D&D General What’s the most gruesome thing that can befall an adventurer?

[Arilyn]

Mummy rot always got to me. For gruesomeness that is mechanically supported, I would go there. In terms of what just really hurts the player, level drain. Not gruesome technically, though some forms could be, but that makes players cringe as if something gruesome had occurred more than any kind of maiming or dismemberment.

Definitely mummy rot for me too. This is the one that gives me the creeps, not just my character!

 

[Scribe]

Eternal life.

 

[jgsugden]

Focusing on gruesome as horrifying and not specifically on gore: The most horrific things I've seen have been for players that really get invested in the game making mistakes that end up killing (or worse) other PCs. The things that actually get people feeling sick to their stomach are the realizations that their actions ruined everything.

 

[darjr]

Finding one million copper coins and nothing else.

 

[Lanefan]

A world with no adventures in it.

 

[Fenris-77]

A world with no adventures in it.

So, Delaware?

 

[Mercurius]

When I was a kid the thing that freaked me out the most was rot grub, all based on this picture:

 

[CleverNickName]

In 3.X and Pathfinder, I'd say it was the complete loss of all of their equipment.

In 5E, I think it is 5 levels of exhaustion.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

In my current game its losing levels as there is no restoration spell outside finding a wish. They asked "how do we get those levels back?"

"Adventure"

 

[Fenris-77]

When I was a kid the thing that freaked me out the most was rot grub, all based on this picture:

View attachment 137468

Into the Wyrd and Wild leans into this kind of body horror pretty hard, one of the reasons I like it so much.