PCs. After the PCs win somehow, the enemies corpses change to an older version of theirs.
Careful examination of the room reveals a very strong illusion spell, and a spell to do with time travel...

Treat the room as an eldritch machine. Possibly create an adventure leading to how the PCs got trapped in the first place.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

So how could the PCs possibly win aside dumb luck? that's heavy TPK material for you right there. then again, so is most of the Mournland...

158. The PCs meet a man who sits in front of two shallow graves, marked with small wooden tomb"stones". If confronted, he asks one of the PCs to borrow a weapon for a second. If they refuse, he just sits silently and stares at the graves. If they do lend him a weapon, he performs suicide with it. His body quickly turns into some sort of semi-intelligent blood-ooze which quickly moves onto the graves and sinks into them, coloring the dirt red as it does so.
If the PCs are dumb enough to open the graves...well...that's up to the DM. I'd suggest something like two red-colored skeletons, one normal and one halfling-sized, attacking the PCs while screaming insanely. >_>

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by Territan:

152) ... She was wearing a brown dress with some little blue beads sewn into the shapes of lilies around the edge...

Brown dress with blue beads? That's just cruel!

159: A pool of water, no more than two feet by six feet. The water is dark but looks, smells, and tastes fresh. Lighting the pool (i.e. a torch held over it) reveals a young woman in a white gown, perfectly preserved and composed, as if freshly laid out. If someone drinks from the pool (water to cupped hand to mouth or directly only), a hand will reach out of the pool and gently caress that person's face. The woman's eyes will also open and follow that person around. That person gets a wish, but since she only communicates non-verbally, that person has no way of knowing until he says something, perhaps days or weeks later, that he may later regret.

160: A scantily-dressed living woman, tied between two stone pillars, quietly waiting for whatever end comes. If they approach, she'll beg that her end comes quickly. They could also find out from talking to her that she is the latest sacrifice intended to spare her village from the Mourning. Her village is nearby and indeed spared the effects of the fog. Everyone in that village is openly friendly, pretty much ape-something insane, and will quietly plan for the party's demise in any number of horrid ways, because they believe that killing outsiders and sacrificing their own numbers are the only ways that they can save their village. (The Mourning avoided the village for other reasons having nothing to do with the sacrifices. It'd take some investigating to figure out what, though.)

161: The gigantic unnatural creature that had been eating the sacrifices from #160 above.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by sorcerer:

162) The party enters a small roadside town. Nothing new here, the dead lie everywhere. But no mater what building they enter it is always the mortuary at the edge of town. Same views from the windows, and the back door always leads to a cemetery.

The only way out is thru the cemetery. And if the party has not figured this out yet they will make several trips from the cemetery back to the town.

One room has a number of fresh (but empty) coffins with the PC's names carved into it!

The PC's will be unable to loot any of the buildings in the town.