D&D 5E Gothic Horror In The Rain

[MortalPlague]

I don't buy that the villagers haven't abandoned their sodden moldy villages. Sure, travel is dangerous, I get that. But in 10 (ten!) years, nobody could travel for a week to escape??

Some have. But there's enough carriages found bloody and cracked open at the side of the road to put the fear of the woods into the villagers. A combination of fear and complacency have kept the villagers in Croft.

Perhaps the rain comes from clouds laced with ... been charmed into staying put.

That's a very interesting idea. I love the idea of them making up excuses why they haven't left yet. I don't think I'm going to use it; it winds up being a little twilight zone for this campaign. But it's still an interesting idea.

Oh, and daylight spells would be in high demand. After years of gloom, some people would (literally) kill for a bit of daylight.

Ah, but Daylight is a cleric spell. And thus... witchcraft! Who can command the sun to shine?

 

[urLordy]

Some have. But there's enough carriages found bloody and cracked open at the side of the road to put the fear of the woods into the villagers. A combination of fear and complacency have kept the villagers in Croft.

OK. Personally, if I was a player, my PC would be asking the locals hard question like how does the merchant with an armed caravan come in and out safely twice a year, and you folk haven't set up your own armed caravans for 10 years. (Now if dozens of merchants brave the expedition every year for a chance at inflated profits and only one in 20 makes it in and out alive, then maybe it would feel a little more real to me, but still...)

That's a very interesting idea. I love the idea of them making up excuses why they haven't left yet. I don't think I'm going to use it; it winds up being a little twilight zone for this campaign. But it's still an interesting idea.

Another idea: the supernatural rain water is like a poison or disease that transmogrifies their skin. Any local who ventures out of the dampness into the dryness and warmth quickly turns into a dead dry husk, bloody and cracking. Some locals have embraced the dampness and hold cultish rituals, believing they are being Changed for something Big. Shades of Call of Cthulhu.

Ah, but Daylight is a cleric spell. And thus... witchcraft! Who can command the sun to shine?

..and the wet cult encourages this superstitious thinking because they don't want the populace to escape or find a cure; otherwise they will lose minions or victims for the assumed Final Ritual.

 

[urLordy]

OK, and here's my followup backstory idea (note that this requires a change; that it's not the rainwater per se that could contaminate the villagers, but rather the groundwater to the village wells):

Two things are true but forgotten:

Ages ago, amidst murky swamp and wet marshland, there was a cultish utopian-like society where initiates lived in ultimate bliss. Those amphibious creatures are long gone, and the land eventually became dry meadows and forest.

Deep in the earth and mud below this afflicted region, lies a gargantuan amphibious seeping ooze, before a dry and inert husk, now wet from the constant rain, throbbing and darkening. To date, only two have ever known of its existence: the one who became it ages ago and the one who located it a decade ago.

Nobody has solved the mystery of the rains because nobody has flown up high enough into the clouds to find the source of the dire rain (or a few may have, but never returned, or didn't see anything, or they did see something but came back 'different').

In fact, atop the clouds is a tower disguised as a strand of cloud, apparent only to those have the right key. Inside is a cloud giant mage. Every day for 10 years, his weather-magic ritual keeps the rain clouds gathered together. The cloud giant would claim to not know why; that he's a mercenary and warden.

And somewhere else, perhaps somewhere far away, a powerful being, superficially resembling a Laughing Buddha, always smiling or laughing, lives in a utopian opium-like bliss.

And down below, like the picture of Dorian Gray, the wet weeping ooze absorbs the Laughing One's sorrows, and grows.

 

[jrowland]

Muskeg is prevalent in Western Canada and Alaska, and one doesn't imagine these mountainous places as "Swampland". Basically "plains" of peat moss with water underneath. I've walked on this stuff, and in some places its like walking on a water bed. I've never been in, but "holes" in the peat moss expose the water beneath can be quite deep.

I like the Gothic horror angle, but I think (KM?) up thread had the right of it: The Forest (flora) is growing...and changing. Maybe not the main theme, but it certainly adds a creepy feeling. Rangers, druids, and the like are very disturbed...not just because of the change, but also because they are "out of place" in the wilds too.

 

[MortalPlague]

Deep in the earth and mud below this afflicted region, lies a gargantuan amphibious seeping ooze, before a dry and inert husk, now wet from the constant rain, throbbing and darkening. To date, only two have ever known of its existence: the one who became it ages ago and the one who located it a decade ago.

Sir, this is a gem of an idea, and I will be using it.

I really like what I have going on with the fey, however, so I'm going to adapt it thusly:

The fey in the lake desired the prince as their consort, so they drowned him. Desperate to find his son's body, the lord drained the lake and killed the fey. To avenge their fallen sisters, the fey of the woodlands called down the rains, a curse against the callous, destructive humans.

Unbeknownst to the fey, a gargantuan primordial ooze lay dormant, entombed within the earth, dried and broken and forgotten. The rain began to trickle down, and bit by bit, the ooze began to awaken. The alien sentience began to seep up, sending up separate pieces detached from the greater ooze to scout, to secure hosts and allies. So the ooze re-animated the bodies of the prince and the fallen fey, and began to re-animate other bodies too.

These re-animated hosts are at war with the ooze's alien mind; it can't maintain a hive mind, but each piece of ooze has its own mind whose goals align with the ooze. Creatures with a strong will like the prince or the fey maintain most of their own mind, and keep control over themselves. Others, animals or weaker-willed humanoids, are consumed by the ooze's sentience, becoming mindless zombies in its thrall.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The primordial ooze storyline- I great idea, I agree- makes me think that a Juiblex angle might work...

Also see Darkness Given Hunger (mentioned in that link near the bottom of the page), a demonic black pudding who serves him willingly.

 

[urLordy]

Sir, this is a gem of an idea, and I will be using it.

Thanks! I'm going to try one more Persuasion check and then I'll let you run your own campaign the way you see fit because I'm that magnanimous

It is possible that the fey DID know about the ooze, which is exactly why they decided to call down eternal rain and not some other curse. Otherwise, it's quite the coincidence that the fey just happened to call down a decade-long rain which just happened to recharge a dried out ooze that just happened to be buried there. (Grand coincidences in fantasy plots is something that always makes me squirm a bit inside. *) With their fey knowledge (or consultation with a higher fey mind), it's not inconceivable that the fey could learn about the buried ooze and plot their revenge accordingly.


* In case it wasn't apparent, that's why I had the cloud giant purposefully conscripted to shape the rain in that alternative backstory, to purposefully revert the land to wetlands in order to restore the ooze.

 

[MortalPlague]

The primordial ooze storyline- I great idea, I agree- makes me think that a Juiblex angle might work...

I think that might work, actually. I'll make this a spawn of Jubilex. That way I can have a nice D&D Lore tie-in.

It is possible that the fey DID know about the ooze, which is exactly why they decided to call down eternal rain and not some other curse.

Not so much a coincidence as an unforseen consequence.

Since the ooze is taking over the dead fey, it wouldn't make sense for the fey to be doing it intentionally. And the idea of this primordial ooze giving its ooze-like sentience to these undead monsters is too much fun to pass up. I figure the ooze has lain below for thousands upon thousands of years, long enough that even the fey forgot.

 

[Nytmare]

Since the ooze is taking over the dead fey, it wouldn't make sense for the fey to be doing it intentionally.

Not THE fey per se, but maybe a key individual, who as luck had it was corrupted by their chance meeting with the nearly dead husk over a decade ago, and was looking for some way to manipulate events to bring the dead god back to life.

"That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die."

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=62721]MortalPlague[/MENTION] Just wanted to say it sounds like a fabulous campaign idea and I hope you update this thread with play reports!