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Amiel
2010-03-13, 03:23 AM
So arises new plothooks, game hooks, urban legends, ideas et al that can be used for any horror, creepy or otherwise spooky game (or can be inserted in otherwise normal adventures).


Creepy Events


There is a stain within a certain room that animals and even monsters dare not venture near. It appears seemingly as a blotch of paint; carelessly dabbed upon the hard wooden floors, themselves rotting with neglect and age.

No one lingers for long within that room; all (those intelligent enough) who hastily withdraw speak of an oppressive presence, its malign glare settling upon one's soul and laying it bare like so much useless paper.

All who have been in the room dream of rotting teeth and putrid flesh replacing the moon; that drips and shudders onto the firmament. This persists for two weeks, after which their dreams return to normal.

krossbow
2010-03-13, 03:25 AM
that sounds like my apartment, just with less roaches.

Dr Bwaa
2010-03-13, 03:25 AM
There is a huge section on this sort of thing in Heroes of Horror; make sure to check that one out.

The Tygre
2010-03-13, 05:24 AM
All I can think of is this creepy, surrealist story I read when I was a kid. A few hooks:

- One night out of every year, the water in town turns green.

- Children have been warned from swimming in the local pond. One day, the PCs find the whole town frozen in terror, looking out to where two boys have gone swimming.

- One of the boys comes back, wide-eyed and frozen. The town goes back to normal, but the boy is never the same.

- Searching the pond turns up nothing. No fish, no bones, not even particularly thick mud. The only notable feature is that the pond is unusually deep.

- That night, emerald rainfalls in. The town huddles in their homes, and refuse to speak to the PCs or even acknowledge the rain. The returned boy starts screaming wildly and tries to run away from something no one else can see. He has to be locked away somewhere 'for his own good'.

- Crops and livestock come in double the following year.

That's what I got.

Zeta Kai
2010-03-13, 09:06 AM
In the middle of the park is a large, nearly leafless tree, with a placard on the ground commemorating a woman who was executed for witchcraft. When the party approaches it, there appears to be a woman hanging from one of the lowest branches. This image always fades away before you can see it clearly, & it only appears at the edge of sight through the fog. Whispers can sometimes be heard under this tree, as well as (rarely) a woman’s scream being cut off in a strangle.

Yora
2010-03-13, 09:12 AM
There is a huge section on this sort of thing in Heroes of Horror; make sure to check that one out.
That one chapter opening is awesome. :smallbiggrin:

TheCountAlucard
2010-03-14, 03:38 AM
Speaking of HoH, I used one of the "creepy events" in that book to excellent effect when the party had been made to face off against a necromancer.

See, the Healer had contracted ghoul fever (unbeknownst to him) at one point in the previous session. The party heads to the inn for the night, and when they wake up the next morning, the Scout is covered in bite marks, and the Warlock is missing entirely, the blood on his sheets the only evidence as to what might've happened. The Healer seemed fine, except for apparently not feeling like he needed any breakfast. :smalleek:

(Of course, the Warlock was fine; he'd just been out for a morning stroll. The blood was a surprise to him, too. :smalltongue:)

The Healer's player began to suspect what was going on with his character, but it didn't really hit him until they were confronted by undead again, at which point one failed Fortitude save caused him to become nauseated and do a technicolor yawn.

Amiel
2010-03-28, 04:55 AM
Each night for the past two weeks, the moon looks as if something has taken a bite out of it; each day, the total area consumed gets progressively bigger. To the point that the moon will be entirely devoured come the full month.

Animals are becoming increasingly agitated, attacking strangers, passerbys and any owners. Each night, the still silence is punctuated by a terrifying, piercing scream.

Blood begins to drip from trees and teeth flower in plants. Animals begin to ram themselves bodily against trees, causing their forms to explode.

Once the moon is entirely devoured, the cycle resets to the time before any of this happened; no one or thing has any memory of this event ever occurring.

boomwolf
2010-03-28, 05:26 AM
As the players arrive at a dinner table they see a mind flayer at the table (along with multiple guests), eating a brain. nobody other then the players seems to notice, even if he is directly told about it, nor does the mind flayer responds to anything the players do (unless they outright attack him and then he start screaming "What are you doing you lunatic?" and the entire room chases the players out, calling them warmongers, criminals and murderers.

Not really creepy, but can throw you off the loop.

shadow_archmagi
2010-03-28, 06:51 AM
The players encounter pants

with nobody inside them

Amiel
2010-03-28, 07:47 AM
And you find out the pants are not actually pants...dun dun dun!

The Dark Fiddler
2010-03-28, 08:14 AM
Your players are the last beings on the planet, in a room by themselves.

There is a knock on the door.

Alternatively, the Slender Man.

Azernak0
2010-03-28, 09:16 AM
Rocks fall... and everyone lives!

gdiddy
2010-03-28, 11:02 AM
Rocks fall... and everyone lives!

Then a skeleton popped out.

Zellic Solis
2010-03-28, 11:59 AM
I ran a Sharn campaign with fog filling the poorest regions of the city. People were disappearing. The party goes down into the mist and find the city is... empty. There are shadows in the fog. Things moving around them. They hear strange etherial laughter. Something in the myst is whispering their names. They can feel people standing right behind them... but when they turn nothing is there. They want to leave but they can't retrace their steps. They hear music and follow it to the source. There are the steps leading out of the fog. On it a person plays a mandolin. They look up and a white porcelain mask painted with a laughing face greats them. They demand to know what's going on! More masked figures emerge. They laugh and giggle and whisper the character's names to them. In a fury they lash out, slashing at the crowds, slaying a child wearing a laughing mask as the rest disappear into the swirling fog. The mandolin player continues to play. They cast spells at him. Nothing. They try to question him. He gives only a ghostly laugh. They grab him, pull hard on the mask, and it rips free to a bloody skull face. The musician screams of grotesque scream as blood fountains out his throat, clawing at his bloody bone before he finally shutters and dies. The mask they pulled off now looks like the face of the character who removed it. They flee from the depths back to the inn. As they try to sleep, they keep imagining they hear people whispering their names to them and laughing...

Yeah. I had FUN that game.

Tiki Snakes
2010-03-28, 12:00 PM
No John, you are the Demons!
And then John was a zombie.

Er, yes. Anyway, Dark Fiddler, think I read a short story about that, though you lost the emphasis, (Someone or other is alone in his room. He is the last man on earth. There is a knock at the door.)

I kinda like Tygre's too. Green, though? :smallconfused:

Radiun
2010-03-28, 12:59 PM
I like Grey Jesters
So

There is a small town with a population scarcely over 200. It is located on a mountain side, a geographical anomaly allows them to maintain small farms in relative peace as it is too far removed for invading armies to find any use in attacking it. Thus secluded on a rarely used mountain path, the long path around the mountain, they rarely receive visitors as the produce no exceptional goods.

Carved (literally) into the mountain is the grandest home. A grey and derepit building hinting at a former majesty which can't help but inspire awe. High walls contain the building, the steep mountain slope is intimidating to say the least, and a carefully worked shelf of the mountain side acts as a rain gutter for the manner, letting any melted snow or rain fall into twin pools on either side of the estate. This overhanging shelf blocks sunlight from reaching the villa at all times save dawn. The twin pools have high sides to handle a great amount of water from the shelf without over flowing, and seem to have some unknown source for they never run dry and provide the town's drinking water.

Local legend holds that this building was there before founding of the village. It is widely believed to be cursed as all who have lived within its walls have slowly succumbed to madness and violence. As it stands today, neither the mayor now the richest man in the village live anywhere near this imposing abode.

When the PCs enter the town, they will notice the over overwhelmingly morose atmosphere it exudes. The sky is overcast, the air heavy with light mist, the adults work their fields in a purely diligent manner, and the children play... but do not laugh or smile, and there is a pervasive silence running through the town.

The townsfolk are apprehensive about sharing their worries with the PCs, but the mayor, a gentle, weary old soul will warn the PCs with time. Laughing and being overtly joyful are discouraged in this town, even weddings are somber affairs, for in laughter there is danger. The merriest children seem to fall first, a strange illness comes over them and within days they are pale and completely mirthless, unresponsive to all stimuli. The children will then disappear in the dead of night. Of course the townsfolk have tried to stop this from happening, but for all their efforts, the children still disappear at the first opportunity. Thus, through ages or the same pattern repeating time after time, the townsfolk have learned to give up these mysteriously ill children as already dead.

Naturally, most adventures would, and have, explored the manor for signs of the missing children, but they never see any trace of the culprit, though they may discover secret passaged litter the large, stone complex. If the PCs persist for one week, they will receive a letter where ever they may be staying. It will simply say:

"Leave now. I am always watching, and you will never know,"

Again, the PCs may abandon the town, or redouble the efforts to find this foe. If they stay, then there will be reports of lights and movement through the manor at night. Should they investigate, they will find a child in a grey robe with a featureless mask prowling the halls. "Leave now" it will say. It will neither attack, nor resist the PCs, repeating the message every hour. If they bring the child back to the town, it will be identified as the last child to go missing, and the townsfolk will not rejoice, or offer to watch over the child. They will sigh wearily at a pattern they have seen repeat over and over.

"If you must face him, wait till the the night of the full moon. If the water coming from the manner turns red and the lights are on, he will see you," the mayor will offer, "but you should simply leave. We are surviving peacefully, and will remain so when you leave. But face him and you will die."

Should they chose to face him, the Jester will be found in the grand entrance hall of the villa, lazing about on a colourful, bejeweled well maintained, throne atop the stairs as small army of some 32 people, all in grey robes and featureless masks, surround the PCs and block all access to the Jester (they occupy every square). Some of these people are small, children, the closest to the PCs, but those closest to the Jester are obviously full grown, both men and women.

"Attack them while they remain beneath the shelf" the Jester will sigh before tumbling off the throne and darting back into the mansion.

>???
>Profit

When the PCs leave the town, regardless of their success, the townsfolk will see them off in a polite, yet stoic manner. Years of bitter practice are hard to break, and laughter will not return to them overnight.