Seeking inspiration - Halloween in the land of nightmares

[Greenfield]

Well, it's Halloween season once again, and it's my turn to DM.

The natural flow of our game is about to take the party through a dimensional rift to a section of the Plane of Shadows, to face the forces of the Nightmare King.

Party is 5th/6th level, and not particularly powerful for their levels.

The "Nightmare King" thing ties in so beautifully with Halloween it's impossible to resist.

We're using PHB almost exclusively for PCs, and MM 1 is preferred. MM II and MM III have been used, sparingly.

A party member was charmed/possessed by dark forces, and is currently working for the enemy. At least part of this mission is to rescue that person.

Beyond that, I'm open to suggestion.

The current landscape is a henge (circle of standing stones) in a blasted area of a swamp. The Shadow realm tends to be a dark and twisted version of the local reality, so we'll probably have them land in a dark and twisted version of that already dark and twisted place.

So presume a haunted wood as the take off point. What should they encounter?

They are about half a day's travel from a caravan stop along the nearest road, and a similar distance from the ocean. (The swamp is the inland portion of a coastal marsh.)

They are about three days travel from the nearest city. The road leads through the swamp, with light to heavy forest and little or no farm land or open country.

I'm thinking Assassin vines, but instead of having them strictly plugged into the soil I'll have them camo'd by having them cover the trees and hang down from the branches.

Plot wise, it's fairly straight forward: Find the bad guys, free the girl and get out. Obviously that plot needs a twist or two.

So, within that framework, what should we do?

 

[Dandu]

How about a kelpie?

 

[Greenfield]

Okay, let's consider the possibilities:

They go through the gates and face an immediate enemy. Maybe Will-o-the wisp and Shambling mounds. (nasty combinations, as one enhances the other.) Just something to bloody their nose a bit.

Now, which way do they go?

Option 1: They move to the road, a few hundred yards away, and head towards town.

Option 2: They move to the road, a few hundred yards away, and continue away from town.

Option 3: They continue away from the road, deeper into the marsh, and down towards the coast.

Into the marsh is the least likely, but I could lay some bait. That could lead to coastal areas, where Kelpie could be found.

Road into town is most likely. Now we see the spooky side, dark and dreary. Find the enemy in town.

Road away from town can lead to anyplace I want. Spooky castles, witch's hut, whatever.

Swamp critters: Shambling mounds, scrag trolls (aquatic), venomous snakes, some undead, assassin vines.

Ultimately monsters are easy. I'm trying to work the story line into something to remember.

Why did the bad guys target the party Bard? (There's already a reason, but now he needs a reason to keep her). Whp are they facing? Is it the Nightmare king himself, a leutenant, or someone else entirely?

And there needs to be a good twist or too.

 

[Greenfield]

Okay, let's add another element.
There's a spell called Nightmare that seems made for this scene. Aside from troubling, perhaps prophetic dreams, it prevents a spell caster from getting the "8 hours" of rest needed.

Add in the witch's hut I mentioned. Now think "Green Hag", rather than the "Baba-Yaga" they'll be expecting.

So if they "choose the road less taken" they'll encounter the witch's hut. She'll admit to being a witch (it's a valid class, if not from the accepted core books), and she'll offer to read their fortunes.

A rune casting later she'll tell them a few things about the nightmare king, and point them towards him. He's a rival of hers, too big to take on directly but certainly worth sending some adventurers after. Who knows, they might succeed.

She is a Green Hag, a creature who "rides" mortals in their dreams, slowly killing them through exhaustion that drains their Con scores. If they treat her decently, she'll help them. If they're harsh, she'll be harsh.

But this adds the "fortune teller" cliche to a Halloween tale, along with the prospect of nightmares.

She should have a companion, perhaps a homunculous, more as stage dressing than anything else.

The nearby city, in the real world, is the capitol of a maritime power. It's the home city of the Bard, and the Nightmare King tried to use her to seize the rulership of that kingdom. So it makes sense that he, and she, would be there, at least for a time.

And I know what his secondary use for her is. It isn't something I can/should discuss in this forum, but involves mortality and immortality, and a way to perpetuate his power.

It's been determined that his original form was an offspring of a Fey and a Demon, two different types of Chaos in one person. He died, and now his ghost occupies/possess one of his grandchildren, a power seeking warlord. So now two brands of chaos in a Lawful Evil body giving one big bag of crazy.

He can possess others, but his own blood line is the easiest. (I didn't invent that part, one of the other DMs did.)

So the Nightmare King can control the twisted version of her home city because she's the daughter of somebody important. Which means that the party has to sneak/slip/fight their way into a stronghold that they just helped defend.

Okay, I have a plot now. With or without the witch's hut, I know where they're going, and I know what they have to face.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Death Knight template from MM2, add it to a fighter/blackguard and give it a Nightmare mount. Instant Headless Horseman.

I should have in my notes a halloween-esque adventure I ran for a group a while ago. I can dig in my notebooks and send you a copy of my notes if you want.