Roleplaying a Nightmare

[CRGreathouse]

(Players in my group -- out!)

I'm running an evil group at the moment (it's disturbing how good the players are at it!), and the characters have been trying to find a nightmare (MM 140-141). They want to negotiate with it somehow to get it to work with/for them.

I'm game and more than willing to let them do cool things with their characters, but I'm not sure how I should play the nightmare.

First of all, can they talk at all? They're certainly smart enough, but if they don't have the appropriate orgains, it doesn't matter. (If they can't, I suppose there are spells to deal with this.) If so, what languages? Common? Infernal? Abyssal? What about personality: Are they arrogant, cruel, or sadistic? Do they seek wealth, power, or the corruption of goodness? Etc.

In any case, I'll give the nightmare rolled stats and possibly different skills, just to highlight the fact that it's not typical. (The group just went through a complex ritual to call it; it was very difficult, had many chances to fail, and took nearly 2 hours of real time.)

 

[tleilaxu]

I'd say it wouldn't talk, it would just send nasty nightmarish telepathic images of it crushing the PC's skulls with its hooves and the like. A nightmares motivation would be to incapacitate its enemies and then eat them

 

[CRGreathouse]

I'd say it wouldn't talk, it would just send nasty nightmarish telepathic images of it crushing the PC's skulls with its hooves and the like. A nightmares motivation would be to incapacitate its enemies and then eat them

Interesting... but what if the PCs made it a good offer? (What would it consider a good offer?)

 

[tleilaxu]

babies?

 

[Mik]

Interesting... but what if the PCs made it a good offer? (What would it consider a good offer?)

I think it might consider the chance of crushing all the PCs skulls beneath its hooves and devouring their souls to be a good offer.

Running an evil group? Good luck fighting the eventual degeneration of the party. A nightmare would be happy to terrorize both the evil and the good. Maybe you could distract it with nuns and orphans being devoured by rats. (5 points for getting the reference).

I think you may be best off saving the nightmare for a character that offers a great opportunity to spread terror, then introducing the nightmare as a reluctant participant (an intelligent thrall) that follows one PC only so far as the monster's desires are satiated. One moment of weakness and it's off to pandemonium with one screaming rider!

Heck, at that point, getting rid of the nightmare may become an adventure goal in and of itself.

 

[CRGreathouse]

babies?

(Adult? Evil content below)

You see, this would be all too easy for the group. They needed the blood of 10 sacrificed virgins to summon the nightmare (longish story). They decided the best way to abduct the virgins was to induce the goblin hordes to the south to attack the town in the middle of the night so the guard was too busy to stop them.

They're *really* evil.

 

[Epametheus]

It won't respect them at all unless they can prove themselves fit to be its master. Now, a generic nightmare is actually kinda wimpy, and a group capable of planar-binding one in the first place could crush it like a bug. But if this one is so cool that it actually rates a unique ritual..

Try having it pick just one of them as potentially being worthy (ideally a blackguard; an evil priest to a war god or some other unholy warrior type otherwise) to ride it. It will only communicate with this one person during the bargaining, and will ignore the attempts of the rest to bargain with it.

First, the blackguard needs to prove himself. He can either fetch some rare delicacy for it (like a silver dragon egg -- or wyrmling), or he can prove to it that he can beat the crap out of it in single combat. If the former, he may well start a vicious cycle of getting bossed around by the thing. If the latter, it'll probably just hate him more than usual, but grudgingly serve (after all, if it pushes it luck, it might have to worry about something like getting dim-anchored and then killed). Regardless, he needs to prove to the thing that it'd either (a) greatly benefit from working with him, or (b) is going to suffer if it screws with him. Quite possibly both.

Assuming they can get it to work with them, the nightmare should demand it's own share of treasure, including magic items. Note that Nightmares don't keep treasure. It simply eats its share.

It also demand special "food" regularly -- probably a sentient being tortured in a specific manner. Willingly working with this thing should probably damn the rider beyond all redemption. Edit: oh, they already are? Keeping a carnivorous horse satisfied probably wouldn't be that hard. Unless you want the give the Nightmare some requirements that are more "out there" (maybe it has a fetish for unicorns? that'd be a pain in the arse to accomodate).

Nightmares normally can't communicate, but since this is some sort of cool unique nightmare, go ahead and give it the ability. Hell, just give it Tongues or something like it. Having it always address people in their native language, no matter what it is, could be a little freaky.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I think it might consider the chance of crushing all the PCs skulls beneath its hooves and devouring their souls to be a good offer.

The problem with that is I think they'd accept. One group member found that he could get passage to the Gray Wastes from the church of Hades by assassinating certain priests of the rival church of Nerull (and paying a token fee). Another member is a cleric of Nerull...

The players know what's going on, but the characters, fortunately, are in the dark at the moment.

I think you may be best off saving the nightmare for a character that offers a great opportunity to spread terror

Well, we have a ravager of Erythnul in the group. He's the one who wants the nightmare. His basic philosophy: the more kills he has before he dies, the better off he'll be.

 

[Oni]

Nightmares are proud beast, proud and evil. They are cruel and evil simply for that sake of it, it is their nature, the way they were created. Appeasement may work in the short term, but I think the only way that it would serve loyally for any length of time is with a display of power that was great enough to cow it into submission.

That's my opinion based on their description in the MM.

 

[Mik]

Well, we have a ravager of Erythnul in the group. He's the one who wants the nightmare. His basic philosophy: the more kills he has before he dies, the better off he'll be.

Oh, now you're talking! Of course, the Nightmare has to agree that the Ravager is the most likely to spread the terror and cruelty that are its bread and butter. Perhaps the Nightmare will pick the strongest two or three members of the party (including the ravager), and tell them he will serve the strongest only. He leaves it up to each of them how to prove it. They have until sunrise to display their power.

Now, there are a few ways they can accomplish that;
- bring a suitable gift of victims
- best the others in ruthlessness
- refuse the nightmare and force it into servitude
... whatever fits the characters.

Whoever triumphs will have to keep an eye on this creature - a moment of weakness and the nightmare will act for itself. If this nightmare is *extraordinary* (and the circumstances do seem to indicate that), then it may have goals of its own, and may take them out on the party if it feels they aren't being met.

Cripes, these characters are on the razor's edge of group self-destruction, why not let their summoned shortcuts to power become the catalysts to their chaos? Just a DM style issue - I'm generally very 'reap what ye sow' in plot. Let the characters dig the hole, then see what they do when it starts flooding.

Playing the nightmare might not be easy... but if you can get into the mindset... Something a little off-kilter, like

"Beautiful, glorious suffering , terror rising around me like the warmth of mortal pain. The cries of the tormented filling the mists like a hundred symphonies... It is a delicious day to be as great as I, a noble vessel of brilliant pain. The extasy of the innocent, yeilding and weak, beneath my hooves, as they wallow in their agony. I am grand and terrible in both countenance and action."

Now, mood flash cards might be a good way to point out the nightmare's desires. Use pictures and symbols, all dark and menacing, naturally, to indicate what the nightmare wants. The vocabulary might be a little limited...

* PAIN
* ANGER
* ENVY
* DISTRUST
* JOY
* DESIRE
* LUST
* PRIDE
* HUNGER
* KILL

Add to these plot or character specific cards, and flash them singly, or in pairs or trios, to the players.

"The nightmare stares meaningfully at you for a moment. A black and silver flash cuts through your mind, and you see this!" = hold up cards for "DISTRUST" and "<name of the priest of Nerull>".

There, a message, an odd form of communication, and only the PC sees it. Sows a little more distrust.

I guess my basic feeling is that this 'prize' should bring more problems than it solves.