Creepiest dungeon rooms/encounters

[LostSoul]

Hey All;

I am wondering what were the creepiest dungeon rooms that you've created/ran through/played in. I remember playing some of the old 1st edition modules, and, for some reason, I was creeped out by some of them. Maybe it was the unknown that I feared; maybe it was the traps without saves; or maybe it was because I was only 10 years old.

Anyway, I'd like to recreate that feeling - where you're never sure if you should move foward 10', let alone go into that pitch-black room while your trembling wizard holds the only torch and a gust of foul-smelling wind threatens to plunge all of you into utter darkness.

 

[LostSoul]

Just a bump post...

One of my old favourites wasn't in a dungeon, but in a lonely farmhouse. A young barmaid lived there after her parents died. The PCs interacted with her a few times. After many games, the PCs were asked to check up on her because she hadn't arrived for work for two days.

So the PCs get there and (for some reason or another) think everything's normal. They open the door after knocking on it and getting no response. It's dark inside, the shutters being closed, so they go to open a window. One failed Balance check later and one of the PCs is on the floor, having slipped in a pool of blood. They look up and see a large stain on the ceiling, and the still-steady drip-drop of blood.

They rush upstairs and find the barmaid strung up, half-naked, by her ankles in a small study. There is a large cut running from her neck to her stomach, and blood is still slowly dripping out of it. Two PCs move in and cut her down (while making Balance checks). The Wizard PC secretly makes a Will save, and fails. He plays this out by having the Wizard gag in the corner at the sight, trying to compose himself.

The lone PC waits in the study while the other two rush downstairs to try and save the barmaid, leaving the Wizard alone. Something small and black as deepest night, about the size of a cat, rolls out from under a table. It unfurls its wings and streches out, and streches out, until it stands 5 feet tall. It smiles at the charmed and fascinated Wizard and clicks its claws together. The Wizard's faithful owl familiar screeches, and the other two PCs arrive to fight it.

A very cool battle began. The two PCs went down, and the Wizard remained in a trance. The beast approached the Wizard for a Coup de Grace, but once again the owl familiar saved the day. It swooped in and attacked, and while it did no damage, this action roused the Wizard. The Wizard was able to drive off the wounded beast just in time to watch one of his friends bleed to death...

...or not, actually, but that's another story.

---

Then there was the "Old Well" that housed a Cthulhu-ish monstrosity, full of tentacles, Improved Grab, and a Str-draining attack.

The PCs descend down the well and find a small tunnel leading to a natural cavern. In the cavern they find the skin of the monster's victims all stacked in a pile. In crude, child-like writing, the monster has written his journal.

Various other curios lie around the cavern, momentos from the monster's victims, and a heap of bones in one corner. Some of the bones are human, other animal - including a bear skeleton.

Anyway, when the PCs are finished looking around, they hear the monster return home...

 

[demiurge1138]

The creepiest encounter I ever ran was the battle with the Crazy Thorn Man. Let me explain.

The party's roaming around Sharn, and the two rogues in the party are trying to pick up a little cash. They see a likely mark, but one of them was ran into by a screaming child, telling wild tales of the Thorn Man, who was covered in thorns and turns little kids into bushes and eats them. So they used the babbling child as a distraction and fleeced their mark anyway.

Jump ahead a bit. The same two rogues are trying to sneak aboard a hobgoblin ship bound to Darguun, looking to free the slaves on the ship and lead them in revolt. They sneak aboard, pass the hobgoblins aboard, then go below decks...

And run into the Thorn Man. Who babbles for a while about drinking their succulent sap, then sprang.

The two of them fought their way back upstairs, barely making it out and summoning the city guard. Who were quickly impaled on the Thorn Man's splinterspit.

The Thorn Man ended up battling the barbarian through the bunks of the ship, punching through mattresses and chopping through wooden beams. The barbarian ended up with a thorn in his chest, but he triumphed over the freaky creature.

And I gave one of my players nightmares with my voice and the mental image I conjured. Ahh... a job well done.

Demiurge out.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Broadly speeking it is always eerie when the friend of the characters turns out to be a bad guy. For instance, in a current game I am running (a supers game) there is some lunatic capturing people, accusing them of heresy and other sins and then putting them through a modern day Inquisition before murdering them. He has all kinds of old Latin texts, sees himself as the last bastion of decency in the world and sees sins and infractions against God's law everywhere. The charaters have turned to a Catholic priest who is a Latin scholar and historian for help deciphering the clues. They'll be sufficiently surprised when they find he is the criminal.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Sewers

The sounds of water in the background, the drips, the splashes as they echo in the darkness. The movement of the sewage around your legs, the obects that you see in the dimness of your torch light as they bump into you. Your feet slipping in the goo and muck threating to slide from under you, dunking you into the stinking mess about you. Then there are the rats, large beast, slick and greasy looking, red eyes a glow in the gloom watching.