Total Darkness? (and Equinox scenario comments)

[heirodule]

I recently ran the Cliffhanger module Equinox as part of my ongoing campaign. It was a fun module, but I made an ajustment of Displacer Serpents instead of Beasts (which are large and a bit too tough). I also had a very difficult time describing the "meatgrinder" trap. Does anyone know how to explain it better?

Anyway, they are now in the "strange world with neither sun or moon, but creatures that are adapted to those conditions". I'm making this into a world where also, no magical lights funtion, and possibly no mundane lights either. Possiblly I'm making torches, etc, only "work" when they dicover that the sky is "radiating" darkness, and if they put a cover over the light, it will shed the light in the "reverse shadow" created by the cover. Anyone have any other ideas.

The plane is going to be transitional to another adventure, so I'm not stiking them with this forever, but thought it would be challenging. I'm wondering about what creatures to throw at them. So far I have:

Darkness pseudo-elementals (latest Dragon)
Destrachans
oozes
Big scary moths.
Big scary caterpillars
vthraks

I don't want to throw a bunch of "shadow" creatures at them, because in complete darkness the visual effect will be negated. So I'm looking for creatures where the "sound" they make will be more interesting than their appearance.

Any other thoughts? The party is 7th-8th level.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Dragon #322 has a lot of articles relating to darkness and its effects in D&D.

As that issue reminds us, the Dark Ones (Dark Creepers and Dark Stalkers, both from the Fiend Folio) should thrive in dark areas.

Any creature with blindsense (e.g., all dragons) or blindsight (e.g., darkmantle, grimlock, oozes, yrthak) would be at an advantage in darkness.