Hi,
I'm planning a Halloween Horror Adventure for my next D&D Session next Sunday.
The Campaign is a City Campaign in and around Waterdeep.
Now, this is my first Horror Adventure I've ever written, so I want to make it quite short and easy. Just a little Adventure to give my players the chills ;-)
I've already read Ash Laws Trajectory of Fear and oriented myself at it.
So, heres the Idea:
Deep unter the City is an underground lake, connected to the Sword Sea. A long time ago there was a connection to the sewers of Waterdeep, but wise people have sealed this passage. Now, just a few days before the adventure starts, for some case this connection was opened again (why this is the case doesn't really matter for the adventure. Maybe some Adventurers who thought that there is treasure behind this wall?).
Now the Aboleth which dwelled within the lake stalks through the sewers and is giving the people bad nightmares.
This is where the adventure starts and here's the outline:
1. Unease: The PCs recognize, that many people are more agressive than usually. They do not want to talk, acting very strange and hostile to each other. Common to all of them: They are having headaches, which are getting worse with each day (of course the headache is caused from the nightmares).
2. Dread: After the PCs get the sense that "something is wrong" the PCs see a corpse with an exploded head, lying on the street.
3. Unease: A PC is waking up in the middle of the night. Everything is calm and it seems there is nothing wrong.
4. Dread: At some point the PC hears footsteps coming nearer to his door. Then someone is trying to open to door, knocking and kicking against it. If the Door opens, just the moment before the PC can see what is trying to hunt him, he awakes, sweat-bathed within his bed. From now on he has a headache.
5. Unease: When the PCs are wandering through the city, they are standing on an empty street. Nobody is here. They are just hearing a gentle melody.
6. Dread: Now from all sites are coming commoners, surrounding the PCs. They are having clubs and other improvised weapons. They are closing around the PCs and the melody is getting louder. The melody comes from beneath a gully cover right under the feet of the PCs.
7. Terror: If the PCs are climbing through the gully, they are within the sewers and seeing many shadows and hearing creepy sounds, all overshadowed by this strange melody. After a short march they encounter the broken passage and see the underground lake with its dark, nearly black water. Something is within the water and it's coming for you!
8. Horror: The Aboleth attacks! It will use its probing telepathy to get to the inner fears and wishes of the Players and using it against them.
9. Unease: After defeating the aboleth, the headach is gone and the people are acting normally, not remembering what happend in the last few days. But the PCs hear this strange melody again for a few seconds, as it fades out... Is the threat really eliminated?
Some remarks:
a) I will use this melody (and only this melody) throughout the whole adventure to build tension and to foreshadow a threat.
b) Point 3 is my most problematic point. I'm not sure how to do this. Should just one PC get this nightmare, representative for the whole group? Or should all PCs get the same nightmare at the same time? Narrating through it in parallel? Having each PC a unique nighmare would be anti-climactic, as after the first PC got it's nightmare all players know that it's just a nightmare and then is will not work.
How would you do it?
So, I'm open for improvements. Remember, that this adventure has intentionally no combats, exept for the final fight. It should be short, so that the player's will have their full concentration troughout the whole adventure.
best regards
I'm planning a Halloween Horror Adventure for my next D&D Session next Sunday.
The Campaign is a City Campaign in and around Waterdeep.
Now, this is my first Horror Adventure I've ever written, so I want to make it quite short and easy. Just a little Adventure to give my players the chills ;-)
I've already read Ash Laws Trajectory of Fear and oriented myself at it.
So, heres the Idea:
Deep unter the City is an underground lake, connected to the Sword Sea. A long time ago there was a connection to the sewers of Waterdeep, but wise people have sealed this passage. Now, just a few days before the adventure starts, for some case this connection was opened again (why this is the case doesn't really matter for the adventure. Maybe some Adventurers who thought that there is treasure behind this wall?).
Now the Aboleth which dwelled within the lake stalks through the sewers and is giving the people bad nightmares.
This is where the adventure starts and here's the outline:
1. Unease: The PCs recognize, that many people are more agressive than usually. They do not want to talk, acting very strange and hostile to each other. Common to all of them: They are having headaches, which are getting worse with each day (of course the headache is caused from the nightmares).
2. Dread: After the PCs get the sense that "something is wrong" the PCs see a corpse with an exploded head, lying on the street.
3. Unease: A PC is waking up in the middle of the night. Everything is calm and it seems there is nothing wrong.
4. Dread: At some point the PC hears footsteps coming nearer to his door. Then someone is trying to open to door, knocking and kicking against it. If the Door opens, just the moment before the PC can see what is trying to hunt him, he awakes, sweat-bathed within his bed. From now on he has a headache.
5. Unease: When the PCs are wandering through the city, they are standing on an empty street. Nobody is here. They are just hearing a gentle melody.
6. Dread: Now from all sites are coming commoners, surrounding the PCs. They are having clubs and other improvised weapons. They are closing around the PCs and the melody is getting louder. The melody comes from beneath a gully cover right under the feet of the PCs.
7. Terror: If the PCs are climbing through the gully, they are within the sewers and seeing many shadows and hearing creepy sounds, all overshadowed by this strange melody. After a short march they encounter the broken passage and see the underground lake with its dark, nearly black water. Something is within the water and it's coming for you!
8. Horror: The Aboleth attacks! It will use its probing telepathy to get to the inner fears and wishes of the Players and using it against them.
9. Unease: After defeating the aboleth, the headach is gone and the people are acting normally, not remembering what happend in the last few days. But the PCs hear this strange melody again for a few seconds, as it fades out... Is the threat really eliminated?
Some remarks:
a) I will use this melody (and only this melody) throughout the whole adventure to build tension and to foreshadow a threat.
b) Point 3 is my most problematic point. I'm not sure how to do this. Should just one PC get this nightmare, representative for the whole group? Or should all PCs get the same nightmare at the same time? Narrating through it in parallel? Having each PC a unique nighmare would be anti-climactic, as after the first PC got it's nightmare all players know that it's just a nightmare and then is will not work.
How would you do it?
So, I'm open for improvements. Remember, that this adventure has intentionally no combats, exept for the final fight. It should be short, so that the player's will have their full concentration troughout the whole adventure.
best regards
