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Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 06:45 PM
Over the course of Thanksgiving break, I'm going to be running a campaign that will most likely be a one-shot, but one I intend to keep running if possible. Instead of my usual habit of a largely story-driven campaign, I intend to simpy toss the PCs on a spooky island and see how they fare.

The aesthetic of the setting is part Ry'leh, part Silent Hill, part Oscar Johansson's Castle series, and part Tomb of Horrors. Since that last bit would mean that everyone would need to preemptively roll about 20 characters to get through the thing, I was thinking of throwing in a mechanic that would just throw the dead PCs back into the game without explaination somewhere down the line, perhaps with a permanent WIS drain as a penalty as the island slowly corrupts them.

Now, my current setup is two islands (or rather one island with a river running through the center) with five castle/fortress/temple things scattered about it. I might toss in a few caves/minor buildings as well. The actual height of each tower is not yet specified, and they have an unspecified number of sublevels as well. I intend to stuff it with enough adventure to take the PCs from Level 3 to Level 20 on a 50% XP rate.

As for the ecology of the island, I'm aiming largely with a Lovecraftian bent, lots of freaky Things Which Should Not Be. Pretty much the only things I don't want are fiends/celestials, or undead. Why no undead? Because in this setting undead are strictly divine in nature, and thus an island with an arcane force behind it would have none.

So, why am I posting all this? Basically to get an open-air brainstorm going on, see if anyone things of something particularly cruel for me to inflict on my unsuspecting players.

Obviously, the hardest part will be mapping the whole thing. I'm on page 2 currently, and it's another 7 pages until I reach the first castle-thing.

Here are the encounters I've thought of so far (currently a short list, since I'm just getting started):

The Lost
CE Human Petitioner Commoner 1
Unlucky travelers who have stumbled upon this island and have been corrupted by its power. Completely mad, self-preservation means nothing to them, only the destruction of any and all intruders.
(These are going to be the faceless mooks of the campaign. Maybe just a handful at a time at first, but as time goes on these things will literally be pooring out of the walls by the dozens to get a little taste of PC.)

Skum Slayer
NE Skum Rogue 1
The exact nature of Skum is unknown. Perhaps they're just another form of the Lost, twisted vestiges of humanity driven mad by the island. Perhaps they're born wholesale from the Void. All that is known is that these fishlike beings patrol the shores of the island, hunting down and killing any unfortunate enough to cross their paths. Skum do not eat their kills, nor do they seem particularly threatened by their hapless victims. It's almost as if the slaughter is nothing more than sport to them.

Galsiah
2010-11-23, 10:19 PM
Give them a companion on the island. Now I know this may sound weird, but hear me out. It's always comforting to have someone else with you in any horror setting, so the PC's will get attached to this NPC. You want this to happen. After surviving quite a bit together, have this NPC ripped from the party and imprisoned or something. Make it so the PC's find him, but have no way to save him. Then have them watch him be slowly killed. Bonus points if the party now has to fight a corrupted undead version of their old friend who talks about the old times while trying to kill them.

wayfare
2010-11-23, 10:28 PM
When working with "The Lost" include upgraded versions with tentacles, fish appendages, or big gross eyes.

Water should rarely be safe -- all kinds of monsters should hide in water. If possible, put the players on a bridge that gets attacked (and crushed) by a kraken like creature.

Rain always makes people miserable. As does heavy fog with a 20% miss chance.

Chanting, the source of which can never be discovered.

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 10:32 PM
When working with "The Lost" include upgraded versions with tentacles, fish appendages, or big gross eyes.

I was intending to gradually make things worse as they leveled, swapping out the Petitioner Template for Voidmind/Spellwarped/Pseudonatural/some combination of the three, and occasionally throwing in mooks with class levels.


Water should rarely be safe -- all kinds of monsters should hide in water. If possible, put the players on a bridge that gets attacked (and crushed) by a kraken like creature.

Oh, no doubt.


Rain always makes people miserable. As does heavy fog with a 20% miss chance.

I was intending to have it always raining, no matter what. And inside, fog.


Chanting, the source of which can never be discovered.

But then we miss out on the crushing, oppressive silence.


Give them a companion on the island.

I'll defer you to Yahtzee's thoughts on the Silent Hill franchise.

wayfare
2010-11-23, 10:42 PM
But then we miss out on the crushing, oppressive silence

Touche :smallwink:

One of my favorite things about silent hill were the random scary monsters that didn't always give damn about you. Phyrmid head is the best example, but there were a few places where a weird spirit thing would show up just to get you to reflex-fire off a round or two. So, if you can convincingly do that, do it.

Also, do you have a relentless recurring monster?

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 10:51 PM
Also, do you have a relentless recurring monster?

Everything is a relentless recurring monster. Sometimes it's that one thing that just won't die no matter how many cliffs you throw it off, sometimes it's the thing you can't even try to kill because it'll turn you into a rorschach blot the second it glances in your general direction, and sometimes it's just that wave of easy-to-kill mooks that JUST. KEEP. COMING.

wayfare
2010-11-23, 10:54 PM
In that case, I only have one more suggestion:

Dire Fiendish Koalas

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 10:57 PM
In that case, I only have one more suggestion:

Dire Fiendish Koalas

The problem with that being it's bloody hilarious, and when the point is to reduce the players into paranoid wrecks, that's counterproductive.

On the other hand, in my main campaign I gave my PCs a cow phobia, so maybe I could pull it off.

Arcane_Secrets
2010-11-23, 11:05 PM
A start might be to attack them with things that nobody in their right mind would think of as dangerous.

I used an oversized mimic in the form of a stairwell that ate a couple of PC's. It freaks them out pretty reliably if they've never seen it before-especially having to either cut their way out of its stomach, or be cut out of it by the rest of the party.

Tvtyrant
2010-11-23, 11:07 PM
Add the Psuedonatural template to all of the small squirrels and birds and stuff on the island, so nothing feels natural. For instance "you see a squirrel climbing a tree trunk. When it reaches the 13th branch it turns and looks at you. Two eyes on the end of tentacle stalks glow red out at you, and then it races across the branch to anther tree."

Essentially make them feel that nothing is right. There is nothing safe in the island, and they just want to get off of it. Bonus points if you include the Slender Man as one of the things stalking you.

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 11:08 PM
A start might be to attack them with things that nobody in their right mind would think of as dangerous.

I used an oversized mimic in the form of a stairwell that ate a couple of PC's. It freaks them out pretty reliably if they've never seen it before-especially having to either cut their way out of its stomach, or be cut out of it by the rest of the party.

I like this idea. When the PCs become afraid of the damned floor, my work is done. :smallamused:


Add the Psuedonatural template to all of the small squirrels and birds and stuff on the island, so nothing feels natural. For instance "you see a squirrel climbing a tree trunk. When it reaches the 13th branch it turns and looks at you. Two eyes on the end of tentacle stalks glow red out at you, and then it races across the branch to anther tree."

Essentially make them feel that nothing is right. There is nothing safe in the island, and they just want to get off of it. Bonus points if you include the Slender Man as one of the things stalking you.

I was largely going to have it seem like the island is completely and utterly dead, but maybe I'll throw in a rare glimpse of wildlife, allowing them a slight relief in knowing that at least in some ways, they aren't alone. That's when they notice that the little mouse that scurried past has five eyes and spider legs.

LOTRfan
2010-11-23, 11:09 PM
[...]On the other hand, in my main campaign I gave my PCs a cow phobia[...]

First reaction: ...what?
Second Reaction: How?!?!?

Anyways, do you have players that know the Monster Manuals inside and out? If so, go for as much homebrew as possible. If not, I suggest a pack of dark tentacles living in the central river, to make merely travelling to each end of the island even more difficult. In hardcore survival campaigns, I also like to make random encounters far more common than they should be.

Make it so that all victories aren't made by clubbing the enemy to death. Reward players for thinking outside the box to avoid/retreat from conflict. And horribly punish those who don't....

EDIT: If you want floors to be evil, there is a monster that does that.. lurker below, I think?

wayfare
2010-11-23, 11:11 PM
Oh, one more thing:

A party of adventurers that think the PCs are the source of evil on the island can stir up all kinds of fun!

Angry Bob
2010-11-23, 11:12 PM
Get some fake blood capsules. Shortly before needed, find an excuse to put one in your mouth without the players noticing. Then, while describing a Thing That Should Not Be, start bleeding from the mouth. Brush off the players if they try to say anything about it.

LOTRfan
2010-11-23, 11:15 PM
Get some fake blood capsules. Shortly before needed, find an excuse to put one in your mouth without the players noticing. Then, while describing a Thing That Should Not Be, start bleeding from the mouth. Brush off the players if they try to say anything about it.

That's just cruel and unusual... :smallbiggrin:

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 11:18 PM
First reaction: ...what?
Second Reaction: How?!?!?

Pretty easily, actually. They were exploring the ruins of their hometown, which had been completely slaughtered practically overnight. With a Level 5 NPC Paladin with them, they decided to check out the barn. They get close, the barn doors are torn open as a pair of zombified cows gore straight through the Paladin and toss his corpse about ten feet. Would've killed the PCs, too, had the Big Bad not turned up and shooed them off.

Then later I had ten of the things completely and utterly destroy the next town's entire city guard in under thirty seconds.


Anyways, do you have players that know the Monster Manuals inside and out? If so, go for as much homebrew as possible. If not, I suggest a pack of dark tentacles living in the central river, to make merely travelling to each end of the island even more difficult. In hardcore survival campaigns, I also like to make random encounters far more common than they should be.

I was thinking I'd do very little homebrew but a lot of refluffing. Basically take something vaguely like what I want and warping it to my purposes. I approve tentacle monster in the river.

(On a related note, all the books I own are in my sig, so feel free to peruse that in order to give suggestions.)


Make it so that all victories aren't made by clubbing the enemy to death. Reward players for thinking outside the box to avoid/retreat from conflict. And horribly punish those who don't....

I was thinking that most victories would be achieved by getting the hell out of there. Maybe a few monsters get ganked in the process, but that doesn't mean much when another twenty are crawling out of a hole in the wall.


EDIT: If you want floors to be evil, there is a monster that does that.. lurker below, I think?

Isn't that from older editions?

Adrayll
2010-11-23, 11:19 PM
Get some fake blood capsules. Shortly before needed, find an excuse to put one in your mouth without the players noticing. Then, while describing a Thing That Should Not Be, start bleeding from the mouth. Brush off the players if they try to say anything about it.

This.
Metahorror makes horror games so much better. Dim lights, possibly nothing but candlelight, creepy background music or noises (if your stereo has a remote, then make a custom list/cd for this). Work on your creepy whisper voice.

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 11:22 PM
Get some fake blood capsules. Shortly before needed, find an excuse to put one in your mouth without the players noticing. Then, while describing a Thing That Should Not Be, start bleeding from the mouth. Brush off the players if they try to say anything about it.


This.
Metahorror makes horror games so much better. Dim lights, possibly nothing but candlelight, creepy background music or noises (if your stereo has a remote, then make a custom list/cd for this). Work on your creepy whisper voice.

On the first... yeah that's a bit screwed up.

On the second, I got a nice SunnO))) record. I could loop Sin Nanna.

Adrayll
2010-11-23, 11:26 PM
Personally, randomly cued sounds are my favorite for creepy.

"Wait, who just opened the door?"
"What? We're all here..."
"..." :smalleek:

LOTRfan
2010-11-23, 11:27 PM
Okay, now that I see which books are available.... give me a little bit, and I'll get back to you. :smallamused:

But first, the ":smallfurious:Room of Death:smallfurious:", a la "Stupid Monsters article":

Trapper: (http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/aberration/trapper.htm) This creature waits until all the PCs are on it before attacking.

Lurker Above: (http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/crypt/lurker_above.htm) This creature detaches itself from the ceiling and attacks just as the Trapper reveals itself.

Stunjellies: (http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/ooze/stunjelly.htm) These creatures just hang out on the wall, engulfing any PC stupid enough to try to flee by climbing the walls.

Keep in mind, this encounter basically says "I want you all dead."
An encounter like this with one trapper, one lurker above, and four stunjellies (one for each wall) is approximately CR 11.

Adrayll
2010-11-23, 11:29 PM
Okay, now that I see which books are available.... give me a little bit, and I'll get back to you. :smallamused:

But first, the ":smallfurious:Room of Death:smallfurious:", a la "Stupid Monsters article":

Trapper: (http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/aberration/trapper.htm) This creature waits until all the PCs are on it before attacking.

Lurker Above: (http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/crypt/lurker_above.htm) This creature detaches itself from the ceiling and attacks just as the Trapper reveals itself.

Stunjellies: (http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/ooze/stunjelly.htm) These creatures just hang out on the wall, engulfing any PC stupid enough to try to flee by climbing the walls.

Keep in mind, this encounter basically says "I want you all dead."
An encounter like this with one trapper, one lurker above, and four stunjellies (one for each wall) is approximately CR 11.

You forgot that every object in the room are Mimics, and the ROOM ITSELF is that house-mimic thing.

LOTRfan
2010-11-23, 11:31 PM
Yeah, I thought that might be taking it a little too far. I could probably dig around for the gargantuan mimic if you want, though.

EDIT: Here it is! (http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/view_c.php?CreatureID=1797) Upgrade it to colossal, and have it slowly digest the PCs as they are fighting the Mimic's previous meals, and this encounter is brought up to around CR 16.

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 11:34 PM
You forgot that every object in the room are Mimics, and the ROOM ITSELF is that house-mimic thing.

Greater Mimic, actually. Here's a better setup:

A House Hunter Mimic disguised as a house. Inside are several rooms, all of which are actually Greater Mimics. Inside all of these rooms, the floors are all Trappers, the ceilings are all Lurkers Above, the walls are all Stunjellies, and all the furniture are Mimics.

Oh, and all the air in the house is actually Gelatinous Cubes.

LOTRfan
2010-11-23, 11:39 PM
Greater Mimic, actually. Here's a better setup:

A House Hunter Mimic disguised as a house. Inside are several rooms, all of which are actually Greater Mimics. Inside all of these rooms, the floors are all Trappers, the ceilings are all Lurkers Above, the walls are all Stunjellies, and all the furniture are Mimics.

Oh, and all the air in the house is actually Gelatinous Cubes.

But that's impossible to beat (except by not going in). Where's the fun in that? :smalltongue:

Oh, do you mind if I borrow the cow thing?

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 11:43 PM
Oh, do you mind if I borrow the cow thing?

I encourage it. :smallamused: More people need to be given PTSD by their DnD games.

LOTRfan
2010-11-23, 11:46 PM
The more people experiencing taurophobia, the better. :smallamused:

So, what, did you apply the zombie template to bison? Or was there homebrew involved?

Tvtyrant
2010-11-23, 11:50 PM
You said Megadungeon, but are we talking WLD or just a large dungeon? How many levels is this supposed to last?

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 11:50 PM
So, what, did you apply the zombie template to bison? Or was there homebrew involved?

Zombie Bison, yush. I was thinking Donkey if you wanted zombie sheep.


You said Megadungeon, but are we talking WLD or just a large dungeon? How many levels is this supposed to last?

Dunno what WLD stands for, but the dungeon is intended to be large enough to last from levels 3-20.

druid91
2010-11-23, 11:52 PM
Run them around for a while, setting the horrific mood. Then throw them a trap. Give them the opportunity to set up a last stand type situation long before the end. Basically give them hope that they might be able to start fighting back.

They can't. So as their defenses are overrun and PCs are going down. have it so one can escape. Then watch the fireworks when they fight over that.

TheMeMan
2010-11-23, 11:56 PM
Also, remember that sometimes the most horrific thing is that which is not seen. Let them know there is something there... following... taunting... toying with them. Yet they never truly see it. If played off well, could be very frightening, particularly if it is a recurring thing.

Tvtyrant
2010-11-23, 11:57 PM
WLD: World's Largest Dungeon, takes the players from level 1 to level 20.

LOTRfan
2010-11-23, 11:58 PM
Seeing as you don't have the Epic Level Handbook, I assume you are using the weaker pseudonatural template?

I guess no Toadhulhus of death and destruction, then?

And you want divine-only, so Complete Arcane is off limits, too? Just want to see what we're working with here.

So, far I can see the following books as being of little use:
Libris Mortis
Complete Arcane
Draconomicon (most Dragons are arcane spell users)

Drakevarg
2010-11-23, 11:59 PM
And you want divine-only, so Complete Arcane is off limits, too? Just want to see what we're working with here.

So, far I can see the following books as being of little use:
Libris Mortis
Complete Arcane
Draconomicon (most Dragons are arcane spell users)

Other way around. Arcane-only.

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 12:01 AM
Oh. Ignore the insane ramblings of this fool, then.

Is Undead still off limits? I can see them as both divine and arcane creatures, so your call, there. Just read the first post, again.

What about elementals?

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 12:05 AM
What about elementals?

Elementals are good. I was actually mulling over how one might make Fire Elementals seem Lovecraftian.


WLD: World's Largest Dungeon, takes the players from level 1 to level 20.

In that case, almost. Bit smaller than world's largest, since they start at Level 3.

[Edit]: Train-of-thought tangent; Locathah, Kuo-Toa, Sahuagin, or Skum?

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 12:18 AM
Alright, I'm just going to get all my questions out of the way, in order to save time:

*Are there any other non-killer humanoids/monstrous humanoids on the island, or are the PCs the only sane ones?
*What about Outsiders native to the Inner Planes? Are they divine by this campaign's definition?
*Insane magical beasts (owlbears): yay or nay?
*Has there ever been a civilization here (who made the towers?)

I just want to make sure the following statements are correct, as well:

*Aberrations are a no brainer, because of the "things that cannot be" theme.
*You have stated interest in having animals (albeit with the pseudonatural template) on the island.
*Outsiders from the Outer Planes are out.
*Undead are out.

Killer Qban
2010-11-24, 12:29 AM
Elementals are good. I was actually mulling over how one might make Fire Elementals seem Lovecraftian.

Perhaps you can make lines of fire (maybe dark flames) creep around the island (picture it like a line of gas catching fire on the floor randomly out of nowhere) searching for corpses (petitioners?) and create fire elementals from them? The flames can pop up anywhere on the island or in buildings so the players will have that in their minds every time they see a corpse lol...the islands consciousness randomly taking evil elemental forms from the dead around the island (of which sounds like there wont be short supply) sounds pretty creepy. Could do it with the other elements (air-shadowy wind, water-dirty dark water, earth-black slime)

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 12:37 AM
*Are there any other non-killer humanoids/monstrous humanoids on the island, or are the PCs the only sane ones?

If they run into anyone else on the island that would still qualify as human (or whatever. Elf, Orc...), they'll either be insane or well on their way there.


*What about Outsiders native to the Inner Planes? Are they divine by this campaign's definition?

By this campaign's definition, the only Planes are Asgaard (the Good-aligned plane), Cocytus (the Evil-aligned plane), Yggdrasil (the Plane of Life, basically), Styx (the Plane of Death), the five Elemental Planes (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Pure Arcana), and the Void. The Void is essentially the Far Realm and most freaky stuff kind trace it's origin's there.

To sum all that up into an actual answer, they are not divine by this campaign's definition. So while you can't have Demons, Devils, Yugoloths, Archons, Angels, Guardinals, or anything else that could logically be interpreted as servants of good or evil, it's free game.

(Though as an afterthought, I'd tread carefully around Fey as well. Don't use 'em much, but in my setting they're supposed to be aligned with Yggdrasil.)


*Insane magical beasts (owlbears): yay or nay?

Yay, though depends on the beast. Personally, Owlbears don't ping too high on the freak-o-meter.


*Has there ever been a civilization here (who made the towers?)

The entire island is the biggest bad idea in a series of bad ideas dating back to the dawn of civilization. See, the thing is that in this setting arcane magic has an alarming tendancy to summon horrors from beyond to eat everything nearby, and send the mage spiraling slowly into insanity. So in an effort lead by the Templar (the big Paladin organization) a whole bunch of towers were built across the land, far enough away from civilization that when bad **** went down Paul the Farmer wouldn't be eaten, but close enough that the magi could still get the nessicary supplies to not starve, etc.

The reason this was a bad idea is that when you shove every magi within a hundred miles into the same building, the slight aura of crazy that each of them carries around builds up and feeds on itself until it's far, far worse than the sum of it's parts. So these days, all those towers are considered the bowels of hell itself, and anyone goes there dies, horribly.

This island was the biggest such institution, when some idiot thought "hey, why not just put ALL the mages there?" (obviously before the whole "putting a bunch of crazy in the same place just makes more crazy" problem became apparent). Ultimately things got so ****ed up that the island seemingly swallowed itself up and faded from history. On the downside, occasionally it pops out of freaking nowhere, screws with your navigation equipment, and giggles to itself as you shipwreck on its shores and slowly lose your mind trying to get the hell out.


*Aberrations are a no brainer, because of the "things that cannot be" theme.

Most certaintly.


*You have stated interest in having animals (albeit with the pseudonatural template) on the island.

Mostly in the name of offering a moment of familiarty to the PCs, only to yank it away with a cackle.


*Outsiders from the Outer Planes are out.

Specifically, Fiends and Celestials (and maybe Fey) are out.


*Undead are out.

Correct.


Perhaps you can make lines of fire (maybe dark flames) creep around the island (picture it like a line of gas catching fire on the floor randomly out of nowhere) searching for corpses (petitioners?) and create fire elementals from them? The flames can pop up anywhere on the island or in buildings so the players will have that in their minds every time they see a corpse lol...the islands consciousness randomly taking evil elemental forms from the dead around the island (of which sounds like there wont be short supply) sounds pretty creepy. Could do it with the other elements (air-shadowy wind, water-dirty dark water, earth-black slime)

I like. Especially since I can **** with them with it.

"Congratulations, you killed the dozens of monsters that just tried to kill you. Suddenly, you see a blackish fluid leak from the masonry, flowing slowly towards the corpses that surround you. As the liquid envelopes the bodies, a chill runs down your spine as they rise to their feet and turn to face you."

[Edit]: Think I'll go with Skum as my particular flavor of Freaky Fish Guy.

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 12:53 AM
So, the island pops out of nowhere to make people crash upon its shores? So... basically fantasy/horror Lost? :smallwink:

Well, Slaadi don't count as celestials or fiends. How about getting rid of their goofy appearance, changing their fluff so that they are/were mortals tainted by the Void, and have the mindless urge to reproduce, and making it harder to kill the pellets/cure the virus? To make things even scarier, change the way the Slaadi are born.

Perhaps instead of killing the host, pellets slowly dig their way from the implant site to the brain, cutting into and destroying everything in its way (1d6 Constitution drain). Once it reaches the brain, the creature turns into a Slaadi.

Make the disease helpful at first. Yeah, the Slaadi gave me this weird disease, but now I have natural armor! Cool, a Strength increase! Then, when the negative effects rear their ugly heads, it is too late to cure it. The only way to save the teammate is to kill him and wait for the mystical power that resurrects them to bring him back.

This also gives the PCs a moral dilemma. What if we forcibly infect ourselves with this disease, and reap the benefits for a time, and then have the healer cure us before it becomes incurable? Do we trust the healer's skill to cure all of us? This is not death; if one of the PCs is turned, they aren't coming back until their slaad version is killed.

One more question: How long does it take for the mystical process to resurrect them?




[Edit]: Think I'll go with Skum as my particular flavor of Freaky Fish Guy.

Yeah, they don't get enough love.

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 12:57 AM
So, the island pops out of nowhere to make people crash upon its shores? So... basically fantasy/horror Lost? :smallwink:

I was thinking Ry'leh meets Silent Hill, but yeah.


*neat Slaadi stuff*

Me like. :smallamused:


One more question: How long does it take for the mystical process to resurrect them?

Probably whenever it would freak them out the most. I was basically gonna build "resurrection points" throughout the map, though exactly which one would trigger and when would be up to my amusement.

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 01:04 AM
How exactly do ethereal creatures work in your campaign? I've noticed that there was no ethereal plane analogue in the rundown of your cosmology.

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 01:09 AM
How exactly do ethereal creatures work in your campaign? I've noticed that there was no ethereal plane analogue in the rundown of your cosmology.

Majeek. I generally don't use ethereal creatures, but when I do, they just render themselves incorporeal (or whatever) without any mumbo-jumbo about another dimension. Similarly, teleportation doesn't use the Astral Plane. It just works.*

Now, does this mean that Ethereal Marauders don't exist here? No. Chances are they're just another freaky thing the Void spat up.

*Note: Things that specfically need an Astral Plane or Ethereal Plane don't exist. Examples include Astral Projection, Ether Blast, and pretty much anything to do with the Plane of Shadow.

wayfare
2010-11-24, 01:10 AM
This might be a bit too easy, but throwing an Alienist (Complete Arcana) in as a recurring villain might not be a bad idea.

Jjeinn-tae
2010-11-24, 01:11 AM
Wow, this is such an awesome idea... If I didn't DM exclusively on PbP I'd definitely try this.

It might not be the creepiest thing on it's own, but Lernaean Creatures (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20020621a) (like hyrdras, multiple heads, two grow where one is cut off) could up the fear factor if done well. If you want to avoid sundering, just having various levels of damage to have their heads just fall off to gain the multiples could really work well.

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 01:13 AM
I was actually thinking about Ethereal Marauders when I asked that.

How old is the Material Plane? Did it have have a prehistory similar to earth (mostly ocean in composition at first, followed by an age of oversized athropods, etc.), or more in terms of fantasy (the world has been around for about x years, the longest-living creatures still remember it, etc.)?

Do Dire Animals/Dinosaurs/other prehistoric (fictional or not) creatures exist?

Does the Void corrupt living things like how Xoriat is described as doing in Eberron?

Tvtyrant
2010-11-24, 01:14 AM
With the hydras let them sunder the heads, which then transform into eel monsters. The more heads you cut off the more eel monsters you end up with. Better yet, have it take 5 turns for the heads to wake up, so they cut off a bunch and then suddenly get swarmed by Medium Vipers.

Ryu_Bonkosi
2010-11-24, 01:17 AM
My suggestion is that 'when' the PCs die you copy their character sheet at the time and when you think it is most appropriate, send a corrupted version of them after the group. It will freak them out.

"Hey John that guy looks like you,"
"Oh man you're right. But it looks all tenticaly."
"John, what class are you again?"
"Druid, why?"
...(Simultaneously) "Frack!"

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 01:21 AM
This might be a bit too easy, but throwing an Alienist (Complete Arcana) in as a recurring villain might not be a bad idea.

I'll defer you to Yahtzee again:


The horror of a formless, unknowable evil is diminished when you attach a human face to it. Humans are reasonable! They wear underpants! Go to the toilet! Eat crisps! Get their sleaves caught on doorknobs! I feel the best horror antagonists are the ones you could never imagine doing the gardening, or going shopping for pyramid-shaped helmets.


How old is the Material Plane? Did it have have a prehistory similar to earth (mostly ocean in composition at first, followed by an age of oversized athropods, etc.), or more in terms of fantasy (the world has been around for about x years, the longest-living creatures still remember it, etc.)?

No one alive now remembers the beginnings of the Material Plane, but it's generally believed that it was crafted from the Elemental Planes and then given a biosphere by the Gods of Life/Death. Later on the Gods of Good/Evil turned up and made the sentient races. All of this happened a long long long long long long time ago. Even the lesser gods are so old that their origins barely scrape the bottom of the barrel of recorded history.


Do Dire Animals/Dinosaurs/other prehistoric (fictional or not) creatures exist?

Dinosaurs exist in considerable quantities in the southern regions, but are practically unheard of anywhere it gets colder than say 50 degrees at any point in the year. Not because they can't survive there, but just because it's difficult and they're not exactly short on supplies off in tropical-land.

Dire Animals are where lycanthropy comes from, so they're pretty nasty. Also Yggdrasil-aligned, so unlikely to turn up on the island.


Does the Void corrupt living things like how Xoriat is described as doing in Eberron?

Not very familiar with Eberron, but the Void can basically do whatever it damn well pleases except kill a God. (Gods in this setting being Greater Diety levels at minimum. The very top gods, namely those of Life and Death, are blatantly unstoppable and run on pure DM Fiat.)


With the hydras let them sunder the heads, which then transform into eel monsters. The more heads you cut off the more eel monsters you end up with. Better yet, have it take 5 turns for the heads to wake up, so they cut off a bunch and then suddenly get swarmed by Medium Vipers.

Awesome. :smallbiggrin:


My suggestion is that 'when' the PCs die you copy their character sheet at the time and when you think it is most appropriate, send a corrupted version of them after the group. It will freak them out.

"Hey John that guy looks like you,"
"Oh man you're right. But it looks all tenticaly."
"John, what class are you again?"
"Druid, why?"
...(Simultaneously) "Frack!"

This, plus some Changeling/Doppleganger shenanigans I was thinking about, could really turn the paranoia up to 11. :smallamused:

Endarire
2010-11-24, 01:43 AM
Libris Mortis has the Necromental template.

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 01:48 AM
Okay, digesters had an interesting design, but the way WOTC implemented it was sort of poor. Honestly, it seems sort of weird to have armless creatures spewing acid from their foreheads...How about digesters as a praying mantis-type monster?

Medium mantis-like creature with the hunting habits off a praying mantis and a digester could be creepy. Perhaps they live in large groups (5-8, roughly a CR 12 encounter if there are eat of them). Now, they gain an extra bonus to hide checks in trees, and when the PCs are below them, they spew the acid from a special acid gland in their mandibles. They all jump down at once, and rip the group apart with their claw attacks (now refluffed as razor sharp spikes coming out of their forelimbs). Now, they can put that +11 grapple to use (lets face it, there is no way the armless "horror" could have grappled). Maybe make it so that they deal full damage each round they are grappling an opponent. Having three grappling an opponent at once could definitely lead to player death.

Not exactly a body horror like the refluffed Slaadi, but still an OMG RUN! monster in its own right.

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 01:51 AM
Libris Mortis has the Necromental template.

No undead, sorry.


*kersnip*

Neat, but perhaps too straightforward? After all, one of the biggest joys in this line of work is mind****ery. On the other hand, after 17 levels or so I might run out of new ways to drive people mad. :smalltongue:

[Edit]: Perhaps I should spend less time on dungeon design theory and more time actually designing the dungeon. I'm still halfway through the third page, leaving another six before I even reach the front door of the first castle. :smallsigh:

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 01:57 AM
Okay, effin' with the mind.... uh... Maybe instead of a large group, make it even more like the praying mantis, making them solitary hunters that wait for days on end before striking. Grant it natural invisibility. In the heat of combat, it spews its acid all over the PCs, weakening them even more as they fight whatever eldritch horror you through at them, as it drags away the weakest PC, kicking and screaming as s/he begs for help. If it gets away with it (and you boost the intelligence of the beast), perhaps have it leave a "gift" to the survivors; parts of their friend. Not only does this show that the creature is capable of sneaking right into the PC's camp without being notice, but it is smart enough to come up with plans to ambush and demoralize foes.


[Edit]: Perhaps I should spend less time on dungeon design theory and more time actually designing the dungeon. I'm still halfway through the third page, leaving another six before I even reach the front door of the first castle. :smallsigh:

Thats probably a good idea, especially since its already Wednesday.

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 02:01 AM
*snip*

Statement: You are like a delightful random cruelty generator, poisoning all you touch with your presence. You are a testament to all organic meatbags everywhere.


Thats probably a good idea, especially since its already Wednesday.

Fortunately my cousin is also running a campaign this weekend. Hopefully I can at least get the first tower done before it's my turn.

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 02:08 AM
Reply: I attempt to to be a role model for filthy meatbags everywhere. :smalltongue:

Seriously, though, I haven't actually gone out of my way to torture players before. Its actually pretty fun. I'll have to try it with my group some time.

Kyouhen
2010-11-24, 02:09 AM
Someone around here had posted some really evil traps that you could take advantage of for some true paranoia. All it really is is variations on the boulder trap and pit trap.

1) Boulder trap with pit trap at opposite end. PCs run from boulder and fall in pit.

2) Illusionary boulder trap with pit trap at opposite end. PCs run from fake boulder and fall in pit.

3) Real boulder, illusionary (and fairly obvious, or set in the same pattern as previous two if you use multiple instances of this) pit trap.

4) Ghost sound of a boulder, heavy fog and pit trap.

5) Ghost sound and illusionary boulder with pit trap.

6) Ghost sound coming from one direction with REAL boulder, under the effects of Silence, coming from the opposite direction. They run from the boulder they hear straight into the one they didn't.

And yeah, you can probably keep toying with a few more ways to handle these, but for the most part you should put your PCs in the state of mind where they hear a boulder comings and are no longer able to pick the best course of action. :smalltongue:

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 02:15 AM
*trap-y goodness*

*stares*

*blinks slowly*

*cackles like a madman*

Done.

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 02:16 AM
I like the sixth one best. The looks on their faces when they run head first into that boulder.... :smallamused:

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 02:30 AM
Well, I have officially mapped out my first encounter. A pair of Skum rogues set to ambush the PCs if they get too curious.

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 02:36 AM
Well, that doesn't sound too hard. Build their confidence before knocking them down. Awesome. What level are the Skum?

Kyouhen
2010-11-24, 02:44 AM
Oh, also, if you REALLY wanna be cruel and break your PCs have the following encounter, especially at a time when they're persuing the BBEG or some other enemy. Make sure they're level 4 or 5, high enough that they'll have some way to get through it.

They go down a hallway which opens up into a large cavern about 40 feet wide, and with a gaping pit where the floor should be. The pit appears bottomless. Directly across the cavern there is the entrance to another hallway, and dangling directly below you is the remains of a rope bridge. Hanging from the middle of the room is a lantern, providing a steady magical glow across the room. There are no ways to the other side.

Now ask yourself, how do you get to the other side? Or how will your PCs get to the other side? They obviously want to, an enemy that probably has tons of treasure went over there. Figure out your solution yet?

Then here's the hilarious part. If your solution was to fly across (and let's face it, EVERYONE is just going to fly across) you get 10 feet out and suddenly drop. That lantern is projecting an antimagic field with a 10 foot radius. By the time you're in the field you're well out of reach of the walls and have now fallen to your death. :smalltongue:

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 02:44 AM
Well, that doesn't sound too hard. Build their confidence before knocking them down. Awesome. What level are the Skum?

Rogue 1, the both of 'em. Might seem a bit easy, but I think once they get within sprinting distance of the front door I might send a holy-crap ammount and let the PCs realize that just because they're easy to kill doesn't mean it's easy to kill ALL of them. :smallamused:


*pure, evil-flavored win*

Y'know, I'm just gonna have to keep this thread subscribed and use it as my Official Evil Bastard Guide. :smallamused:

[Edit]: I think I'm gonna head to bed. Since I'm leaving pretty early in the morning, I'll just keep my stuff in the back seat with me and work on it in the car... here's to hoping I don't get carsick. :smalltongue:

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 02:53 AM
Y'know, I'm just gonna have to keep this thread subscribed and use it as my Official Evil Bastard Guide. :smallamused:

Yeah, definitely worth it for the traps alone.

You always slap your players with encounters that have CRs higher than their average ECL, right? How do you keep them from advancing too quickly?

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 02:55 AM
You always slap your players with encounters that have CRs higher than their average ECL, right? How do you keep them from advancing too quickly?

50% XP rate. They only get half the XP for the encounter than they should by RAW. Combined with the higher CRs, it probably evens out to something like 66% or 75% the normal rate.

[Edit]: Although, now that you bring the matter up, I always prefer to make the PCs gain levels in-character via obtaining training. With them being the only sane people on the island, this isn't particularly practical to do here...

I may need to bring Vlad back. :smallbiggrin:


Get some fake blood capsules. Shortly before needed, find an excuse to put one in your mouth without the players noticing. Then, while describing a Thing That Should Not Be, start bleeding from the mouth. Brush off the players if they try to say anything about it.

Oh, and it just occured to me that I wouldn't need those blood capsules anyway. I've been coughing up blood (congealed stuff, so don't worry, I ain't dying) ever since my sinus surgery three weeks ago.

BunnyMaster42
2010-11-24, 03:04 AM
I can't really suggest anything monster-wise to throw at your players, but there is something I've always wanted to do in a dungeon-like environment that would probably screw with your players' minds to no end.

It's a pretty simple concept really, just have a series of labarynthine hallways in your castle/dungeon. Then you "connect" different, non-adjacent areas of the labyrinth together with a series of seamless one-way portals. This way anyone foolish enough to get sepparated from the party, or scout ahead too far could become almost helplessly lost.

It's a nice, non-lethal way to mess with your players' minds on its own. Couple it with other paranoia inducing things such as the ever present sounds of heavy breathing, shadows of things that are always just around the corner, or other illusory sights and sounds as you see fit, and you have a great little paranoia factory.

Drakevarg
2010-11-24, 03:07 AM
I can't really suggest anything monster-wise to throw at your players, but there is something I've always wanted to do in a dungeon-like environment that would probably screw with your players' minds to no end.

It's a pretty simple concept really, just have a series of labarynthine hallways in your castle/dungeon. Then you "connect" different, non-adjacent areas of the labyrinth together with a series of seamless one-way portals. This way anyone foolish enough to get sepparated from the party, or scout ahead too far could become almost helplessly lost.

It's a nice, non-lethal way to mess with your players' minds on its own. Couple it with other paranoia inducing things such as the ever present sounds of heavy breathing, shadows of things that are always just around the corner, or other illusory sights and sounds as you see fit, and you have a great little paranoia factory.

I might devote the first tower to that. :smallamused:

Ryu_Bonkosi
2010-11-24, 03:10 AM
In this game there is no winning. Your true victory is staying sane. My personal favorite traps are the ones that require the party to make a sacrifice to best. In this case, sacrificing one of their own for the party's survival.
Have a locked door with a key on a pedestal in the same room, but with a warning. "Any who move the key from its resting place shall be struck down." or something to that effect. That makes the party choose who has to die for the continuation of the group. This makes the party attack each other because they all value their characters.
Then when someone moves the key off the pedestal they die but the rest of the party continues, mourning their loss and with the knowledge that they are one person less.


EDIT: Also in regards to the maze in the posts above, I direct you to the movie Labyrinth. If they try to leave a "trail of crumbs" have it so the walls/floors move around so they can't use the same route twice.

BunnyMaster42
2010-11-24, 03:16 AM
I would probably cut back on the threats in the labyrinth itself though, it could get very very messy under those conditons. I would probably just use the area to build up tension, hit them with some "major" fights before they enter the labyrinth proper to make them believe that there really are threats lurking in the twisted hallways, only to prove that Nothing is scarier (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NothingIsScarier).

Although, if they do end up getting too complacent you could probably hit them with something fairly minor, or even something extremely dangerous that then retreats a few rounds into combat, never to be seen again. Just to keep them on their toes.


EDIT: Also in regards to the maze in the posts above, I direct you to the movie Labyrinth. If they try to leave a "trail of crumbs" have it so the walls/floors move around so they can't use the same route twice.
Yeah, that was my major influence really. Although I was thinking a LOT more twisted and sanity-breaking. Labyrinth meets Lovecraft sort of stuff, with alien geometries coming out the interdimensional tear in reality.

Kyouhen
2010-11-24, 10:31 AM
In this game there is no winning. Your true victory is staying sane. My personal favorite traps are the ones that require the party to make a sacrifice to best. In this case, sacrificing one of their own for the party's survival.
Have a locked door with a key on a pedestal in the same room, but with a warning. "Any who move the key from its resting place shall be struck down." or something to that effect. That makes the party choose who has to die for the continuation of the group. This makes the party attack each other because they all value their characters.
Then when someone moves the key off the pedestal they die but the rest of the party continues, mourning their loss and with the knowledge that they are one person less.


EDIT: Also in regards to the maze in the posts above, I direct you to the movie Labyrinth. If they try to leave a "trail of crumbs" have it so the walls/floors move around so they can't use the same route twice.

Better idea, have the first one NOT kill them. Let them continue knowing they just had an argument over who should die. The next time they have a warning like that, kill them. Remember, to really screw with the player's minds put them in identical situations, but have the results of their actions change each time so they can't predict what's actually going to happen.

Also another way to screw with them could be to take a creature that's definitely a not-of-this-world thing. It needs to have some way to be a threat late game, but still able to be hit early game. Maybe have it some twisted version of a Mind Flayer, since letting one of those grab you is kinda a bad thing. Now you give it this lovely ability. When it is struck with any form of damage (except nonlethal) it immediately vanishes. It will then reappear near them 2d10 hours later. I say hours because you don't want this thing appearing too often or it'll get tedious, and if it always finds them they'll need time to rest eventually. But it'll be hilarious to see what horribly inopportune times this thing decides to pop up. :smalltongue:

LOTRfan
2010-11-24, 10:47 AM
heh, heh heh.... Does this actually cause the Mind Flayer any damage, when it vanishes?

If not, you have a recurring villain that cannot be gotten rid of, ever. :smallamused:

Mordokai
2010-11-24, 11:57 AM
Oh, also, if you REALLY wanna be cruel and break your PCs have the following encounter, especially at a time when they're persuing the BBEG or some other enemy. Make sure they're level 4 or 5, high enough that they'll have some way to get through it.

They go down a hallway which opens up into a large cavern about 40 feet wide, and with a gaping pit where the floor should be. The pit appears bottomless. Directly across the cavern there is the entrance to another hallway, and dangling directly below you is the remains of a rope bridge. Hanging from the middle of the room is a lantern, providing a steady magical glow across the room. There are no ways to the other side.

Now ask yourself, how do you get to the other side? Or how will your PCs get to the other side? They obviously want to, an enemy that probably has tons of treasure went over there. Figure out your solution yet?

Then here's the hilarious part. If your solution was to fly across (and let's face it, EVERYONE is just going to fly across) you get 10 feet out and suddenly drop. That lantern is projecting an antimagic field with a 10 foot radius. By the time you're in the field you're well out of reach of the walls and have now fallen to your death. :smalltongue:

Honestly? If you did this to me, you'd get a face full of DMG, followed by PHB, followed by MM. And then again, just to make sure the message got across.

Kyouhen
2010-11-24, 12:22 PM
heh, heh heh.... Does this actually cause the Mind Flayer any damage, when it vanishes?

If not, you have a recurring villain that cannot be gotten rid of, ever. :smallamused:

Nope. The damage just makes it poof. Of course it's fully possible for the PCs to realize this and just nonlethal it to death, or find better ways to get rid of it when it pops up, but it'll take a while before they catch on that it's the same thing appearing every time. :smalltongue:


Honestly? If you did this to me, you'd get a face full of DMG, followed by PHB, followed by MM. And then again, just to make sure the message got across.

And I'd kick you out of my group for NOT doing that! :smallbiggrin: It's unlikely I'd ever really use a trap like that, but in a setting where the PCs get a free ressurrection every time they die it seems like it would fit in nicely. :smalltongue:

Angry Bob
2010-11-24, 12:26 PM
Place a trap in their way. Doesn't matter what kind, just something that any rogue would be able to notice. When the rogue goes to disarm it, any tampering with it at all causes the mechanism to disgorge a torrent of Aboleth slime or highly corrosive acid or something. Or just some decaying limbs, if you don't feel like debilitating anyone right then.

Fouredged Sword
2010-11-24, 12:28 PM
I always like the hallway that links to another hallway that looks identical. The party thinks they are going in a loop, but they are not. Just put some doors in a straight non discript hallway and have the doors close when left open. If you really want to mess with the characters have the hallway terminate in a mirror secret door that seemlessly fills the halway, just to mess with thier heads.

BunnyMaster42
2010-11-24, 12:49 PM
Just thought of a rather cruel, potentially deadly trap room, inspired by the aforementioned pit with the antimagic lantern.

You have a moderate sized room with a large pit (preferably with spikes) along the left wall of the room as you enter the door. It appears to be a fairly normal room at first glance, the floor is made from what appears to be highly polished marble, the door is directly opposite the one the party enters from, and there's just a hint of a breeze blowing from right to left. Walking a few steps into the room reveals that the floor is incredibly slippery, making movement difficult.Once they're a few steps in a Controll Winds trap activates, increasing the wind speed drastically (the exact windspeed is up to you, depending on how difficult you want it to be). So they will essentially be forced to hold their ground on an extremely slippery surface while being pelted with winds strong enough to at least push them back towards the pit.

Now, I may have gone overboard with the cruelty of that trap, because once the trap activates, if they don't have any immediate way of dealing with the winds (like a wall of stone or something similar) they would probably end up falling down the pit. Instead, if you want to tone it down a bit, you could have the Control Wind spell alreadybe active by the time they players reach the room, giving them some idea of what they're up against and allowing them time to figure out a way to bypass the trap (or find the very well hidden secret hallway that allows them to bypass the room entirely). or you might want to have the pit just drop them in another area of the dungeon not necessarily connected to where they currently are, just to play up the whole otherworldliness of the geometry some more, and of course to make the trap less lethal while still retaining some penalty for failing to bypass it..

Tvtyrant
2010-11-24, 01:12 PM
Tvtyrant's trap O dOOOM: ~not so much a trap as a fun exercise in weirdness.

Have an empty field surrounded by trees (they have to go through trees to get there). In the middle of the field is a house with the lights on. When they step onto the field to get to the house they fall into water (the field was an illusion; note that the illusion doesn't go away without a will save so they still see land while trying to swim in it). The water has some monsters or whatever in it, but the main part is that people inside the house are screaming for help. Party either flees from the water monsters, or the go to the house. When they arrive at the house they open the door and find nothing there, but there is a big mirror along one wall. When they look into the mirror they see themselves inside of a giant mouth with huge teeth. Looking around they still see the house, but remember the ground was just water, so they are going to be a little shy about illusions. If they explore the house they find all of the walls are warm and moist, and the doorknobs to the rooms aren't real. At this point they should be ready to flee for their lives. When they run out have the ground be inexplicably real this time, and when they get to the trees they see an old woman staring out of one of the windows. If they try to get back to the house the ground is water and the house vanishes.

Incan Road
2010-11-24, 01:17 PM
This is more of a thematic suggestion but maybe you could start the island like At the Mountains of Madness. Make the PCs know that the island is weird and not quite right, then once they have accepted the fact that everything is odd all hell breaks loose. Forcing them into the dungeon, where they will find only more unspeakable horrors.
Also a rotating bookcase, very Scooby-Doo esque, that instead revealing a wacky adventure only spawns macabre.

Callos_DeTerran
2010-11-24, 01:27 PM
Well...I don't know about traps, but I can give some advice on creatures to use and how to set a mood.

A) Don't over-use the 'Room of Death' style scenario. It'll quickly lose it's suspense if the players just assume everything will try to eat them and take the proper measures. (and it'll also suck up game time as they try to determine if everything in a room is alive or not with EVERY room)

B) Make sure to establish that the waters and air off the island is intrinsically hostile to the PCs. You'd be surprised at what PCs will think up to cross dangerous terrain unless properly convinced that it's a pure death wish to attempt it. Personally, whirlpools and tentacles from the deep with seemingly impossible reach will do wonders for deterring your PCs from trying to leave. Don't let them know what the tentacles are though, refluff them as needed so they don't immediately jump to 'kraken', 'aboleth', or any other tentacled monster in the book.

C) Have a source of uncaring evil. That may sound odd, but hear me out. As is, the entire island seems to be actively trying to kill your PCs, which is what you are aiming for. Once they've become firmly set in that opinion as well, change the rules on them. Have a race, kind of monster, etc. that is against the party but not deliberately. Maybe they are following their own routines or something, but it ends up causing great danger or harm to your players. Like resetting traps the PCs have disarmed because..that's what they are supposed to do. Bonus points if the above scenario happens while the group is still IN the trap. It can be devastating if the PCs just disarmed/escaped a trap when a previously unseen enemy appears and begins to reset it. They scream, threaten, plead, etc. for it not to do it, perhaps even have it turn to look at them silently, then does it anyway. Not out of malice but because the PCs aren't important enough or below the creature's notice. You're players will probably write it off as a one-time thing...until it happens again and again. That creature will become a sign of dread all on it's own, if for no other reason then the party can no longer trust where they've already been.

D) Introduce a 'master' race. This may sound odd because it may give the players an unintentional 'face' on the evil plaguing them, but if they struggle and fight through the island just to see the 'master' race stroll through without any trouble whatsoever, not because they are stronger (don't even have them fight if you can possibly avoid it) but because the island itself seems to recoil from them, can be incredibly demoralizing. Combine it with the 'uncaring evil' above for greater affect. The Kaorti and ethergaunts work well for this because they are human-like but inherently alien. It gives them a connection to the evil that's still utterly different from them.

E) Include Doomsday Diaries. Diary entries from others who showed up on the island then succumbed to it. They also act as a helpful tool for giving the players the occasional hint every now and then, while also driving home the lethality. "Other people, no, other adventurers came here and died. What hope do we have?"

F) Don't forget plain strangeness. It can be a powerful tool if used right. A straight hallway that leads back to it's own entrance. Animals suddenly exploding into violent wars then dropping to the ground passed out. Etc. etc.

G) Emphasize symbols and writings. Lovecraft had tons of 'you read it and die/go mad/etc.' type stuff. Include it here. Mad scrawlings on the walls that give your player's characters headaches, actual Symbol spells, etc. Maybe include True-naming hints if you have Tome of Magic.

Force
2010-11-24, 01:45 PM
A good idea might be to go through the SCP Foundation Site (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/) and use some of their ideas for monsters. Some good ones include:

#35 (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-035): A mask that possesses anyone who puts it on, and excretes a black liquid that away anything it touches (such as a body it possesses). It's extraordinarily smart, appears to have some mind-reading powers, and can apply limitated compulsion to force people to put it on. It might make a good BBEG, especially if it's extraordinarily resistant to damage (like most SCPs), melts into its black corrosive goo when the body it's possessing is destroyed (only to reform and reappear later), etc. Maybe it's not necessarily the BBEG but is the most cunning creature on the island and is planning to try to take it over (so it might co-opt the PCs).

#262 (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-262): A coat that, when worn, produces multiple arms not under the control of the wearer. Put it on a dead body a la "Case Study 262-307" on the bottom of the page and have it try to kill the PCs. Bonus if #35's current body is wearing the coat and 35 is controlling the coat.

#273 (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-273): More for some pathos if anything. Have them encounter 273 locked away, having not been able to satisfy her "hunger" for 12 hours. Make the "hunger" not a one-hit-kill (more like a Scorching Ray) and have her screaming at the party to get away at the same time the "hunger" is trying to satisfy itself. Bonus points if they try to put her out of her misery only to trigger the phoenix resurrection.

#303 (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-303): Use this one just to mess with them. Make them roll will saves whenever hear wheezing, against a very high DC, freeze the party for a few rounds and then have it disappear. When they go to investigate nothing's there. Maybe it comes upon their camp, steals something minor (it takes a single arrow out of a PCs stash and examines it) and then disappears into the shadows. When they actually manage to make the will saves, it vanishes with a wheeze and never returns. Bonus points if you have zombie-like enemies that make a similar wheezing sound.

#49 (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-049): Have them encounter 49 from a distance they can't cross (i.e., they're on a ledge or bridge over a cavern and see 49 in the distance). Maybe it kills some humans, like those petitioners, then re-animates them into zombies which the PCs encounter later. Maybe they see it walking around a la Pyramid Head. Perhaps it gets its claws on a PC, which turns it turns into an explosive zombie. Bonus points if the only time it talks is when it's remarking on the disease the PC in question had.

#106 (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-106): Miniboss. Have it pull the PCs into its pocket dimension, maybe splitting them up, and have it hunt them.

#186 (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-186): Perfect for a dark area. The PCs are walking through with torches... "Roll initiative. *roll roll* k. You hear a rushing sound, your torch is extinguished, you take 5 fire damage." Repeat for each torch until all the light is gone, then nothing happens.

#58: (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-058) Really want to give your players cow phobia? Have them come across one of those cow monsters you mentioned lying on the ground. They examine it, see it's inanimate, big hole in its chest, go "whew". Then 58 spiderclimbs down the wall, babbling calmly, and assaults them.

Salbazier
2010-11-24, 01:59 PM
This thread give a lots of creeps, in the good way. Now i want to play a horror game...

*Subscribe*

Ryu_Bonkosi
2010-11-24, 02:18 PM
May the twisted minds of the playground unite.

In terms of scare tactics have it so that the party gets split up but they are only one hallway apart. The wall dividing them is made of glass or a clear see-through substance that can't be broken. After the group travels down the hall a bit have one of the groups encounter a monster that the other members of the group were designed to fight but will do heavy damage to the group it is actually fighting. The group that could have taken that thing watches as their group gets killed and they can't protect/help them. 'If' the group happens to survive have the same thing happen in reverse to the group that did the watching.

BunnyMaster42
2010-11-24, 02:39 PM
Another fun thing to do might be to have a few mirrors scattered throughout the island. There are plenty of freaky things you can do with mirrors, like having things in the background that aren't there when they turn around, having the reflection of the person looking in the mirror come out just plane strange, different in a subtle, wrong way, or even have the reflections start moving independantly of the characters, maybe making silent taunting motions at them before the reflections fade away, leaving them starring at a perfect reflection of everything but them untill they blink or look away.

Having painting change with every passing glance is another classic scare tactic as well, but you could go one step farther and have the very stones themselves change when the players aren't looking. Statues, gargoyles and other stone carvings change slightly every time the players look at them again, shifting to ever more strange and threatening forms as time goes on.

Apart from that, I can't really emphasize the whole otherworldy geometry angle enough, although you don't have to go all out with it to get the desired effect. While the more overt examples like inexplicably shifting halls and pits that drop you on a higher floor may be great, even just litle bits of description can help to create an unearlthy atmosphere. For example, when they're going up a flight of stairs, describe to them that it somehow feels wrong, like they're actually heading down despite clearly going up. Maybe the angles in the halls are ever so slightly off, making depth perception more difficult, where objects that appear to be on the other end of the hall are right next to them, maybe make them walk into a wall they thought was farther away. Screwing with perception is just a great thing in general.

grimbold
2010-11-24, 02:42 PM
Give them a companion on the island. Now I know this may sound weird, but hear me out. It's always comforting to have someone else with you in any horror setting, so the PC's will get attached to this NPC. You want this to happen. After surviving quite a bit together, have this NPC ripped from the party and imprisoned or something. Make it so the PC's find him, but have no way to save him. Then have them watch him be slowly killed. Bonus points if the party now has to fight a corrupted undead version of their old friend who talks about the old times while trying to kill them.

this is a very good idea

multiple companions or another adventuring party mght even work out well

Frozen_Feet
2010-11-24, 02:55 PM
Add lot of red herrings.

One simple thing got my players all paranoid in one game: it was a simple, tattered note they found in the beginning, reading "beware green". There was nothing in the hole adventure that was both green and extremely dangerous, but it was fun watching my players hesitate pressing the green buttons that were there to open doors. :smallbiggrin:

So... have all sorts of false warning scattered around. Skeletons of horrifying beasts, letters written in blood, etc. Watch your player slowly get more nervous as they wait and wait for their caution to pay off... :smallcool:

Ryu_Bonkosi
2010-11-24, 05:04 PM
*Snip* Statues, gargoyles and other stone carvings change slightly every time the players look at them again, shifting to ever more strange and tretening forms as time goes on. *Snip*.

Weeping Angles (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Weeping_Angel) from Doctor Who would work fantastic.

Arcane_Secrets
2010-11-26, 12:40 AM
Another couple of ideas:

To expand on the mirrors, every time a character looks in a mirror, there's something horrible in the distance that can be seen in the reflection but not otherwise.

Every time they look in a mirror after seeing it the first time, this horrible thing gets closer and closer.

Water also doesn't have to be water. Perhaps in one place, there are two pitchers or pools of water. After drinking from one pitcher, the second pitcher refuses to empty because the water seem unnaturally viscous. It turns out that it isn't actually water, but a tiny water elemental that crawls out of that pitcher on its own volition a bit later-leaving them wondering what exactly they might've just imbibed, and whether the fact that it may have been living could have unfortunate consequences later.

Safety Sword
2010-11-26, 12:48 AM
I was intending to have it always raining, no matter what. And inside, fog.

Of course, some of the rain should be toxic/acidic/caustic in varying amounts and at the most inconvenient times.