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RebelRogue
2011-08-15, 05:19 PM
Hey. A bit of background: since my D&D gaming group decided to put the main campaign arc on hold during summer (where few players are able to show up consistently), we decided on making alternate, low-level characters playing in the same game world as the 'regular' (higher-level) characters. Of course with a healthy dose of references to the main group; the alternates included a father, sister and previous sidekick of some of the main characters. We left these characters hanging and returned to the main campaign later.

For tomorrow's game session, I'm considering adding just a touch of horror to an otherwise ordinary dungeon crawl. It's basically going to be an cave complex with classic Underdark critters, but I've got this idea of letting the low-level group having volunteered for exploring the dungeon, a task that is way above their level. So, as the main group explores the dungeon they should find the low-level group dead, and picking up various clues to the terror they felt as they were stalked by critters etc. The idea is, that since they've already got an emotional bond to these characters, it should be easier to provoke true empathy for them as victims.

So what I'm asking is:

a) Am I a jerk if I kill off these characters? Some have expressed interest in playing them again at some time, but death is cheap in D&D (it's a 4e game, so a rez should be 900 gp for each, and they're hired by a church anyway, so they might do it for free later), and I like the idea of giving them a good shock.

b) Any good ideas for how to pull this off in practice? Setting scenes, clues or even handout ideas are welcome. We're a pretty lighthearted group though, so I'm not looking for grimdark turned up to 11, just a bit of horror fun. Cliches aren't necessarily bad either, btw.

crazywolf
2011-08-15, 06:08 PM
Can you give a little backround on the charecters?
if one of the low level charecters has a certain item (a scarf perhaps) that the charecter dear to them would recognize, have them make a perception check (perferably low dc) and if the succede have them see the item damage,broken,ripped,etc with blood splattered on it.
can't think of anything else right now...

RebelRogue
2011-08-15, 06:15 PM
The sister to the warden has some amber jewelry that she could recognize. Good idea. They haven't seen each other since they were infants, so that could be pretty heartbreaking, actually.

Other notable characters among the low-levels: the father of the half-elf warlock, an aging fighter. Hasn't seen her daughter since she was young, but has recently tried to find her. A goblin who was previously a sidekick of the 'real' characters who has now turned into a paladin (a LG one too) inspired by their heroics.

crazywolf
2011-08-15, 06:33 PM
hmm.... there should be obvious signs of previous adventurers (burned out tourches, maybe a discarded weapon)
i think that they should discover the dead people one at a time, first they find various clues and then they discover a body or two,you can determine how they find them. And also, a big punch to the face would be on of the stuck in a giant spider's web. (maybe even still alive!)

Mutant Bunny
2011-08-15, 06:39 PM
If resurrection is easy to come by, killing them isn't THAT terrible a thing to do, but you could also, depending on the time-frame you've set up, have them alive in the dungeon, but some combination of shaken up, split up, hiding, captured, and cornered when the PCs show up, depending on the creatures in the dungeon and the characters themselves.

Finding someone jabbering like an idiot can have just as much of a horror effect as finding the mangled corpse, but without forcing the party to put a portion of loot toward reviving someone who they didn't have the chance to save in the first place.

It sounds as though you have a lot of long-lost relatives in the lower-level party. Killing them off, I think, means you lose some potential for emotional reunions in the context of the horror, and you also get the not-so-interesting logistics of dragging their corpses out of the dungeon... rather than the slightly more dramatic protection of the weakened characters as they are escorted to safety.

crazywolf
2011-08-15, 08:18 PM
good idea,
seeing a loved one in a basically insane in a corner can be just as horrific as them being dead.

TurtleKing
2011-08-15, 08:47 PM
I'll also recommend finding them driven kind of mad or insane by what they have seen, heard, felt, or smelled. The smell of a humanoid be burnt sticks with you for a long while especially if they were electrocuted. Plus some might not find death to be horrific considering they have probably killed alot of things by now a lot of different ways. By going for mental trauma you can pull off a fate worse than death. Seeing and taking care of that relative or friend while they just rock back and forth or babble incessantly can eat away at you more than if the person was dead. If the Afterlife in your game for that character is something of a paradise then knowing that even though the person is dead is at least in a better place.

One way you can portray this is if you roleplay it out a little make the low lvl party members think the other members are violated in many was and even dead. That way the main group tries to decipher the babble they get some broken info about the others of what that one has seen. This is great for setting up the anticipation, and the anticipation is sometimes worth as much or even more than the actual fright. You could even try for the Nothing is There. The scary thing right in front of you maybe be scary but you can eventually cope with it. However having a build of anticipation where just nothing is there until you finally do see what it is and it could have been there the whole time. Part of the Nothing is having the imaginations run wild with "What could it be, What is it?".

One way to really make it work is to research a little on Horror movies and how they pull off the horror.

Mutant Bunny
2011-08-15, 09:31 PM
I'd say that adding the low-level party to the dungeon makes it more about these secondary characters and their significance to the PCs and less about the dungeon itself. I mean, you have long-lost relatives in the dungeon-- alive or dead-- I think the entire tone of the session changes. It's no longer about exploring a dungeon or gathering up some loot. They'll probably want to retrieve the bodies of the other adventurers and revive them for what is ultimately a kind of lame reunion. You'll give your players a much better RPing opportunity, IMO, if you let them find the most important characters alive.

If you want generic horror stuff, don't make the victims people the PCs will care about. In horror movies, you typically don't make emotional connections with the expendable people who die early; if you want to let someone die, make it someone the PCs won't care a lot about. Make it generic adventurers. If you want to go for horror lite, don't include the other party.

That said, if you want to make this an opportunity to reunite these characters with their long-lost relatives, here's how I'd script it...

Have the main party go into the dungeon with the knowledge that another party had gone ahead of them recently, but the person who tells them hasn't seen them since then. Don't give them any hints as to the fact that the other group is full of the PCs' long-lost relatives. Early on, leave some of that party's extra equipment lying around. If there are any members of the low-level party that the main party wouldn't know, they can find their corpses soon after. This tips them off OOC that the low-level party is the group that preceded them. Soon after that, they find the goblin paladin, who was separated from the rest of the party. He can then inform them IC that their long-lost relatives have been captured by the creatures- as prisoners or prey, depending on the creatures. The PCs then rush to the rescue of their relatives, who are either prisoners of the dungeon boss or, if the boss is not the kind to take prisoners, in the custody of some lesser monster. It's a climactic encounter with the evil creatures followed by tear-filled reunion with long-lost relatives.

Don't go the cheap route for gore and shock value. Good horror films build suspense and give you a character or characters to care about and who is developed over the course of the film. They leave unknowns about the evil creature that are gradually answered, leading up to the final encounter.

Cerlis
2011-08-16, 05:28 AM
what might be interesting is to horrify the players, rather than the characters (both actually, but this would be more of a shock to the players) would be to remember that certian items wouldnt be recognizable (you said two havent seen each other when they are infants, so how would he know that the amber jewelry was hers, unless he has a distinct memory...hard to come by as an infant....of his mother wearing em or something.) so for characters you'd want to use items or some sort of sign that the character would recognize....

However, i realized the idea that whether or not players USE metagame knowledge, they are still affected by it. This would be magnified if player characters where the relatives of other players characters, but could still work, expessially if you can squeeze in a main campain session in between.

basically imagine this.

Second group is exploring the dungeon where there are horrors. alien beasts, and unsightly undead (not zombies. horrific ones like ghouls, and those ones with entrails leaking out). Then the higher campaign squeezes in a session one week. the Players are going through finding tougher monsters (simular but tougher than what the others are going through). players realize they are in the same dungeon, but know that their other characters wouldnt be a match for these stronger monsters. "Gee, i hope our DM doesnt send any of these tougher ones to our weaker PCs".

Finally, the players examine the body of a lupine demonic Xenomorphic monster and find stuck in its jaws are those amber jewels. The Player thinks "how could that be, she was wearing them last we played". Now he doesnt know whats happened to the other party that you ahve done, even though they themselves where there. something is up. Later they find a notable handkerchief, makeup, writing kit or some notable object of another player used to scrawl the message "If find this, stay back...hungry...." . thats when they start coming across clothed giests and ghouls. their features are all strange (since ghouls are quite mutated, just look at their picture) but they where turned recently so have tattered clothing, earings or armor, and some still have their hair (mostly the women).

Enter creepy boss geist (maybe advanced or with class levels) who uses crowd control and confusing spells to make the party vulnerable so his minions can pick them off. so there is fog, and vines everywhere, with geists jumping in and attacking players, paralyzing them and fleeing, maybe starting to drag players off if successfully paralyzed, till another player stops them. when one of them gets attacked by a geist that has a remarkable, but still hard to make out, resemblance to one of the two characters whos items where discovered. Their face and body is distorted, their cloths are torn, their armor is missing pieces. its hard to tell if its them. but none the less there is a geist wearing the other wearing, and the a robe of the same color. or the other did where heavy armor and wield that same type of sword. (thats for you to decide). in the middle of the chaos this one or two geists come up, taunt the players (use vague terms. Like "Poor Little One, i could just eat you up". bonus points if you throw in a term or phrase the "dead" characters would say, but is simultaneously something someone else MIGHT say coincidentally) and steal a powerful item of theirs (while they are entangled paralized or otherwise busy with other geists ) or maybe an important item. and they run off.

So the fight finishes and maybe the players want to follow. the cave is very dark and they constantly get attacked by monsterous spiders and natural predators ("natural" used loosely) unable to see their quarry but constantly hear their voices from down the cave. Finally they come to the end of the cave with a great pool of water. The geists disappear into the (Deeper?)darkness, when it is revealed that.... in this cave is a Greater Phrenic Aboleth (or whatever that mind controlling fish monster is). so begins the true boss battle, with it attempting to dominate the parties most powerful members while sending its minions and psionically created giests to attack the party. bonus points if he uses telepathy or magic to create illusions (note is say illusions) of the two geists coming back to kill their loved ones (phantasmal killer for the win) THe thing here, is once they defeat the aboleth for there to be no bodies of those two geists. perhaps the items they stole are seemingly returned to the players possession. perhaps the aboleth, when alive, taunted the party, telepathically telling them how it was easy to break into their minds a trick them into coming down here.

So now the players dont know if the characters are actually dead, if it was a figment of the aboleth. perhaps the important item(Mcguffin, thats the word) is discovered returned, but the personal item stolen is actually found near the aboleth pool, as if it was actually taken.

The lesser campaign returns again. you begin with the phrase "we will pick up a few days before last session. Yall heard about this cave and wanted to explore it right?". I dont know the best way to go about this, but i'm mostly just brainstorming. it would suck to give em a way out, but also to railroad em. anyways. they encounter stronger and stronger of the monsters they have been fighting. making the players worry that they will soon get too tuff.
Soon is a room with the geists, and a powerful one who speaks of needing new minions. however he escaped from the low level adventurers easily when things turn. the final final boss is an Aboleth. Keep its stats a secret.
now you have at least 2 choices

-Make the aboleth the same one the higher party encounters a few days later. it is obviously to powerful for them and kills them all. the players now fear their characters will become geists, expessially since they know they never found out if that was them or not. so next time the higher campaign starts they will push their characters to exploring, to find the people and destroy their undead bodies to raise them. also they could try higher level resurrection or maybe just communication spells to figure out if the people are still alive.
-The Aboleth is a weaker one (might need to make custom stats for it) than the one the higher lvl party encounters. its defeated by your party and though freaked out by impending doom, they are glad they are not killed by the aboleth. thinking maybe the greater one used their image on their other party as part of revenge. that those next few nights, the party watchmen gets put to sleep. a player wakes up as 2 ethereal filchers make off with one of her earings, and whatever item was stole from the other Player's geist, along with maybe one other unimportant item (a jewel i guess). perhaps later the higher lvl players encounter these filtchers in the dungeon (minus said items which they dropped after getting attacked by something in the dungeon) and kill them.

leakingpen
2011-08-16, 03:22 PM
I would say, never finding the bodies (possibly some limbs though), and then have them actually RESCUE the battered, bruised, horrified, and partly insane characters. Because yes, you're a jerk for killing them off. Good story, bad gamemanship.

Realms of Chaos
2011-08-16, 08:23 PM
If you want to do a really twisted adventure, I recommend sending your party off to accomplish 2 missions: to slay a group of traditional underdark creatures and to retrieve and object/save a(nother group of) creature(s).

For bonus points, send the party against creatures that they logically shouldn't have the ability to defeat at their level (such as illithids) and give them specialized weapons/gear that should more than even the odds (adamantine helmets, psionic grenades, etc.), a gift from whoever is sending them.

When the party goes to face the baddies, they should find most of them already killed. Some may be maimed beyond disbelieve, some may have killed themselves or each other, some may seem perfectly healthy (apart from being dead), and the like. If any baddies are left alive, they may be insane, comatose, or shocked into muteness (perhaps have some crazies attack so the party can use their advantage a bit). Including journals recording an experiment gone wrong/a prisoner who has become more rowdy/last thoughts of a dead man is a nice touch. Dead prior adventurers are doubly so.

Left with only one remaining objective, the party is left to go further into enemy territory, knowing that they're fighting something even more powerful than their foes and not knowing if their advantage will make a difference one way or another.


Soon after your party discovers their normal characters dead, you ambush them. Keeping the creature in dim illumination and never giving a full description, attack your players.

TurtleKing
2011-08-16, 09:16 PM
Wait attack the players?

Don't you mean their characters?

Realms of Chaos
2011-08-17, 07:10 PM
Wait attack the players?

Don't you mean their characters?

Um... well...
<_< >_>...
sure... Let's go with that.