Restless Resting

[StealthyRobot]

So, the party is deciding to spend the night either on top of or inside of a ghast infested temple. There's also a banshee in there. I have a few ideas of how to make the party have a terrible night, but decided to see what you lovely people can think of.
If it helps, the desert is almost entirely buried in sand and was once a mindflayer feeding grounds and home to an elder brain.

[Plaguescarred]

Having the banshee torment the party all night and prevent them from getting a long rest benefit once can be great to set the mood for such a fell place, but abusing it consecutively will be really detrimental for the campaign, having a higher risk of TPK.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Having the banshee torment the party all night and prevent them from getting a long rest benefit once can be great to set the mood for such a fell place, but abusing it consecutively will be really detrimental for the campaign, having a higher risk of TPK.

Couldn't they simply go and rest further away from the temple?

[RumoCrytuf]

The howls of the undead torment you as you vainly try to rest through the night. CON check to shut out the noise!

[HammeredWharf]

Let the ghasts chase them around the temple for a while. Set up some fun traps and such to harass them even more, but don't damage them too much. Halfway dead is good. Then, after a while they come across a room in the temple that's surrounded by strange holy symbols. The ghasts don't want to go near it, so it's a safe haven, right? The party runs inside and closes the door. Phew, they're safe! They hear a soft, female voice from the darkness. It's the banshee, asking them what do they think they're doing. It's pretty nice for a banshee. In other words, it wants to toy with them for a while before killing them. Now you can give them a quest or something like that.

To be fair, you should let them roll Religion to see what the holy symbols are for. Their primary purpose would be keeping the banshee in, not keeping the ghasts out.

[CursedRhubarb]

Perhaps the spirit of the Elder Brain still lingers in the area, not enough to materialise or take form but it can still brush the minds of those who dare seek to sleep within its territory. Have them roll for a Wis save (10-13 could be fun. ) when they sleep/meditate and if they fail the save they get to roll on the temporary madness table for being trapped in the Elder Brain's Wonderland while zonked out. Temporary madness ones aren't bad but they will get paranoid about even going to sleep after a rest or two of terrible nightmares.

[Slipperychicken]

Give them a stern "Are you sure you want to rest in the haunted temple?" before they decide to rest. If they go ahead, have the banshee roll up on them in the middle of the night with all her ghasts. Open up by Wailing them out of nowhere (she pops up out of the ground in the middle of their camp), then have the ghasts go in with their claws while the banshee delivers an angry monologue about the PCs disturbing her temple. If the player on watch can beat the ghasts' passive stealth (the banshee is in the ground and cannot be seen), they aren't surprised by it and have one round to prepare themselves for the fight.


Couldn't they simply go and rest further away from the temple?

That would be a smart thing to do. But these are PCs we're talking about. They'd gladly leap off a building and blame the DM when the fall converts their bodies into street pizza.

[BigONotation]

They must think this is a video game where the banshee and ghasts wait patiently in room 7 for them to long rest, and even then, many video games interrupt your sleep if you try to rest in a dangerous area.

Let the world slap their hand in the form of a wailing banshee. Some might die, but it will teach the players that the world is full of deadly and fell things they cannot ignore because they want to.

[Segev]

As others have alluded, the simplest way to torment them is to have the undead that inhabit this place come upon them in the night, forcing encounters which disrupt their Long Rest.

If that isn't an option, and you're just trying to make them uneasy, describing the sounds coming from below - the quiet ones that become audible only as the party quiets down for sleep, only when the wind dies sufficiently... and the less subtle ones, like the banshee's wail in the crypts below being heard as a piercing scream that sounds like it's right beneath their pillows.

[Plaguescarred]

As others have alluded, the simplest way to torment them is to have the undead that inhabit this place come upon them in the night, forcing encounters which disrupt their Long Rest.FWIW It takes at least a 600 rounds fight to interrupt a long rest, according to Mike Mearls, which will probably kill them before denying them the benefit of a long rest :) https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/487278381663145984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

@Hadan_Ashcroft "at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, ..." Long Rest interrupted by any combat or only combat that lasts more than an hour?
‏@mikemearls Must last 1+ hours to break it

[Segev]

FWIW It takes at least a 600 rounds fight to interrupt a long rest, according to Mike Mearls, which will probably kill them before denying them the benefit of a long rest :) https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/487278381663145984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

@Hadan_Ashcroft "at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, ..." Long Rest interrupted by any combat or only combat that lasts more than an hour?
‏@mikemearls Must last 1+ hours to break it


Really? I had thought it was that you could take up to an hour "break" from your break, but were still limited to just the one.

i.e. you can't rest 9 minutes, fight for 10 rounds, rest another 9 minutes, fight for another 10 rounds, etc. and call it a "long rest." Even if you repeat that for a total of 8 hours (48 cycles). That would technically be only 48 minutes of fighting in your whole long rest.

It also isn't out of the question for normal adventuring activities, as I often see fights last for less than six rounds. (Heck, many are over in 2-3. They still take 1-2 hours IRL to run. x_x IRC is a slow medium for running fights.)

[Plaguescarred]

Really? I had thought it was that you could take up to an hour "break" from your break, but were still limited to just the one.A long rest must be start over only if interrupted by at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activit, which means each period of streneous activity less than 1 hour long doesn't interrupt the resting process.


Long Rest: If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—
the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

[smcmike]

A lot of good and obvious ideas. Personally, I like the idea of Elder Brain madness effecting their dreams, with a tiered wisdom save - pass, and you rest fine. Fail by a little, and you toss and turn and don't get the benefit of the rest. Fail by a lot? Temporary madness, which could take a number of forms.

Sounds could also requires a save - hard to slee through screaming.

If they sleep on top, it could just be very cold (at night) or hot (during the day). That can mess up a rest pretty well. Blowing sand, too. Or, heck, maybe the only place they can find that is safe from the undead isn't flat. You can take a short rest on stairs, but sleeping on them is another story.

[Slipperychicken]

Really? I had thought it was that you could take up to an hour "break" from your break, but were still limited to just the one.

i.e. you can't rest 9 minutes, fight for 10 rounds, rest another 9 minutes, fight for another 10 rounds, etc. and call it a "long rest." Even if you repeat that for a total of 8 hours (48 cycles). That would technically be only 48 minutes of fighting in your whole long rest.

I think it's a good guideline. It means the players can get ambushed in the night, fight off the attackers, quickly loot the bodies, spend a good 10 or more minutes being paranoid and searching bushes for enemies, and then get back to bed without being totally screwed the next day.

And if the party has 48 fights during their long rest, then I think they have bigger problems than getting all their spells back. Though if I was the GM, I wouldn't give them the long rest for that kind of marathon. Or I might give it to them out of sheer awe that they survived six times the recommended encounters per day while resting.

[StealthyRobot]

Thanks for all the help guys!

My plan is to have the banshee wail before returning to her normal place in the temple to cry, which alerts some ghasts as well. After that, at some point while sleeping everyone will make an intelligence saving throw or feel the need to get to the center of the temple where the elder brain once existed. When they get there they will recieve a vision of various glimpses of mindflayer stuff.

[BiPolar]

Any way you can incorporate a night Hag(s)? The Nightmare Haunting sounds perfect for what you're trying to achieve:


While on the Ethereal Plane, the hag magically touches a sleeping humanoid on the Material Plane. A protection from evil and good spell cast on the target prevents this contact, as does a magic circle . As long as the contact persists, the target has dreadful visions. If these visions last for at least 1 hour, the target gains no benefit from its rest, and its hit point maximum is reduced by 5 (1d10). If this effect reduces the target's hit point maximum to 0, the target dies, and if the target was evil , it s soul is trapped in the hag's soul bag. The reduction to the target's hit point maximum lasts until removed by the greater restoration spell or similar magic.

[Foxhound438]

exhaustion is a fine mechanic, as is forcing a wis save vs. limited recovery (ie, no highest level slots, 1/2 healing, no hit dice). Both prove the point without absolutely screwing the party.