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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DaveW" data-source="post: 5320700" data-attributes="member: 94430">Here's something I did in one campaign;I had a situation where Dwarves dug too deep (cliche, I know) and broke into the underdark. This was a fairly new dwelling, so the Dwarves broke down all the tunnels in the lower level and abandoned it, leaving behind an enormous defense mechanism that would prevent anything digging through the tunnels from getting to the surface. Unfortunately, a single solitary Drow scout was trapped halfway between her home in the underdark and the surface. A few years later, and a clan of semi-peaceful goblins have taken up residence in the abandoned mine. The Drow has conflicting feelings about them; she is driven to torture and kill them for her own amusement, but at the same time she thrives on their company, steals their food. Her nature and upbringing are constantly battling her desire for company and entertainment; put simply, she's quite mad.The players were tasked with finding and stopping the Drow. However, she is near impossible to see, able to slip past them with ease. She could, in effect, kill them with ease, but she yearns for entertainment...so she toys with them, and laughs her way down the corridors whenever one of her traps are sprung. Some of the things I was doing genuinely made my players apprehensive, and I think you could use them to make your monster more terrifying.For example:- The wizard opened a door without checking it. A bucked of water falls on his head. A nearby goblin tells him that the last time that trick was pulled, the bucket contained acid.- The fighter went down a dry well on a rope; finding it clear, the rest of the party followed. Once at the bottom, the body of a goblin falls into the well, and they realize that the Drow is at the top. They wait a while, before the fighter chooses to climb the rope; just at the top, she cuts it and he falls back in.The Drow could have caused them serious harm at any point, but she was more interested in toying with them. Making your players feel vulnerable and helpless, without removing their control of the situation, should help to create an atmosphere of tension.My players eventually captured her in an old library. Guessing that the only place she could be hiding is on top of a bookshelf, the fighter pushed the bookshelves over in a domino-effect. The Drow has nowhere to hide, and the fighter chose to execute her right there and then. Heh, he got himself covered in Drow blood in the process-meaning he activated the defense mechanism when they tried to leave. Oh me oh my, I do love letting my players walk right into it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />-Dave</blockquote>

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