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Mystic Muse
2009-10-21, 02:30 AM
generally I'd put this in Friendly banter but this is for my D&D campaign.

I'm looking for scary/creepy/intimidating lines. I don't care where they're from just so long as they can fit as an inscription. for example in one dungeon I plan of having my players go through is this.

in this most holy of structures let the fery walls baptize themselves in the blood of intruders.

any ideas?

Paulus
2009-10-21, 02:38 AM
generally I'd put this in Friendly banter but this is for my D&D campaign.

I'm looking for scary/creepy/intimidating lines. I don't care where they're from just so long as they can fit as an inscription. for example in one dungeon I plan of having my players go through is this.

in this most holy of structures let the fery walls baptize themselves in the blood of intruders.

any ideas?


Tread not the whispers of the doorway, the threshold bleeds(or breathes) thy doom.

or

Harken knocks the doom of all, trespass upon your grave, thou who enter this sacred hall.

or

Beware, heaven has no golden stair, the way is gone... darkness be thy only path.

or

Shiver, clawed hands the curtains reach, upon these walls and gates whomever breach.

or

Footsteps forward, the last footfall, pass not this gateway, here the very floors crawl.

need I go on?

Mystic Muse
2009-10-21, 02:47 AM
need I go on?

if it wouldn't be too much trouble yes. although I'd appreciate varied situations for the inscriptions as well. For example an inscription in the shrine of an ancient weapon.

Temet Nosce
2009-10-21, 03:23 AM
I can see what you see not—
Vision milky, then eyes rot.
When you turn, they will be gone,
Whispering their hidden song.

Then you see what cannot be—
Shadows move where light should be.
Out of darkness, out of mind,
Cast down into the Halls of the Blind.

Hadrian_Emrys
2009-10-21, 03:35 AM
The large, three-paneled mirror in the so-called 'haunted suite' shows both your reflection and that of a non-existent child behind you who is playing with a doll that vaguely resembles the doorman. A sickeningly loud crack, followed by a splash, can be heard coming from where you last saw the man as the child twists the doll's head around and off in a single, careless motion. Seemingly oblivious to her audience, she reaches for a doll that almost looks like you.

Athaniar
2009-10-21, 04:10 AM
You want scary? Try Lovecraft.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men.

Memories and possibilities are ever more hideous than realities.

The other gods! The other gods! The gods of the outer hells that guard the feeble gods of earth!... Look away... Go back... Do not see! Do not see! The vengeance of the infinite abysses... That cursed, that damnable pit... Merciful gods of earth, I am falling into the sky!

One Step Two
2009-10-21, 04:24 AM
The First inscription on the doorframe reads:

"Only those of whom prophets have sung may enter these doors unhindered"
And at the bottom lays the skeletons of supposedly unworthy

The next reads:

"For only those worthy of prophecy may stand before the Gruesome horrors within."
This doorway is awash with fresh blood

Inscribed on the last door entering the dungeon reads
"Even prophets lie."
And the door slams shut behind them.


An old GM of ours did this to us once, we generated characters under the idea we were chosen ones of prophecy, and with awesome timing and slamming a hardcover book onto the desk, threw us into one of the most fearsome horror campaigns we've ever known.

Project_Mayhem
2009-10-21, 07:23 AM
To be fair, the whole fhtagn speech is only really creepy in context. On its own it looks like a phonetic transcription of French with a lisp

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-10-21, 07:25 AM
The gold you shall take from this dungeon will depress the price of gold in the region by at least 35%, and create dire economic troubles for large local businesses.

Jerk.

Kaldrin
2009-10-21, 07:31 AM
Read Twilight to them...

industrious
2009-10-21, 07:48 AM
"Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling." Thank you, Father Anderson.

minchazo
2009-10-21, 08:57 AM
Read Twilight to them...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

*curls into fetal position*
:eek:

Lycan 01
2009-10-21, 12:40 PM
"C'mere boy, I wanna lick yer teeth..."

My brother said that the other day when we were throwing creepy lines back and forth to each other. And now I wracking my brain to find a way I can fit this line into a campaign. :smallbiggrin:

"Are you sure? :smallconfused:" scares my players more than anything else I can come up with, though.

Telonius
2009-10-21, 12:46 PM
"Up the airy mountains, down the rushy Glen, we dare not go a-hunting for fear of little men. Nobody ever goes in, and nobody ever comes out."

Cliche, but: "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate."

Solaris
2009-10-21, 12:50 PM
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

*curls into fetal position*
:eek:

And there shall be a great and terrible weeping, for someone has cracked the Dread Book.

Paulus
2009-10-21, 01:05 PM
if it wouldn't be too much trouble yes. although I'd appreciate varied situations for the inscriptions as well. For example an inscription in the shrine of an ancient weapon.

Okay!
Shrine of ancient weapon:

Blood drank for ages, rest now sharpened wind, come not footsteps, for only foe-less can be friend.

or

Sleeping claws, rake the world in nightmare, do not pause, for only the brave may enter here.

or

Ever watching, the great fell foe, seek not thy own rewards, as any fool would know.

or

Be thou wary of the path, there are much twists for the turn, be thou wary of it's wrath, for only good can it's use earn.

or

Toll the treaded dreaded way, the great drinker of blood they say, sleeps not without a gleam, of things past in haunted dream.

or

Silver tongued, teethless cut, jagged jaw, the will to gut!

or

Forward enter mighty ones, backward never but cowardly runs, find your flesh waiting upon your return, only the just may enter and earn.

Need I go on? What more situations are you looking at? Kind of hard for me to nail down all these kind of things to one liners for an inscription without being specifically non-specific. I'm trying to keep them all above door ways or on walls, or such like "Abandon all hope yee who enter here" kind of stuff. I assumed you wanted it in verse or at least prose and also someone holy or intoning a sense of prophesy or warning. If you'd like more can you be bit more specific to what you want? :3

Telonius
2009-10-21, 01:07 PM
"Make your choice, adventurous stranger; Strike the bell and bide the danger, or wonder, till it drives you mad, what would have followed if you had."

Krimm_Blackleaf
2009-10-21, 01:08 PM
"You Were So Precious. Now You've Ruined It And There Is Only One Option Left Now."

The J Pizzel
2009-10-21, 01:12 PM
Here's one I made up:

"The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it. The way is shut."

What?

Lycan 01
2009-10-21, 02:09 PM
Oooooh, it has to be scary inscriptions, not statements. My bad...

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."


"Leave no second thoughts behind - banish the fear from your mind - do not falter, do not quake - step forth and accept your fate."

Rixx
2009-10-21, 02:11 PM
"All right... what's your will save modifier?"

"...one?"

Hadrian_Emrys
2009-10-21, 02:16 PM
Read Twilight to them...

[/thread]

"I just like watching you sleep."

*shudder*

Keshay
2009-10-21, 02:18 PM
The gold you shall take from this dungeon will depress the price of gold in the region by at least 35%, and create dire economic troubles for large local businesses.

I think I have a new favorite "cursed gold" description/effect.

I seriously can not stop laughing at this.

Fluffles
2009-10-21, 02:20 PM
"Warning! ----- --ead!"

And have that --- be one big chunk bitten out of the sign.

Ormagoden
2009-10-21, 02:32 PM
Above the threshold of the door scrawled in black charcoal.

"When I kill you I keep your body."


Nailed to a post outside a dungeon.
A receipt of various weapons, potions, toxins, poisons, and exotic creatures from a local merchant.


I like the idea of an incomplete sign so let me one up the post above.

Scrawled on a wall near the entrance is a few words written in chalk.

"Watch out for the ___________________" The line of chalk goes down the entrance hall and out of sight...There seem to be alot of rusty stains on the floor going down the hall as well...

Aron Times
2009-10-21, 02:47 PM
"Don't open it." -Vampire: Bloodlines

flare'90
2009-10-21, 02:47 PM
"PER ME SI VA NE LA CITTA’ DOLENTE,

PER ME SI VA NE L’ETERNO DOLORE,

PER ME SI VA TRA LA PERDUTA GENTE.

GIUSTIZIA MOSSE IL MIO ALTO FATTORE:

FECEMI LA DIVINA POTESTATE,

LA SOMMA SAPIENZA E ‘L PRIMO AMORE.

DINANZI A ME NON FUR COSE CREATE

SE NON ETERNE, E IO ETERNA DURO.

LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA, VOI CH’ENTRATE."

If you don't know this wods, they may scare you.

If you know from where are these words, probably it's best to run. Fast.

If you want, I'll post a translation (or PM me)

Loxagn
2009-10-21, 03:34 PM
"I saw him today. What does he want? Eliza is gone and her blood is everywhere and it hurts and I don't know what's going on anymore and it hurts oh god it hurts..."
-found in a diary entry of an npc

"It hurts..."
-found in various diary pages from the same person

"ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsi thurtsit-"
-last page of diary, found completely drenched in blood.

God damn Yahtzee, you know how to scare someone ****less.

Hadrian_Emrys
2009-10-21, 03:50 PM
"You've got a purdy mouth..."

Curmudgeon
2009-10-21, 04:15 PM
You've got a tasty liver.

Lycan 01
2009-10-21, 04:33 PM
"I saw him today. What does he want? Eliza is gone and her blood is everywhere and it hurts and I don't know what's going on anymore and it hurts oh god it hurts..."
-found in a diary entry of an npc

"It hurts..."
-found in various diary pages from the same person

"ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsi thurtsit-"
-last page of diary, found completely drenched in blood.

God damn Yahtzee, you know how to scare someone ****less.


Dangit! I was just about to use that idea from Silent Hill 2! :smalltongue:


"Your death shall be short. Your suffering, eternal."

"The dead are not silent. You will soon learn to listen."

"The darkness comes!"

*scrawled shakily on a wall above a skeleton with a dagger through its heart* "I sought salvation within these walls. I finally found it in my blade."

"Silence will be its herald."

Mystic Muse
2009-10-21, 05:14 PM
"PER ME SI VA NE LA CITTA’ DOLENTE,

PER ME SI VA NE L’ETERNO DOLORE,

PER ME SI VA TRA LA PERDUTA GENTE.

GIUSTIZIA MOSSE IL MIO ALTO FATTORE:

FECEMI LA DIVINA POTESTATE,

LA SOMMA SAPIENZA E ‘L PRIMO AMORE.

DINANZI A ME NON FUR COSE CREATE

SE NON ETERNE, E IO ETERNA DURO.

LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA, VOI CH’ENTRATE."

If you don't know this wods, they may scare you.

If you know from where are these words, probably it's best to run. Fast.

If you want, I'll post a translation (or PM me)

please translate.

Marillion
2009-10-21, 05:25 PM
An entry in someone's diary
"Yesterday, upon the stair
I saw a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
How I wish he'd go away."

"The thing wearing mommy's skin sat up."

"There was a crooked man
who walked a crooked mile
he found a crooked sixpence
upon a crooked stile
he bought a crooked cat
who caught a crooked mouse
and they all livedstop reading right nowtogether
in a crooked
little
house."

In the dust where it looks like a mirror was hanging:
"Please return the mirrors. We miss watching you sleep."

Where there is a mirror: Fingerprints that appear to be on the other side of the glass.

WAKE UP or GET HELP inscribed on walls, papers, etc. When they look at them again, there's different writing.

Someone walks up to the PCs:
May I have five minutes of your life?
PCs: Sure...
The guy walks away.
Suddenly they all feel... slightly older.

In a dark room that someone has lit up:
"Thanks for turning on the light. I couldn't find you in the dark."

"How quick do you think you can make it back to the door?"

Saintjebus
2009-10-21, 05:31 PM
Carved into the wall of a cave:

"The ______(Macguffin) can be found in the Castle of Aaaaaaaaaaaagggh."

*braces himself for onslaught for using Monty Python reference*

Mystic Muse
2009-10-21, 06:01 PM
And the macguffin shall be guarded by the Knights who say NI!

now I just need to get them a shrubbery.

Brother Oni
2009-10-21, 06:03 PM
An entry in someone's diary
"Yesterday, upon the stair
I saw a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
How I wish he'd go away."

"The thing wearing mommy's skin sat up."


These two are the creepiest in the thread so far in my opinion.

One from Earthdawn from an treatise on Horrors (their version of Lovecraftian demons):

"They say that the Horror Nebis has the ability to respond to its name if it's been spoken or written. I believe that this is superstition as no Horror, even Nebis, has shown such an ability and it will greatly reduce our fear of horrors like Nebis, if their names are used openly and without fear. While Nebis is known for its corrupting ability, I feel that Nebis' abilities are exaggerated, as most of the knowledge of Nebis' powers come from second hand sources, and a number of adventurers have survived Nebis' attacks. Nebis should be classified as a Nebis' horror and Nebis should Nebis not Nebis Nebis NebisNebisnebisnebisnebisnebisnebis"

An npc's note later states that the scribe was confined to a cell and died screaming the Horror's name.

Lycan 01
2009-10-21, 06:54 PM
^ Agreed. The poem was eerie, but the skin thing was downright creepy.


As the PC's begin to flip through some notes, scrawled in a bottom corner:
"Stop reading this."

A few pages later:
"You need to stop, now."

Several more pages later:
"Why are you still reading? Stop!"

Near the end:
"Stop reading! Stop while there is still time, you fool!"

Bottom of the last page:
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..."

industrious
2009-10-21, 06:59 PM
Early one morning,
In the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight.

Back to back, they face one another,
Drew their swords, and shot each other,

If you don't believe this lie,
It's true.
Ask the blind lady down the corner,
She saw it too.

Inhuman Bot
2009-10-21, 08:03 PM
"My blood cries out for the vengeance of my people's blood, which can only be repaid with at least twice as much blood! Or maybe three times as much blood! Like if you went to hell, and it was full of blood, and that blood was on fire, and it was raining blood, then maybe that would be enough blood! Eh… but probably not."
Cookie if you get the referance.
It'll probably make your players look at you funny for awhile, at least. :smalltongue:

Fayd
2009-10-21, 08:31 PM
It's really more in context but...

"Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?"

Mikeavelli
2009-10-21, 08:35 PM
"Now I lay me down to rest
a six inch blade inside my chest
and if I die before I wake
another life cold steel doth take."

-----

Good sources of creepiness also include The Chzo mythos games (http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/games.htm)

and the SCP foundation (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/main), especially SCP 231 (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-231)

etraikov
2009-10-21, 09:05 PM
I once had my players go through a haunted mansion. About halfway through, they discovered a detailed map of the place. It had a written description of some of the rooms on it.

At the very bottom of the page was written: "But if you'd really like to take a look around my mansion, I'll create a passage for you."

As soon as my players read it, I told them that they heard a faint click of a lock, and they saw a hidden doorway swing open from the bookshelf behind them. It really made my players stop and wonder for a minute.

Realms of Chaos
2009-10-21, 11:47 PM
"I have seen seen the aether, tasted colors, witnessed pain
In this place of nightmares almost all have gone insane
Last one who can save us is our captain, strong and sure
But for this dilemma we of madness have a cure
We snare him in a net of our ever-waking dreams
Drag him past lucidity until our captain screams
Praying he can rescue us we eat him piece by piece
But his wit is gone now and his screaming will not cease
Soon he is devoured but is lucky in a sense
Pain is getting worse now as the madness grows instense
Those beyond the door come to retrieve us, one per day
I fear that I am the next to be taken away.
Perhaps I'm not quite as mad as I appear to be
But I'm growing hungry now, WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SAVE ME?"

FoE
2009-10-23, 02:05 AM
The inscription below this picture (http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/surfaceking.html) is particularly unnerving if you read the short story and examine the art alongside it. I'm sure some variation will work for you.

"Let us honour the Kings of the Surface
For we welcome all guests in their radiant glory and
Shall erect a temple for them to be sealed in for the ages."

Bioshock is also a great source for some creepy lines.

"They make me hate everything I see, they make me hate everything I see, they make me hate everything I see..."

"I'm just lonely, an-and I'm just lonely..."

"We thought we could hide from the light down here... we were wrong... we thought we could hide from the light down here..."

If nothing else, there isn't anything better than a distant cry for help suddenly cut off to help build atmosphere.

"Is ... is someone there? Can anyone help me? SOMEONE PLEASE HEL—"

And then you can't go wrong with the suspiciously friendly greeting shouted from a distance (or perhaps heard in their minds), especially if the PCs are walking into a set of ruins.

Oh welcome, come in. It's not often that I receive visitors, especially at this late hour, but come in, come in anyway. Make yourselves at home ... I'll be right down.

Paulus
2009-10-23, 02:35 AM
If you wanted to be that cryptic nothing beats turning round a corner, finding a wall, or door, or some place with a single word hastily scrawled...

RUN

Valaqil
2009-10-23, 08:31 AM
please translate.

I only ever memorized the last two lines, but I recognize them on sight. That's from Dante's Inferno. It's Canto III, at the gates of Hell. Wikiquote reveals the entire translation:



Through me is the way into the woeful city;
through me is the way into eternal woe;
through me is the way among the lost people.

Justice moved my lofty maker:
the divine Power,
the supreme Wisdom and the primal Love made me.

Before me were no things created,
unless eternal, and I eternal last.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter in.

kamikasei
2009-10-23, 08:40 AM
"Lord, by our death and resurrection, we have set you free."

Zen Monkey
2009-10-23, 09:02 AM
Used once to make an intimidate check:

Secrets are like bones,
they reveal themselves as you peel away the meat.

Telonius
2009-10-23, 09:08 AM
An inscription guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any experienced gamer...

"Acererak congratulates you on your powers of observation. So make of this whatever you wish, for you will be mine in the end no matter what!

Go back to the tormentor or through the arch,
and the second great hall you’ll discover.
Shun green if you can, but night’s good color
is for those of great valor.
If shades of red stand for blood the wise
will not need sacrifice aught but a loop of
magical metal—you’re well along your march.
Two pits along the way will be found to lead
to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall.
These keys and those are most important of all,
and beware of trembling hands and what will maul.
If you find the false you find the true
and into the columned hall you’ll come,
and there the throne that’s key and keyed.
The iron men of visage grim do more than
meets the viewer’s eye.
You’ve left and left and found my Tomb
and now your soul will die."

JeenLeen
2009-10-23, 10:21 AM
"Make your choice, adventurous stranger; Strike the bell and bide the danger, or wonder, till it drives you mad, what would have followed if you had."

Is that from C. S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew?

Fishy
2009-10-23, 11:03 AM
One of my favorites was from Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk.

"If you are reading this, you have already failed."

hamishspence
2009-10-23, 11:05 AM
Is that from C. S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew?

It is from The Magician's Nephew.

Athaniar
2009-10-23, 11:09 AM
"This is a hallowed place."

Written in wicked red letters, with lots of skeletons, blood, and random body parts all around it.

minchazo
2009-10-23, 12:01 PM
In a redneck drawl:
"Seems like a shame to waste this semi-private room..."

Voldecanter
2009-10-23, 02:18 PM
Here is a little something I have held onto for some time now .

When man has lost the ground once stood ,
Upon the aether of space ,
The Archer will be encircling you ,
To take your Future Place ,

CorvidMP
2009-10-23, 05:45 PM
Actually screamed by one of my players in frustration at the rest of of the group:
"GOD DAMNIT PEOPLE THERES MORE TO BEING EVIL THAN JUST EATING CHILDREN!!!!"

....never running freak legion ever again *shudders*

(and in case you were wondering the "more to being evil" was later demonstrated by said players character french kissing a homophobe and vomiting a swarm of flesh eating locusts down his throat .... *shudder*)


Edit: upon reading the thread not entirely relevant, but i kinda had flashbacks of my most disturbing game EVER.

Look up some HP love craft quotes, some of the more popular ones are over used but there are a ton out their. If i wasn't at work i'd give some specifics :P

Loxagn
2009-10-23, 08:15 PM
I sit upon a winding stair
Of a house 'twas never there.
I found it many moons ago
And never since has it let me go.

I'm all alone in this ancient lair
But something helps me to not despair;
For if this house's groans are true
I am alone in the house with you.

-Written on a canvas that, the last time the party was in the room, was empty. Any entrances/exits to the house have mysteriously vanished entirely.

Karoht
2009-10-23, 08:49 PM
"How much do you like your toes?"

"I prepared Explosive Runes today."

"Alliances were made to be broken"

"Birds fly, Sun shines, Grass grows and brutha, I hurt people."
of course accompanied by "BOINK!"

DarthNefarian
2009-10-23, 08:52 PM
I am usually calculating time in eons, but now every second will count. - a quote of some evil angel from some crap movie.

Logalmier
2009-10-23, 09:14 PM
Things to have scrawled on the walls in blood:

Help Me...

Kill us all...

Unnatural creatures...

Need more blood...

Kill me..

I think I'm sick...

Why won't someone help me?

Dear friend... please...

I can smell your flesh

He is coming...

Is anyone truly free?

He will eat you..

Abomination...

Only he is free...

They are watching you.

Those are just a few ideas. Diaries are great places to put creepy lines in. Just make the first few entries make sense, then have them degrade into frantic scribbles on blood soaked paper.

MidnightOne
2009-10-25, 05:50 PM
Used by a Drow female I played way back when to a group of humanoids who were going to kill her:

You are the lambs. I am the slaughter.

RandomNPC
2009-10-25, 10:25 PM
A simple wooden sign says "troll bridge ahead, have exact change ready"

only repeat the sign if someone specificly looks back at it. ahead are trolls guarding a bridge who only let you cross if you have a complete change (of weapons, or clothes, or an entire polymorph... get creative)

root9125
2009-10-25, 10:35 PM
By the DM, after we had asked a group of minotaurs to hand over the Macguffin, politely, after explaining that we were a party of adventurers in Giant...

"You do know that adventurers kill Giants, right? So much so that the word "adventurer" MEANS "murderer"?"

In retrospect, that was a good warning to stop what we were doing and begin to fight while we had a surprise round. We kept talking, and THEY got a surprise round on US, in which three party members at level 7 took ~45 damage...

babson99
2009-10-28, 03:02 PM
I played an awakened dog with levels in fighter and ranger. I told a recalcitrant human prisoner "If you don't cooperate, I'm going to hump more than your leg." Oh, the mingled disgust and amusement on the DM's face...

Dimers
2009-11-01, 12:07 AM
I found this one totally at random the first time I looked at The Koran:

"And on that day We shall ask Hell, 'Are you full?' And Hell shall respond, 'Are there more?'"