Other-ness encounter ideas

[Abstraction]

I have a fourth-level group exploring a strange fey forest. They encountered a winged cat, some pixie-types and some little flying sprites. The sprites were damming up a river with acorns, I was trying to give the PCs an idea that the fey have trouble crossing running water. When they chased one of them, it led them through a clearing in the forest. In the clearing were several huge toadstools. Every surface was covered with tiny treefrogs. When the frogs got agitated, the started jumping into each other and formed up a Small, 2 Medium and a Large frog (I used the stats for snakes). So the group got an idea that odd things inhabit this place.

There are 14 log houses in the area that can be encounter sites and there can be more encounter possibilities in the woods. The big, final thing should be the house on the hill that when approached in a special way leads them into a pocket of the faerielands and they can meet and talk with Tatiana.

I think one of the houses I will have it be spatially warped so that it seems normal from the outside but ten times as big on the inside. The encounters can be giant insects and animals.

What else? I want to create a sense of strange, otherworldliness by warping the normal perception of how things should be. With my group in particular, they also need a reason to explore what might be a dangerous situation. How can I encourage them to explore some of these houses? I don't want to make them visit each and every one, but maybe 5 or 10?

Thanks, your help is appreciated.

 

[Abstraction]

Nothing?

 

[Aaron L]

Have one of the houses inhabited by a small family eating dinner. Backwards. They take spoonfuls of food out of thier mouths and put it in bowls and the like. If the PCs try to talk to them they speak backwards. (nilbogism, pretty much)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

A pretty girl (of legal age!) in an ethereal fey dress (think any Enya music video) fixes the most easily led male player's character with big eyes, says nothing, and runs from house to house, disappearing in the door of one, but isn't inside when they get there. From an inside window, they spot her outside after they've explored the house.

And then have her afraid of the last house.

 

[LostSoul]

What if one of the houses had a portal through time?

Like you go through one house and it leads to the winter of the world. You're in the same place and you can get back to when you left easily enough. But for now you're watching the world end.

Or maybe you could have it simply 12 hours in the future. Then maybe you could have the PCs show up and see themselves in a big fight. Then have them play out that fight using 2 of each of themselves. The EL should be scaled accordingly (they need the "past" PCs to aid them in the "future" battle).

If any of the "present" PCs dies, well, that would cause problems, depending on how you see the time paradox. Maybe you could play around with that. More interesting is if a "future" PC dies and the one from the "present" has to stick around until the other "present" PCs finally catch up. Which, in the game world, is no time at all, but out-of-game it might take a while.

 

[Whimsical]

If you have access to the Dungeon Master's Guide II, this would be an ideal place for a fey ring, described on pg. 42. And there happens to be a CR 4 version listed.

How about a house that when they enter it, it feels like the house is freefalling. After they deal with their terrifying feeling of vertigo and after it seems like the house isn't going to fall anywhere, they will have to deal with the fact that they are now all floating in the middle of the house, and everything is out of reach. A good place for flying fey to "play" with the PCs and for the PCs to negotiate with.

How about when they leave a house, the season changes. *POOF* It's now the middle of winter and everything is covered in snow.

One house has a family of fey versions of the PCs. A couple of kids, parents, and a grandparent. And they each appear and have the personalities of each PCs. And they are just as shocked to see the PCs as the PCs are when they see them. Actually a bunch of fey affected by veil.

Speaking of veil, something unseen hits the party with this spell after they explore for a little while and those who fail their saves now appear as various fey. The PCs don't know it's an illusion; it feels real. As far as they know, they were transmuted and have gained a fey template.

Find a way to use programmed illusions, permanent illusions, guards & wards, glitterdust, hypnotic patterns, tasha's laughter, otto's irrisitable dance, mirage arcana, dream/nightmare, curses, geases, suggestions, charms, confusion, fears, transmutations, basically all of the spells in the book that never get used.

Also, find a way to use all of the fey in the book. Just reading about each one could generate ideas for the other houses.

Of course, any 3rd+ level druid should get her +4 save bonus vs. any of this stuff. Make that class ability finally pay off for once.

 

[fusangite]

Have one of the houses inhabited by a small family eating dinner. Backwards. They take spoonfuls of food out of thier mouths and put it in bowls and the like. If the PCs try to talk to them they speak backwards. (nilbogism, pretty much)

Like the creamed corn scene in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me! Now that I think about it, watching a bunch of David Lynch productions will produce a goldmine of ideas. Episodes 3 and 40 of Twin Peaks, the movies Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Lost Highway ("We've met before, haven't we?" "I don't think so. Where do you think we met?" "At your house." "You've never been to my house." "I have been to your house. In fact, I'm THERE. RIGHT NOW!") all have some excellent scenes for creepy creepy otherness.

The frog thing was a fabulous idea. Consider it stolen. For the reverse, the Ochre Jelly mechanic might be useful. Clearly one of the houses should be a carnivorous being.

The characters could get trapped inside and gradually dissolved by slow-acting acids, until they are able to befriend a parasite (perhaps a hideous tape worm) living inside the house. The inside of another house could be part of an extradimensional road that moves through non-contiguous space, joining locations thousands of miles/planes/years apart, used by an ancient species out of phase with the rest of the world who perceive the road and the lands through which it passes as a coherent landscape (like the Runequest Dragonewt roads).

 

[Abstraction]

Of course, any 3rd+ level druid should get her +4 save bonus vs. any of this stuff. Make that class ability finally pay off for once.

There is a druid in the group and just hit fourth level. Coincidence or good DM? You decide.

 

[Abstraction]

So, here is how it seems to be shaping up. Each lodge will have a crystal acorn. If the party gets 8 of these they will have enough to take the walk to see Tatiana.

Lodge one: the inside is ten times larger than it should be. At the back, there is a mischievous imp-like fey that tells the party that if they can catch him, they can have his treasure. If the party takes him up, he immediately sends a ten-times sized housecat at them, using stats for Dire Lion. Depending on how they do, he might send some bugs at them, maybe using Giant Wasp or Giant Ant. After that, he tries to run, but hold true to his word if caught and gives them his crystal acorn. Also in this lodge are the sword, shield and signet of the king but sized ten times up. If the characters can figure a way to get them out, they revert to their true size.

Lodge two: The characters open the door. I then describe the door closing. It is two hours later, they have mysterious wounds, ability damage and missing spells but also hold a crystal acorn and maybe some other treasure. They have no memory of anything taking place.

**Have to go get dinner, finish up later**

 

[Herobizkit]

You could always pull the old "multiple doors in the same hallway" gag you see on cartoons. Have the young fey girl in the above example go into several cottages and come out of different ones each time. If they can find a pattern in her entrances and exits, the PC's could set up to catch her as she exits. If they do, she gives them a crystal acorn and a kiss... and whatever effects a fey kiss would have on a poor, unsuspecting PC.

Don't forget about the naked nymphs, either.