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BRC
2010-03-31, 11:34 PM
16 years ago, Captain Arthur Rodgers got two things. A new Ship, and a new Daughter. He named one after the other, Ana Marie. Eight years ago, his wife died, and he took his daughter onboard the ship. At one point during their travels, the daughter found an odd rock onboard a beach, she took it and kept it, not knowing that it was a powerful magic item known as a Dreamer’s Stone.
One day, Captain Rodger’s Lieutenant, Lija Keith led a mutiny, convincing the crew to go Pirate. During the fighting, Keith personally killed Captain Rodgers. A lot of the mutineers didn’t like the idea of killing the kindly captain, and if Keith killed Ana Marie they’d likely just overthrow him. So Keith stuck her in a cabin until he could decide what to do with her. In the cabin, her mind still full of the image of her Father’s Death, Ana Marie cried herself to sleep, and had a Nightmare. A Nightmare vivid and powerful enough to activate the Dreamer’s Stone. The Magic of the stone put Ana Marie into suspended slumber, and transformed the ship and it’s crew according to the psyche of a little girl who just witnessed the murder of her father. The Mutineers became monsters, and Keith became a twisted snake-eyed betrayer. The Ship looks normal on the outside, but inside it’s been twisted into impossible geometries by Ana Marie’s dreaming mind. Occasionally, something unusual happens, a gleaming, angelic version of Captain Rodgers appears somewhere on the ship, he begins fighting his way through the Mutineers, making a beeline for Lija Keith. Inevitably, the two fight and, just as it seems Rodgers is about to win, Lija ducks under a swing and delivers a fatal blow, and the slain Mutineers rise again.
Ana Marie has slept ever since that night, the Gem keeping her maintained, dreaming the same Nightmare over and over. The Ship patrols the ocean performing acts of barbaric villainy. Ana Marie sees the Mutineers who betrayed and killed her father as pure evil, so the Stone makes them that way.

The Party consists of 5 6th level characters. I'm looking for help fleshing out/setting the tone while they're inside the ship, as well as some ideas for difficulties the PC's can run into once they get onboard besides chopping their way through Mook Mutineers (Probably Rogues or Warriors with the Corrupted template from BoVD).

The Rabbler
2010-03-31, 11:55 PM
what is the party composed of? you mentioned level 6s, but are most of them casters or what? also, what level of optimization are they and what level would you want from us?

EDIT: hmm, and, last question, if this child is imagining these pirates, does that mean that they'll be without any magic items, special defenses, or anything beyond the mundane steel and wits?

HunterOfJello
2010-03-31, 11:55 PM
Nightmares are pretty good, but you might want to go with a Cauchemar

BRC
2010-03-31, 11:57 PM
what is the party composed of? you mentioned level 6s, but are most of them casters or what? also, what level of optimization are they and what level would you want from us?
Rogue Cleric Druid Ranger and a fighter/swashbuckler.


Edit: As for your question. The Pirates are real people, but the stone is twisting them into the way she subconsciously sees them. NPC WBL means they can't afford much in terms of magic items, but I'm going to give them the Corrupted template from BoVD (She's seeing them as Monstrous, so they become Monsters.) Or I might stat them as Cutlass Wielding Bugbears.

BobVosh
2010-04-01, 12:05 AM
Psuedonatural template from the Libris Mortis could do well. I don't remember the CR on it though.

If the terrain is like a dream don't forget to make it so you end up places without a logical reason to be there. Sorta like a teleport.

The Rabbler
2010-04-01, 12:08 AM
Rogue Cleric Druid Ranger and a fighter/swashbuckler.

should we assume unoptimized? simply characters made one step at a time?

anyway, you'd probably want the pirates to either act very piratey (sneak attacks, poisons, alchemist's fire (or some other item that'll hurt but not destroy the ship) etc.) or very scary (as per the child's point of view)(maxing out intimidate and using fear effects and flanking to unleash hurt). maybe give them martial study once or twice and give them some pirate-suited abilities (maybe some shadow hand?).

beyond the mooks, you could have the ship's doctor, the new first mate, and the new captain all pose significant threats to the party. you could also probably have a beastmaster who's job was to raise and care for the livestock (convieniently the livestock could be dire animals). perhaps a sniper on the crows nest to add some chaos to the brawl?

just some thoughts.

The Rabbler
2010-04-01, 12:17 AM
Psuedonatural template from the Libris Mortis could do well. I don't remember the CR on it though.

the Pseudonatural template turns things into monsters barely relatable to their original forms. if the idea is to make everything look unreasonably evil, it could fit quite well, but if the mooks are supposed to look human, it would mess everything up.

BobVosh
2010-04-01, 12:28 AM
the Pseudonatural template turns things into monsters barely relatable to their original forms. if the idea is to make everything look unreasonably evil, it could fit quite well, but if the mooks are supposed to look human, it would mess everything up.

I think it is suppose to look very messed up on board, but fine elsewhere. So basically its a distance thing handwaved around as fluff. I could be wrong, of course.

The Poet
2010-04-01, 12:51 AM
Depending on how you want Ana Marie to react to the intruders, the ship itself could become a hostile environment, with animated parts of it attacking the PCs. They might also be subtly influenced by the Stone themselves, perhaps through the way they appear to each other or plenalties of some sort.

Hand_of_Vecna
2010-04-01, 05:42 AM
I think Astral constructs of various levels would work well. Their easily customizable and fit the fluff.

llamamushroom
2010-04-01, 05:53 AM
Try to come up with various forms of mindscrew - this is the dream of grief, and those ones never make sense. For instance, doors that shrink if you try to open them, but grow large enough for you to squeeze through the keyhole if you try, that sort of thing.

You might eve want the dream-form of Ana Marie. What could make it interesting is to have her physical body ageing but kept alive (so she looks 20-ish) while her "mental projection" (or whatever) is still young - perhaps younger than 16, as she is feeling frightened by the death of her father. Whenever the projection comes around, the ship seems to return to normal, but she attacks the party (make her a psion or something? I'll agree with Hand_of_Vecna here and say she should manifest astral constructs to fight them).

Anyhoo, I'll stop trying to run your scenario... Hope I was of some help.

BRC
2010-04-01, 09:04 AM
Try to come up with various forms of mindscrew - this is the dream of grief, and those ones never make sense. For instance, doors that shrink if you try to open them, but grow large enough for you to squeeze through the keyhole if you try, that sort of thing.

You might eve want the dream-form of Ana Marie. What could make it interesting is to have her physical body ageing but kept alive (so she looks 20-ish) while her "mental projection" (or whatever) is still young - perhaps younger than 16, as she is feeling frightened by the death of her father. Whenever the projection comes around, the ship seems to return to normal, but she attacks the party (make her a psion or something? I'll agree with Hand_of_Vecna here and say she should manifest astral constructs to fight them).

Anyhoo, I'll stop trying to run your scenario... Hope I was of some help.
Ooh, maybe have a couple endless hallways. A fight in a room where the walls fly away revealing a storm.
I don't know if I'm going to have the PC's fight Ana Marie, I guess they could though.


One thing I was going to do is have them make spot checks occasionally, if they succeed, they see a young girl clutching a stone with tears streaming down her face out of the corner of their eye. When they try to look at her she's gone.

the humanity
2010-04-01, 10:39 AM
you could do some simple things yourself to make the ship creepy, without changing the NPC's physical stats at all. for example, give one guy shark teeth, give another comically huge muscles, give one tattoos that move... make them seem human, but not quite fit. and make it so they're things a young girl would exaggerate (ex. shark guy actually just had kinda rounded teeth). then do some crazy things for the ship itself. make all the ropes snakes, make the ship ebony that drips blood into the water leaving it all red, make the sail from spiderwebs filled with the 1-2 who defended the captain. hell, you could even have a drow crew member be a drider who torments them endlessly. those are just ideas, but you know. go wild!

there is a lot you could do. think flavor first, then go stat it out.

Adrayll
2010-04-01, 10:47 AM
Ooh, maybe have a couple endless hallways. A fight in a room where the walls fly away revealing a storm.
I don't know if I'm going to have the PC's fight Ana Marie, I guess they could though.

Do you use models? If so, do you use modular map parts? If you do, make sure you move things around during combat when they're not looking. lol

mastermind
2010-04-01, 11:14 AM
For creepiness, use flavor text. Copy off of writers if you need to.

The wind howls loudly, buffeting your hair and clothes. You shiver with an icy coldness, which creeps up your spine. The deck is deathly quiet, and the black, oily water below you is uneasily calm. A splash of water comes up through it and a *Insert Monster* pins you onto the deck, mangling you with its *insert weapon.* Roll for initiative.

That's creepy, isn't it?

Of course, you'll have to see if the monster makes the grapple, but use a DM screen and I'm sure it will. :wink:

Lysander
2010-04-01, 01:25 PM
How about going with body horror? The PCs pass a mirror and see they've been changed into different people. The mostly fatherly one of them has become the captain, and the others were turned into loyal members of the crew that were killed as well. In the dream world they've become the girl's rescuers - or are they there to die again? This wouldn't change their stats and abilities and once they wake the girl they'd turn back.

arguskos
2010-04-01, 01:30 PM
You might want to check out the section of Exemplars of Evil that was about Captain Gnash, who was a Bugbear Captain who went crazy worshipping an Elder Evil, and his madness started to translate to his ship, the Much Kill. It's not as far gone as your scenario (which wins really hard, btw), but it's out there. Might give you an idea or two.

BRC
2010-04-01, 04:05 PM
Some basic stuff.

When the PC's first board the ship they'll be on the deck, fighting crewmen. This will be a pretty standard affair, some snipers in the rigging, dudes on the ship. Once the PC's have killed enough of them Kieth (Who is similarly warped) vanishes belowdecks.

During this fight, if the PC's make listen checks, they can hear sobbing. As they progress through the dreamscape belowdecks, the sobbing becomes louder.

In the Belowdecks Dreamscape, one wall of each room looks to be Mirrored, but the Mirror on the other side portrays the events Ana Marie witnessed happening over and over again. This first one is a Loyalist Crewmember (When the Mutiny first begins) getting shot twice at point blank range as a Mutineer with two pistols comes down from the deck.

At this point, the "Mirror" shatters, and a pair of massive pistols emerge, firing.

After that comes a fight in an endless hallway with a horde of Mutineers chasing the PC's. In the Mirrored wall, the PC's see three normal human Mutineers chasing a little girl, (Instead of a horde of Monstrous Pirates chasing them). PC's can make will saves to disbelieve the Horde, gradually willowing them down to 3 easily dispatchable pirates.


okay more to come later, I gotta go do work now. Keep ideas coming!

Rising Phoenix
2010-04-01, 06:47 PM
I had a dream last night... I was killed in the most horrible manner imaginable but I didn't die...

Have the enemies be low level and easy to deal with. However, they come back after a period of time slightly stronger. Repeat as often as desired :smallamused:

I had a dream... A horror was coming, but no matter how hard I tried to move, I could not

A slow or hold person trap could does this nicely. Re-fluff so that everything happens in slow motion.

I dreamed that I was sleeping and dreaming. In my dreams dream; I heard crying and saw a little girl. Horrors poring out her eyes

When they meet the girl, she's crying and each tear summons an appropriate monster

Blood, it was everywhere and poring out of me, twitching on its own volition

Horrible illusion traps and blood elementals for this...

Also you can have the PCs meet elements of the girl's personality wondering around the ship. They have to 'wake' each one in order to wake up the girl, but each has a set of conditions that need to be met before that happens. For extra creepiness, have one of the tell the PCs:

"I am dreaming. I know that. I could wake up, but it's so much fun! Do you want to have fun too?" *looks at them with an innocent smile*

I hope these help,

R.P.

BRC
2010-04-01, 07:35 PM
OOh, how about this.
The final encounter takes place in the room where Ana Marie witnessed her father killed. The PC's enter the room and are instantly frozen, they see Keith and his mutineers stalking towards her (They were hoping to use her to force the captain to give up peacefully, but she dosn't know that), they see Captain Rodgers burst from his room, take down two off the Mutineers, only to be skewered from behind by Keith.
Then The PC's get to act. Every 3 rounds they get frozen again, Captain Rodger's bursts from the door again, and it all repeats.

In those 3 rounds, the PC's either need to kill 4 of the Crewmembers (So that Keith can't get around to flank Captain Rodgers) or Kill/Incapacitate Keith (So he dosn't deliver the fatal blow). Doing so breaks the cycle.

Edit: Rising Phonix, you are far too terrifying to be allowed to exist before Ten PM.

Vaecae
2010-04-01, 08:04 PM
there is a lot you could do. think flavor first, then go stat it out.

I have to agree, this definately a flavor over numbers setting. Love for messing with their plans by having them cought up in the dream itself. I really like the idea of a scene that replays and you have to figure out how to break it to progress. Another great thing to keep in mind is the water. This may be a nightmare about a murder, but this is also a ship full of sailors that told this girl tales of things they'd seen and heard. It wouldn't be a far stretch to have a kraken factor into the dream, or some other common sailor's fishtale. Perhaps someone even told her of such things as harpies and sirens, they could come into play as well.

One other thing I think would probly be interesting and could work with the set-up is to have one room where the girl's subconcious isn't running scared but is instead trying to fix what happened. It shows a different scene of what might have occured but they see the teen version of the girl in the fight trying to stop it. Maybe she's throwing things or something to disrupt the encounter, but she keeps messing up somehow, if the pc's find a way to help her do what she's trying to do that room's illusions will be dispeled and they'll have a relatively safe retreat from if they're seriously injured or all their abilities are spent much earlier then planned.

I really like the idea of a nightmare ship, but the trick will be making it creepy. I've found for me that means forgetting the dice alot and making people roleplay more then looking at the numbers on their sheets. Throw in weird things that will make them flinch inside. Like when one of them takes a minute to recover from an encounter by drinking from his waterskin you could have him suddenly choke, ending up with him coughing up an eyeball, or something that will make them less likely to trust their own gear. You could also have one encounter where they get turned on eachother by the visions. If they can't trust anything they'll become tweeky and easier to creep out.

Rising Phoenix
2010-04-01, 08:18 PM
Edit: Rising Phonix, you are far too terrifying to be allowed to exist before Ten PM.

Heh. My players occasionally say similar things. :smallamused:

Glad I could help and the three round scene is a great idea *steals*

BRC
2010-04-01, 10:50 PM
I like the bit about a Kraken. Maybe it's been twisted, it's tentacles end in hands clutching cutlasses, the PC's can have some fun fighting their way through the Tentacles (This adventure will be crowded enough without me throwing a Kraken at them).
As for the idea of a Teen aged, more independent Ana Marie trying to aid her father in the fight, it's an interesting idea, but I don't know if that's the angle I want to go. They're trapped in the nightmare of a traumatized Child (I may replace the Stone with a Despair Demon or something, I'll probably keep the stone though). When they kill/Let Dream Captain Rodgers kill Keith they break the cycle of despair she's been trapped in for eight years.