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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 3890225" data-attributes="member: 704">Here are some more ideas regarding Horror.  The easiest way to scare the crap out of people is to threaten something they care about.  In D&D, this is next to impossible to do.  Tell a player that his characters brother's body is before him, covered in blood with his chest torn open, with his brother screaming in agony, you will get an "Oh, Cool!" kind of response.  You get more of a reaction by sundering his +2 Sword.  This does not fit with what you are trying to accomplish.The next approach is to have them encounter various unspeakable things that touch a nerve.  The easiest way to do that is to describe graphic scenes of harm being inflicted on the blatently innocent, or to have said innocents inflicting such harm on others.  Here are my nastier ideas to that effect.- The players encounter a young pregnant woman in distress.  She looks to be in rough shape, filthy and very shaky, and very terrified.  When asked what is wrong, she will scream "that thing wont stop talking.  It wants to kill me.  I can't give birth to it.  It is not my baby!".  She will reach for the nearest sharp object and try to cut out her own fetus, or at least stab the crap out of herself trying to kill it.- Have the players find A child between the ages of 8 and 12 years old.  This child will be undernourished and alone.  He will have a very nasty rash on him, and he will be scratching, trying to relieve the itch.  The itch will not go away however, and he will have scraped the outer layers of his own flesh off, exposing bone.  A remove curse can remove the itching, but it will require a caster check of DC 19.- The players hear an toddler (2 or 3 years old) crying.  If the search for it, they will indeed find the child.  The child will be normal in all respects, except very hungry.  If the players try to care for it, then later that night, the infant will attempt a Coup-De-Grace with a dagger on someone (at Str 1, it is 1d4-5 dmg).  Regardless of what measures the players take to keep watch on the infant, every night it will get loose and try to kill someone.  She will escape from any bonds and always obtain some suitably lethal object.  This child is not evil (some other force is controling / aiding it), so it will never detect as evil.  The force will be under a Caster level 15 non detection spell (so caster check DC 26 to detect the force).  The force will only be present when the infant is trying to kill someone.This will force the players to either abandon the child, murder the child, or have someone stay awake with it all night to make sure it does not try to kill someone.  Remember to apply fatigue penalties.- As they travel on the island, the players discover the bodies of young children and small animals nailed to trees with what ought to be fatal wounds, but the creatures are not dead.  They do not die until they are taken down.  At some later point in the adventure, they find a man walking down the path with a large sack, which is squirming.  He will ignore the players, walk to the nearest wooden wall or tree, and then start to secure the sack to that surface.  he will then unlimber a large spike and a hammer, and start to drive a nail through it, at which point the child inside starts to scream.  I am sure your players will stop him.  The man requires 1d4 rounds to nail the child up.  If he is stopped, he begs the players to let him do it, but will not explain.  If the man is obstructed for more than 2 rounds, the child escapes.  At which point the equivalent of an 8th level sorcerer with 5 Strenght (and thus a crappy grapple score) and lots of blasting spells (or spells from the book of vile darkness) starts attacking them.  It should have Regeneration(Law), and be a pain to kill.  (Regeneration with a weakness vs Holy is too obvious).  Once they do drop it or otherwise render it immobile, the child becomes normal and starts screaming and crying, asking "Why did you hurt me?".- Let the players find a young teen in the process of extreme self mutilation, but screaming in pain and giving every indication that they do not want to be doing what they are doing.  The person should have already cut out one or both ears, one eye, most of one foot, a few fingers, some severe genital mutilation, and be in the process of knocking their own teeth out with a hammer.  Between each wet and meaty thwack, they should beg the players to 'please stop me'.- Why not have some sort of infectious disease that causes the players to grow nasty, large-ish, black and oozing tumors that have faces, and which try to force the players to fight for control of their own bodies?  They should first encounter the disease on others.  Curing the disease should require a difficult Remove Curse type spell as well as a remove disease, and maybe some sort of McGuffin item.  Once the tumor becomes inteligent, it should inflict some sort of opposed rolls to gain control of the players at an inconvenient time- The sight of a starving person who is eating their own limb while it is still attached never gets old.- The players hear the sound of an animal yelping and screaming.  when they investigate, they find a few 8 year old children around a fire, holding a small dog in the fire.  The hands of the children are also being burned.  Around them are the charred, smoking, and half eaten remains of several other small animals.  They periodically take the animal out of the fire and gnaw on the parts that are burned, and comment on how tasty it is.  They see the players and offer to share.That should about do it for suggestions.  I think that if I try to take my ideas any further than this, I will get the attention of a moderator.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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