Two instances:
1. First session of what would end up being a planescape campaign, but the Players didn't know that. They were in a haunted mansion type scenario, when they finally hit the basement (filled with catacombs and crypts, obviously undisturbed for many years), and they noticed weird rats watching them from just outside torchlight. Eventually, they noticed the rats were becoming more and more numerous the deeper into the crypts they got, and it was as if they were only moving in certain directions...effectively herding the PCs. When they finally realized this, one player said "Wait a sec...they are herding us..." and at the moment was a chain lightning from the army of hundreds and hundreds of Cranium Rats. Scared the piss out of 'em.
2. Ran the Meenlock Prison adventure from Dungeon Mag (not sure which # off hand). I recorded the whispered phrase that the Meenlocks psionically issue to their quarry, something like "We were once like you; soon you will be one of us" or something like that. I played it back on a tape recorder at slow speeds and high speeds, and because I'd whispered the phrase (but turned up the volume), it was very oddly distorted. I would play it only when they were getting close to the Meenlocks in an underground prison block, and it made for some really creepy atmospherics!
One thing I wanted to do but never got around to was this:
I was running a 4e playtest in which the PCs were accompanied by the disembodied voice of a young girl. They were tasked with fighting several "guardians" (i.e. boss monsters, usually Solos straight out of the MM1) to escape a strange land they were in (actually the Underworld: they were dead). Each time they defeated one of the bosses, the girl's voice would "grow up" slightly: get deeper, more confident, and more powerful. Eventually, a male voice would join as well, at first as a whisper, but then -- as more bosses were killed -- growing deeper and soon overpowering the girl's voice (now a woman's voice, by that point). The whole plot was that this girl's voice was the voice of a Goddess that had been slain, and the PCs were her former servants, questing through the Underworld to resurrect her. As they defeated the guardians, she got closer and closer to life; but, her terrible brother (and killer) was tied to her fate, and so he was effectively being resurrected as well. Eventually, the PCs would have to face the male God in combat, hopefully with some help from the Goddess.
I would have had my girlfriend record the female voice from "youth" to "powerful womanly voice" while I would have joined in as the male voice, all in a few preplanned speeches I would make after the death of each boss/guardian. It was an awesome idea, but the group folded before I could bring it about.
1. First session of what would end up being a planescape campaign, but the Players didn't know that. They were in a haunted mansion type scenario, when they finally hit the basement (filled with catacombs and crypts, obviously undisturbed for many years), and they noticed weird rats watching them from just outside torchlight. Eventually, they noticed the rats were becoming more and more numerous the deeper into the crypts they got, and it was as if they were only moving in certain directions...effectively herding the PCs. When they finally realized this, one player said "Wait a sec...they are herding us..." and at the moment was a chain lightning from the army of hundreds and hundreds of Cranium Rats. Scared the piss out of 'em.
2. Ran the Meenlock Prison adventure from Dungeon Mag (not sure which # off hand). I recorded the whispered phrase that the Meenlocks psionically issue to their quarry, something like "We were once like you; soon you will be one of us" or something like that. I played it back on a tape recorder at slow speeds and high speeds, and because I'd whispered the phrase (but turned up the volume), it was very oddly distorted. I would play it only when they were getting close to the Meenlocks in an underground prison block, and it made for some really creepy atmospherics!
One thing I wanted to do but never got around to was this:
I was running a 4e playtest in which the PCs were accompanied by the disembodied voice of a young girl. They were tasked with fighting several "guardians" (i.e. boss monsters, usually Solos straight out of the MM1) to escape a strange land they were in (actually the Underworld: they were dead). Each time they defeated one of the bosses, the girl's voice would "grow up" slightly: get deeper, more confident, and more powerful. Eventually, a male voice would join as well, at first as a whisper, but then -- as more bosses were killed -- growing deeper and soon overpowering the girl's voice (now a woman's voice, by that point). The whole plot was that this girl's voice was the voice of a Goddess that had been slain, and the PCs were her former servants, questing through the Underworld to resurrect her. As they defeated the guardians, she got closer and closer to life; but, her terrible brother (and killer) was tied to her fate, and so he was effectively being resurrected as well. Eventually, the PCs would have to face the male God in combat, hopefully with some help from the Goddess.
I would have had my girlfriend record the female voice from "youth" to "powerful womanly voice" while I would have joined in as the male voice, all in a few preplanned speeches I would make after the death of each boss/guardian. It was an awesome idea, but the group folded before I could bring it about.