Low level scary adventure

[Swaoeaeieu]

Hello playground.
I am running a campaign that so far consists of stand alone adventures. PLayers roll into town, encounter trouble. fix it and go to the next town. you know, liek adventurers.
Some players have been hinting that they would like one of these adventures to be scary or tense, thriller like.
But im still new to the DM role and not very sure how to pull it off. I do know that trying to do scary and doing it wrong has the oposite effect.

Do you lovely people have any ideas for a scary story/adventure/encounter for some level 4 players?

I was thinking some kind of murder mystery, a 'real life' version of the werewolf party game or maybe a creepy dungeon that messes with their heads.

any and all input is very much apreciated.

[the_david]

Carnival of Tears is a module for a 5th level party. It would be perfect for your group.

You should be aware that horror doesn't translate well to D&D.

[DarkEternal]

There was one published for level 3 or 4 parties...but you can easily scale it. I forgot the name, but it dealt with a wendigo. It should be fairly easy to find. Basically, the party is there to find some guy in a hunting village and they find hints and such that a wendigo is involved. It's a pretty short module, really. Basically, when you reach a hunting lodge, that same wendigo is chasing you and you need to kill it.

[nintendoh]

Not much is scarier then an tpk. Hired to kill giant rats. Finds giant rats. Kills giant rats. Turns around... Dragon

[Theobod]

Horror is pretty hard to do because anything threatening them directly leads to heroics, maybe self sacrifice and ultimately either character deaths or a pile of XP.
Now, the trick is to give them something worth fighting for AND keep details about what is going on, example:

The party is hired by a local priestess to take her and her entorage up to the top of the local mountain to a shrine, the party is warned that there are bears and wolves up there and to prepare accordingly, its a four day hike and over the first or maybe even second night, after a good honest bear encounter or similar and the party think this is a straightforeward job, one of the NPCs goes missing, discovered the next morning, when investigated signs of a struggle and maybe even blood are found nearby, but no body, tracks if followed end at a river which breaks the trail.
Now the party knows something is up but doesnt know what, not sure how it happened as they didnt hear anything like a fight, minds will race but ultimately they need to continue, the next night more go missing, still without a fight, as though they just walked off into the brush, again, maybe a struggle and a fight elsewhere, by this point the party still havnt gotten to fight anything and whatever it is that is stealing people isnt forcefully dragging them off or making a scene, if the party try really hard to guard people, staying up all night on watch, have wolves attack the camp, and in the confusion, NPCs dissapear while the party is distracted by a foe they can face.

It is not untill they get to the shrine that they find it ruined, with only the priestess and a couple other NPCs are here that:
A)it becomes an 'Escape the mountain' quest, they have failed and must flee and not get claimed by this beast
B)Knowledge of the spirit of the mountain is revealed by the priestess and this ritual was supposed to appease it
C)The Priestess is actually possessed by the spirit/is a hag and tries to eat the party
D)Any mix of the above or other.

TLDR: Horror is hard in DnD, Suspense, Desperation and Hopelessness is, however, quite easy to achieve and gets the same sorts of reactions. The trick is pacing and the unknown.

Hope this helps :)

[DrMartin]

Horror is pretty hard to do in dnd because the system basic premise is that the heroes are facing appropriate challenges that they are supposed to overcome, while a lot of horror stories hinge on having to elude or on actually being afraid of some terrible foe. dnd characters are mostly brave heroes who tackle challenges head-on and getting your player to understand that they are confronted with unfair odds may be the biggest challenge that you are facing as a DM :smallbiggrin:

one adventure that does this in a nice way is Hangman's Noose: it's a murder mystery with a rich cast of NPCs, and the big bad guy that is basically impossible for the PCs to deal with, until they find what his deal is. Very nice module in my opinion, I've run it several times and always had good reception. It's meant for a party of 1st level character but it's pretty easy to adapt to a slightly higher level group.

Other good modules with a horror or a creepy feel: The Styes (Dungeon Magazine 121) and its follow-up The Weavers (Dungeon Magazine 138), both from the amazing Richard Pett, Carrion Hill, and The Feast of Ravenmoor. You could add most of what Pett wrote to the list though and be mostly sure to find some fantastically written adventure with creepy critters.

Whether you run it as-is or just use its premise to build your own murder mystery, I find Gallery of Horrors a great font of inspiration.

And of course +1 to Carnival of Tears, already mentioned above.

[Swaoeaeieu]

well im not looking for complete horror. just not the regular slugfest. something that builds some tension, or a mystery the players cant beat into submission.

im going to look through those modules for ideas. thanks guys!
if anyone has any idea´s on how to run some kind of mureder mystery that would be great too

[Efrate]

I did something not too long ago, though my party was a much higher level, the principles are the same. Its almost entirely non-combative, but worked for me. Isolation, paranoia, hopelessness all make for good horror.



This is mostly about atmosphere, and more horror than murder mystery.

The party goes to bed one night, and they wake up in a mysterious mansion. It seems uninhabited, but certain details seem off. A portrait of a young noble is at the top of a massive staircase. As they explore the multiple floors, courtyard, etc they have a bunch of off out of the corner of the eye stuff. They here a giggle and see a flash of white in the corner of there eye, go around the corner to follow, there is a bloody childs toy. Certain areas of the house randomly seem to appear and dissappear. There is a low wall but they cannot climb, fly or anything to overcome it, no doors to the outside open, and attempting to physically damage the house causes wisdom damage and no damage is done.

They wander around aimlessly with creepy visions, and eventually they rest. They wake up in rooms, all there gear taken care of perfectly, and alone. They exit their new rooms to find themselves in a hallway they haven't seen which connect through one of the previously unopenable doors. No one else can enter their rooms by any means, and no one can even see anything but an odd mist when they look into a room not theirs.

Back in the main hall the picture of the young noble is now older, and looking angry. Explore and find skeletons of unicorns without the horns, weird featherless wings, and other strange things. There is a game room with a chess match going which has no players, the pieces randomly move, but only when you don't look at them directly. Black is winning currently.

If anyone goes off by themselves they get a vision of something horrible and specific to them. My game had a very vain rogue who was very independent, she saw herself in a maid outfit, with a slave collar, looking older, but with no face. The kitchen has blood all over it, and you find an identical piece of someone's body there. Your fighter's swordhand, looking identical. He KNOWS its his hand, but he still had his own hand. Right? Well there is this weird scar on his wrist he never had before...

That night the dreams start, each shows a particular PC killing another one in a grisly manner. They wake up feeling week, and with odd scars. Blood is on their meticulously cared for weapons and armor. The portrait is now older, and even angier looking.

This continues for a while, until after several days a way to a basement appear. Inside there is a recently used torture chamber, an extensive wine cellar (full of various drugs labels as wine, see BoVD), with some missing. A random person has a few bottles from the cellar partially consumed. There is a blast furnace, and inside you see someone burning and hear screaming. There is a locking mechanism that appears to have spot for an eye, a hand, an ear, and a heart.

Travelling around they find the picture of the noble is even older, almost dead, and looks like he has suffered for eternity. After one more day, someone in the party wakes up, they are missing an eye, but the eye hole in the basement is filled. No magic can restore the eye. The old man looks slightly healthier with a cruel smile. They explore more and find a journal detailing the ravings of a lunatic who mentions "I have taken the eye, the process was successful because that (insert a pc's race/gender/whatever) helped. I will reward them. These old limbs must go."

Next hand, then ear, then heart over several nights, or see next paragraph.

Various clues now that they have free reign of the place reveal this was once the home of a mad wizard, who sought to prolong his life without becoming undead. A group of heroes sealed him in a neverending fire, but the cost was high, and they all lost themselves to madness. Their food ran out, then their sanity. They turned to in fighting, then cannibalism as they slowly ran out of options. But the last one was able to escape by sacrificing all his friends. "I have survived. I just needed their flesh. It sustained me, for only one can ever leave alive." This is in one of the PCs handwriting.

They find after a series of puzzles involving newly appearing stuff in the house and/or character specific trials (use backstory generated stuff, the person who lost their mom to a goblin invasion has a desperate fight against hordes as he tries to save her, but has to watch her die again). All that's left is her hand. Similar things for an ear and a heart. Depends if if your PCs want more mysterious stuff or something they can concretely solve. Google up some good puzzles, alter them to make them slightly more macabre.

They open the door to face a CR appropriate undead (ghoul or ghast wizard or sorcerer might work, or something similar) who they must destroy. As he dies he mentions he will return. I fear only the fires of that blasted furnace, you hold not a candle to them. Only way to kill him after opening the furnace is to rip down the painting which resisted all attempts to alter until now, and burn it in the furnace. The undead reappears as they are nearing the furnace, fights desperately using different tactics and he seems stronger. They fight him off at the furnace burn the painting, then they have to rush to exit the house as it burns behind them. Upon exiting, they sacrificed body parts of PCs (depending on how long they took) all regrow, except the heart. Though if they decided to give up a heart of someone to open the door, (or took too long) that PC is now a zombie with no recollection of anything that happened after his death, and behaves normally. Just needs to find a way to stop this rot permanently. Gentle repose doesn't seem to work. They also seem oddly scared of fire suddenly, and occasionally wish for a nice big house.

Alternately, vampire spawn make great assassins and are good culprits for mysterious strings of inexplicable murders and are CR appropriate.

[dantiesilva]

I am actually running my own homebrew world at the moment where the party has been summoned by a woman known as Ms. Rose to her estate deep in the woods to a village not shown on any map, but some traders know about who sell exotic things. Two of the party decided to be from the village and were let in on the knowledge of this place being very cult based. An example being the population can never go over 300 for fear that it will attract the ancient evil so the oldest person in the village sacrifices themselves to a funeral pyre when a new child is born.

Why are they living in the woods you ask, and why do they not show up on any map? Well they came from a kingdom filled with Lycanthropes and fled. They were followed of course, but only by a small party meant to bring them back. After generations of not succeeding their numbers have grown in the woods, but not drastically enough to take on the village.

Ms. Rose is the proud owner of the Grey Picture artifact and a level 3 rogue/3 swashbuckler who has been alive for the past 234 years. Pretending to be the daughter of the next generation when her mother should die. At the moment however she has a half vampire daughter who is jealous of her mother and father for their immortality. So she hires a changling to steal the picture which made the party come. The daughter is a half vampire beguiler who will use enchantments and illusions to try to divide the party or make them join her side. Things like Rouse used when they are sleeping so that they never get a full nights rest, and her gaze attack if anyone starts to catch on.

The vampire father happens to be the mayor, he and Ms. Rose had a falling out and now its two big fish in one little pond. However both are pleasant towards each other fearing that the other will outs them to the village. And while rumors persist around the village no one knows the girl is their child.

The forest surrounding the village is filled with wolves, lycans, and lupins mostly. The Lupins being the reason that the Lycans have not been able to rise up in numbers (lupin is a race found in one of the high Dragon magazine books). However it is known not to travel through the woods of the night of the full moon, which the other members are doing at this very moment.

Those not from the village were dropped of in a carriage that refused to go any further knowing about the full moon and the werewolves and so the two party members advanced into the woods. (I roll a d4 to see how many hours go by before an encounter) The first one I rolled was a helpful NPC that so far has been well received. She is an oracle from pathfinder who took the luna revelation and the wolf scared face (being the child of a lupin but not having the curse her face is deformed however). She has kept her hood up the entire time with the party near her, refusing to show them her face, and offered to allow them to stay the night after they startled her singing by a stream and she ran to her home. (They found a charcoal drawing of themselves and her basket filled with healing herbs and returned them) Luna (the oracle's name) explained to them that she is a follower of the Mother (Miyu in my game who is the goddess of the Moon, death, secrets, and a few other things) and so long as they stay on her property no harm will come to them. So they decide to stay.

They just went looking for firewood and killed a single wolf, however they then had to make a mad dash towards the hut as the pack came after them. (5 wolves all together I used a d4 to see how many rounds they needed to run, each round the wolves getting closer and closer they trying to trip the party) Luna ends up saving them with a moon bolt before they make it to safety in her home. This is as far as it has gotten so far, however my players have admitted to the feeling of mystery and suspense since the game began, and it is meant to be a bit lovecraft like. you are more than free to take what you wish from this, my advice is be very detailed though.

Luna crossed the room to sit at the table

vs

The party watched as the woman called Luna moved from the fireplace she had just lit, her yellow eyes glowing under the hood pulled up over her face as she made her way towards the darkwood table.

The more detail you use the better chance to envoke what you are looking for. Lastly the entire forest is covered in shadowy illumination (tinted green due to the high canopy not letting any sunlight through) and a constant mist floats at ground level everywhere so far besides in the village and Luna's hut. I plan on this mist should the players breath it in be like old fey stories of people falling asleep in the mist and sleeping for all of time (Will DC 11 or fall asleep for 1d3 days) Each day being allowed a save to try and wake up.

I hope this helps you some.

[Inevitability]

Not much is scarier then an tpk. Hired to kill giant rats. Finds giant rats. Kills giant rats. Turns around... Dragon

Wererat dragon with human heritage, perhaps? :smalltongue:

[SethoMarkus]

Give a clear picture of what is "normal" in your campaign setting. Then, begin describing things that are very much not normal. Do this without directly calling out the oddities, and make most NPCs react the the oddities as though nothing were wrong, at least NPCs directly related to whatever is not normal. Describe the PCs as always feeling **** they are being watched, or how they turn a corner and notice the NPCs specifically looking away from them when they look towards the NPCs.

I once ran a campaign in which the PCs went on a quest to find some missing children. There was a town nearby the main city that was a bit backwater so the city tolerated them, but neither had good relations with the other. The missing children were last seen sneaking into the town on a dare. From there, I just blatently ripped off "The Shadow over Innsmouth", describing odd-looking villagers accompanied with a picture of a half-fish woman, made a big deal about it getting dark and the PCs not being able to leave the village until the next morning, and then have half the town gather outside the inn that night. My players were thoroughly creeped out by all this. I threw in an aboleth mind controlling the town to top it off and let them have a definite ending (or was there?).

[Dravda]

I've done horror before, and it CAN work well. Everyone here has given some excellent scenario ideas: the only thing I would add is that you know your friends better than anyone, so you know how to scare them. Spiders, tight spaces, water...whatever it is, find their button and push it.

The more important aspect is preparing your group. Horror requires suspense and build-up, which means you need to tip your hand a little bit that it's what you'll be doing. Tell your players, frankly, that you want to run a horror adventure, which needs to be played differently. No cross-talk, no jokes, no references at the table. Horror is a beautiful thing to be able to conjure in a game, but it's fragile. And humor is its kryptonite. One silly voice, one Monty Python reference, and it's gone.

For all its difficulty, though, horror makes for some AMAZING gaming if you can pull it off. Nearly a decade after my dedicated horror campaign, my players still talk about it.

[dantiesilva]

I've done horror before, and it CAN work well. Everyone here has given some excellent scenario ideas: the only thing I would add is that you know your friends better than anyone, so you know how to scare them. Spiders, tight spaces, water...whatever it is, find their button and push it.

The more important aspect is preparing your group. Horror requires suspense and build-up, which means you need to tip your hand a little bit that it's what you'll be doing. Tell your players, frankly, that you want to run a horror adventure, which needs to be played differently. No cross-talk, no jokes, no references at the table. Horror is a beautiful thing to be able to conjure in a game, but it's fragile. And humor is its kryptonite. One silly voice, one Monty Python reference, and it's gone.

For all its difficulty, though, horror makes for some AMAZING gaming if you can pull it off. Nearly a decade after my dedicated horror campaign, my players still talk about it.

That is amazing that your players still talk about your game. And yes I would have to agree with Dravda, your players have to work with you with a horror game a lot more than a normal game. And the silly player (every group has one) needs to know it can't happen this game. And if they keep doing it anyways, I would use their worse fear in the real world if possible against them (If they are afraid of spiders for example have one of those fake toy spiders and have another player in on it as they put the spider on their shoulder or something similar. Afraid of the dark turn the lights all out and make it as dark as possible, play in the basement helps, with only a candle or two for light. Works wonders if your house is old and always making noises.).

[atemu1234]

Not much is scarier then an tpk. Hired to kill giant rats. Finds giant rats. Kills giant rats. Turns around... Dragon

Better. Turn around, ghost of a small child.

Imprisoned by a hag.

Who eats children.

[Dousedinoil]

I highly recommend haunts. Not only do they take up less time then combat but if gives you the ability to be creative and surprise veteran D&D players. They worked great in my adventure.

[Coidzor]

Escape from Meenlock Prison (Dungeon 146) It's for... 2nd or 3rd level characters, IIRC.

Scariest experience playing D&D I've ever had.